How to Watch World Cup 2006 Games Streamed Live on the Internet
June 12, 2006
On Friday morning I was getting ready for work and about to leave my house when I realized that the first game of the world cup had just started between Germany and Costa Rica. I decided to turn on the TV and caught the game just as it was starting. I was able to catch the first 15 minutes which was long enough to watch Germany score their first goal which was quite nice.
On my way to work I was thinking that there had to be a way to watch the games on the internet. I knew that the BBC had the exclusive rights to stream them online and were only doing so in the UK. But I know that with current technology and hoardes people wanting to watch the games there would have to be a method to do so online.
I started my usual morning ritual of getting my coffee and reading my RSS feeds and found this interesting story on Digg. As I read the comments I came across one that mentioned the ability to view the games by using P2P-TV. The post mentioned the names of several sites / software.
So I immediately went into research mode. I found my way to all of the ones mentioned as well as several others. I tried several of them but it quickly became clear that the one I liked the most was SopCast. Main reason being is that most of the other clients and sites were in Chinese which made them difficult to use. SopCast is in English.
After downloading the client, I quickly installed it and tuned in to sports channel CCTV5. Within seconds I was watching the 2nd game between Poland and Ecuador. The stream was great. It was a decent resolution and steady without any pauses or lockups.
Needless to say I was very happy to sneak in some game time while at work. Needless to say, productivity will definitely be a little lower for the next month. Here is a great site with a guide to watch streaming sports including soccer (football) for free to get you started. And there is another good one here.
If you’re interested in any of the other P2P-TV sites and software here they are: TVants, SOPcast, TVkoo, PPlive, PPStream, TVUPlayer, Coolstreaming, QQlive, Feidian, CCIPTV, Pcast, Mysee.
Update 6/14 After reading several more posts on this subject and testing myself. I now also recommend the TVU Player along with Sopcast. The client is also in English and appears to provide a higher resolution image as well as have channels that broadcast in English.
Update 6/21 Several people have been asking about a Mac P2P-TV client. I’m not aware of any but keep in mind that if you are on a Mac that there is a site that has the TVU player embedded so you can watch from a browser. The site is called Viidoo and you can view it here. Sopcast also has an embedded player available on their site here
Posted in Sports, Technology
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June 15th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the info nice piece.
Sopcast worked for me but i did not find any channels running commentry in english :(
But the action is cool.
ROBO
June 16th, 2006 at 10:00 am
I tried TVU player the night before the game.. it worked! but now when morning came, it says “It can’t connect to the network and keeps telling me to restart” you had the same prob?
June 16th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
JC…I had the same problem. I couldn’t get either TVU or Sopcast to work this morning. Later I tried again…TVU still didn’t work but Sopcast started working on channel CCTV5. So I guess you just need to bounce between the two when having problems.
Go Argentina!!!
June 19th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Hi there: I’m interested in watch the worl cup live on the internet because I ‘m working when the games are happening. I’ve read all the comments about all the P2P-TV players, but the only thing it’s that I use a MAC plataform.
Do you know some player that can be used on a MAC plataform ? because non of those posted can be used on a MAC. Please somebody help me.
June 20th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
pleas i want that !!!
June 20th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Please if somebody know a way to watch the world cop on MAC, I will appreciate it.
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:47 am
Watching Soccer is a great pleasure.Especially when u have lots of work at a office and u cant rush home and come back.My experience with these is amazing.
SOP termed as Streaming over P2P , New innovation in technology indeed.
Inorder to watch more of this definitely more number of peers are required to transmit the match.
My opinion in these softwares mentioned above …
Sopcast is a good software , Negative side : It is slow to connect, Requires more time to connect.Unneccessary login to open the player.When you give an anonymous login to watch for free , Why do u need to register ?.
TVU Player is a better option according to me , Negative Side :Less number of peers smudges the quality of the broadcast.
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Hi,
I intalled the sop client and rebooted my PC. I also created a login. Now when I try to login thru teh view it says cannot find server. If I try to login thru the web interface I can log in but the “connection to Sop Network, please wait” message is on forever and I am unable to connect. When I click on a channel it says “Player not initialized”. Does nayone else have the same problem or know of a solution. I want to watch teh Brazil-Japan game going on right now
June 23rd, 2006 at 2:35 am
telnet ascii-wm.net 2006
June 26th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Neither of the Mac sites you linked work. They require the program to be installed.
June 27th, 2006 at 8:20 am
PLEEAASSEEE!!! i also need TV for MAC!! cant find it anywhere. Any updates???
June 29th, 2006 at 8:36 am
I am also using a MAC, and i can’t seem to find any sites that allow me to watch the world cup, without downloading sortware. Please could someone HELP… Much appreciated.
June 30th, 2006 at 7:44 am
Me too! And I am trying to get it in time for the Germany-Argie action today !!!
July 4th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
It would be amazing to watch the football semi finals on my computer , cause there is no TV where we are.
Thanks
July 5th, 2006 at 5:44 am
http://205.209.161.228/p2p-streaming-media-server-peer-to-peer-streaming-Internet-IPTV-TV-Downloads.aspx
CCIPTV Live Podcaster, typical of new P2P Live Podcaster, can realize the function of podcasting, sending the local audio and video files and signals from television card, compression card, collection card, PC camera, microphone to the Internet, which makes you to set up your own Internet TV station only on a common PC. Meanwhile, this software can play such formats as rm?rmvb?mpeg?mpg?mpeg4?avi?wmv?wma?mp3?DVD and even transit all the Internet TV programs of different formats.
Functions
Podcasting system, the center of communicatng: Users can set up their own unique channels via CCIPTV, in which users can experience the function of podcasting, transit different feelings, make friends and build their own channel. In addition, users can choose collecting equipment to support the signals from television card, compression card, collection card, PC camera and microphone and can play files from your own computer, such as the files of rm?rmvb?mpeg?mpg?mpeg4?avi?wmv?wma?mp3?DVD formats and even the mms source from the Internet.
Multi-play all kinds of formats : Play the files of such formats as rm?rmvb?mpeg?mpg?mpeg4?avi?wmv?wma?mp3?DVD
Internet Television, free enjoy : Netizens can release plenty of Internet TV programs, fresh, exciting and colorful in contents. Users can choose the URL of the Internet broadcasting station and Internet TV channels they like, listening and watching the numerous programs from other countries in the world.
Playing fluently, seeing and hearing legibly: In terms of program quality, CCIPTV has developed P2PIPTV, a transmission system of media based on the P2P of Internet. P2PIPTV system, whether used to watch TV through Internet or set up one’s own player, can save plenty of sources of broadband, reduce the demand for the server and thus realize to watch TV and broadcast fluently in a large scale.
July 7th, 2006 at 11:57 am
[…] Online Video BBC’s free live streams are only available in the UK. This may prompt you to seek other means to watch from your computer (How to Watch World Cup 2006 Games Streamed Live on the Internet and http://www.footballstreaming.info/). A Wired article explains that “Also it should be pointed out that FIFA frowns upon this sort of thing, but whether or not it is illegal here in the United States is a gray area.” […]
April 4th, 2007 at 10:54 am
please, i also use mac and want to watch tv!!!!!!!!
April 16th, 2007 at 11:22 am
I’ve been using the tvu player and sopcast for PC for sometime now and they seem to work fine.
I also have a MAC which will be my main computer once I find a way to see live TV on it. This is kinda off topic since I’m intrested in formula1 but still related…
So far I haven’t found any players that show live feed from the races so if anyone knows a way to view them please post a comment.
Thanks
August 25th, 2007 at 12:22 am
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