Download first and last pieces first

[teddyrogers]

Feature request, in Tribler it would be nice to have an option to download the first and last pieces of a torrent, similar to how qBittorrent prioritises these pieces when enabled.

There may be instances where you would want to check a torrent file before downloading the full torrent file. An example would be playing a video or checking the header/ format/ metadata of a file.

I don't believe this would need to be an option to make default for all torrents as it may impact the swarm and prioritising of rare pieces in some torrents.

[absolutep]

Adopting sequential download first, would be better than first/last piece thing

[teddyrogers]

Adopting sequential download first, would be better than first/last piece thing

For streaming/ watching a torrent as it is being downloaded? If so, some video formats have metadata saved at the end of the file. In this instance both first/ last and sequential downloading would be required. BiglyBT is another client, other than qBittorrent, that can do both.

[absolutep]

For streaming/ watching a torrent as it is being downloaded?

yes, but also for metadata.

some video formats have metadata saved at the end of the file

I have not encountered anything like this

BiglyBT is another client, other than qBittorrent, that can do both.

Yes, BiglyBT has many other support options including inbuilt I2P Router

[OvercookedBeef]

some video formats have metadata saved at the end of the file

I have not encountered anything like this

You've never used an MP4 file before? I get this all the time when I don't select download first and last first. OBS Studio has a blog post that contains an informative and easy to understand overview of the MP4 structure: https://obsproject.com/blog/obs-studio-hybrid-mp4 (mainly the The Trouble with Tribbles MP4 section)

There are two things here that create the main problem we have with MP4: The moov sits at the end and is written when finalising the file, and it is required to be able to make sense of the data contained in the mdat box.

[absolutep]

I get this all the time when I don't select download first and last first

I do not know about OBS workings or functioning, so I have not faced any issues like this at all ever.

My experience is limited to downloading torrents only and not of file encoding processes.

If you are downloading a torrent sequentially or normally [without using first & last piece option] then, it does not matter which file type it is, i.e., avi, mkv, mp4, av1.

I get the Metadata Info, within the first 2-10% of the file download. Use this

[OvercookedBeef]

I do not know about OBS workings or functioning, so I have not faced any issues like this at all ever.

The part I referenced has nothing to do with OBS, it applies to all MP4 files. I simply cited their blog post.

If you are downloading a torrent sequentially or normally [without using first & last piece option] then, it does not matter which file type it is, i.e., avi, mkv, mp4, av1.

This is not how file formats work. They are all widely different with a different file format, you even mixed up av1 as a file format, you don't even understand what you are saying.

[teddyrogers]

@egbertbouman if this ever gets implemented, a nice to have feature, would be granular control by selecting a specific file within the torrent to download first/ last/ sequential.

Scenario, if you have a torrent with 100's of files and, you are only interest in the 50th file, there is little reason selecting this feature if it applies only to the torrent as a whole as the pieces for this file may be located in the middle of the torrent.