Where the bytes actually go
One source sends your file straight to you. The other cannot, so every byte passes through this server. The difference decides your download speed.
This site reads two unrelated video sites, and they deliver files in opposite ways. That is not a detail — it is the thing that decides how fast your download runs, so it is worth being plain about.
xfree: straight to you
An xfree file address carries no signature, no expiry, and no lock to a particular network. An address read on one machine was measured serving a completely different machine on another continent without complaint, and the file servers allow cross-origin requests outright.
So your browser fetches the file itself, directly. No video byte touches this server, and your download runs at whatever your own connection can do.
XFreeHD: through this server
XFreeHD does the opposite, on both counts, and both were measured:
- Each download address is locked to whoever asked for it. An address created here answers 403 from anywhere else.
- Its file servers send no cross-origin headers at all — not even to a request
that carries an
Originheader, and a preflight request answers 405.
Between them, those two facts make it impossible for your browser to fetch an XFreeHD file on its own. It has no way to obtain a working address, and would not be permitted to read the response if it had one.
So this server fetches the file and streams it to you as it arrives. Nothing is written to disk on the way through and no copy is kept — but your download shares this machine's connection rather than owning yours. That is the honest answer to "why is this one slower".
Why not just fix it
There is nothing to fix. Both behaviours are choices XFreeHD made on its own servers, and the only way around them would be to work against those choices. This tool does not do that.