SOPCAST FAQ

[Dannyboy2890]

Q1 My Media Player can not popup to play?
We suggest that you use Windows Media Player 9 and Real One Player or RealPlayer to play the stream. Please check the version of your player. Other players(vlc, mplayer) may be usable, but you should open it and play the stream manually.
If the player can’t popup but you see that SopCast is buffering, you can open the player manually to play. For a wmv(asf) stream, in Windows Media Player, you can specify the url: http://localhost:8900. For a rm(rmvb) stream, in RealPlayer, you can specify the url: http://localhost:8900/tv.rm

Q2 Media Player played but get the “Server busy��? error message?
Clear the proxy settings in your Media Player and clear IE proxy settings. We can’t play the stream if you set a proxy.
Note: Sometimes, you must clear the IE proxy settings, if you don’t clear it, you may not play the stream even if you have cleared the proxy in Media Player. It must be a bug in Microsoft’s software.

Q3 RealPlayer has no sounds or the sound does not synchronize with the video?
Smoothly move the Real player process bar to and fro.

Q4 Why I can not watch the channel with the good quality as I think?
We use the P2P technology to transfer the media content. That means when you get media content from other nodes, you also act as a service node to others. If your firewall prohibit you from connecting to other nodes, you can not get the data from other nodes and other nodes can not get the date from you. So please open the required port in your firewall. SopCast use TCP port: 3900-3920. Open these ports for SopCast.exe in your firewall.

Q5 Why the percent of my buffering shows high, I still can not watch the channel with the high quality?
Every channel’s quality was decided by two parameters. One is the source quality (QualityS) and another is the network quality (QualityC). QualityS stands for the quality of the channel source. The low QualityS value means our server has the poor quality to receive the channel content and it will result in the poor quality for all of the audits. QualityC stands for the average quality for the watcher receiving the channel contents. The high QualityC value means the p2p network is great and every watcher can receive most of the channel content in its buffer.
You buffering value shows your quality of the network. The calculation of the Sop


Q6 If I install the firewall, how can I configure it to make SopCast work?
We transfer the channel contents using the P2P technology. You receive the channel contents from others and you must upload your receiving channel content to others. If you install the firewall, the firewall can prohibit you from connecting to others and others can not connect to you.. So you must configure the firewall to open the necessary port. SopCast will use the port through 3900 to 3920, so you must open those ports for the SopCast.exe bidirectionally, in and out.
If your personal firewall has the automatic configuration function, for example Symantec Internet security, Microsoft internal firewall with the XP sp2, select allow or permit if you see the information to ask you whether permit SopCast.exe to access the Internet or not.

Q7 Can I use SopCast to setup a personal channel?
Of course, you can! This is one of our main features. Through the P2P technology, you can easily support maximum 10 thousands persons to watch your channel at the same time using a single computer. But for good quality, you have to meet some requirements. See Q9. We want to make the SopCast the best TV Station for everyone.

Q8 How to build a personal channel?
Select the files or another Media Server address under the My Server label and write the necessary information. Please read the basic operation in the user manual for details. We provide a open broker for free use. Change the broker address to http://sop.sopcast.org/sop/broker_noauth under the Config label URL Add area.
Note: You can not add your personal channels in our default broker. The default broker is only for the stable channels for most of the audiences. If you can serve a stable channel and want to share with all the audiences, please contact us sop@sopcast.org and we will add it.

Q9 How to build a STABLE channel?
To make a channel stable, you must meet two requirements:
One is the stable source for the channel. SopCast support two kinds of source, files or Media Server. You can build a local source by playing stream media files(asf, wmv, rm, rmvb). You can also retransmit a channel from Microsoft Media Server or Real Network Real Server. You must have a stable source
The second is the stable and broadband internet connections. To build a good quality channel, you’d better place your server in an IDC (Internet Data Center) for the guarantee bandwidth. Though the SopCast use the P2P technology to broadcast the channels, higher bandwidth is still needed. For a stream of 300Kbps, we limited the maximum bandwidth of the source to 2Mbps and the actual band it use varies from 1M to 2M. It can serve 10 thousands audiences in such a configuration. So if you have the connection 256Kbps or 512Kbps, we suggest you to make a 80-128Kbps channel.

Q10 I am very interested in SopCast, how can I contribute to you?
P2P means everyone can contribute for the network. The more persons watching a channel, the more fluent channel you can get. That means you can watch the channel fluently, without stopping, waiting or mosaic. So watching your favorite channels is the best contribution.
If you can provide the good quality channels, it is also very acceptable. Please write to us and we are very happy to publish your channels. For how to build a stable channels, read Q9.


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