SopCast ? free internet TV

I?m going to start on a bit of a naughty one here because I?m not entirely sure of the legality of this programme, but I have been using it a fair bit lately, and so it?ll be included.

In their own words -

SoP is abbreviation for Streaming over P2P. Sopcast is the Streaming Direct Broadcast System based on P2P. The core is the communication protocol produced by Sopcast Team, which is named Sop://, or sop technology. Our goal is to let everyone in the world have a chance to set up their own on-line media world!

Cool eh?

I discovered SopCast by searching the internet for a programme that would stream live English Premiership matches to me? for free. In order to watch Football matches here in the UK you either have to subscribe to a satellite TV package or go to the local pub and hope they?re showing it, and so something that promised this to me would be quite a benefit. I was cautious at first and wasn?t sure if it would come up to scratch, but once I?d installed it I was very happy.

I downloaded a .zip file from here, unzipped it and ran the programme, following simple prompts, and in a few minutes I was presented with a stylish interface prompting me to login. I thought this could?ve been a stumbling block as I didn?t really want to register on something which as I?ve already mentioned could be slightly dodgy, but I was allowed to login anonymously and from there I was able to select TV channels.

Sopcast

There are quite a few channels on SopCast and I have to admit I?ve only looked at the sports channels, but with a simple click on the channel of choice a small screen pops up, and following about 30 seconds of buffering the picture becomes clear. A click of an icon to the bottom right of the screen transfers the channel to Windows Media Player to offer fullscreen viewing.

Some of the channels are streamed from Chinese TV, or from other nations, and if your internet connection is weak the picture quality can be reduced or won?t buffer, so I can?t guarantee that it?ll just be like watching normal TV, but at the end of the day you get access to channels you would otherwise have to pay for.

Of course the real bonus for me is the free football!! If it is something you are interested in then click here to find out which games are being televised on which channels.

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15 Responses to SopCast ? free internet TV

  1. Stef says:

    Ooh this looks interesting. Might have to try SOP out., good find.

    When you say ?I’m not entirely sure of the legality of this program? I think you?re being a little coy aren?t you Mr Adem? ;-) It?s about as legal as a £9note but hey, that?s the fun of the internet!

    Reply
  2. Adem says:

    Until I?m specifically told I shouldn?t use it then I will carry, or until I think I?ll get found out!

    Reply
  3. Michael says:

    I?m going to have to check this thing out, because I want to watch episodes of ?The Mighty Boosh? which is, of course, unavailable here in my region of the USA.

    Reply
  4. Adem says:

    The Mighty Boosh rocks but I?m not too sure if you can get it on SopCast [almost definitely sure]?. :(

    Reply
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  6. Stephen says:

    Hey,
    This is brilliant but does anybody know an equivalent free ?online TV? that works on Macs????

    Reply
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  8. Adem says:

    I?m sorry to say that I don?t. I could probably scour around the net for one, but as I don?t have a Mac I couldn?t test and wouldn?t know if it was any good.

    Keep me posted though if you find one and I?ll list it on the site.

    Reply
  9. jason abass says:

    can you watch fox soccer channel with sopcast?

    Reply
  10. Adem says:

    You can?t get Fox on there as it mostly streams from Asian channels. Click here to see what matches are being televised though.

    Reply
  11. Swarna says:

    can you tell me, what is the optimum download speed to have a decent picture in sopcast. It takes ages in my 512 ADSL connection for buffering then also the picture is pixelated.

    Reply
  12. Adem says:

    I have a 2MB connection, and I haven?t changed any of the settings on Sopcast. The channels do take a while to buffer up and will obviously be slighty quicker on a higher connection speed, but as for the pixelation, there is nothing to really do about it as the channels are streamed at a lesser resolution than you would get on TV etc.

    Some channels will be streamed at a higher res but most are set at an optimum for quality against file size.

    Reply
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  14. Mark Campbell says:

    When I play my sopcast player I keep losing space on my hard drive. In half an hour I lose about 100MB every time and I don?t know where it is going. Has anyone any thoughts about this.

    Reply
  15. Marina Cais says:

    Hi!

    Nice post! You should try theChanner application to watch the best free Internet TV! sport, entertainement, movie, music from around the world!
    http://www.thechanner.com
    It runs on PC and Windows mobile deveices.
    cheers!

    Reply

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