Torrents - Please explain...

[starrylizard]

I know other people torrent things on a regular basis and I understand the basis of how the things work.

However, I'm currently trying to torrent a file that's supposedly 700.69mb.

So far I have (according to BitLord) downloaded 975.02mb and (again according to BitLord) still need to download 3.75mb and I've dled 99.4% of the file. (I've uploaded 689.28mb)

Excuse me , but huh?

Am I missing something here? Why have I downloaded 274.33mb more than the file size and it's still going? I'm so confused. :(

I wanna watch it! *pouts*

Comments

[thudjack.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... don't know! Stop the torrent and try to play the file. If it's playable and watchable i.e. not skipping or stalling every few minutes then i'd say it's downloaded so stop the torrent but *shrugs*

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Well, thankfully it finally finished dling. I did try to play it before that and it wouldn't play. Weirld the finished file is only 700ish mb, so I have no idea what it was doing with the rest of the dl. Soooo confused.

Thanks for trying to help. *hugs*

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

That'd probably depend on where the bits you had yet to get where. I've managed to play avi's at 70% before - with very small chucks missing scattered aobut the file - but it's not pretty, means a lot of stuttering over missed bits. Also, the files' index is at the end of it so if the file has missing chunks at the end yet will play you might not be able to skip forward/backward due to the incomplete file index.

It really does make a difference how much is missing and where from in the file as to whether it's likely to play when incomplete. You can get utilities to fix incomplete files and make them playable - they'll obviously still have missing bits but if it's just the index for example that can be fixed easily. Hopefully that makes more sense.

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

A useful utility for file fixing is Divfix - pretty sure that's the one I used last time I needed it.

Oh and you can tell I've been thinking on Chuck Campbell too much because I wrote chucks rather than chunks above. Eek, so many typos!

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Cool! I'll keep it in mind in case I have the problem again. :)
Thanks!

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it's something to do with what parts of the file are available and whilst you may have been downloading at X speed for X time causing a calculation of that downloaded amount you might yet to have downloaded all the bits you need for the file to be complete. I can't say I full understand it but I think there's some amount of redundancy happening on the downloading due to who's sharing what % themselves since not everyone has 100% and it might be you are waiting on someone with 100% having a free connection for you to connect to to get the last few bits you need off them.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Hmm, makes sense I guess. I don't think I've ever had that happen before, though I've only torrented a few things before.

Thanks. I was madly virus checking the final file for added bits of data. I'm paranoid like that. :P

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

Always pays to viruscheck downloaded stuff if there's any chance it might be dodgy. I once got a virus off a seemingly harmless old DOS shareware game I dowloaded.