Broadcatching
Encyclopedia
Broadcatching is the downloading of digital content that has been made available over the Internet
using RSS
.
The general idea is to use an automated mechanism to aggregate various web feeds and download content for viewing or presentation purposes.
Stewart Brand
later used the term independently in his 1987 book The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT to describe artificial-intelligence technology (in one application) to assist content selection ('hunting') and viewing ('grazing' or 'browsing').
and BitTorrent peer-to-peer
file sharing
as a method for subscribing to an ongoing series of media files, in an article for Ziff-Davis. Scott Raymond described its specific application for gathering scheduled programming in an article entitled Broadcatching with BitTorrent. The combination of these technologies allows a computer connected to the Internet to act like a digital video recorder (DVR) such as TiVo connected to cable.
One of the first practical implementations was released in 2004. Programmer Andrew Grumet announced the release of a beta version of an RSS and BitTorrent integration tool for the Radio Userland news aggregator here.
Today, content can be delivered to large groups at low cost through RSS-and-BitTorrent-based broadcatching. Large groups can be notified of new content through RSS, and bulky content can be distributed inexpensively through BitTorrent. Recipients subscribe to an RSS feed through which a content provider notifies recipients' software of new content, and that software uses BitTorrent to retrieve the content. Tag
s, be they applied by one user or many users
, are also used to topically drive syndication of torrents.
and Internet radio
(also called podcast
ing or IPradio).
Broadcatching is often used in situations where multicasting may be used but is cost prohibitive.
it (typically after removing advertisements) and send it on to others.
The practice has become quite popular, particularly in countries such as Australia
and the United Kingdom
where television programs produced in the US
tend to be aired more than six months after US broadcasts, if at all.
As of 2010, there has been no legal action taken against sharers of TV episodes (compared to distribution of copyrighted movies and music which the MPAA and RIAA have taken a strong stance against).
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
using RSS
RSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
.
The general idea is to use an automated mechanism to aggregate various web feeds and download content for viewing or presentation purposes.
History
Fen Labalme describes coining the term 'broadcatch' in 1983. It refers to an automated agent that aggregates and filters content from multiple sources for presentation to an individual user.Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation...
later used the term independently in his 1987 book The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT to describe artificial-intelligence technology (in one application) to assist content selection ('hunting') and viewing ('grazing' or 'browsing').
RSS+BitTorrent
In December of 2003 Steve Gillmor described combining RSSRSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
and BitTorrent peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
as a method for subscribing to an ongoing series of media files, in an article for Ziff-Davis. Scott Raymond described its specific application for gathering scheduled programming in an article entitled Broadcatching with BitTorrent. The combination of these technologies allows a computer connected to the Internet to act like a digital video recorder (DVR) such as TiVo connected to cable.
One of the first practical implementations was released in 2004. Programmer Andrew Grumet announced the release of a beta version of an RSS and BitTorrent integration tool for the Radio Userland news aggregator here.
Today, content can be delivered to large groups at low cost through RSS-and-BitTorrent-based broadcatching. Large groups can be notified of new content through RSS, and bulky content can be distributed inexpensively through BitTorrent. Recipients subscribe to an RSS feed through which a content provider notifies recipients' software of new content, and that software uses BitTorrent to retrieve the content. Tag
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
s, be they applied by one user or many users
Folksonomy
A folksonomy is a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content; this practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging...
, are also used to topically drive syndication of torrents.
Uses
Although broadcatching can be classified as a method independent of technology and implementation, today broadcatching finds much use with Internet televisionInternet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
and Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
(also called podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
ing or IPradio).
Broadcatching is often used in situations where multicasting may be used but is cost prohibitive.
Broadcatching television broadcasts
Perhaps the most popular use of broadcatching is using a BitTorrent client with inbuilt RSS support to automatically download television episodes as they are 'released'—internet users capture the broadcast as it is transmitted, then transcodeTranscode
Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital data conversion of one encoding to another, such as for movie data files or audio files. This is usually done in cases where a target device does not support the format or has limited storage capacity that mandates a reduced file size, or to convert...
it (typically after removing advertisements) and send it on to others.
The practice has become quite popular, particularly in countries such as Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
where television programs produced in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
tend to be aired more than six months after US broadcasts, if at all.
As of 2010, there has been no legal action taken against sharers of TV episodes (compared to distribution of copyrighted movies and music which the MPAA and RIAA have taken a strong stance against).
Clients
- Automatic
- BitLordBitLordBitLord is a BitTorrent client written in C++ for Microsoft Windows.BitLord Pro is a recent "commercial" release of BitLord.- Features :According to the official website, BitLord contains these features:...
- BitTorrent 6
- DelugeDeluge (software)- See also :* Comparison of BitTorrent clients* Usage share of BitTorrent clients-External links:* * * *...
- FlexGet
- G3 Torrent
- KTorrentKTorrentKTorrent is a BitTorrent client written in C++ for KDE using the Qt user interface toolkit. It is maintained in the KDE Extragear.- Features :*Upload and download speed capping / throttling & scheduling...
- qBittorrentQbittorrentqBittorrent is a free software cross-platform BitTorrent client GUI written with Qt4. The program uses libtorrent-rasterbar C++ library for the torrent back-end functionality. It is developed by Christophe Dumez, from the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbeliard in France...
- Rufus
- Torrent SwapperTorrent SwapperTorrent Swapper is a free software BitTorrent client. The program is used to download files using Peer-To-Peer technology, in this case using the Bittorrent protocol.Their sourceforge home page states:Lightweight python based 4th...
- TorrentFluxTorrentFluxTorrentFlux is a free and open source multi-user GUI for BitTornado. Unlike most BitTorrent clients, its main user interface is a web interface...
- TriblerTriblerTribler is an open source peer-to-peer client with various features for watching videos online. The user interface of Tribler is very basic and focused on ease of use, instead of including features...
- μTorrent
- VuzeVuzeVuze is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to by .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content...
- ZipTorrentZipTorrentThis article refers to the original Ziptorrent C++ Bittorrent client, and the 2007 version of Azureus modified specifically by MediaDefender Inc. to disrupt Bittorrent downloads....
- ZyXELZyXELZyXEL Communications Corp. , located in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is a manufacturer of DSL and other networking devices. . With headquarters in Taiwan, ZyXEL maintains branch offices in North America, Europe, and Asia...
Network Storage Appliance (NSA) series: NSA210 / NSA-220 PLUS / NSA221 / NSA320