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Watching Live TV Online

Có một cơn sốt mới trên Internet sâu rộng trên toàn thế giới. Đó là khả năng xem nội dung truyền hình trực tiếp từ bất cứ nơi nào trên thế giới với một kết nối Internet tốt, cho phép người dùng tìm thấy các trận bóng đá, cho thấy giải thưởng, phim ảnh vv để xem trực tiếp trên máy tính của họ khi họ không có quyền truy cập vào các kênh. Nó được thúc đẩy bởi P2PTV công nghệ. hướng dẫn này xem xét một số các phần mềm và phương pháp được sử dụng cho truyền hình trực tuyến trên Internet.

There is a new craze on the Internet sweeping around the world. It is the ability to watch live television content from anywhere in the world with a good Internet connection, enabling users to find football games, award shows, movies etc. to watch live on their computers when they don't have access to the channels. It is driven by P2PTV technology. This guide examines some of the software and methods used for live television streaming on the Internet.

Introduction & Requirements

	Software used in this guide
	TVUPlayer
	Optional: You can Download and install TVUplayer on your computer. Download!
	TVAnts
	Optional: You can Download and install TVAnts on your computer. Download!
	SopCast
	Optional: You can Download and install SopCast on your computer. Download!

This guide will first show how these programs look running and some of their hidden settings and features. After that it will examine some of the avenues for TV content links and information, and then provide a warning about the possible legal issues surrounding watching some content (i.e. Premium TV content) using these methods.

The first program we will take a look at is TVUPlayer.

TVUPlayer - The Easiest Choice

I chose TVUPlayer to talk about first because it is by far the easiest P2PTV program I have ever used, and works very well on Windows Vista (compared to SopCast for example which can choke on Vista in my experience). As you can see TVUPlayer is not that complicated to understand. On the left is the list of channels TVUPlayer is currently carrying with a search box over it. On top you have language selection and to the right is the player which the channel will be shown in.

TVUPlayer is put out by TVU Networks Corporation, and it is popular for carrying U.S. networks such as CBS. Some of the sports channels that it carries often play host to live English Premiership football games too, for example. The software has remained free since it was founded in 2005.

TVUPlayer - Watching Channels

There is no real "trick" to TVUPlayer, it does exactly what it promises to do. Simply find a channel you want to view on the left and double click it. You can double-click the video as it plays to go full screen too (right click for exit option, double-click for proper full screen). Keep an eye on the bandwidth and the Signal as they will determine the quality that you get. You might be surprised with some of the channels that TVUPlayer carries, and there shouldn't really be any problem with you viewing them through this software.

TVUPlayer - Settings

TVUPlayer doesn't come with a whole host of settings that you can change (at least not this part of the software offered by TVU Networks). However, if you right click the TVUPlayer icon in the system tray and click Options you will get the windows you see above. You can choose to automatically launch TVUPlayer on start-up if you wish, change the language of the program, or specify what Specific Port the software uses. When you are done click OK.

TVUPlayer - Final Thoughts

Pros

Carries a lot of channels
No hassle setup
Easy to use
Works well on Vista
Associated "TVU://" links in browser, meaning you can click a link on a website that will load a channel.

Cons

Sometimes signal just drops completely
Quality is often lower for channels that are shared with other software such as SopCast

TVUPlayer is definitely software that you want to have installed if you want to watch live TV on the Internet for free.

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TVAnts - Useful Software

TvAnts is an older title for watching TV content online. The program was designed and put out by Zhejiang University. It is a P2PTV application that allows you to stream and simultaneously share a TV feed, or be the source of the TV feed. While I won't show you in this article how to share a channel, you will find that TVAnts is surprisingly good on its own, even though it is one of the older used options and has been (sort of) replaced by titles like SopCast.

TVAnts differs from TVUPlayer in that most of the content you find with it is shared by users, and the more users sharing with good connections, the stronger the channel will be. Obviously this leads to delays so what you are seeing isn't exactly fully Live, but it's better than nothing in any case. TVAnts comes pre-loaded with two servers which you can use to download 100 or so channels immediately (if it says no channels found, just click more).

TVAnts - Playing a Channel

Playing a channel, again, is no big deal. Under the Search tab,. simply find a channel you want to watch and double click. As seen above, another window will now pop-up and start to load the channel for you, and as you download data you will share it with other users. Click the Channels tab and you can see the "Buffer" progress as the channel loads. You must remember one thing, to stop a channel you can;t simply just close the video window, you have to select the channel under the "Channels" tab and click Stop, or else it will continue to download and share the stream.

