One interesting tool we found in our research was Syncplay.
Similarly to Rabb.it, it uses Rooms to bring a group of users together. However, instead of streaming the video online, it is an add-on application that works together with your media player of choice by synchronising the play/pause and seeking actions. All users must set up Syncplay on their personal computers. Once they have all joined the same room, then whenever one of them takes one of those actions on their media player, the same action is replicated on everybody else’s computers (e.g. when someone hits play, everyone’s video starts playing at the same time).
Syncplay is very useful for couples or a small number of friends who are apart from each other, but want to watch something privately. An initial set-up needs to be done in order to use the application, and the video file of interest has to be obtained and available on each user’s personal computer.
This makes it infeasible, or at least very inconvenient, to host an event within a group or a community. It’s difficult to make an open, social experience out of something that requires a name to be passed around and, more importantly, a specific file to be made available to use on your computer. There isn’t a way to post a link that will allow other users to join immediately, in a sort of “pick up and play” kind of way that Rabb.it aims for. While Syncplay’s method of synchronising the video is interesting, the general feel of using it is one of a “closed”, private experience.
Another point worth noting is that the only means of communications between users in a room is a chat box, with messages also appearing in the top right of the video, in a style not unlike that of subtitles. There is no option for video or voice calls, so users would have to use a third party application to enable that.
A big advantage Syncplay has over Rabb.it is that the video can be of high quality and still play reliably well, because no internet bandwidth is required to stream the video to all the machines. If you can watch HD or Blu-ray videos on your computer, then you can watch them through Syncplay. No internet subscriptions are required either, and the video can be maximised to cover the entire screen if the user so wishes.
Drawbacks of Syncplay and the method it uses:
– prior set-up required: every user needs to have the Syncplay application installed and set up, and the video has to be selected through the application by every user.
– video file required: every user requires a copy of the video file available on their personal computer.
