Peanut Gallery as SCIENCE! Movie aid

mariomario
edited August 2009 in Movies and Shows
Back in 2006, Stef and I found a nifty little Mac app designed to allow multiple viewers at different computers to watch the same video in sync with integrated text/audio chat. We always thought it would be an awesome means to watch SCIENCE! Movies in the form of organized online viewing parties. But SCIENCE! Movies eventually fizzled out, not many forumites at the time had Macs, and the app was completely forgotten about. When I made casual mentions to bring back the project in recent months, I thought it would be nice to make use of this app to add a fun interactive level beyond the post-movie discussion. Trouble was, I couldn't remember the name!

Thankfully, while rereading some of the old SCIENCE! Movie discussion threads (because they're awesome), I was delighted to find that Stef had once mentioned the app by name! And the app's still around! I give you: Peanut Gallery!

I've downloaded the free demo and hope to give it a try with willing Mac-enabled testers soon. I'm going to order the full version of the application after I finish my move in a few weeks. The cool part is, only the host needs to own the full version (the rest can be sent a viewer-only edition of the app)! Might something like this get more folks interested in SCIENCE! Movie-ing?

Comments

  • SerephelSerephel
    edited August 2009
    Ohh that's sad, I don't have a mac. My biggest problem with watching SCIENCE movies is the lack of availability in my part of the world, through both legal and not entirely legal channels.

    Is it possible to get mac programs like this running on windows? I know very little about it, but if I can I would definitely get in on this.
  • mariomario
    edited August 2009
    I know people have gotten Mac OS X to run on some PCs. Haven't heard of running Mac apps in the Windows environment though.

    Of course, using Peanut Gallery would not be a requirement; anyone without a Mac would still be able to watch the movies as we have in the past, at your convenience on your own schedule.
  • HamelinHamelin
    edited August 2009
    I do this with Mys all the time, but we just use VLC and one of us goes READY... SET... GO!!! over AIM. We tend to get synced up well enough.

    You could also always make a stream on http://www.livestream.com/ if one of us has the bandwidth. I was watching a couple movies a few days ago with Mys on there that someone from 4chan (ugh) was streaming. It did work pretty well considering.
  • mariomario
    edited August 2009
    I've done manual playback syncing before, but it's a pain if you have to pause, and a nightmare to synchronize when more than two parties are involved.

    Livestream looks intriguing. If it can maybe do a single window instead of the entire desktop, I could always use both at once!
  • SilverwardSilverward
    edited August 2009
    Xbox Live is doing something like this with Netflix. You can get a party together online and watch movies with voice chat enabled and everything, it's pretty cool if you ask me.

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