Download Torrents To Your Console Or Your Mobile Phone
Torrents are great, I think no one disagrees with me there. There are plenty of ways you can make use of torrents. But they have restrictions. As with all P2P downloads, you must use additional software and although they’re very simple to use, torrents will never be on the same level of ‘easy’ as direct download links.
This need for extra software may be trivial in most cases, but keeps the format away from platforms where it’s impossible to install this software. So what am I talking about? What platform doesn’t support torrent software? Well, I’m mostly talking about consoles, but also about mobiles.
User, meet Torrent Relay, it will be your new best friend.
Torrent Relay completely takes away the need for third party software. It downloads the torrent (seeds it as well) and turns it into an http link. I have tested it on both my PC and my PLAYSTATION 3, and it has surprised me both times.
Let’s take a walk through the process shall we?
Step 1: Where?
In this step you’ll be specifying the torrent. There are three ways to do this; you can:
- Browse to a file on your hard drive
- Choose an internet URL
- Give the Mininova torrent ID
The first two options should be obvious. You can read the third one from the torrent’s page URL on Mininova (e.g. http://www.mininova.org/tor/*******).
Step 2: What?
The next step is to select the torrent’s files that you wish to download. I don’t think this needs too much of an explanation; you get a list of files, included in the torrent, after which you can specify which one to download. Note how I say which ‘one’; the biggest disadvantage is that you can only download one file at a time. This could get very irritating, given that a lot of torrents count 50 or more files.
Besides choosing the desired file, you can set your preferences for how to download the torrent. These include:
- Relay only when complete (i.e. don’t start downloading the incomplete file)
- Ajax update (Torrent Relay administered some Ajax updates to make improve the site’s compatibility)
Torrent Relay recommends that you leave these first two checked if you’re using an out of the ordinary browser (like on the Wii, PS3, iPhone and such).
- Appropriate headers (when checking this option, it’ll attempt to stream the content – media files only!)
Step 3: Relay!
Your browser will start downloading (and uploading) the file. After it’s done, you will be given a direct download link. You can download this URL using your browser, or put it into your download manager (there you go using additional software again!).
Ouch!
One of Torrent Relay’s major downsides is the server’s limit. Too often you’ll encounter a screen saying: “The server’s too busy at the moment, please try again in a few minutes. Please consider a donation”. Meaning that they do have bandwidth left, but wish for your support before you get it. I understand them to some extent; the donation page states that they’ve only raised $14 USD so far. (In the near future, when Kevin Kowalewski is a billionaire, he’ll look back laughing at this)
Another con is the maximum downloadable file size: 800,000,000 Bytes (aprox 763 MB).
Conclusion
If you’re sick of, or unable to install the extra software needed for torrents, Torrent Relay is a site for you. Apart from the frequency of the “server too busy” page, Torrent Relay is a great website.
(By) Simon is a student from Belgium who wastes his time relaxing, watching anime and surfing the net. He would tell you to check out his blog, only he doesn’t have one yet!
“Torrents are great, I think no one disagrees with me there.”
I do.
By making it brainlessly easy to break copyright and download a TV show, movie or commercial software just by clicking a link in a browser has meant *everyone* is doing it, and it is killing the internet.
Strange as it may seem, I must be the only person on the planet who flatly refuses to use BitTorrent or any other P2P software.
I know what you’re trying to say, but it’s not like all torrents are illegal. There are a lot of legitimate ways of using torrents. I use torrents all the time, and I’m always downloading legitimate torrents, such as my weekly podcasts or a new type of Linux I want to try out. BitTorrent is still the best way of delivering large files across the internet without cramping up someone’s servers. Don’t assume that it’s just a big bad things down the block. I can be very useful at times, and just because you use BitTorrent doesn’t mean you’re a criminal.
Simon, I really like this product. I’ve been using BitLet for quite a while, but I find that Torrent Relay is a bit faster and works better for me. Thanks for introducing this product to us. I guess BitLet is going to go into my bookmark trashcan…
Every coin has two sides. Think about dynamite, it’s a great invention, but it has claimed a lot of lifes as well. Does that mean Alfred Nobel did wrong inventing it? Off course not.
Like I said, every coin has two sides, and it’s up to the people to decide which side they turn to.
But I know what you’re getting at and in a way I agree. But even though the ‘how’s may be questionable, the ‘what’ will always have my full support.
@ Simon – “every coin has two sides” – very good point. Unfortunately lots of people tend to associate torrents with something evil and fail to realize tha tit’s basically a way to download things 10x times faster.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Hi.. this is great.. will it work on the PSP slim n lite too ???
I would think so. I’d try it on mine, but my battery’s a goner.
Please let us know the results.
For those of us at College that have all p2p websites blocked (except btdig.com) and even have blocks for clients like utorrent etc. this site is pretty awesome.
Ohhh noes your schools admin probably reads MakeUseOf! I hope btdig.com isn’t blocked for you this afternoon!
Another browser based bittorrent client is btaccel.com. No download, no client, no java required. It’s entirely on the web. No registration required, though if you get more than a handful of torrents, a free registration makes that much easier. Please do check it out at