Syncplay

This update features some long-awaited features, including the new logo by Catlinman, IPv6 support and TLS/SSL support by albertosottile (not yet available for Windows), improved VLC support and better handling of high-DPI displays by et0h. There were also some nice bonuses such as the last-minute addition of Spanish language support by bcattaneo and various tweaks and bug fixes. Thanks to everyone who contributed this release!

Change log for Syncplay 1.6.3 (Release Candidate #1):

• New Syncplay logo by catlinman as per his announcement (PR #219 by catlinman)
• IPv6 support (PR #215 by albertosottile ,requested in Issue #107 by dawnMachine)
• Initial TLS (SSL) support (PR  #233 by albertosottile, and requested in #217 by alxpettit)
• Spanish Language support (PR #227 by bcattaneo)
• Automatically copy offer VLC interface script when it is needed (PR #220 by Et0h fixed Issue #193)
• Fix a VLC bug (Issue #213 raised by mechchicken resolved by albertosottile)
• Handle non-UTF8 messages to server (fixes Issue #210, based on PR #214 by xNinjaKittyx)
• Use high-DPI scaling where available (Etoh)
• Print error message if Twisted fails (Etoh)
• Fix bug which meant that –max-chat-message-length can’t be used to raise the maximum length (Issue #224 resolved by Etoh, raised by csritu)

Download links (hosted by Github):

• Windows installer
• Windows portable 
• Linux Tarball
  
• macOS .dmg file (10.12+)
• macOS 1.5.3a  legacy .dmg file (10.6.8+) – We hope to make a 1.6.3 legacy release at some point
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Package (for if Syncplay does not load on Windows) – Download the 32-bit version, i.e. ‘vc_redist.x86.exe’.
• Source code repository: https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/

(Note: If  you want to use Syncplay with Python 2 then you can use Syncplay 1.5.5)

Hashes for Syncplay-1.6.3-RC1-Setup.exe (confirm with Microsoft’s File Checksum Integrity Verifier)
MD5: e95b68305a05589575a42974d3697578
SHA-1: 85b2e53973ee55a04754e12d6b5cbb767995d32c
SHA256: 39892363bdd59112dd622b031bf4678a9b5584a19942a5db6dec7122931eb406

Hashes for Syncplay_1.6.3_RC1_Portable.zip (confirm with Microsoft’s File Checksum Integrity Verifier)
MD5: 362e11f56ecf9ae6759c7c110665de13
SHA-1: cffbc7914b017383394557eeea862fc3c86f0bc3
SHA256: a640a4c2fc99fe9939e7e3b8cd49998ea00ec630f47ea99573546396ae791ff6

Hashes for Syncplay_1.6.3-RC1.dmg [re-release] (confirmable using QuickHash GUI)
MD5: 88f7050695293436e200d50816e418c1
SHA-1: abd136ec6a6c5bac3f354904865743c72be4f1ff
SHA256: 127a578a9f5f37e08e2d4323f6696d3535b9a73643dede5dcc16177f4bbafdde

Hashes for Syncplay_1.5.3a_macOS_legacy.dmg (confirmable using QuickHash GUI)
MD5: dae13b67f7329f079b1d4f892cbc736a
SHA-1: 8dbde989bb808ab6975617889a826ddde7ac2f59
SHA256: fa1a370aded3e7da3413a3f3a005165e420fcd2eb334ed23cfccedbfd45f8ec3

Note: This open source software has been marked as clean by Jotti (.exe, .zip, .dmg, legacy .dmg) and VirusTotal (.exe, .zip, .dmg, legacy .dmg). Syncplay might be flagged as suspicious by some anti-malware systems simply because it is niche software downloaded from the Internet but as we are open source anyone can audit our code if they wish to do so.

Contact us

As usual, if you are having problems or want to give feedback then please e-mail us (dev@syncplay.pl) or chat with us on IRC (#syncplay on chat.freenode.net; account registration required). Issues can be raised and discussed at https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/issues

Thank you for flying with Syncplay!

-Etoh

We are pleased to announce that Syncplay 1.6.3 will adopt our new logo for Syncplay!

The old Syncplay logo (left) alongside its replacement (right)

According to the new logo’s author Catlinman:

“My goal in mind was to create a new version of the logo that embraces a more modern and clean design while retaining and accentuating the original wing design. Furthermore I wanted to include some sort of play symbol to give the whole design a much easier visual understanding. One of the challenges I faced was that the logo had to work at even tiny resolutions of 16×16 pixels while also looking good with large word mark. The final design incorporates all of this!”

As long-time followers of the #Syncplay IRC channel can attest, Catlinman put in a lot of work not just creating the initial logo but also working with Syncplay developers and users to respond to feedback by generating alternative designs and explaining his design decisions.

See Catlinman’s Imgur post for more about the evolution of the new logo which includes some of the alternative designs he produced as part of our discussions. You can also see some other mock-ups from the design process as part of our Facebook post from February 2018. A big thanks to him for all his work on this!

We did explore including additional elements in the logo, but in the end this hampered the ability of the logo to look the same at different sizes so in the end we decided to keep it simple. The addition of the play logo provides a clearer link to our core function, which is supporting people to play media. While the logo has been modernised we have retained the concept of the wing design from our original logo. Do the wings represent Hermes, known to the Greeks as a god of synchronicity and to the Romans as a god of communication and information, or is it simply an old-school anime reference? That one, dear users, we will leave open to interpretation…

The fact that the final design ended up looking a lot like the initial proposal is a testament to Catlinman’s good design instincts, and we hope that even if you find the change to be a shock that it will grow on you over time. We are also grateful to Devon who helped us explore some other logo options and to everyone who provided feedback on the logo as it was being developed.