It wasn’t too long ago that I wrote about The Venice Project (now named Joost) and how it was a unique online video content provider. Online video distribution has made its mark and isn’t going anywhere. Zudeo is one such distribution site that has been getting larger every day. Just last month, Zudeo partnered with BBC. Hopefully there will be more to come.
Basics
Unlike Joost, the Zudeo experience isn’t completely centered around a software client. You will spend a decent amount of time on the Zudeo site looking for new content to download with Azureus. The Azureus bittorrent client is required to use Zudeo. However, you don’t have to browse for content on Zudeo.com as the required Azureus version, 3.0, is geared for Zudeo and has a content browser within it to streamline the download process once you find something you want to view (although my browser window is usually much larger than Azureus).
The Zudeo interface in Azureus 3. Due to the large number of users, popular content comes rather quickly – over 740kB/s for the two items in this screenshot.
Content
I think the content found on Zudeo is rather paltry and not much different than things you might find on YouTube. However, much of the content you’ll find on Zudeo is higher quality and there is even an HD category (but most items in this category are just movie trailers). I had a hard time finding quality video content longer than 5 minutes.
Zudeo has a channels section to help users navigate genres of content like music videos, films, trailers, etcetera. Even with this I wasn’t able to find any mainstream video content. If you find yourself in this situation, you can help out the Zudeo community by creating an account and publishing your own content.
For those interested in publishing content look no further. It’s much easier than making your own torrent.
In a nutshell, I wasn’t impressed with the content on Zudeo and found the content browsing process tedious. But I do like the Zudeo interface within Azureus – sleek.
What’s involved in using Zudeo
To setup Zudeo for yourself you simply need to have Azureus installed which you can grab on the Zudeo download page. For some reason though, that route didn’t work for me so I installed the latest standard Azureus release from Sourceforge. Then, I clicked on the download link for a random video on Zudeo and it ran a Java application to automatically upgrade my Azureus installation.
Wrap Up
So this article has been a bit of a journey. I started out writing it as a how to type post then I started reviewing Zudeo and came to the conclusion that it’s probably not worth your time unless you absolutely love movie trailers or 5 minute clips about sea otters.
If for some reason you decide to try out Zudeo, there are a few things you can do to boost your transfer speeds. It might be easy to forget but you are actually using Azureus; behind all the fancy graphics you have a powerful bittorrent client you can easily adjust to your likings. Click the “Advanced” tab on the right of Azureus 3.0 and go through the wizard – just give it the default settings for now, but be sure to tell it that you’re an advanced user. Now head over to the preferences (Azureus » Preferences in OS X) and:
- Under Transfer, set global max upload and download speeds to 0 (unlimited). For slower connections, limit upload speed to a fraction of your max upload.. I’d say 15kB/s for the average cable user.
- Under Files » Performance Options, set disk cache size to 16MB (you can safely go up to 32MB in most cases)
- Under Queue, set max simultaneous downloads and active torrents to 0 (unlimited), unless you like limiting the number of things downloading at the same time.
Those are just basic options that I always set in Azureus. I also generally set a directory for Azureus to move completed files into. If you want some in-depth Azureus tweaks, browse around Ernesto’s TorrentFreak.com.
Comments for Zudeo
You guys need to partner up with more mainstream media publishers and provide better content for your network. I know you’re trying to go the whole “legal eagle” route but that’s just not working unless you can garner more goods. Speaking of which, you partnered with BBC in December and still don’t have any Top Gear videos. What’s up with that? Also, you guys need a bigger logo on the front of your Palo Alto office… you’ve got a brand to sell.
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Is there a strong reason why bittorrent users should provide their clients with unlimited upload speeds? I’m too lazy to browse through the TorrentFreak archives. From my own experience that really beats up your overall internet browsing speed.
@Derek – you can limit it if you like but limited upload limits the maximum download speed you can attain in many cases. It’s built into the bittorrent logic.. less freeloading, faster downloads.
Azureus is the best =)
Unlimited upload is not good at all. It will not only limit your browsing speed as Derek says, but more importantly it will actually make the stuff you download go slower.
The optimal setting would be: 80% of your actual upload speed. In my case, that’s 75kb/s. If your upload speed is any good (over 50kb/s) you can keep downloads as unlimited while limiting the upload speed.
I’ve always found unlimited upload to be just fine as long as I am only downloading a reasonable amount of things; 2-3. It’s not too often that it actually maxes out my upload so I find it alright. Although you might be inclined to follow my azureus tut where I recommended a 15kB/s upload limit for the average cable user.
You’re right, it depends on how heavy a torrenter a person will be.
And josue is what you’d call an “extremely heavy torrenter” not by his wieght :D but by the # of torrents he has downloading and more significantly, seeding.
@Derek P.:
…and if the FCC weren’t in the business of protecting the monopoly interests of the big communications companies, we might have a chance at broadband speeds that don’t make Amerika seem like some 3rd world backwater town…
why is it places like Korea and Shanghai have 30+mb net connections and I have to struggle to get 5+ from RoadRunner???
Zudeo looks pretty cool…and BBC actually makes some TV that is interesting.
Good find!
dennis: Because in those places you can get pirated media on the street. IMO, we pay a premium on content so they can pirate it.