Bandwidth Allocation: Do I Understand It Correctly?

[satyr]

I got idea to post this thread after reading the "What is the use of bandwidth allocation (high, normal, low) while downloading torrents file?": http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080728114745AATk2t8 question on Yahoo Answers. After I thought about it for some time I think I understand it, but please correct me if I am wrong....

 

1. If we are talking about "Bandwidth Allocation" options (High, Normal, Low) these are in relation to one torrent job vs. the other(s).

 

2. If we are talking about "Priorities" (high, normal, low) under "Detailed Info" pane at the bottom of BitTorrent) for separate files in a torrent job, these are in relation of one file vs. the other(s) in that particular torrent job. Because I noticed that for example setting "Bandwidth Allocation" to High for some torrent job will not affect files' priorities, i.e. they will remain at "normal" (default) priority.

 

This answer in particular in that thread on Yahoo Answers got me thinking:
 

 

If you are downloading a torrent of say, a season of a tv show, and you want the first 4 episodes to download first you can set them to high, the middle set of episodes to medium, and the last set to low. As the torrent downloads you will be able to watch the first episodes as the later ones are still downloading.

 

 

And I replied with this explanation and the screenshot (that I've also attached here).

 

Yeah that's true; if you are talking about each episode being its own torrent that would be the case.

But if all the episodes are together in a torrent (i.e. each episode being a file in a torrent) then you should - or better yet, could only - use "Priorities" for separate files (again, assuming a file is a particular episode) under the "Detailed Info" pane at the bottom of uTorrent or BitTorrent client GUI. For example, set priority for files for first 4 episodes to "high", leave the middle ones at "normal" (default setting), and set the latest few to "low" priority.

In other words "Bandwidth Allocation" (for some torrent) and "Priorities" (for files in that torrent) are two different things. For example setting "Bandwidth Allocation" for some torrent job will not affect files' priorities (they will remain at "normal" priority). I also don't fully understand how this works, but I do know what I've just written for a fact.

 

 

Thanks in advance for any reply, satyr