Humptys' Corner


Files for download

Sopcaster  - linux i386

Sopcaster is a fltk gui for sopcast (sp-sc) which is a p2p tv streamer. Sharing is done
while downloading/uploading a tv stream at the same time. Pls thank www.sopcast.org
for sp-sc, also see the 'Readme' file for using sp-sc.

Sopcaster has the folowing features;

* built with Fltk, so does not need special gui libraries or other bloaty dependencies.

* single executable for linux i386.

* paste sopcast link from external selection or paste buffer

* update channel list from sopcast website, select channel from list.


download [sopcaster.tgz] latest version 4.4 (sp-sc 3.0.1)
or [sopcaster-3.5.tgz] older version 3.5 (sp-sc 1.0.2)

Changes:
v4.4 changed default 'wget' to use -O to overwrite existing chlist.xml
note:- older version users must delete $HOME/.sopcaster.ini first.
v4.3 upgraded to sp-sc 3.0.1
kill process is more accurate
re-packaged to LSD  portable format
v4.2b Fixed not-saving player-cmd.
Fixed kill-player to kill only process name.
v4.1b Accept url if called from command line i.e sopcaster <sop url>
v4.0b Added bandwidth indicator
v3.5 Improved channel list display
v3.4 Numerous embarassing fixes.
v3.0 First Version

requirements
Settings are saved to $HOME/.sopcaster.ini. Therefore $HOME must be writable.

The gui is standalone, but the commands it uses are not, your system needs;
killall - for stopping the stream (this command can only be substituted outside the gui)
wget   - for getting the latest channel list (this command may be replaced inside the gui)

faq
Q: The player doesn't open ?
The player cmd defaults to mplayer. The url is automatically tagged to the end of the
command i.e mplayer <url>, so there is no need to type the url yourself.
If you have another player e.g xine, kmplayer ..etc, you can replace 'mplayer' by that command.
If you need the whole path you can type in something like /usr/opt/xine.
You can also start the player yourself externally and specify for it the url.
The url is something like  http://localhost:8908/tv.asf

Q: The player opens, but nothing plays ?
Either the stream isn't ready yet or the player cannot decode the stream.
Wait about 30secs to a minute. It would be good if you have some sort of bandwidth indicater to show if any bytes are being downloaded.  

Q: The stream is not smooth, keeps freezing?
If the tv channel isn't popuplar, there may not be enough sharing to let you see the stream smoothly.

If the player cannot decode the stream, then you may need to install the correct codecs. Many streams
use wmv-9. Recommened is mplayer with wmv codecs, or xine with xine_w32_codecs. The codecs must
be put in the correct directories and the player restarted.

Q: I cannot  get fullscreen video?
Fullscreen video depends on your player and your X11-video card settings. Sopcast only provides the
stream. It cannot control the presentation.
Your player might be configurable for software or hardware fullscreen playback or other options.
These options can be included if the player is started externally, or on the command line provided.
e.g mplayer -fs    (makes use of hardware fullscreen)
e.g mplayer -vo x11 -zoom -x 1024 -y 720        (makes use of software zoom).