Sopcast, another P2P streaming TV player

posted by soulxtc in file sharing // 612 days 57 minutes ago

With TVUPlayer's Vidoo site now down, it's time to start looking for alternative P2P cable TV options just in case. The website is no longer reachable and merits testing other P2PTV streaming applications as a precaution.

Vidoo.com was home to TVUPlayer's channel menu, chat room, and forums, and was recently closed for reasons unknown.

Visitors to the site now get a message in French stating that the domain is up for sale as shown in the picture to the right.

One of the P2P TV streaming applications that I came across is called Sopcast.

From the site:

SopCast is a simple, free way to broadcast video and audio or watch the video and listen to radio on the Internet. Adopting P2P(Peer-to-Peer) technology, It is very efficient and easy to use. Let anyone become a broadcaster without the costs of a powerful server and vast bandwidth. You can build your own TV stations comparable with large commercial sites with minimal resources. Using SopCast, you can serve 10,000 online users with a personal computer and a home broadband connection.

The program offers you the ability to either view or broadcast content, a feature that distinguishes it from TVUPlayer, which is limited to viewing only.

Now when it comes to the content consistently being streamed on Sopcast, its is far more limited than TVUPlayer. It's mainly sport oriented, offering ESPN Sports, ESPN NFL, NBA Live, Telecapri Soccer, Start Sports, and some others.

The overall categories include News & Entertainment, HiFi Music, Radio & Education, Netherlands TV, Reference TV, Italian Web Radio TV, Brazilian TV, French TV, Christian Broadcasting, Poland Internet TV, Pakistan TV, and the list goes on but, it's only the sports offerings that I found any real desire to watch.

I did however, find the Discovery and Animal Planet Channels but, they are listed under the "Test Group" category so how long they will last is anybody's guess.

The real feature that would make Sopcast most attractive I think, and compel me to use it the most would ave to be the broadcast function that it offers.

It's very, very easy to use and setup. You simply pick a Channel name and category, and then agree not to broadcast any content that disparages or disgraces the People's Republic of China (where the site is hosted).

You can either broadcast by directory of file, with allowable file types including .WMV, .ASF, .MP3, .RM. RMVB, and .SPL.

Another cool feature for all you blogger types out there is that you can embed Sopcast into your blog page. You can embed your favorite channel listings, all of the listings, or better yet, have it autoplay a single channel like one you may be broadcasting for instance.

Unfortunately an embedded Sopcast only seems to work in Internet Explorer, so you may have to have a blog disclaimer to get visitors on the right track.