On 10/25/05, greg wm <tclug at greatlakedata.com> wrote:
>
> iiuc as it stands to view a video folks would have to
>
>    o  download a bt client
>    o  install it
>    o  download the video
>    o  play the video
>
> well that's easy for you and me, but it's too many steps for our
> audience.  it needs to be rolled into a single step.
>
> if the install is not already done, they can't be expected to "do" an
> install.  the very most we could ask is that they "approve" the install.
>   (and that question would be in front of them while the bt client was
> already starting to download, right?)
>
> while we're at it, seems we ought be able to deliver a format where the
> viewing could begin within seconds, while the bittorrent powered
> download continues.
>
> sounds great to me.  shall we call it torrent video?  2bit video?
>
> if that packaging job sounds simple to you, by all means ..., you'll
> have my heartfelt thanks, and great exposure via our audience..

You're getting into pretty difficult territory here, and I don't think
you quite understand how bittorrent works.  When downloading by
bittorrent, there's really no way to ensure that you get the file in
sequential order.   It downloads sparse packets of the target file as
they're available and then slowly re-assembles them as they arrive. 
So...an application like you proposed would probably be incredibly
difficult to code if not impossible using bittorrent.

So...we've proposed what we think is a good solution.  If you don't
think your audience can handle installing the bittorrent client, then
you're probably going to have to fork out the money for the download
bandwidth of your videos.