Oftentimes, video files I download only include six-channel audio (i.e. 5.1). Using Tdarr, I transcode the video files and create a stereo audio channel from the surround channel.
At present, qBittorrent seems to seed these re-encoded files without complaint but if I force a recheck, it’ll overwrite my newly-encoded files with the original. I’m concerned that my seeding these altered files is ‘harming’ the pool somehow but I am not sure?
An easy solution to this would be to keep two copies of each re-encoded file on my hard drive, so I watch the version with the stereo audio and seed the original. However, I do not have a lot of storage and would ideally minimize the copies I have of each file.
So, to sum-up, I suppose my question is: am I harming the torrent pool by seeding these altered versions? Or, if I want to be a responsible torrenter, do I need to keep duplicate versions, at least until my share ratio is 1:1?
Thanks.
EDIT:
Thank you to all those who took the time to comment and upvote. I’ve setup a ‘pipeline’ for seeding unaltered originals.
You know you can create an external audio track, right?
If you use a player like MPV or something like it, it will load by default the external audio file with the same base name (except the extension). For instance, if you have a video named Famous.Movie.2024.x264.AAC-GroupName.mp4 and an audio track in a file named Famous.Movie.2024.x264.AAC-GroupName.m4a, MPV will load that external audio and you will be able to seed the original file without need to remux the video and the new audio into a new file. This way you will save a lot of space.
Peers will ban you and if you’re using a private tracker you can get banned on the site.
Most players have features for adjusting the audio during playback. So unless you’re serving those files to something limited, I don’t see why you need to change them.
My understanding is that if you change the contents of a torrent you’d have to create a new torrent to seed the result. You can’t change the contents of a torrent and expect other people to receive the modified files via the original torrent. Your client will be doing a checksum and realizing its local files are corrupt (due to your changes) so replacing them with good copies.
So create a new torrent with the modified files and an explanatory title, and seed that.
In fact, this is actively worse than doing nothing at all. Remote peers will download a block, see that it’s corrupted, discard it, and blacklist op for sending them bad blocks.
If qBittorrent is not complaining about file errors you are in fact still seeding the original file. Especially on Linux file systems a file keeps being referenced as long as at least one application is still accessing it, regardless if you delete, rename or alter it. Once you close qBittorrent the ‘old’ file will be dropped though.
And at that point it won’t be seeded anymore as it does not match the checksums that are stored in the .torrent file or were retrieved via a magnet link. If the client is not broken it should not be possible to seed corrupted or altered files.
This is bad. Seed the original. People want to download what they’re expecting, and BitTorrent has tools to ban peers for sending bad data that is modified from the original.
I’m concerned that my seeding these altered files is ‘harming’ the pool somehow
It 100% is. STOP DOING THIS. You are NOT seeding the original files. You are 100% poisoning the swarm. You WILL get banned, and it will be your own fault.
If someone inadvertently did this because they recently started transcoding their media library (…that would be me…), and didn’t think about the seeding torrents, can you do anything to mitigate such bans?
Yes that’s what I’m supposed to do from now on…I’m asking what I can do so I’m “un”-blacklisted/banned, if that has happened because of my previous mistake.
lol, you’re not uploading the torrent faithfully. A recheck of the torrent by any client would show that they’re not getting what the torrent says they should get.
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You know you can create an external audio track, right?
If you use a player like MPV or something like it, it will load by default the external audio file with the same base name (except the extension). For instance, if you have a video named Famous.Movie.2024.x264.AAC-GroupName.mp4 and an audio track in a file named Famous.Movie.2024.x264.AAC-GroupName.m4a, MPV will load that external audio and you will be able to seed the original file without need to remux the video and the new audio into a new file. This way you will save a lot of space.
You cannot seed files that are altered. It’s not the same files anymore.
So yes, as long as you want to continue sending, you need to keep the original files around.
Can’t change the files until you’re done seeding.
Peers will ban you and if you’re using a private tracker you can get banned on the site.
Most players have features for adjusting the audio during playback. So unless you’re serving those files to something limited, I don’t see why you need to change them.
Gotta seed the original.
My understanding is that if you change the contents of a torrent you’d have to create a new torrent to seed the result. You can’t change the contents of a torrent and expect other people to receive the modified files via the original torrent. Your client will be doing a checksum and realizing its local files are corrupt (due to your changes) so replacing them with good copies.
So create a new torrent with the modified files and an explanatory title, and seed that.
In fact, this is actively worse than doing nothing at all. Remote peers will download a block, see that it’s corrupted, discard it, and blacklist op for sending them bad blocks.
If qBittorrent is not complaining about file errors you are in fact still seeding the original file. Especially on Linux file systems a file keeps being referenced as long as at least one application is still accessing it, regardless if you delete, rename or alter it. Once you close qBittorrent the ‘old’ file will be dropped though.
And at that point it won’t be seeded anymore as it does not match the checksums that are stored in the .torrent file or were retrieved via a magnet link. If the client is not broken it should not be possible to seed corrupted or altered files.
This is bad. Seed the original. People want to download what they’re expecting, and BitTorrent has tools to ban peers for sending bad data that is modified from the original.
It 100% is. STOP DOING THIS. You are NOT seeding the original files. You are 100% poisoning the swarm. You WILL get banned, and it will be your own fault.
Wouldn’t the checksums break the torrent anyway and attempt to fix by redownloading
My apologies. I can’t say I’ve done this a lot, as I’ve always been concerned this was the case. I’ve made the necessary adjustments.
If someone inadvertently did this because they recently started transcoding their media library (…that would be me…), and didn’t think about the seeding torrents, can you do anything to mitigate such bans?
I’m delighted to hear that I’m not alone 😅
transcode to a copy of that file
treat active torrented files as “do not edit”
Yes that’s what I’m supposed to do from now on…I’m asking what I can do so I’m “un”-blacklisted/banned, if that has happened because of my previous mistake.
Nothing. It’s an automated. Just stop doing it and it’ll decay with time.
Excellent, thanks
lol, you’re not uploading the torrent faithfully. A recheck of the torrent by any client would show that they’re not getting what the torrent says they should get.
You need to make a new torrent.