Sidepodcast

Refreshing F1 Torrents

Way back in August of last year, we announced plans to make every Sidepodcast show available for download via peer-to-peer networks. At first we started slowly to ensure it was a viable and effective means of distribution and then as we've grown more confident with the tools, we've integrated them better into our work flow.

Each time we upload a new show nowadays, we'll release a corresponding torrent file at the same time. Additionally, after much effort on Christine's part, we've also managed to make the entire back catalogue distributable via P2P too.

Synchronicity I

One of the suggestions we received from Alex after originally announcing plans to support file sharing, was to provide a subscription feed for shows available in Torrent format.

This gave us headaches for a while, but we've now found a way to sync the Torrent feed with the traditional podcast feed, meaning subscribers will now be able to receive the latest show via P2P at the same time as iTunes users download directly.

Torrents are becoming a key part of our distribution solution, and if you've never tried subscribing in this way before, we highly recommend giving Miro a try.

The software runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. It can be downloaded for free and our podcasts sync and play seamlessly. We originally promoted the software back in 2007, but that was before Scott informed us it doubles as a peer-to-peer client too.

Synchronicity II

One thing we can do with torrents that we're constrained by within the Apple / iTunes ecosystem, is put out larger video files. Currently iPods are limited to a 640x480 pixel screen resolution and if we want people to be able to watch videos on the move, we can't go any larger.

No such restraint exists with desktop software though, so if you subscribe to the Sidepodcast Torrent Feed you'll be able to grab the 2008 Season Review in 720x405 pixel resolution. Bigger than you'll get on this site, or on iTunes.

As ever, do let us know if there are other delivery formats we should be considering. Falcon let us know this week that we're sort of accessible via a TiVo box in the US, even though we've never seen one before, nor have any access to one.

There's bound to be other formats and platforms we've yet to come across and we're always keen to throw more into the mix.

Inside Track - 2008 Season Review

• Length: 08:47 
• Size: 102.8 MB 
• File: track19.m4v 
• Transcript: track19.pdf 
• Torrent: track19.torrent 

Formula One is already marching headlong into the 2009 season, but before it gets there, Sidepodcast takes one final look back at the events that shaped 2008.

This isn't your normal F1 season review, but a chance for us to catch up on some of the things that slipped through our net during the past 12 months. These are things we wanted to cover but couldn't, either because of time constraints or video becoming available past our broadcast dates.

We look right back to winter testing, acknowledge Rubens for reaching a special milestone and hear what Jenson has to say about Formula One's first ever night race. All this and more in the last episode of Sidepodcast TV for 2008.

Music played:

• The Futureheads, The Beginning Of The Twist
• The Maine, We Change, We Wait
• Bloc Party, Flux

Special thanks go out to Panasonic Toyota Racing, AT&T Williams, BMW Sauber F1 Team, ING Renault F1 Team, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Honda Racing F1 Team and RTV GmbH for the use of their video footage.

Inside Track - Monza

• Length: 04:48 
• Size: 58.4 MB 
• File: track14.m4v 
• Transcript: track14.pdf 
• Torrent: track14.torrent 

Formula 1 is set for one last hurrah in Europe, before departing for the four long haul races that will see the 2008 championship out. The destination for this last stand also happens to be the fastest track on the calendar.

This week Inside Track catches up with Jarno Trulli to get his thoughts on racing in his home country. We take a flying lap around Autodromo Nazionale Monza and also refresh our memories of how exactly the championship tables stack up post Spa Francorchamps.

Special thanks to Allianz SE, Toyota Motorsports GmbH, Red Bull Racing, Daimler, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and RTV GmbH for the use of their video footage.

Inside Track - Spa Francorchamps

• Length: 05:55 
• Size: 67.1 MB 
• File: track13.m4v 
• Transcript: track13.pdf 
• Torrent: track13.torrent 

The perfect antidote for a Valencian procession has to be a blast through the Ardennes Forest, and Formula One delivers this and more as the teams arrive at the Circuit de Spa Francorchamps for the Belgium Grand Prix.

This week Inside Track takes a look at the circuit and catches up with the thoughts of Christian Danner and Sébastien Bourdais. We also look back on the controversial events that unfolded last year and see how the championship stands before the drivers come face-to-face with one of the most daunting tracks of year.

Special thanks to Allianz SE, Toyota Motorsports GmbH, Red Bull Racing, Daimler, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and RTV GmbH for the use of their video footage.

