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Movie Night with Friends

:author:

mcgillij

:category:

Linux

:date:

2021-04-08 22:49

:tags:

Linux, Movies, Syncplay, #100DaysToOffload

:slug:

syncplay-movie-night-with-friends

:summary:

Syncplay is a neat tool for watching movies with friends remotely

:cover_image:

movie.png

Contents

Syncplay

Syncplay

is a neat application that allows you to… well sync playing movies remotely.

It’s cross platform supporting Linux, BSD, OSX and Windows and open source. While also supporting a number of different movie players, mpv, mpv.net, IINA, MPC-BE, MPC-HC and VLC.

There are some free servers that are up and running that you just join and create a room and start watching. Alternatively you can also setup your own as well. The client also supports chatting with everyone that your watching with as well.

Pandemic Movie Nights

I had never heard of Syncplay prior to last weekend, but I’m glad I know about it now, it came in very handy. And while not being as good as all watching a movie together in the same house / theater it was a pretty great experience that I would definitely recommend.

We used this last weekend to watch a movie together with a group of friends. And quite honestly I was impressed at how quickly we all got it setup and ready to use. I was in Arch Linux using MPV, we had a few watching from OSX and a couple running in Windows as well. Some of us were also in a Discord server to allow voice chatting, but the built in chat overlay also worked quite nicely as well.

How to use it

Note: Everyone needs a copy of the movie your going to watch.

Usage:

1. Download and install syncplay

2. Point the media folder to the location where you have a copy of the movie

3. Join the same syncplay server and #channel as your pals

4. Click I’m READY

That’s it, then whoever’s leading the movie night will have remote control over peoples players and can pause etc.