webtorrent

[vankasteelj]

We should use that, from initial tests it's more mature now than a year ago.

Just a proof of concept done in 2min:

var magnet = ''; // set magnet here

var buffer = 5 * 1024 * 1024; // 5MB

var WebTorrent = require('webtorrent');
var streamer = new WebTorrent();
streamer.add(magnet, {
    path: Settings.tmpLocation
}, function (torrent){
    console.log('torrent started');
    console.log(torrent.name);
    console.log(torrent.files);

    var file = torrent.files[0];
    for (var i = 0; i < torrent.files.length; i++) {
        if (file.length < torrent.files[i].length ) {
            file.deselect();
            file = torrent.files[i];
        }
    }
    file.select();

    var filePath = file.path;
    var fileName = file.name;
    var torrentPath = torrent.path;

    var playerStarted;
    var interval = setInterval(function () {
        console.log('progress: ' + Math.round((torrent.downloaded / file.length)*100) + '%');
        if (!playerStarted && torrent.downloaded > buffer) {
            handleVideoFile({
                name: fileName,
                path: path.join(torrentPath,filePath)
            });
            playerStarted = true;
        }
    }, 1000);

    torrent.on('done', function () {
        streamer.destroy();
        clearInterval(interval);
    })
});

Player starts quickly, I had to set a buffer of 5MB because I had no time to dig further into the events sent by webtorrent, but it still is about 200 or 300% faster than peerflix, not in terms of download speed, which are similar, but in term of metadata retrieving (metadata we need in order to get the player running).

I'd say grosso modo webtorrent can start "playing" a file directly (after a little download) where peerflix sometimes takes around 5 to 25seconds.

[VitorVRS]

Maybe it helps: https://github.com/VitorVRS/popcorn-desktop/tree/feature/webtorrent

[xaiki]

looks good ! you still require('peerflix') is that right ? if you want to submit a PR i think it can get in

[VitorVRS]

You can see in this issue: https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/issues/146 There are somethings that are incomplete.

[xaiki]

awesome, please ping us back when you get closer !

[VitorVRS]

@xaiki can i PR my branch with webtorrent implementation to butter? Now i have a fork of PCT, there is a way i can "change" my fork from pct to butter?

[xaiki]

@vitorVRS you can cherry-pick your commits on a butter tree, if you want do the PR and i'll help you clean it up.

[ryananderson00]

I am interested in replacing peerflix with webtorrent. In my testing it is a lot faster than peerflix, plus it can peer with browsers which is handy. I'll work on sending a PR soon.

[ryananderson00]

I just noticed that there is progress towards adding support in this PR here: https://github.com/butterproject/butter-desktop/pull/436

[VitorVRS]

Yeah, its almost done, just need to remove peerflix from other sources and fix stream information...

[VitorVRS]

@ryananderson00 Do you have something already done? Maybe you can help me to finish.