There are some mp4 files (and a few flv ones) on a server that I want to stream (using VLC) while also saving a copy of to my hard drive simultaneously. So I start to download the file using chrome to a known location, creating a video.mp4.crdownload file there. I then use VLC to start playing the partially downloaded file. What used to happen is that the file would continue downloading while I watched it, then when the download got to the end the little Chrome download widget would say "Download failure, system busy" or something to that effect. But! The full file had been downloaded to my hard drive, it just remained an .mp4.crdownload file that I would then manually change to an .mp4 file later. And meanwhile, I could go on watching the crdownload file to completion in VLC.
When I tried to employ the same process more recently, it does not work. If the file gets fully downloaded and is being played by VLC as the download finished, Chrome does not indicate a download failure. Rather, it erases the completed crdownload file, and starts downloading it again from the beginning. So not only do I end up downloading the file twice (exactly what I was trying to avoid), but the VLC playback stops automatically when the download restarts, because the .crdownload file VLC was playing is overwritten by the new download attempt.
What changed? And is there any way to get the old behaviour back? (If there are any other suggestions for simultaneously pseudo-streaming and downloading in one go, that is fine too, just note that it would need to be in a program like VLC that allows playback at different speeds of both flv and mp4 files. And I also am intellectually curious about what changed, not just a solution to my situation.)
