Torrent streaming
Learn how to stream torrents directly.
Introduction
Torrent streaming is a feature that allows you to stream torrents to your external media player without waiting for the download to complete. This feature is recommended for users with a fast enough internet connection and for torrents with a good number of seeders. Don't forget to use a VPN.
How it works
Seanime ships with a basic Bittorrent client and a lightweight streaming server. The torrent client will manage a single torrent at a time, and the streaming server will serve the content to an external media player.
Torrent management & Seeding
- A torrent is automatically seeded while streaming and after the stream is stopped.
- A torrent is only dropped completely and deleted if the stream is stopped before reaching the 70% download mark or when another stream is started.
- If the stream is stopped after reaching the 70% download mark, the torrent will continue being downloaded and seeded.
Overall, this ensures that disk space not wasted and allows seeding the last torrent for a longer time after watching it. Seanime will also continuously log the seeding status of the torrent in the terminal. If you have any issues or concern with this approach, please consider contributing to the project or opening a discussion on the GitHub repository.
Torrent selection
- If you have
auto-select
enabled, Seanime will automatically select the best torrent for you based on the quality you have selected. The selection process will always prioritize torrents with the highest number of seeders. - With
auto-select
enabled, single episode torrents will be prioritized over batch torrents, unless the anime is older. It's recommended to disableauto-select
if you notice erroneous torrent selection. - With batches, Seanime will always try to select only one file for the episode you are trying to stream and will never download the whole batch. The selection process might fail if it is unable to find a suitable file to stream. In this case, you should opt for single-file torrents and manual selection.
Setup
- Enable torrent streaming in
Settings > Torrent streaming
- Configure your external media player. Refer to the guide below.
- Open the torrent streaming page by clicking the
Stream
button on the anime page and selecting the episode you want to watch.
Additionally, you can include non-downloaded episodes from series that are in your "Watching" list in the My library
page by enabling the Include in library
option in the settings.
Clicking on those episodes will open the torrent streaming page or automatically start the stream if auto-select
is enabled.
Media player
MPV
You need to have yt-dlp installed. After installing yt-dlp, place the binary in the MPV directory or add it to the system PATH.
VLC, MPC-HC
Other devices
If you want to stream torrents to another device, you can configure a custom scheme to open media files with external player like VLC, MX Player or Infuse on mobile. Refer to the client playback guide.
Troubleshooting
- The stream is not starting: Seanime waits for the first 5% of the torrent to be downloaded before sending the stream to the media player. There might be another delay if the torrent is not being seeded properly.
- How to stop seeding after stream: To stop seeding after the torrent has been downloaded you can go to the
Torrent streaming
section in the settings and clickDrop torrent
, start a new stream or restart the server. - VLC / MPC-HC: This feature has only been tested with MPV. If you encounter issues with VLC or MPC-HC, consider using MPV. If you manage to get it working with VLC or MPC-HC, please consider contributing to this documentation.