Support for BitTorrent among users is in the shitter.

[artfuldodga]

Why does little to no one use Revision3's option to download shows via BitTorrent? I'd like to, but there seems to be absolutely no user support to even bother?

I'd rather not download stright from their servers, it costs them a lot of cash and I'd like that cash to go towards creating more shows.

Now yes there is an option to direct download, but everyone always talks about how one day p2p will rule, its why the net has to remain neutral... well its not gonna happen if users (you and me) don't do our part.

[bani-banan]

That's true. It costs them more.

To make the whole BitTorrent concept work, you have to have a pretty decent amount of people seeding and leeching in order to get a good speed.

I'm currently downloding a show at 2mbit/s. I NEVER got that speed by using rev3s torrent option.

Also, a lot of people view shows directly on the site. BitTorrent + "live stream" = fail

[artfuldodga]

I don't think they can make BitTorrent more usable, unless they take away a users options, such as direct download... even then users tend to hit and run with torrents, which is why most torrent sites have ratio schemes.

*shrugs I just want to support BT as much as possible, alot of sites like revision3 say they support file-sharing over the internet but they really don't do anything to support it, I mean I don't see why the option is even there? I can't get a single file half the time, or it takes all night when it should take 10 minutes more or less. I'm Not saying they don't support the sharing of their show... I just think they aren't going about it in the best way.

[ericjosepi]

Well Steven, it goes like this:

A lot of us use feed or direct downloads and until iTunes and Miro become torrent clients that have solid feed reader built in, the BT links are gonna be left mostly unpopulated.

Frankly, it's just easier to use the DD or a podcatcher such as iTunes, Miro or some other RSS reader.

[comhcinc]

yes there are plenty of us that are not fans of BT. i'm one of them. i don't like the concept. it seems like a really roundabout way to do things to me.

[bmwt]

fwiw, the rev3 bittorrent infrastructure has been completely overhauled behind the scenes in recent weeks. The new tracker is *very* stable, and has been running with no problems. The seeding is much better then in the past. it's still not perfect, but has been running for a few weeks now. While we will track a file for as long as its out there, i had to make the decision to stop seeding a file after a few weeks/months. There's just no scalable method for seeding thousands of files *at the same time* in a reliable manner. This decision seems to have paid off, however, and we're seeing a *lot* more people getting 100% of file via BT, and with speeds that approach/sometimes beat direct download. As you've all mentioned, tho, for it to truly work/scale, the end users need to help seed :)

[artfuldodga]

I'm trying to grab the latest Scam School right now, I know there is nothing wrong with my torrent settings but yeah, can't seem to get any transfer going. (0) seeds 0 (1) peers ETA -- availability 0

If I go to any other site with a torrent, I usually have no problem... unless its unseeded of course.

[gi_josh]

I don't use the torrent options because all my shows download through the zune, and the zune can't handle torrents.

[webnet]

I used to use torrents when it wasn't Rev3 but just diggnation, however its so much easier to have my music player just grab the files. If Itunes or Zune added support for bittorrented podcast I would sign up but for now I am sticking with the simple method. And if Rev3 was really having a bandwidth problem I doubt they would keep adding new ways to stream the show or keep releasing higher quality files.

[spiri]

I download the shows through Miro via RSS, and since there is no torrent feed it's not an option. Miro does support torrent feeds however.

[vahnx]

I love bit torrent. Even thugh usually HTTP is faster, I don't feel like using a download manager and my wireless rarely (but sometimes) drops and I have to start the download over. And torrenting is easier on the servers ;)

[kichigaimentat]

I tried torrenting the episodes but I gave up because of the lack of both seeds and peers. I downloaded an episode of Diggnation partially via DD, torrented the rest, then set myself to seed until I hit a 5.0 ratio. I never got past a 1.6, and meanwhile, I'm blasting BitTorrent announces (encrypted, of course) and ComCast is kicking the crap out of my pipe, which is annoying the rest of my family, so after a few days, I kick it off.

So, to a degree, I'm blaming ComCast and their policies.