Online Streaming Using Sopcast on Mac OS X
Finally, I can stream in peace on my iMac. Streaming wasn’t a problem for me until my Windows laptop flickered so much and I decided to move to the only available desktop in my home: an iMac.
I usually stream live sports using a software called SopCast, combined with resources from http://www.wiziwig.tv/. It is so far the best way I can find to stream sports online. The problem is: Sopcast is not available for Mac. Well, I find some solution but couldn’t make it work. Until today! And now I want to spread the workarounds (it’s free btw) 
What do you need?
- A Mac machine, of course
- Winebottler. Download: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/
- X11. From my research, you can get X11 from your disc. If you are using Snow Leopard, you don’t need to install X11 since it is pre-installed.
- Mozilla Firefox for Windows. Download: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/
- Sopcast. Download: http://www.sopcast.com/download/
- VLC Media Player for Windows. Download: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html/
Steps:
- First, you need to install WineBottler in your Mac. Simply drag the WineBottler icon to your Application folder
- Install Mozilla Firefox using WineBottler. Do not install it as a stand alone application. Choose “Run directly in …” and click “Go”. Run the installer just like a normal Windows installer.
- Similar to step #2, install Sopcast and VLC Media Player using WineBottler.
- Now configure your Sopcast. Click “Options”. Change the external player to “Use your own external player”, and find VLC.exe in your fake C drive.
DONE! Now, you can test-drive your Sopcast. Here is steps how to watch live sports using Wiziwig.tv:
- Use your Windows Firefox to open http://www.wiziwig.tv/ website.
- Find match you want to stream.
- Check the station. If the software name is “Sopcast”, click the “play” link.
- Your Sopcast application will run, but with a black screen. Click the left most icon to play in external player.
- VLC will run, but stops after few seconds. To solve this, you have to ensure that your stream is being looped by simply toggle the “Loop All” button.
Other workaround
This workaround might work for those who can’t make the VLC in Windows opens after clicking the Sopcast link. You need to have VLC for Mac installed in your Mac OS X.
- After clicking the Sopcast link, open your VLC for Mac. Do not close Sopcast that is running in your Wine.
- Open File > Open Network. In the URL textfield, type: http://localhost:8902/tv.asf or http://127.0.0.1:8902/tv.asf. Click Open. The stream should be started.
Happy streaming. Hope it helps Mac users who haven’t found a workaround for online streaming
when i click on the sopcast link, firefox show me an error. How can i fix that? How can i associate the protocol “sop” to sopcast? thank you
Hello, everytime i try to play a random channel from the live channel list on Sopcast, a pop-up will appear saying that the program Sopcast.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close. It then says This may be caused by a problem in the program or a deficiency in Wine. I have no choice but to click close. Any help?
hello.
i did everything right.but after i click to play it opens a new tab and there is
saying….. address was not understood
whats the problem
thank you
Just to add, I’m at a loss as to why you need any other windows programs beyond the Sopcast installer. I did not download VLC for windows or Firefox for windows. Use VLC for mac and it opens the Sopcast stream perfectly.
Thanks for this guide. I was running Bootcamp just to run Sopcast. Now I’ve deleted the whole bootcamp partition. More disk space and I don’t have to restart!
@Michael: Hi Michael, previously there is no Mac version of Sopcast. Therefore we need to find a way to enjoy Sopcast. One way to achieve this is by using Winebottler, which was described in this post.
Fiona, I am using Sopcast for Windows in Winebottler (thanks to your helpful article!). I mean you don’t need the other Windows programs mentioned to make it work!
There is a Sopcast for Mac torrent around however it doesn’t work on OS X Mountain Lion
@Michael: Woops I misinterpret your comment, maybe because I am really sleepy when I read it. Sorry, Michael. Anyway, glad it works for you.
U can Sopcast here download:
http://www.brothersoft.com/download-sopcast-66299.html
Hi Fiona I have just updated Winebottler with great success. If update Firefox 10 to 14 will it work with the latest Winebottler? If so do I just overwrite the old version or do I have to delete the old version and install the new one?
@Tony: Hi Tony, I myself haven’t tried upgrading the WineBottler. Isn’t updating the Firefox will automatically removed the old one?
Hi Josh You are right there is an update of Winebottler to Winebottler 1.2.5, it works too. Cannot wait for next Saturday!
This site http://www.sopcast.org/download/ ha`s a Mac link but it does not work at the moment, I have emailed them so I hope it will soon.
It looks like Sopcast is finally producing a Mac version of Sopcast. See http://www.sopcast.org/download/
When I tried downloading VLC and Sopcast, it only gives me the option “save file”. How do I get it to install using WineBottler?
@AJ: Of course when you download a stuff, you’ll be asked to where to save it. Download and save the exe file. Double click the exe to install it in WineBottler.
I did that but whenever I tried to open sopcast it winebottler crashes :/ i tried restarting my laptop but still not working. it’s fine with firefox and vlc tho. what should i do :/
I’m just not that good with it I guess.. Totally stuck..well it just seems I can’t get the firefox running.. I think I did the rest the right way..but it ends up not working. I guess I need someone to help me ‘live’ anyone interest? Fiona?
Rick: Hi Rick, unfortunately I’m currently having an exam. You could email me your detailed step, though. Add some screenshots would be best. If I got bored with studying, I might check and reply your email
Hi Fiona How do I share a folder of mine with this forum from Dropbox as I have Sopcast for Mac in it at last.
@Tony: Check out this link http://www.groovypost.com/howto/freeware/how-to-share-files-easily-using-dropbox-public-links/
Here is the link to my Dropbox for you all to download the Mac version of Sopcast
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k4ev7rlne8qmll2/EDyNfApK4Z/SopCast.dmg
Hope it works!
