Howto: Watch P2P Tv with SopCast with Ubuntu Gutsy

Here is a little information about SopCast, below is the guide to get it set up.

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.

SoP is the abbreviation for Streaming over P2P. Sopcast is a Streaming Direct Broadcasting System based on P2P. The core is the communication protocol produced by Sopcast Team, which is named sop://, or Sop technology.

Features:

  • State-of-the-art P2P technology. Share the data among all viewers, make the channel more available and stable.
  • Minimal delay in the P2P streaming market.
  • Fast buffering. 10-30seconds.
  • Firewall and NAT traversal technology to pass 90% P2P barriers.
  • Build your own channels and broadcast it over the Internet.
  • Streaming real time streams. Support for many streaming transport protocol. mms, http, etc.
  • Streaming media files. Many file types: asf, wmv, rm, rmvb, mp3, etc.
  • Support for loop file playing.
  • Extremely low memory footprint and CPU load
  • Standard channel URL: click on any sop:// URL to play.
  • Real time monitor of broadcasting source quality and network quality to help viewers to select a appropriate channel.
  • Record the clips when you are watching it.
  • Can play the stream with your favorite player, such as Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, VLC, etc.
  • Memory buffering, no harm to the hard disk.
  • Support for authentication for both the broadcasters and the viewers. The broadcaster has full control on his channels.
  • End-to-End security, encrypted messages, hi level P2P security, no hijack.
  • Support multiple channels broadcast on the same server. Normally, you can run 5-10 channels on one PC.
  • The Sop Player can be embedded into a webpage or any software applications. It works just like Windows Media Player.
  • The Sop Server and Sop Player can be run both on Windows and Linux. The whole system can be ported to embedded Linux.
  • Freeware, not ad/spy ware


This guide will help you install sopcast on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy. It will also help you get a special modified version of the GUI running and setup firefox to send sop:// links to the program.

Installing packages

Make sure you have all universe and multiverse repositories switched on. Then, in terminal:

sudo apt-get install qt3-apps-dev vlc build-essential

Downloading the latest SopCast binary

Link: Sopcast ix86 binary

Unzip it and cd into that directory using terminal. Then run:

sudo cp sp-sc-auth /usr/bin/sp-sc

Downloading and building the latest GUI

Download this specially modified source package. I have added URL handling.

Link: RKMOD version of QSopCast

Aga*in, unzip it and cd into that (src) directory using terminal. Then run

sudo qmake
sudo make
sudo make install



This should compile the source and install the binary into the correct location.

Creating a menu shortcut

Go to System / Preferences / Main Menu... then 'Internet' and 'Add New Item'. Give it the name "QSopCast" and command "qsopcast". You should now be able to launch from the main menu.

Setting up the GUI

Once the gui is open, goto config then config again. Make sure that the player settings are all set to "vlc" and that the channel URL is set to "http://www.sopcast.com/gchlxml"

You should now be able to watch sop casts by selecting a channel, launching it and then hitting player when the stream is at 100%

Firefox sop:// URLS

Go into firefox and enter URL: "about:config". Right click, select new and string. The string name is "network.protocol-handler.app.sop" and the value is "qsopcast". It should now send sops to the modified version of QSopCast ready to be launched.

Comments (21)

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Thanks for the info.
I can add that I needed these dependencies to compile qsopcast on Ubuntu 7.10:
qt3-dev-tools libqt3-headers libqt3-mt-dev
I got an error using sudo make and sudo make install, what should i do?

:/media/sd3/qsopcast-0.3.5/src$ sudo make install
g++ -c -pipe -Wall -W -O2 -D_REENTRANT -DQT_NO_DEBUG -DQT_THREAD_SUPPORT -I/usr/share/qt3/mkspecs/default -I. -I. -I/usr/share/qt3/include -I.moc/ -o .obj/channel.o channel.cpp
make: g++: Command not found
make: *** [.obj/channel.o] Error 127
1 reply · active 838 weeks ago
Install the GNU C++ compiler:
sudo apt-get install g++
brilliant, thanx a lot!
It works in Hardy too. I wonder if there are only chinese tv stations available?
2 replies · active 881 weeks ago
I was able to install and run sopcast but unable to watch any show. what ports should I open?
I am using Hardy and getting a whole bunch of compiler errors when running sudo make and sudo install. Pls let me know

Thanks
Works fine, but the channels list show just a few channels (3), thanks. I am using Hardy.
I install, but when I try to open with firefox, it it ask to launch a application, where do I find the application?

Also when I launch from the internet application it opens but no channels to select.

I am using ubunty 8.04

Thx
I found the program it launch but stay as connecting.
cp to /usr/bin??

Wrong directory: anytime you unzip something you should use the directory /usr/local/bin, /usr/bin is reserved for the package management system of said distribution. /usr/local/bin is reserved for things not necessary to boot strap the system, that are manged by the system.
1 reply · active 876 weeks ago
that are *not* managed by the system*
Thanx. Works perfectly
Great post ! Thanks.
But I dont believe this enables you to view embedded videos in Firefox 3?
If it does - have i missed something?
I get an error during sudo make and sudo make install - srand is not defined in the scope... anyone seen that?
yeah, Gaurav, I got the same problem

g++ -c -pipe -g -Wall -W -O2 -D_REENTRANT -DALSA -DQT_NO_DEBUG -DQT_THREAD_SUPPORT -DQT_SHARED -DQT_TABLET_SUPPORT -I/usr/share/qt3/mkspecs/default -I. -I. -I/usr/include/qt3 -I.moc/ -o .obj/main.o main.cpp
main.cpp: In function ‘int main(int, char**)’:
main.cpp:47: error: ‘srand’ was not declared in this scope
make: *** [.obj/main.o] Error 1
1 reply · active 838 weeks ago
Include the header file stdlib.h in main.cpp and also the other files for which the compiler complains
I found another gui to use. download and run this (with gdebi package manager)

http://linuxtoy.org/files/deb/gtk-sopcast_0.2.8-1...

if the channels dont show up, put this in the channels url (I had to wait a few minutes before anything showed up)
http://www.sopcast.com/chlist.xml

got it working just in time to see Liverpool vs Real Madrid :)
Gaurav,

Try adding "#include <cstdlib>" to the config.h file in the src directory
Edit for above post of mine:

That should be added to the header.h file, NOT config.h
hey guys .. i tried re-installing sopcast and it worked.. got the install images and related files from - http://code.google.com/p/sopcast-player/downloads...

thanks!!

~ Gaurav

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