There is a lot of buzz on the net these days about P2P TV and what it will mean for the future of Television. There is a growing number of P2P TV applications out there but trying to find one for the Mac seemed all but impossible.
After spending a few days searching I discovered a program called Joost. It is still in its beta phase at the moment but it's a program with a lot of potential. It's from the creators of Skype and Kazaa and it's the only P2P TV application designed to work natively on the Mac.
Unlike other P2P programs Joost licenses content from networks and video creators and allows you to watch what you want when you want, it doesn't simply stream regular live TV stations. There's not a lot of content yet though and if your wanting a P2P TV client that will allow you to stream live sporting events then this is not your answer.
The only way you can use the traditional P2P TV applications on your Mac is by running the Windows version. But if you don't have Parallels and you don't want to use Bootcamp to install XP then there is a solution! It's called Cross Over.
By using Cross Over it is possible to run certain Windows Applications on your Intel based Mac without the need for a copy of windows to be installed. And luckily one of the applications you can run is Sopcast a P2P TV application. It's a little tricky to do so here is a detailed explanation of the steps required to get it to work:
1. First you will need to download and install Cross Over.
2. After you install and open Cross Over you will need to select the "Cross Over Software Installer" from the dialog box that opens up.
3. You will then need to install Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 from the Software Package list. Cross Over should automate the installation of this program so this step is fairly easy.
4. Now the tricky part. You will need to download Media Player 7 and 9 from the Microsoft Website. It's easiest to do this by using the Windows version of Internet explorer that you have just installed and searching for the files "mp71.exe" and "MPSetup.exe" on microsoft.com
5. Go back into the Crossover Software Installer and Select the "Install Unsupported Software" button. Make sure you install the applications in the win98 bottle that was created when you installed IE6. Start by Installing Media Player 7 and then Media Player 9.
6. Next you will need to download and install the Windows version of Sopcast. Make sure you also install this into the previously created win98 bottle. The version of Sopcast I used was 2.0.4 but I assume any newer versions will also work.
7. Next you will need to open Sopcast and try and play a stream. It won't work because you need a codec, so while it is trying to play click on the second button from the left of the play button. This will open windows media player and prompt you to download a codec. Follow the steps to install the codec and hopefully once this is done it will all be working!
Of course some Sopcast streams say they require you to use VLC instead of Media Player. Instead of using VLC though it's best to use the Mac version of MPlayer as VLC will drop out every 10 - 15 seconds (Thanks to Paul O for pointing this out). Here's wht you'll need to do.
1. Download and install the Mac version of MPlayer.
2. Open up the stream in Sopcast (It will buffer and say it's playing but there will be no video or audio).
3. Next open MPlayer and choose Preferences, under miscellaneous, click use cache.
4. Next, select open location: enter "mms://127.0.0.1:8902" (if 8902 doesn't work, try 8903 or 8912). It could take a little while to buffer but once that's done it should play without a hitch.
If your wanting to watch live sports on Sopcast you may want to check out THIS website as the built in directory on Sopcast is very limited.
I will update this post as I find better ways of doing this and hopefully include some pictures to help make it easier to understand. Let me know if anyone has trouble getting this to work.
