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TorrentPlayer 0.3.0: Dolby and DTS Sound, Incoming Peers, and a New Name

· 3 min read · By the TorrentPlayer team

TorrentPlayer 0.3.0 is out. It is the first release under the new name (the app was called TorrentStream until now) and the biggest update since the first preview. Download it from the releases page; the installers are still not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper will warn on first launch.

Sound for Dolby and DTS tracks

Many films carry Dolby Digital (AC-3), Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3), TrueHD or DTS audio, which the system web engine the player is built on cannot decode, so until now those videos played without sound. TorrentPlayer now ships a small, playback-only build of FFmpeg that converts such a track to stereo AAC while the video plays, copying the video untouched. The seek bar keeps working: skip far ahead and the conversion restarts at the new spot. If you want the original surround track, VLC is still the better player for that file.

Incoming peers, if you want them

TorrentPlayer has always connected out to other peers only, which avoids a firewall prompt but leaves out peers that are looking for you. You can now turn on incoming connections in Settings under VPN and network, on a port you choose or a random one. In Direct mode it can ask your router to forward the port (UPnP); in the built-in WireGuard mode it listens only inside the tunnel, on a port your VPN provider forwards to you. It never listens through a SOCKS5 proxy, and it closes the port whenever the kill switch blocks traffic. It is off by default.

Giving back, and picking up where you left off

  • Seeding after playback. Both engines upload the pieces they have, and Keep sharing after watching (on by default) keeps a torrent seeding until it reaches a 2.0 ratio or a time limit you set. One upload limit covers everything.
  • Resume. Playback positions survive a restart. Reopen something you did not finish and TorrentPlayer offers to continue or start over, and the Library and queue show how far you got.
  • Seek-bar previews. With FFmpeg installed on your computer, pointing at the seek bar shows a frame from that spot, for the parts already downloaded.
  • Storage that tidies itself. You can cap the cache and let old finished downloads expire; anything queued or open in the player is never touched.

Simpler connection modes

There are now three connection modes: Direct, the built-in WireGuard tunnel, and a SOCKS5 proxy. The old "VPN adapter" mode is gone. If you use a VPN app, connect it and choose Direct, and turn on the app's own kill switch; for a kill switch inside TorrentPlayer, import your provider's WireGuard configuration instead. If you had the adapter mode selected, 0.3.0 switches you to Direct but holds all traffic until you confirm the change, so nothing goes out unprotected by surprise.

Peer discovery also works in more places: the DHT now runs inside the WireGuard tunnel and through SOCKS5 proxies that can carry UDP, so magnet links find peers there too. TorrentPlayer's own engine also remembers its DHT contacts between sessions, so magnets start faster after a restart.

Smaller fixes

  • Lowering the download limit no longer lets a burst through, and the download speed shown matches what actually arrives.
  • A skipped queue item no longer says "Skipped" twice.

Updating from TorrentStream

Close TorrentStream and install 0.3.0. Because the app has a new name, it installs next to TorrentStream rather than over it. On the first start, TorrentPlayer moves your settings, queue, download cache and saved passwords from the TorrentStream folders to its own, so there is nothing to set up again; you can then uninstall TorrentStream. The full list of changes is in the changelog.