Is 6 hours to download 699MB over a 1MB connection normal?

[arabik]

I've just purchased a subscription for one of these online movie download sites and am trying to download an Episode of Dr Who (45 minutes long) at 699MB. However it's taken 4 hours already and is only two thirds of the way there with a further 2 hours to go!

I know these things can be slow but is that really normal? I thought over a 1MB broadband internet connection it would be a bit faster than that! It's a new PC with 80GB hard drive and 512RAM so I can't be having memory problems already??

I'm using a uTorrent 1.4 as the download software and the up speed and the down speed fluctates between 20 - 30 kB/s. I dunno - just seems slow to me! Or is this just the wonderful world of large file downloading??? I was hoping to download some episodes of Lost but it's gonna take weeks at this rate!

[kempie]

At "full throttle" a 1Mbit connection should allow a download rate of about 7.5MB per min or 450MB per hour.

The slow download you are experiencing is not necessarily due to the size of the file but more likely the method of download, namely Torrent. If more people are downloading than are seeding (especially if they have slow upload rates) then a bottleneck will occur, perhaps drastically affecting the download speed.

It is entirely 'normal' for a file of 699MB to take days to download if all factors are working against you.

[khana]

A one megabit broadband connection should give you a maximum of 100k downloaded a second or 360 megabytes an hour. Obviously this assumes that you are not using your connection to do anything else and that the server where you are downloading it from can upload it to you at this speed.

From what you say, this does seem like a slow download but i'm surprised at a legitimate site using bit torrent. Are you sure its legitimate and you have not paid some sort of annual fee for a link to illegal copies ?

[Mattk]

its bandwidth related.a 1mb connection means that at max speed you can download at approx 3 megs per minute but it is not uncommon for a 700 mb dl to take 15 hrs just due to available bandwidth...what is more interesting is that a 45 min prog is 699 megs ! a 2 hr dvd quality movie is normally 700 megs.

[Mattk]

* meant to say 6 megs per minute

[ugly_bob]

2 hrs of DVD quality should be 4.4GB ish
2hrs of avi are usually around 700MB
If you're using bit torrent, try reducing your upload speed a bit to improve your download speed (Sounds strange I know, but your PC has to send confirmations about the parts of the file it has received). Set it to around 80% of max upload for your connection - ie if you have 256Kb/s upload, set torrent max upload at 200Kb/s or 25KB/s.
If you don't know your upload speed, go here

[ugly_bob]

sorry
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.as p
the link thing has changed

[Aquariel]

I'm surprised you are paying a subscription - torrents are freely available all over the web.

You would be far better off getting access to usenet, which will give you much better speed (and choice) than torrents will.

http://www.titannews.com/

P.S. I wouldn't download the 700Mb versions of Doctor Who - the "DFD" versions are 350Mb and are good quality!

[arabik]

Thanks for all the answers people - there are some really knowledgeable people out there!

Well it took about 6 hours to download in total (and Yep - a 45 min episode of Dr Who seems to be 699MB) and when it had finished downloading I was suddenly "seeding" with just an upload speed for about 6 hours. I wasn't sure what this was so I just kept the client open and let it run. Does "seeding" mean that I am now providing the file that I've just downloaded to someone else who is trying to download it? If so then I guess it would only be considered good etiquette in the world of downloading to keep your client open for a bit after you've finished downloading yourself?

Also I have been pipped at the final post!!! I managed to download the file, burn it to a DVD-RW disc and now my Philips DVD player doesn't recognise the disc! I'm surprised as it plays audio tracks that I've burned as MP3's and WMA's and is supposed to support DVD-RW and all formats. It downloaded as a MKV file - it wouldn't be something as simple as changing the file extension to .avi or .mpeg or something like that? I can watch it on the computer but I was hoping to watch it on my big telly.

Aaarrgh! - it's pants being such a novice!!!

[ugly_bob]

you're right about the uploading situation and the etiquette.
You may need to convert the file to dvd-video. Nero can do this automatically, or you can use winavi - a free download.
If you're using Nero, select the 'make dvd-video' option, and import the file, then follow the menus through and it'll do the rest.