The following FAQ was originally written by Tokar for the NFL forum. There were a lot of good points made in it that I felt it was worth sharing in the NCAA forum as well (with a few minor tweaks to turn it from NFL to NCAA.)


The FAQ for streaming NCAA football:

1) Where can I find a schedule for NCAA football?
This forum is the best place for the schedule. A weekly stickied topic will give you all known streams available. Check it late Friday or early Saturday for a scheudle that should be finalized, but last-minute changes may still arise.

2) Can I request a stream for a game that is not being streamed?
No. If a streamer doesn't schedule it, you can't request it. We don't have enough streamers and we don't have the luxury to throw up every game under the sun. A lot of the requests over the first five weeks of the season have gone unfulfilled and shown that requests are a waste of time. So until things change, no requests.
The ONLY exception to this rule is if a streamer starts a thread and asks for your input. Otherwise, do not request any streams.

3) I'm watching a stream and the quality is not great, is there anyway to improve it?
No, there is nothing you, as a viewer can do. Everything related to the quality of the stream is controlled by the streamer - the resolution, the bitrate and the quality control.

4) Is there anything I can do to improve my viewing experience?
There are several things you can do to improve your performance:
-Turn off all other forms of Peer-2-Peer filesharing (Limewire, Cabos, BitTorrent, DirectConnect, etc.)
-Try to avoid all forms of downloading and uploading.
-Avoid watching two games simultaneously on SopCast/TVUPlayer/TVants unless you have more than 1mbps of upstream bandwidth.
-Windows XP users can expand their connections from 10 to 50 by following the instructions at: http://www.myp2p.eu/Programs/Overview.htm

5) Can I create two instances of SopCast to watch two games at once?
Yes. Click on the Option tab in Sopcast and under "General", uncheck the box beside "Allow only one instance of SopCast." Now you can open two instances of SopCast and watch two streams.

6) Can I watch two games on two instances of SopCast, OR one game on SopCast and one game on TVUPlayer or TVants?
Yes, but it is not recommended unless you have 1mbps of upstream bandwidth.

7) I see that a channel is listed for the game I want to see, but it is not working. What is wrong?
Nothing. All you have to do is ask yourself "what is time is it?" If the answer is not "a few minutes before the start of the game" then the stream probably will not work. Most streams will not start until the beginning of the game, so be patient.

8) I turned on the right channel the correct Eastern US time, but I don't think it's the right game. It looks like another game is finishing. I am missing the start of my game. What is wrong?
Sometimes, if a game runs long on a national channel like ABC or ESPN, the network will stay with that game before joining the next game. The streamers have no control over this.
Other times, a game may run long on one channel (i.e. ABC) when a streamer's next game is scheduled to begin on another channel (i.e. NBC.) It will be the streamer's decision as to what to do. In most cases, the streamer will wait until the first game ends, as courtesy to those fans watching that first game. However, if the first game is a blowout, the streamer may just decide to show the second game in full. These can be difficult decisions, but they're made for the best interests of all watching.

9) Is there a 24/7 stream of any specialty channels like ESPNU or the Big Ten Network?
Neither one of those has a 24/7 stream at this time. There may not ever be one, either.

10) Is there a 24/7 stream of ESPN?
No. There is channel 10912 on SopCast, which streams ESPN Hong Kong 24/7, however that is not the same as ESPN US.

11) Is there any value to recording the streams I am watching?
Not really, but recording does have one simple benefit. If you are very impatient and do not want to wait for any torrents for the games to show up, or the stream is buffering a lot, recording has its benefits. A) you can record the stream, as it is live (delayed by a couple minutes, though) and watch a recording immediately after the game is over, B) recording makes a poor-buffering channel seem like it never buffered at all - see question 12.

12) The channel I am watching does buffer but it never gets high enough so that I can watch. What can I do?
In terms of watching it live - nothing. Either the streamer has to drop his quality down, which requires restarting the stream, or or something with the streamer's upstream is problematic and will be resolved with time.
If you are one who does NOT mind watching a game immediately after it is complete, and you dont want to wait until a torrent appears, you can record the stream. See, even though SopCast is buffering with a low buffer, the stream is still being downloaded (which is the key). If it is being downloaded, it can be recorded. All you have to do is get a copy of the free FlashGet (www.flashget.com) and tell it to download http://127.0.0.1:8902 while SopCast is buffering. You will NOT be able to watch the stream as it is recording, however when you stop recording and watch the recorded video, it will seem like you never had buffering problems at all. Again, though, you wont be watching it live if you dont mind that.

13) How do I record a stream I am watching on SopCast?
One of two ways:
A) there is a button above the sopcast window, it is two concentric circles, a white circle inside of a blue circle. It is to the right of the zoom button. Just click this and SopCast will ask you to Open File, which is just asking you to specify a name and location for the file. Click OK and recording will start.
B) While watching the stream use FlashGet (free) to download the stream. In FlashGet, click NEW, and use the address http://127.0.0.1:8902 as the URL, then click OK. The default download location is c:\downloads. To stop recording in FlashGet, highlight the entry in the upper right box which is the recording, click pause, and then click delete (this just deletes the job, not the recorded file). Then locate the recorded file, by default it will be in C:\Downloads. Remove the .jc! file extension. Now play the video in your favorite video player.

14) How do I record a stream I am watching on TVUPlayer? TVants?
For TVUplayer, the directions are the same as in 14B, except the address is http://127.0.0.1:8901.
For TVants, the directions are also the same as in 14B, excep the address is http://127.0.0.1:16900.

15) Someone posts a last-minute stream, and says it's on SopCast channel XXXXX. Typing in the channel number by itself doesn't work. What do I do?
This URL is the universal URL for a SopCast channel: sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/XXXXX
Replace the Xs with the channel number you are given, and copy/paste it into the address bar on the SopCast application.

16) What is this "VLC" thing people mention. Does it help clear any issues up?
All streams on Sopcast can be viewed with VLC, though for a select few streams this is mandatory. Additionally, sometimes VLC can stream a few seconds or more ahead of what shows up in Sopcast itself, which can help reduce your lag between the stream's source and when you watch it.

To use VLC, download VLC at http://www.videolan.org and install it , then start the Sopcast stream and let it buffer. Then open VLC, go to Open Network Stream, select HTTP option, and type in 127.0.0.1:8902 (if not working, try port 8912). You MUST leave Sopcast running; closing Sopcast closes the stream. If the stream gives sound in both VLC and Sopcast, mute the sound on Sopcast, or try to hit the refresh button so the Sopcast screen goes blank, but the VLC screen stays intact.