HOWTO : SopCast and PPStream on Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop Made Easy

SopCast is online TV and PPStream is online movie of China. Now, you can watch these online TV and movies on Totem. This tutorial is written for any person who know Chinese.

Step 1 :

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:cnav/ppa
sudo apt-get update

Step 2 :

SopCast :

sudo apt-get install sopcast gst-plugins-sopcast totem-sopcast

PPStream :

sudo apt-get install ppstream gst-plugins-pps totem-plugin-pps totem-pps

Step 3 :

Open Totem. Select "Edit" -- "Plugins" on the menu.

Enable "SopCast browser" and "PPStream browser".

Enable "Show channel name in Chinese" at "Setup" of "SopCast". This step is important if you want to use "Step 6" below; otherwise, some channels cannot be shown up.

Select "SopCast" or "PPStream" at the right hand side's sidebar and enjoy it.

Step 4 (Optional) :

Enter "about:config" (without quote) at the address field of Firefox. Right click on any empty place. Select "Add", then choose "Boolean". Enter "network.protocol-handler.expose.pps" (without quote) to the place provided. Then choose "false".

Go to http://kan.pps.tv/ and choose any movie and select "Client Playback" (客戶端播放). Then select "/usr/bin/totem" from the file system.

The video will be playback on the Totem after clicking on the "Client Playback".

Step 5 (Optional) :

Install GMLive for SopCast channels as the channel of SopCast at Totem does not work.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install gmlive

(a) Open GMLive and select "Tools" on the menu. "Preference" -- "SopCast"

Change the values as the following :
Mplayer cache : 8192 Kbs
Boardcast URL : http://www.sopcast.com/gchlxml

(b) Open GMLive and select "Tools" on the menu. "Preference" -- "GMLive"

Disable "PPLive support".
PPStream function does not work at GMLive.

Football channels for example :
"Vozao.com" and "Sports Channel" on the list of SopCast.

Step 6 (Optional) :

(a) If you want to use the channel list of GMLive instead of Totem's one, you can copy it.

mv ~/.local/share/totem/plugin/sopcast/channels.xml ~/.local/share/totem/plugin/sopcast/channels.xml-original

cp ~/.config/gmlive/sopcast.lst ~/.local/share/totem/plugin/sopcast/channels.xml

(b) Or, if you do not want to install GMLive, you can download the channel list for SopCast official site.

mv ~/.local/share/totem/plugin/sopcast/channels.xml ~/.local/share/totem/plugin/sopcast/channels.xml-original

wget http://www.sopcast.com/gchlxml
cp gchlxml ~/.local/share/totem/plugin/sopcast/channels.xml

The same football channels as "Step 5" are at the "Other" on the right hand side of the Totem. They are "Sport" and "Soccerhd.info".

Remarks :

Some channels of SopCast on Totem are not working. However, sports channel of CCTV is working properly. Fortunately, it can be overcame by doing the "Step 6(a)" or "Step 6(b)".

The video playback with PPStream on Totem will not be counted at the webpage of http://kan.pps.tv/. Therefore, some of the movies cannot be watched.

PPStream does not work on GMLive. PPLive does not support on GMLive in this tutorial.

** If you are using Ubuntu Samiux Remix 11.04 r0.8.1 or later, the captioned steps had been completed for you (but except the Firefox step). You can use it right away. You can download it at here.

UPDATED

Today (2011-June-11), I cannot use Totem to watch PPStream and the reason is still unknown. However, PPStream can be (Search for the application namely PPStream by press "Super" key). Just go to "Tool" -- "Option" -- "Select Sound device" and choose "alsa" to enable the sound of the PPStream.

That's all! See you.