Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Multimedia, Software, iTunes, Apple TV
Vuze allows remote playback support to Apple devices
Update: Original version of this post contained some accidental misinformation. Errors have been corrected.Azureus was my Bittorrent client of choice back in the day -- it used to be open source and easy to use and install, and served up any torrents you'd like. Eventually, however, the app was turned into Vuze, got put under a much more restrictive license and added a bunch of extra content bloat, and I abandoned it in favor of the much simpler µTorrent (unfortunately, it's not open source either, but you can't win them all). Now, however, it sounds like Vuze is trying to make things a little easier on their customers -- the restrictions are still there, but you can now watch any or all of their content on any or all of your devices, including the iPhone and iPod touch, the Apple TV, and even consoles like the PS3 and the Xbox 360.
It's only slightly easier -- everything still has to be downloaded under the Vuze umbrella, but with just an option, you can drag and drop into iTunes or onto any of your other devices and then sync things out from there. If you do choose to access content through their application, at least you'll be able to bring what you download out onto the other devices you own.
You can download Vuze over on their site. Downloading content from their network can be done with just the app, though using their comments and Friends system will require a free onsite registration. The device integration currently only works in OS 10.5, though they're working hard to make it possible in 10.4 as well.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joshua Ochs said 12:47PM on 3-24-2009
Works fine on the Mac. Just downloaded and tested it.
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jigme said 12:58PM on 3-24-2009
Azureus has been my p2p client of choice on OSX for years (now set to Classic view to get rid of all the new "Vuze" mediaplayer gumph). i'm not signed up to anything, and it runs fine.
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thomasjamesellis said 1:14PM on 3-24-2009
"keep in mind that this new feature will allow you to get content out to iTunes and Apple devices, but the app itself must run on Windows"
Are you quite sure?
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required said 1:19PM on 3-24-2009
The PSP has had both Remote Play and LocationFree for years. Both are really nice features. Good to hear that the iphonepodtouch is getting something sort of like Remote Play.
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Mark said 1:27PM on 3-24-2009
It does not, in fact, need to be running in Windows.
I was able to stream content to my Xbox360 last night with Vuze running on my Macbook Pro.
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droslovinia said 1:34PM on 3-24-2009
I used to love Azureus, but it started to suck and mtorrent came out with a Mac version, so I dumped it. So far, it has proved to be a great choice. Of course, Transmission seems okay, too, and Bit Rocket has some promise.
So why do we have to accept some sort of bloatware just to do simple tasks? If I wanted something to manage my media and do 500 other things, I'd use Miro.
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Micheal said 1:39PM on 3-24-2009
There are so many things wrong with this post.
Everything does not "have to be downloaded under the Vuze umbrella." You can drag any file onto the device name on the left sidebar and it will convert the file to play on the selected device.
Like others have said, it runs on Mac as well as Windows.
And I don't see how it's "under a much more restrictive license." Vuze is my primary app for torrent downloads.
You need to educate yourself better next time before writing a post that has a lot of incorrect information.
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Cameron Williams said 1:56PM on 3-24-2009
From the AzureusWiki:
Is it still GPL?
Yes, the Azureus3/Vuze source is in the same location as the original Azureus2 source and remains under the same GPL2 license as it always has. See the source code section above.
Note: The installer version of Azureus 3 comes with the Vuze Terms of service, which refers to the use of Vuze Content platform/website, i.e. www.vuze.com. The client software itself is still governed by the GPL (see section 6.2).
sterling said 1:46PM on 3-24-2009
I played around with this, and was surprising impressed. Their transcoder seems to be pretty fast. I have not checked quality on my AppleTV yet, but in iTunes it looks pretty good.
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ramond said 3:15PM on 3-24-2009
So is it now possible to drag a Xvid into Vuze and then stream to the iPhone encoding to h264 in real time? Doesn't sound like it but that's what I'd like.
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Gilbert Palau said 4:08PM on 3-24-2009
Note about uTorrent...
utorrent is open source, so I don't know where you got it that it isn't.
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GadgetGav said 4:34PM on 3-24-2009
Wow, blog journalism at it's best, eh?
I use Vuze. Yes, it's different to Azureus' interface, but it still works well. You can easily ignore its "channels".
What I like is that it has a DLNA server built in that can stream to a PS3. The $50 Elgato app can't do that. It used to, then they claimed Sony broke something in an upgrade, but free apps can cope.
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THJ said 5:24PM on 3-24-2009
You can switch back to 'classic' mode (traditional Azureus) to get rid of the skin and channels stuff).
It takes some tweaking, but it's a VERY powerful app, and personally I found it to be much faster than Transmission (ymmv). Haven't felt the urge to try the other Mac torrent apps, but with this new addition to Vuze, I think it's gaining a lot of ground on uTorrent (x-platform).
Corgy said 5:34PM on 3-24-2009
While these new functionalities seem awesome, I'm not a fan of Vuse as it is a major RAM hog. I'm much happier with Transmission. Also, µTorrent is not open source:
http://www.utorrent.com/faq/index#faq2
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Miguel Alemay said 9:21AM on 3-25-2009
I tested Vuze on MAC and Apple TV and it works flawlessly with one MAJOR exception. Original content with 5.1 audio gets translated into plain stereo. Kind of defeats the purpose of a AppleTV HD experience when the sound is punny...
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sweet said 3:00AM on 4-01-2009
Rats, I was wondering if it was just me. Anyone have any hopes of this improving? I'm doing a test run now for xbox360 ... hoping that has 5.1.
Other than that, Vuze is awesome, and this post was pretty rotten. I was a barebones Transmission user, but integrating automated TV show downloads (search and subscribe), transcoding automatically (even while it's still downloading, btw), being able to easily share a file directly with a friend … these are useful, real features. The whole interface is a B+ right now - really close to fantastic but not there yet.
Martin said 10:58AM on 4-01-2009
Vuze still does serve up any torrent you'd like. It always has, that never changed.
Vuze still is open source. It is only their "content network" that has a license. You do not have to use the content network. It is just a bunch of content that they offer to you, but you can still use vuze to download any torrent you want. The search feature even searches outside of their content network for you.
You really don't seem to have a clue what you are talking about.
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