TVAnts Settings

Click Tools --> Settings and you will see that TVAnts is much more flexible with settings than TVUPlayer was. Under the General tab, you have multiple languages to choose from to view TVAnts in. Under Share, there are some settings to quickly take a look at. It is configured from installation for optimal performance. Proxy, Broadcast and Tracker all contain settings that you might need to change if you are routing through a proxy server or you wish to stream channels yourself as the primary source.

When you are done changing settings click OK.

TVAnts - Final Thoughts

Pros

Users share some very good content
Easy to share you own channels
Associated "TVANTS://" with web browsers to load links from websites.

Cons

Takes a long time starting channels
Buffering causes channels to freeze
Not as stable as would be liked often times

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SopCast - A Popular Option

SopCast is one of the most popular options for viewing live TV content online - if not the most popular now. Like TVAnts, users share their own content through the software and it is shared using P2PTV technology. SopCast is advertised as enabling users to "serve 10,000 online users with a personal computer and a home broadband connection." It is regularly updated and is probably the biggest source for shares of premium TV content.

When you install and run the program you have an option to create an account, but it is not necessary. You can choose to "Login as anonymous" and watch TV content without any hassle. So Login.

SopCast Channel List

SopCast carries a channel list (not everything being shared will be shown here) that usually has some gems in there for you to watch if you want. As you can see in the screenshot above, it carries channels such as ESPN and Star Sports which often show football games. You will also see that some channels are titled as a game itself, these may be temporary shares just for a game that will cut out when it is over.

To view a channel, simply double-click it from the list.

Viewing a SopCast channel

SopCast has an internal player that uses Windows Media Player to show content (see above), Notice the little "61" at the right side of the program, this indicates the state of the buffering which is taking place in the background. Obviously you want this to be around 100 as often as possible, but channels will load and stay playing smoothly while this number jumps back and forth. You can view in full screen by simply double-clicking the picture.

SopCast has one excellent feature, it allows you to break the video feed away from the program and to your own reliable media player, as we will now see.

SopCast Settings

Click the Option button on the SopCast main application and you will get to its general settings (as shown above). Here you can pick the language you want the program to be displayed in and whether you want to allow only one instance of SopCast at a time (running more than one will cause bad quality on most connections) You can choose whether SopCast will check for a new version every time it loads as well.

The interesting part here is the "Choose an external player" option. The default media player is Windows Media Player, but as you can see from my screenshot you can choose your own Media Player as an external player by simply clicking the "Select..." button. I have chosen the VLC Media Player. Let's see how that works. Click Apply and OK to exit.

SopCast - Using an External Player

If you look at the picture above, on the left is the internal SopCast player. Notice the button that I put inside the red circle. If you click this button, it will launch whatever external player you would prefer to play your channel on. If you look on the right, that is VLC Media Player now playing my channel (and VLC provides some excellent extra opportunities in terms of streaming and recording). I always liked this feature.

SopCast - Final Thoughts

Pros

Always has good channels and content shared
Channels are surprisingly stable
Can use External player
Easy to Use
Associates "SOP://" with web browser to load channels from websites

Cons

We have had compatibility problems with Vista

SopCast is one that I would definitely insist that you install on your computer and keep there for when you want to watch something. Chances are you will find a feed. It is probably the most used program for football games for example. It is the most downloaded program of this type on this website.

TV Sharing Websites and Other Sources

One thing you will quickly find is that the above programs are far from the only options when you are looking to view content online. Some websites, such as Justin.tv, will carry feeds you can watch in your web browser often to feeds shared of premium sports events, for example. Other sites are more specific, such as free-football.eu. One always worth checking out is MyP2P.eu as it indexes specific games and events, and has even more links on the forums (the links open up software such as SopCast, TVUPlayer and TVAnts when clicked). When looking for sharing sites, Google is your friend.

Legal Issues

There is one thing to remember. If you live, for example, in the UK and you use a P2PTV program to watch and share a feed from Sky Sports, this could possibly get you in trouble. Chances are nobody would bring any threats over simply watching the channel, but as you watch with P2PTV programs you are sharing (streaming) in the background, which could been seen as pirating a signal. This is relatively untested territory for now (although Justin.tv and MyP2P.eu have has legal threats for what they provide) and is made more complicated by borders. For example, if you are watching a football game (English Premiership) from an Asian source, and the same game is showing on Sky Sports, then to what level is that activity illegal if at all?

So this is just a warning. This will be tested over the coming years as the broadcasters try to keep their multi-million exclusives for their paying customers only.

Finally

My hope is that if you have never used any of these programs before, that now you at least know what you are doing and have somewhere to start from. For further assistance, please visit our Discussion Forums and ask for help there.