Vuze Integrates with iTunes, Xbox 360 and PS3

Written by Ernesto on March 23, 2009 

Vuze, the popular BitTorrent client formerly known as Azureus, has received a major update which allows users to automatically convert and play downloaded videos on the iPhone, iPod, Xbox 360 and the PS3. “Now playing, on all your screens” is Vuze’s new tagline.

vuzeOver the past year, Vuze has been slowly transitioning to an all-in-one BitTorrent application where users can search, download and play videos from the Vuze network and other torrent sites. The latest addition to the client takes yet another step forward.

The BitTorrent client has added a new feature that integrates Vuze with several media devices. It allows users to automatically convert and transfer downloaded videos to iTunes, and stream the files to the Xbox 360 and PS3.

“With today’s release, we’re unlocking HD content and giving it wings to get from the computer to the other screens in our lives: TV and Mobile,” Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa told TorrentFreak. “We think this is a big deal because a large majority of our users actually have these devices at home. Also, consumers want to control and own their content, an ‘Open Home Theater’, if you will.”

Vuze currently supports Apple devices including the iPhone and the iPod. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are the two gaming consoles that integrate with Vuze as well. More devices may be added in the future but no decisions have yet been made on which ones, TorrentFreak was told. In a recent poll, most Vuze users indicated that iPhone/iPod support was most wanted.

Vuze’s integrated device support

vuze devices

Once device support is turned on in Vuze, users can drag and drop downloaded video onto their device of choice. Vuze will then convert the video into the appropriate format and add it to the device’s library.

For iTunes, Vuze will import the video into your iTunes library so it can be transferred to your iPhone, iPod or Apple TV. For the PS3 and Xbox 360, Vuze will stream the videos from your PC or Mac directly to your game console.

Drag and Drop to convert video and transfer it to any device

vuze devices

The device support is a great feature for users who want to have an easy all-in-one solution that not only downloads video, but also makes it ready to play on other devices. Although Vuze has been focusing mainly on video lately, the client can still download other content as well.

It is good to see that Vuze is using the feedback from its users to improve their client, although it is impossible to please everyone and some may still prefer a more lightweight client. That said, the Vuze all-in-one solution will especially appeal to novice BitTorrent users, but even for the most die-hard users the new features will make a great addition.

Previously: Kiwis Scrap Controversial ‘3 Strikes’ Anti-Piracy Law

Next: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent

42 Responses

1 Mar 23, 2009 at 15:18 by St0fzguier

ah that was that big update i refused to dload -.-

pretty cool btw :D

2 Mar 23, 2009 at 15:19 by Anon

Quite time saving, may have to try this at some point.

3 Mar 23, 2009 at 15:22 by BoSNiaN

First, isn’t it just alot easier to convert files yourself to your own wanted format?

4 Mar 23, 2009 at 15:33 by dude

Wow this is pretty cool, i havent tried vuze in a while, maybe this will make me dload?

5 Mar 23, 2009 at 15:38 by Gordon

Vuze rocks. Yes, it has a larger memory footprint than some other clients. For advanced users, all the settings and plugins, and the fact that it is FOSS, make it better than any other client. Why people go nuts over DRM and then use closed-source clients doesn’t make sense to me. Closed source is just the most basic form of DRM. It limits what you and others can do with the software, and you are solely dependent on the software provider for features.

6 Mar 23, 2009 at 15:42 by Anonymous

Vuze is good for the mainstream. It is important for bit-torrents future to make it as accessible to everyone as possible without controlling what they can or cannot do. Props to them for it.

7 Mar 23, 2009 at 16:08 by mister_playboy

Just a while ago, Vuze popped a “make a donation” window on my screen… never seen that before.

8 Mar 23, 2009 at 16:30 by Anonymous

Does this update allow you to convert non-HD content (e.g. downloaded avi files) to iPhone through Vuze?

