Sopcast is a quick and easy to use free video streaming software. It utilizes P2P technology in order to allow you to broadcast video over the internet or stream broadcasts by others to your computer. Sopcast’s technology allows you to transfer your broadcast to around 10,000 users simultaneously just through in your own computer and home broadband connection. It lets you show your stream to all of these people without having to invest in tonnes of server space with huge bandwidth limits.
You can also stream your media using Orb, the P2P file sharing software we reviewed earlier.
The most endearing feature of Sopcast is without doubt the power of its P2P network. There is next to no delay and the average stream takes less than thirty seconds to buffer, even if there are hundreds (even thousands) of others viewing the same stream. Streams continue to play in real time and rarely freeze due to the strength of the P2P network that Sopcast uses, protected by a powerful firewall and encryption which means there is no chance of anyone hijacking the stream.
Also, there is a feature that allows you to record streams as you are watching them. This means that you can re-watch bits later and also keep them on your hard drive forever if you so wish. This means that there is no reason you can’t keep your favorite streams saved for future viewing.
Just like other media players, Sopcast can be embedded into a web page so that you can run a live stream on your personal website, something that a lot of free web video streaming software overlooks. You can also view a Sopcast stream through your own favorite media player, such as Windows Media Player, meaning that you can continue to use the kind of interface that you are comfortable with.
So to conclude, Sopcast is a very useful tool for viewing and broadcasting P2P streams. It uses a powerful server to provide fairly high quality streams that run smoothly, even when seen by thousands of people. It certainly gets our seal of approval.