Thanks for the reminder too… really appreciate your kind thought!
Thanks very much for this useful tips. I, however, simply don’t understand the step: “Install Mozilla Firefox using WineBottler. Do not install it as a stand alone application.”… How? I have been using Mozilla Firefox on my Macbook. How can I “install” the browser using WineBottler? Do I need to open WineBottler first and download Mozilla Firefox with the software? But how?? Sorry for being not intelligent enough. I would appreciate your feedback at your earliest convenience. Many thanks!!
WineBottler is an emulator for Windows. If you install it in your Mac, you’re installing Firefox for Mac (the installer is usually ends with dmg). So you need to download Firefox.exe, and install it inside the WineBottler. There is no way you could install exe file in Mac OS without help of any emulator software (WineBottler, VMWare, Parallel, etc).
Thank you so much for your prompt reply, Fiona. You’re star! Will try to work it out and see if I am lucky enough to watch Euro 2012 streaming live. Thanks again for your great help!
You’re welcome. Don’t forget to save the instruction elsewhere. Just in case my website is down. I’ve seen spikes on this post since Euro started
Hi Fiona, it’s working, except that the picture just freezes the moment the VLC pops up (not black screen). The sound is working fine though. Do you know what other steps should I perform to make the picture streams through as well? Many thanks in advance for your help!
Umm. I never experienced that problem. Why not try using VLC for Mac. And then try streaming from the following URL (let your Sopcast running): http://localhost:8902/tv.asf
Will try this now… really appreciate your timely and professional assistance. Can’t say thank you enough! Have a good day.
You Are A God!
thank you so much.
@Asaf: Bet you enjoyed watching Euro 2012 ;P Glad to help.
If you still want to download the copyright free Mac version of Sopcast the website has moved to:
http://thepiratebay.ee/torrent/7087607/Sopcast_for_MAC
This is perfectly legal although most of the other material on there may not be.
Hi Fiona To download the Mac version of Sopcast you need a program like Miro at http://www.getmiro.com/download/ but it is not that stable. I still need to use you links into VLC as going full screen makes it jerky and it deteriorates the video. Tip you can save your link as a playlist and then put an alias on your desktop so you don’t need to keep pasting it in.
Tony
@Tony Burton: Hi Tony, what is the role of Miro in here? Is it replacing VLC? I’m confused :S
I get this after a while of playing http://cl.ly/1p21422a3m2A15063I3U
can anybody help? thanks
You can close the window or leave it without Sopcast closing and then go to VLC. I have been told there is a Mac version of Sopcast, at http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7087607/Sopcast_for_MAC Just download the Sopcast.dmg file after clicking on the tottent
This is a P2P site with some doubtful files but since Socast is free a Mac version has to be legal too. So download it and try it, although it has some problems which VLC will improve it. So far I cannot get Firefox to send a link to Firefox maybe Fiona can help here. So far I have obtained the link elsewhere and pasted into Sopcast which works well as long as you have a good bit rate.
@Tony Burton: Hi Tony, thanks for the info. Have just tried downloading the torrent, but have no luck. If you don’t mind, could you upload it to DropBox, MediaFire, or other similar file hosting servers? Thanks
Can get my posts to upload help please?
@Tony Burton: Actually, before this comment, there isn’t any reply from you. The recent one does appear in my comment moderation list, though. And I’ve approved that one
And one more thing, sorry if I couldn’t approve your comment right away. I’m currently not managing this blog every single day, only checking it twice a week.
For those who have problems with VLC (Windows), I find that the 1.1.1 version works great but the new version 2 something does not. Also I understand that Winebottler is now dead and will not be updated, so it might eventually become obsolete. Now it works brilliantly but in the future we may need to try something different. I am looking at a third-part app called Wineskin for the future. I will let you know it is successful.
I’ve tried everything to get this working and so far I’ve had no luck – I’ve installed wine and placed wine bottler in the correct place, downloaded Firefox, VLC and Sopcast for Windows and installed them according to the instructions above. Then when I go a site to open a Sopcast link in Firefox it opens another tab within the browser. I’ve tried to fire it up via Windows VLC and Mac and it just won’t do anything – Is there anything totally obvious that I’m missing?
Thanks
It sounds as if you have done everything right so all I can suggest is to delete everything, restart and load it again. The use of VLC Mac version always works with File > opennetwork and paste http://localhost:8902/tv.asf after Sopcast is running of course.
Hi Fiona,
thanks a lot for putting this guide online! I have tried for many years to run Sopcast on my Mac (using Crossover, Parallels or Wine), but usually the stream was stuttering quite badly so that I always turned back to the flash videos also provided on wiziwig.tv. Today I tested your solution with the video playing in the VLC player for Mac via http://localhost:8902/tv.asf and so far I am really impressed!
However, there is still one problem I can’t seem to solve: I switched on the “Repeat All” function in VLC, but at the point where the stream would normally stop, it now gets interrupted for a short moment before it continues. It almost seems as if the movie VLC is playing has come to an end and the player needs a second to open the next file on the playlist. This happens every 10-15 seconds and is really annoying when watching sports.
Is this normal or do others manage to watch the streams using VLC for Mac smoothly and without interruptions? If so, do you have any suggestions how to solve this issue?
Thanks for your help!
Georg
I seem to have the same issue, any suggestions?
@Georg and Matt: Strangely I do not have any issue about interruptions. I toggled the loop all button to on. That’s all
I find you do not need to use the “repeat all button” on the Mac version of VLC. You do have to be patient though, maybe you are not waiting for Sopcast to buffer as you need the numbers on the bottom right to appear before you open VLC
I’ve found that using MPlayer OSX Extended instead of VLC gets rid of this issue