Probably everyone has ever faced torrents, but not everyone knows how to use them and how to play music, movies and other files from the torrents sites on PC, iPhone or other devices. In this post, we will talk about how the torrent works, how to download from the torrent and what to do if you can’t play torrent media content.
How do torrents work?
At the heart of the so-called torrents lies the network protocol BitTorrent. This protocol is designed to exchange files over the Internet. The peculiarity of this protocol is that it is built on the principle of P2P (Peer to peer). This means that the file exchange is not between the server and the client, but between the clients. While the server (or in our case the torrent tracker) is used only to coordinate the actions of all clients during the file exchange.
Also, it is necessary to mention torrent files. Files with the .torrent extension are used to store data about the share. The torrent file contains information about the files that are shared, as well as the torrent trackers that participate in this sharing.
What do I need to download from the torrent website?
It may seem that downloading files from the torrent is too difficult. In fact, this is not so. The only peculiarity of torrents is that for downloading them, a user needs a special program. This program is usually called a torrent client.
There are many different torrent clients. The most popular are μTorrent, BitTorrent, BitComet, and FlashGet. The most popular among these torrent clients is the μTorrent program. On the example of it, we’ll tell you how to download from the torrent.
The μTorrent program is completely free and can be downloaded from the official site. To do it, go to the website and click on the button “Download μTorrent”.
After the installation is completed, the μTorrent program opens on your PC.
In general, the installation does not require a high level of computer skills, but at the same, there are a few things to do with the settings (Menu “Installation -> Configuration”). Go to the “Directories” section and select a destination folder for the files.
“Put new downloads in” means a folder where you want your new music and video to be saved. Please keep in mind that you should have enough of free space on your hard drive to save files.
“Store .torrents in” – stands for a folder, in which you will save the files with “.torrent”. If you want to delete the .torrent file after your download is completed, mark the “Delete loaded.torrents” option.
Let’s go to the “Bandwidth” section. Here, you might limit the downloading speed and the uploading speed, i.e., someone downloads the files from your PC. Please limit the downloading speed only if your connection is poor and you can’t use the computer normally when the downloading is in progress.
If your Internet connection plan is not unlimited, then set the limits for the uploading speed. For example, type “100” in the field. It will mean that you have set the limit to 100 Kb/sec. If you mark “Only transfer when the system is idle”, then the program will download or upload data only when you are not using the PC. Don’t forget that it should be turned on.
That’s all with the settings; now you are ready to download from torrents.
How to download via torrent?
So we got directly to the download process! Now you need to find a torrent website. It’s not difficult. There are plenty of them all over the Web. Register on the website if it’s required and then search for a file that you want to save. Each file has a detailed description: quality, format, audio and video codecs, release date, and so on. Usually, the .torrent file goes after all this data.
Click on it, and there appears either a file save dialog or a file open dialog (depending on the browser and its settings). Open immediately, or save and open the downloaded .torrent file. The uTorrent program will start, and the .torrent file will be automatically added to it.
There is already a folder for downloads by default (the one you’ve set), but you can set the files to be downloaded in another folder.
Besides that, if the .torrent file has many media in it, you can select whet tracks or videos you want to save. Click the “Cancel All” button and then select only the ones you need. Click “OK” and wait for the download to complete.
Ensure that you can run the content
Torrent websites provide media files in all possible audio and video formats starting from popular ones such as MP4, MP3, AVI and ending up with rare extensions like RMX, MPC, MMF, and so on. If you downloaded a file of this kind and can’t open it on a PC, don’t remove it right away. You can use Freemake Video Converter to encode the rare extension files in a format supported by your PC. In case you have a music show or clip in MP4 or another video format and need only the audio part, start Freemake Video Converter and create audio file from video. Let’s see how to do it for mp3.
- First of all, download and install Freemake Video Converter from the official site. The supported Win versions are Vista, 7, Win 8, and Win 10.
- When the installation is completed, run the freeware.
- Click the +Video button to add MP4 files that you want to encode in MP3. You can add several files at once.
- Click “to MP3” green bubble at the bottom of the tool.
- Choose quality and a destination folder for your MP3s.
- Click the “Convert” button to start the transformation process and convert MP4 to MP3.
Wait till the conversion process completes and enjoy your new MP3 files on PC or transfer them to any portable device such as tablet or smartphone. You can also choose “to Apple” option instead of output format. In that case conversion settings will be automatically adjusted to your iPhone 5, 6, 7, 8 or X. You can download Freemake Video Converter software from this site.
