VLC needs to play incomplete files fragments

[Aeneas]

When downloading a file in any sharing context, the file segments comes in in fragments.
Since downloading shared files can often take weeks or even months, it is essential that VLC be able to parse through a file, find the existing downloaded fragments, and play the fragments within the file.

Currently, VLC is capable of playing the beginning of the file and then nothing else until perhaps the last 5% of the file.
Whatever VLC is performing at the end of the file needs to be performed all the way through the file to allow the downloader to verify that he is downloading the true file he thinks he is downloading, and in the right language, etc.
Year after year, this problem in VLC remains unfixed.
I would like to see VLC developers stop everything else and fix this Bug, before adding anything else.

[Makoto]

That depends on what type of file-sharing you're referring to.

If you're referring to torrents, yes, they're downloaded in pieces - but not in any specific, consistent order. So even if you're downloading, say, an AVI that's 95 percent complete, you don't know for sure if that 5 percent that's missing is the end of the file, a portion of the middle (even scattered throughout the file in smaller holes)... or the beginning of the file, where the AVI header necessary to know information about the file and play it properly wouldn't be there.

[Aeneas]

Depending on the client program, for example in edonkey sharing, some clients can display clearly in a graphic bar across the screen, which parts of the file have been downloaded and the sections which have been downloaded, along with the percentage of the whole file which has been downloaded.
I believe most of these client programs will bug-fill the empty space within the file wih a known pattern, to make clear which areas are downloaded and which are empty garbage.

In fact, some files, the original source is lost, it is impossible to download the whole file and thus the user can only expect to ever receive a collection of fragments of the file. The program must be able to search the file, for the fragments within the file, find the headers of the YUV blocks of data and display every scrap of video and audio data it can find.