9 Mar 23, 2009 at 17:16 by Anonymous

Does this update allow you to convert non-HD content into HD content? that would be pretty cool…

10 Mar 23, 2009 at 17:23 by santoscrew

now, if there is a way to play .srt files through vuze…

11 Mar 23, 2009 at 17:29 by Sid the kid

TVersity is doing a great job, that update wont change a thing about 360 not playing .mkv

12 Mar 23, 2009 at 17:36 by HoldingMyPickle

Maybe I’ve just been so spoiled by uTorrent that I’m under the missimpression that all torrent clients shouldn’t have a system footprint larger than Firefox?

13 Mar 23, 2009 at 17:40 by God 2.0

you will never break me from VLC and utorrent on Windows. Never break me from VLC or transmission on anything else.

I love what they are doing, however… I just like having VLC, play anything, anytime, and just work. And I agree with the previous posters… why not get the right format the first time. That’s the whole point right? I still use iTunes, but not for media that involves anything but sound… and VLC is even taking that away…
man, I cannot get this orange traffic cones out my head!

14 Mar 23, 2009 at 17:49 by Bryan Collins

never really was a Vuze fan (uTorrent FTW!) but this is pretty cool i may switch it up.

15 Mar 23, 2009 at 18:34 by Anonymous

While I respect Vuze as a relatively decent and functional client, it tries to do too much. This is not necessary in a torrent client. I would bet that while it can do conversions, it is missing in terms of the quality, or at least optimization for doing these things. Optimizing video compression without loosing quality is a difficult thing, and is best left in a situation where you can control every setting as needed.

I would prefer to use separate standalone programs for that stuff, cut the bloat, and have my torrent client just for torrenting.

And as always (although somewhat unrelated to the article) I feel the need to point out that until Itunes supports a decent array of formats, it will always be complete and utter trash as far as I am concerned. I don’t have a huge FLAC collection because I want mp3s.

I can certainly see how this would appeal to the newer users, and the less tech savy who don’t know where to get all the assorted codecs and utilities, let alone how to optimize even relatively simple programs like virtual dub, but for people like me, the benefits of this are negligible at best.

TL,DR version.

That’s nice, I’ll stick to my standalone utilities because they work better if you know how to use them.

16 Mar 23, 2009 at 18:35 by Anonymous

@15. minor correction on my part.

ptimizing video compression without loosing excessive quality is a difficult thing, and is best left in a situation where you can control every setting as needed.

17 Mar 23, 2009 at 18:49 by hmm

vuze is still the same crap, right ?

18 Mar 23, 2009 at 19:03 by strange

vuze is bloated enough without video convertion,i think this might be a step to far for the average user/p.c.
it wont make me change to anything else because of the ability to customise and its opensource.the alternative is utorrent,but who owns utorrent? and it aint o/s.

19 Mar 23, 2009 at 19:30 by xdudex

God 2.0:
not on topic, but dude, you gotta try The KM Player, I was using VLC for years but The KM Player just rocks ;)

20 Mar 23, 2009 at 19:31 by anon

Ugh, another bloated unneeded feature, as if java wasn’t bloated enough. uTorrent for life.

21 Mar 23, 2009 at 19:34 by Ctrl-Alt-Del

a bittorrent client should be just that, a bittorrent client. Vuze is just asking for a lawsuit.

22 Mar 23, 2009 at 19:36 by anon

also, orange traffic cones ftw.

23 Mar 23, 2009 at 20:12 by MB

You do realize that most private torrent sites has banned Vuze! All you’ll ever need is uTorrent

24 Mar 23, 2009 at 20:14 by MB

Yes and you cannot go wrong with VLC!!

25 Mar 23, 2009 at 20:21 by evan.

Wow, this is great – I’ve been waiting for this.

