First Row Sports

If you love to watch sports live online than one P2P application you have probably used (or you will use from now on) is called Sopcast.  I would rate this as the second most popular P2P app to watch live sports with behind Streamtorrent.  Sopcast is totally free to download and use so if you ever come across a site charging than you should close that site.  Sopcast can run on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Linux.

How to Use Sopcast

Once you download and install Sopcast you will need to create a free account so you can login.  This should only take you a minute to create.  Once you are logged in you will see tabs at the top of the application which say:

• Home
• Live Channels
• VOD Channels
• My Server

The Live Channels tab will tell you what is live and online right now for you to watch.  This list is updated automatically so everything listed here should always be ready to watch.  There is a blue bar next to each channel which is called the Quality Indicator.  You can click this to see a lot more detailed information about the channel.  When you find a channel that you want to begin watching you double click that channel.  The channel player will be brought up and start the connection.

Sopcast Player Buttons

There are buttons at the bottom of your Sopcast Player which allow you to do multiple things.  The buttons and their functions are as follows:

• Display Menu Button – Allows you to see the menu and change channels
• Zoom Out/Zoom In Buttons – allows you to increase or decrease the viewing size
• Favorites – Add the channel to your favorites so you can quickly find it in the future
• Record – you can record the channel that you are watching

The Sopcast player is relatively easy to you and once you use it for the first time and get the hang of it you will be a pro within 15 minutes.  This is a great tool that you can use to watch live sports when you’re not able to get the game on your television set.  There are many places online that will help direct you to the channels on Sopcast that are playing a particular game so finding games to watch through the Sopcast P2P app is always an easy and straightforward way to get the games live on your computer.

   One of the most well known (if not the most well known) P2P application used to watch live streaming sports is Streamtorrent.  First row sports has used Streamtorrent for many years and the application has many key components that sports viewers wish to have.  It is a reliable application, the streams can range from high definition to grainy but this is dependent upon the person who is streaming the sporting event.  There are also other uses of the application, such as watching movies, television shows, and programming from other countries.

You can visit the streamtorrent site at http://www.streamtorrent.com.

First row sports explains how the streamtorrent application works.  A streamer connects through the application and sets up their stream.  Instead of assigning a channel such as channel 1, channel 2, channel 3, the Streamtorrent app will give the streamer a streamtorrent based URL, which will look something like this:    st://uelLkjsf800asfdlkjljafk      This URL is what a viewer will need to enter into their Streamtorrent application in order to access the streamer’s stream.  This logic is pretty smart as you can broadcast a stream but only give the streamtorrent URL to your friends if you only want them to view the stream.

As a result of the reliableness of the application, the ability to share your stream with whoever you select, and the fact that the Streamtorrent P2P application is free it is easy to understand why this P2P app quickly rose to become the favorite application of streamers worldwide and how it has continued to stay on top.

So how do you setup Streamtorrent and stream something?  Here is a step by step guide on how to do this.

1. Download the StreamTorrentSetup.zip file.
2. Extract the StreamTorrent .exe file and begin to install Streamtorrent on your computer.
3. Go through the steps (click these) Next, I Agree, Next, Next, Install, Finish.
4. Now Streamtorrent is installed

Now you will begin to stream something you should go to File —> Publish —> Live Stream.  Here are the steps you need to follow now:

• Type: MMS (leave this option alone)
• Domain: default (leave this option alone)
• Source URL: mms://127.0.0.1:8080 (Port 8080 is the default for WME9, this MUST be changed in WME Setup to another port number. Pick something between 20001 — 64999)
• Name: Channel Name.
• Genre: Select one or write your own.
• Description: Give a short description about the stream.
• Keywords: You can use keywords which will allow people to search for what you are streaming if you want people to find and access your stream.
• Author: You can put yourself or ideally leave this blank.
• Copyright: You can fill it out or leave it blank.
• Publisher: FirstRowSports (as an example). This is what is displayed to users on their list so they know whose stream it is.
• Homepage: You can put whatever you would like to here
• Check the box for “NOT allow others to connect to source”
• Check the box for “Lock Status”
• Click OK.

And that is how you can get set up and start streaming with the Streamtorrent P2P application.