PREVIEW of downloads
 

I like the ability of MusicCity / Kazaa to preview an audio or video file before it is finished downloading. Especially with the prevalence of mis-labeled files, it is VERY useful to see what you are about to download before you wait sometimes hours to download it.

indeed, that is a real MUST!!

i 2nd that..it's a MUst-have feature

Me 2!

The current on uncompleted downloads shouldn't just be named JOB-Segment5-15.xlx, they should have the original name in the begginning and the extra info at the end so someone would know which file is which if a download fails and wants to view what amount was downloaded like an mp3 of video. I am not sure but the xlx shouldn't be a propriatery format, if is it right now, so someone can just rename the file and open it as an truncated mp3 or other file it the viewer program will support that.

Thats Right!
I know another cliernt who does like that!

He names the files:
Originalname(Infotmation for Xolox).OriginalExtension

For example:

American Pie 2 (233-22).avi

really, it's the most necessary feature to be added.

The way the segmented downloading currently works, and media in general, previewing files would be soemwhere in the range of 'technically difficult to implement' to 'completely impossible'.

MPG: Possible to preview from the beginning only, no 'fixing' required, but the first segment may be too small to play, or not even exist.

AVI: Technically possible to preview from the beginning only, but this requires sophisticated re-indexing procedures that I would bet will NEVER be incorperated into XoloX. Again, the first segment may be too small to be useful as a preview, or not even exist yet after some time of downloading.

RM/RAM: If it's not SureStream, then the first segment can theoretically be previewed, if it's fixed first, though I have yet to actually succesfully fix a broken RM file with the tools I've found to do so...

MP3: Possible to preview from anywhere in the file. This is the only media file type I know of where this is possible. MP3s are generally small though, so it's probably not worth the added bugs and programming time to implement the feature for this file type alone. In my oppinion, anyone that thinks that 320/96 is that much better than 128/44 is nuts and should just go buy the CD and rip it themselves.

Other types of files have their problems as well, or are small enough that it doesn't matter, like text files and images.

i believe everyone wants this mostly for songs/mp3s ...could be mistaken

but yes i do agree, infact tahts what i came to this forum about. I think xolox is awesome, but just needs this feature. Once it has this feature and a few other minor ones it'll be great. but before adding anything else they need to add previewing the file.

Hi Seeker,
I don't think it is very impossible to enable a "quick preview" of files. It must not be perfect, just give the users a impression of what the downloaded content might be.... a "preview", no need for full replay of the percentage downloaded.

A possible attempt might be: Combining partials as soon as possible (e.g. in 500KB hops) and name this first resulting partial file something as 'Filename_unfinishedpreview.ending'. If the media type and associated player provides usage of streaming, a preview is possible. For example MP3s and common player will work with that, some MPEG movies, but DivX movies will fail with MS Mediaplayer.

I see a very high user demand for a preview function. Also I guess a lot of bandwith could be saved, because user would look into their files being download... if they rate them as not worth to be downloaded, they abort it.... and therefor free a "busy slot" earlier.

Did I miss a problem or would this work?
Moak

Preview is especially important for videos. It sucks having to wait 3 days for a 500 meg download to finish before seeing what the quality is.

a neat feature relating to preview files
 

It would be a neat feature; if you in the preferences could choose, that any preview file would get a shortcut dropped on the desktop.

keep up the cool programming you crazy dutch xolox guys !!!

joachim .)

What you could make xolox do is make a small preview file of the video file at the senders side and send this first, then the receiver could say yes I want this file or no I don't want it.

Yes, you can do this to preview an AVI movie quite nicely. You need to run DivFix or some such utility to reindex the AVI before you can view it however.

I just tried this on The Grinch/Jim Carrey movie that I am only 50% complete in.

The biggest bother is figuring out which file it is in the Xolox\Temp folder. So as to not interrupt the download in progress, I copied the .XLX file first and renamed the copy to temp.AVI

Do a search on Google for DivFix if you need it. I used version 1.05 which is available from DOOM9.ORG

I should also add that I am not in favour of automatic previews since this will add additional bloat to the client. I would much rather use my own tools to play the movie.

MP3s don't need a preview as they are only a couple of megabytes.

I don't work with MPEGs unless I really have to so someone else will have to let you know if they can be previewed.

I fifty-ith that
 

Is this a democratic program?