Play video while downloading it

You have decided to watch a movie. You go to your favorite movie download site and started downloading it. It will take 2 hours to complete the download. Probably, You will wait 2 hours to watch the movie. Right? Not anymore.You can download and watch the movie simultaneously.  Here's how.

Essential software:

1. Internet download manager
2. VLC media player

This trick should work on any downloader but I am using IDM here because it's the most popular download manager. I recommended VLC player. It works great in this situation. Other players may or may not work.

Software settings:

Open IDM and navigate to Download > Options. Now click on the "Connection" tab. Under the max connections number select "Default max conn. number" to "1".  Its very important because by default IDM use 8 connection to download files from the server. It means IDM download your files on 8 part and when download finished IDM combine the 8 part. But it's important to download it over 1 connection to play video while downloading.

Windows setting:

IDM keep the downloading files hidden until it completes. To view hidden files and folder you need to turn on the setting.  First, open the control panel and then navigate to "Appearance and Personalization". Open "Files Explorer Options" and click on "view" tab. Now under advanced settings find "Hidden files and folders" and click on "Show hidden files, folders and drives".

Play the video:

First, start downloading a video file.

To locate the video file first open IDM then navigate to Download > Options > Save To. Now Under "Temporary Directory" you will see the full path of the download location.  Just copy it to your clipboard.

Now open the "Command Prompt" and type "start <IDM LOCATION>" (without quote) and hit enter. It will open the temporary download file location in windows explorer. Now navigate to DwnlData > User > Download file name and open the video file with VLC media player.

Conclusion: 

If your connection speed is too slow then wait a few minute before starting the video. I have tested it over 4mbps connection and I can download and play 1080p movie simultaneously with no problem. You can use this tricks to play MKV and WMV files with no problem. I have faced some issue while playing MP4 files.