4 ms·

SyncPlay: Synchronize VLC with remote friends to watch together

141 points by teruakohatu 7y ago

teruakohatu 7y ago
A friend of mine and I get together to watch movies but with lockdown we have started using syncplay with great success. I use it with the mpv media player and he uses VLC.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
wilg 7y ago
was just thinking of curling up on the couch and watching Big Buck Bunny with 18 remote friends
- robk 7y ago
  Is that porn?
  - dewey 7y ago
    Depends on what you are after, but it's the demo movie that VLC and other media players use as it's available under an open license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Buck_Bunny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Buck_Bunny https://peach.blender.org/download/ https://peach.blender.org/download/
    - burntwater 7y ago
      Reading the Wikipedia just now taught me that Big Buck Bunny has audio! BBB is often played on a loop while setting up large (particularly high-res) video systems, independent of the sound systems. I've seen the video hundreds, if not thousands or times but don't think I've ever heard the audio.
  - imtringued 7y ago
    It's the lorem ipsum of video.
themodelplumber 7y ago
I'm curious, what's the advantage vs. the "ready, set, play/pause" method?
- m12k 7y ago
  "Pausing, unpausing and seeking are synchronized over the Internet, giving everyone playing the same file in the same virtual room a shared viewing experience". Bathroom/popcorn breaks work out of the box
- laumars 7y ago
  That doesn't work as well if you're chatting via instant messenger rather than voice chat.
mal10c 7y ago
Neat! So it's like multicast without needing to go through the group subscription puzzle of multicast with all the routers between you and friend(s).
arsome 7y ago
If you have Plex running check out SyncLounge too: http://synclounge.tv/ http://synclounge.tv/
DenisM 7y ago
I wonder if Netflix or HBO can do that? Seems so obvious...
fraunos 7y ago
Cool, never heard of it! I made something similar, but web based with youtube-dl for parsing. It's not ideal, but I also used it to watch movies together with friends during the pandemic. It has one shared playlist, but anyone can run their own instance :) It's pretty simple, any contributions are welcome :) https://websocket-radio.herokuapp.com/ https://websocket-radio.herokuapp.com/ https://github.com/fraunos/websocket-radio https://github.com/fraunos/websocket-radio PS. it's funny that the authors of syncplay are polish as well, just like me :p
- Avamander 7y ago
  Very similar to your idea is Cytube, I've been using it for a while and it supports a lot of various video hosts which makes it very nice to watch basically anything together. I've even self-hosted clips I couldn't be bothered to upload to YT.
mackrevinack 7y ago
just tried this out between my two laptops. pretty neat. you can chat too and the message will show up over the video. it would be great if this worked for spotify as well so you could listen to a new album release or whatever

141 points by teruakohatu 7y ago

A friend of mine and I get together to watch movies but with lockdown we have started using syncplay with great success. I use it with the mpv media player and he uses VLC.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

wilg 7y ago

was just thinking of curling up on the couch and watching Big Buck Bunny with 18 remote friends

robk 7y ago
Is that porn?
- dewey 7y ago
  Depends on what you are after, but it's the demo movie that VLC and other media players use as it's available under an open license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Buck_Bunny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Buck_Bunny https://peach.blender.org/download/ https://peach.blender.org/download/
  - burntwater 7y ago
    Reading the Wikipedia just now taught me that Big Buck Bunny has audio! BBB is often played on a loop while setting up large (particularly high-res) video systems, independent of the sound systems. I've seen the video hundreds, if not thousands or times but don't think I've ever heard the audio.
- imtringued 7y ago
  It's the lorem ipsum of video.

themodelplumber 7y ago

I'm curious, what's the advantage vs. the "ready, set, play/pause" method?

m12k 7y ago
"Pausing, unpausing and seeking are synchronized over the Internet, giving everyone playing the same file in the same virtual room a shared viewing experience". Bathroom/popcorn breaks work out of the box
laumars 7y ago
That doesn't work as well if you're chatting via instant messenger rather than voice chat.

mal10c 7y ago

Neat! So it's like multicast without needing to go through the group subscription puzzle of multicast with all the routers between you and friend(s).

arsome 7y ago

If you have Plex running check out SyncLounge too: http://synclounge.tv/ http://synclounge.tv/

DenisM 7y ago

I wonder if Netflix or HBO can do that? Seems so obvious...

fraunos 7y ago

Cool, never heard of it! I made something similar, but web based with youtube-dl for parsing. It's not ideal, but I also used it to watch movies together with friends during the pandemic. It has one shared playlist, but anyone can run their own instance :) It's pretty simple, any contributions are welcome :) https://websocket-radio.herokuapp.com/ https://websocket-radio.herokuapp.com/ https://github.com/fraunos/websocket-radio https://github.com/fraunos/websocket-radio PS. it's funny that the authors of syncplay are polish as well, just like me :p

Avamander 7y ago
Very similar to your idea is Cytube, I've been using it for a while and it supports a lot of various video hosts which makes it very nice to watch basically anything together. I've even self-hosted clips I couldn't be bothered to upload to YT.

mackrevinack 7y ago

just tried this out between my two laptops. pretty neat. you can chat too and the message will show up over the video. it would be great if this worked for spotify as well so you could listen to a new album release or whatever