26 Mar 23, 2009 at 21:12 by anonymous

It’s a tempting reason to switch but I’m happy with uTorrent. It’s not like over EVDO I get enough download speed to download tons of movies, that it warrants integrating a converter into my client. I’ll stick with my own converter and TVersity, kthx

27 Mar 23, 2009 at 21:18 by Jacob

Vuze is now officially for dummies…. :/

28 Mar 24, 2009 at 00:24 by Anonymous

Good vuze finds its way, since utorrent owns normal ”torrenting”.

29 Mar 24, 2009 at 00:27 by Anonymous

…I forget to say, my PC crashed only 4 times in the past 6-8 months, 1 times was because a bug in a game, and 3 other while I was downloading with this client, there is something really fuck*d in this client…

30 Mar 24, 2009 at 00:27 by Anonymous

…I forget to say, my PC crashed only 4 times in the past 6-8 months, 1 times was because a bug in a game, and 3 other while I was downloading with this client, there is something really f*ck*d in this client…

31 Mar 24, 2009 at 01:02 by bill

will it be able to play 1080p movies in dlp audio on these devices? if not ill just stick to popcorn hour and utorrent!

32 Mar 24, 2009 at 04:28 by NubCakes

@29: “I forget to say, my PC crashed only 4 times in the past 6-8 months, 1 times was because a bug in a game, and 3 other while I was downloading with this client, there is something really f*ck*d in this client…”

Funnily enough my Vista PC has crashed only once – while I was using (trying…) Vuze. The core dump seemed to indicate it was Vuze that caused the crash although it must be said that I’m no expert at interpreting core dumps.

33 Mar 24, 2009 at 13:29 by Yo

Vuze has found its core target audience and is going after them full steam. Great for them, this will help “mainstreamify” torrents and promote the legal side that most people (RIAA and MAFIAA) forget is actually there.

And for the VLC comments; I have to say I prefer Zoom. VLC always give me that green pixelization.

34 Mar 24, 2009 at 13:44 by yo mtv raps

/\/\Spoken like a true anus. Why would you want to dl>convert>stream when you can just DL to a flash drive and play on PS3? Voila.

35 Mar 24, 2009 at 13:51 by yo mtv raps

or if you really have to stream try this…

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/

36 Mar 24, 2009 at 22:01 by Anonymous

It’s not detecting my Xbox 360… I’m using tversity as an alternative, which works fine. :D

37 Mar 24, 2009 at 22:13 by LatinLover

“Does this update allow you to convert non-HD content into HD content? that would be pretty cool…”

Not only would it be cool it would be creatio ex nihilo.

38 Mar 24, 2009 at 23:07 by Humm

Now if it can download from Hulu, YouTube, Google Video etc? etc? etc? That would be sweet.

39 Mar 25, 2009 at 16:19 by muahahah

KTorrent FTW!!! http://ktorrent.org/

40 Mar 25, 2009 at 21:07 by anon

“Now if it can download from Hulu, YouTube, Google Video etc? etc? etc? That would be sweet.”

no, that would make it even more stupid and bloated

41 Mar 26, 2009 at 15:46 by Ken

“Vuze is just asking for a lawsuit.”

My thoughts EXACTLY. On top of obvious contributory liability involved with providing users access to pirated material, now Vuze is giving the users the ability to create derivative works. Its never a good idea to give content owners MORE reasons to chase you down.

And really, this affects all those involved in file sharing. At the moment, the ability to download and manipulate content so that it may be displayed on convenient monitors (i.e. TVs) is relatively difficult for the average computer user. When Vuze allows the average Joe to do this with relative ease, it only attracts attention to systems like the 360 that play divx files. If some bonehead company affects my ability to stream content to my 360 I will be FURIOUS.

Dumb move vuze. Dumb move. the more decentralized the software is, the better.

42 Mar 30, 2009 at 00:07 by FaeGiN

Vuze has to be one of the worst bloated softwares I have ever had the misfortune to use.
Horrible!
All in one bit torrent downloading playing converting organising all in one?
Oh go away software like this.
Let people LEARN how to do things!
I HATE YOU!

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