Thread: uTorrent Adds VLC Media Player and Torrent Broadcast Apps

BitTorrent Blog

Today we are releasing two new apps to enhance your BitTorrent and μTorrent experience, and allow you to do things not before possible. As with past apps, our goal is to continue to improve the user experience by adding new functionality that is simple and user friendly.

The first is a VLC player app, which automatically displays the torrents you’ve downloaded in a list and allows you to play each through the VLC media player with a single click. Many of you may know that VLC is a media player that can handle just about any file type. So, when you click to play a file, the chance of you getting that annoying dialog asking you to find the program to play the file is very small – VLC just knows. As such, it’s a perfect match to the varied file types in the BitTorrent ecosystem. Keeping with the qualities that we know you value, this app is also light and easy to use.

The second new app is µCast, which makes it easy for you to create an RSS feed of your torrents and share it with others. For example, maybe you want to send a collection of your favorite music from the Zulu Music app to your friends. To do this, simply create a name for your TorrentCast (e.g. http://uca.st/MyFavoriteIndieMusic) and then choose the files you want to share with your friends. When you’re done, send your friends your TorrentCast link. They in turn will load the link into their BitTorrent client (File/Add RSS Feed), and will then have access to your favorite files. And there’s more. Your TorrentCast is like a living mix tape, because you can add files at any time and your friends will instantly get them. You can also open up your TorrentCast to collaboration, so your friends can also add files to it.

Also, as part of our effort to help artists reach BitTorrent users, µCast can be used as a way for creators to get their music and movies to their fans. How? Just as described above, except that you first have to convert your content to a torrent. Luckily, this isn’t too difficult…even if it sounds a bit technical. Here is how:

1. From the µTorrent or BitTorrent client, select File/Create New Torrent (or CNTRL N).
2. Locate a file or file directory on your computer, hard drive, server, etc. that you want to publish.
3. Under “Trackers,” make sure the following trackers are listed; if they’re not, add them exactly as shown:
   - udp:/tracker.openbittorrent.com:80/announce
   - udp:/tracker.publicbt.com:80/announce
4. Unless you know what you’re doing, you can leave the other fields blank. Then just choose where to save the Torrent.
5. Now you just need to add the torrent to your µTorrent or BitTorrent client by selecting File/Add Torrent (or CTRL O) and selecting the torrent(s) you just created. Then you can use µCast to add these torrents as described above.

We think you’ll be happy with these apps, and we’ll be listening closely to your feedback for ways to improve them. Enjoy!

Source: New Ways to Share and Play Your Torrents « BitTorrent Blog

TorrentFreak

The BitTorrent Inc. team has just added two of the most interesting apps yet to the popular uTorrent client. The first one allows users to integrate the all-round media player VLC to uTorrent, making it possible for users to play media files from within the client. The second is uCast, an exciting new app which enables users to share a ‘live’ RSS feed of selected torrents with friends.

Last month the uTorrent team rolled out the stable release of uTorrent 2.2, the first release to open up BitTorrent’s App Studio to uTorrent’s 65 million users. Although those apps aren’t meant to change the fundamental purpose of uTorrent, two new ones that were published today will probably get some traction.

The first new app added to the ‘market’ this morning is the VLC player app. VLC is a popular media player among BitTorrent users, and not just because it is free. It also includes a huge number of video codecs so it can play virtually every video file available.

With the VLC app, uTorrent users now have a shortcut to play media files in VLC directly, without having to open folders or even extract archives. Users only have to click on the app and it will display a list of recently downloaded torrents which they can play in VLC with just a single click.

Admittedly this app is not a technological breakthrough but it does save on time and annoyances, especially for those who have never used VLC before. According to BitTorrent Inc. “..it’s a perfect match to the varied file types in the BitTorrent ecosystem,” a description we subscribe to.

The second app that was launched today, named uCast, adds a new and interesting feature to uTorrent. With uCast, uTorrent users have the option to create an RSS feed of the (selected) torrents they are downloading, and share this with friends who are also avid BitTorrent users.

Wikileaks TorrentCast

This enables users to easily share a selection of torrents without having to lookup the original torrent download links. The RSS feed, which BitTorrent calls a TorrentCast (example), can be easily imported into uTorrent or any other client that supports RSS downloads.

One of the best features is that new torrents can be added to the uCast feed later, by simply selecting a recently downloaded torrent from within the app. This makes sharing torrents with friends easier and a lot more convenient than it is now. It’s can be compared to a torrent blog, or a living mixtape as BitTorrent Inc. describes it.



“Your TorrentCast is like a living mix tape, because you can add files at any time and your friends will instantly get them. You can also open up your TorrentCast to collaboration, so your friends can also add files to it,” BitTorrent Inc. writes.

It will be interesting to see how the two new apps are received by the public, but they are certainly more useful and promising than some of those previously announced. The TorrentCast app uses the uca.st domain ‘short url service’, and you’re of course free to share yours below.

The VLC and uCast apps are available now in the app market and both require the latest stable version of uTorrent.

Source: uTorrent Adds VLC Media Player and Torrent Broadcast Apps | TorrentFreak