Inside Track - Valencia

• Length: 05:22 
• Size: 62.1 MB 
• File: track12.m4v 
• Transcript: track12.pdf 
• Torrent: track12.torrent 

For the second time this year F1 goes street racing and this time it's through the twists and turns around the port of Valencia.

The city offers a unique backdrop for Formula 1, and notably features a specially created swing bridge allowing F1 cars to cross Valencia's canal. In total, 25 corners make up this magnificent circuit and this is one episode of Inside Track you won't want to miss.

It's also Formula One's annual summer break, so Christine takes a look at the state of the championship, some recent engine rumours and a look at why McLaren might have an advantage over their rivals when it comes to tyres and logistics as the racing returns to Spain once more.

Special thanks to Allianz SE, Toyota Motorsports GmbH, Renault SA, Daimler, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and RTV GmbH for the use of their video footage.

Bits and Pieces

Following up on an earlier post relating to torrent support at Sidepodcast, I figured it might make sense, having covered the reasons for using peer-to-peer technology, to also look at how it works from a user perspective.

Within the past couple of weeks, links to torrent files have been appearing all over this site. You'll find them beside episode names within the archive pages, in the small panel to the right of audio shows and beneath the transport controls in videos.

In order to use these .torrent files, you'll need some client software and recently we've been getting a lot of mileage out of Vuze. The software runs on Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems and it's free to download from the homepage.

Once installed, you can click on any of the torrent links on this site and Vuze will download the associated episode, partly from our server but additionally pieces will come from any other user who's also done the same.

You can track progress using the Download tab on the dashboard, and once complete the episode will play within the application. We've mostly been avoiding P2P software because until recently Vuze (formerly Azureus) was a bit geeky to work with, and to see just how geeky it used to be, try hitting the Advanced button. I'm sticking to simple windows for the time being.

Additionally, by using the integrated search bar, entering sidepodcast will bring up a list of audio and video that we've uploaded onto the Vuze network. It'll take a very long time to get everything published though, so for the time being we recommend using the various links dotted around this site.

There are of course other torrent clients available, and if you know of any good ones please do let us know. Also if you use Vuze, tell us what you think of it and feel free to add us as a friend by looking up sidepodcast.

F1 Torrents of the Legal Kind

We talked briefly on last weeks show about some minor issues we've had recently in regards to our bandwidth costs. If you managed to get to the end of that episode we mentioned a spike in traffic led our hosting company, Media Temple, to warn us we could be looking at a bill for $350+ at the end of the month, and then the traffic spiked yet further.

The Price of Fish

As you can imagine, there's no way we could afford those kind of costs once, let alone on an ongoing basis. The hosting company includes in their grid-service, one terabyte of bandwidth per month and until now that's suited us just fine. Anything over that though gets billed at more than two dollars per gigabyte and in July we shifted almost double our allocation.

Media Temple do a sterling job of providing us with solid web hosting, the kind that lets us handle 1,600 comments per thread without blinking, but they never claimed to offer infinite bandwidth.

We've obviously been testing out a bunch of alternate solutions and amongst them is Amazon S3, which in truth has been a little unreliable of late, but does offer unlimited bandwidth (although it is expensive). More importantly though, S3 acts as a tracker for torrent files as well as a permanent seeder and this is where things get interesting.

Getting Personal

Torrents, BitTorrent and peer-to-peer file sharing tends to come in for a lot of criticism in the press, mostly when record companies sue pensioners and toddlers for alleged music piracy. However, the concept of sharing data between multiple peers has many legitimate uses, BBC's iPlayer is based on the same principles, and it's the legal distribution of data that we're interested in.

Making our audio and video available for download via peer-to-peer networks, in theory reduces our bandwidth requirements to almost nothing, as clients share pieces of data amongst themselves (at least for anyone obtaining files using this method). Additionally, if no-one is sharing a particular file, as will likely be the case at first, then the S3 peer will always be available.

It's easy to see why we're fans of P2P, and we'll be promoting it more in the future. It'll take a while to copy everything we've ever created onto to the bookseller's servers, but thus far torrent files are available for:

• All video files
• Every episode of F1 Digest
• All interviews
• Most of the mini-series
• Recent episodes of the weekly audio show

Additionally we're adding links on individual blog posts alongside the familiar transcript shortcuts and standard file downloads.

We're not expecting this to make a huge difference at first, and neither are we removing any of the existing download options. In fact, unless you're feeling brave or are specifically interested in testing these new download options, things will stay exactly the same.

As ever we'd appreciate any and all feedback, let us know if works for you or if there's anything we can improve.