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Development

Download and Watch Videos with Miro 1.0

By Forrest Cook
November 14, 2007

The Miro project, which was formerly known as Democracy Player, (reviewed on LWN.net in 2006) has just announced the release of Miro version 1.0. Unlike simple video player applications, the focus of Miro is on downloading and managing video collections. Miro is classified as an Internet TV viewer. Miro is the main product from the non-profit Worcester, MA Participatory Culture Foundation:

[Miro]

Miro is our core project. It's a free open-source desktop video application that is designed to make mass media more open and accessible for everyone. Television is the most popular medium in our culture. But broadcast and cable TV has always been controlled by a small number of big corporations. We believe that the internet provides an opportunity to open television in ways that have never been possible before.

Miro's feature list includes the following capabilities:

  • Miro is cross-platform, open-source software.
  • The software has been translated to over 40 languages.
  • Miro has the normal video motion controls.
  • There are keyboard shortcuts for easy playback control.
  • Miro supports fullscreen viewing of HD video.
  • The MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H.264, Divx, Windows Media and Flash Video formats are supported.
  • It is possible to play sequential videos via playlists.
  • Video downloading capabilities are built-in.
  • RSS-based video channels are supported.
  • It is possible to auto-download videos.
  • Miro can download via BitTorrent feeds.
  • Downloaded video expires after a number of days in order to free up disk space.
  • The Miro Guide provides an online catalog of RSS video feeds.
  • There are various search options for locating particular videos.
  • There are many library features for organizing video collections.
  • Miro supports the movement of library data across media.
  • Miro has built-in disk space management.
  • Pushbuttons are provided for sharing channels and videos with others.

Installation of Miro on a recently installed Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" machine was trivial. The Miro download site has detailed instructions on adding the appropriate software repository and installing the various required packages. As a test, your author ran Miro on a .mov file that was created on a Nikon S10 digital camera. The video played, but had a tendency to pause briefly every few seconds. On the same machine, the video played without pauses when viewed with the simpler MPlayer application. Perhaps the relatively old Athlon 1700 system with a non-accelerated video card is not quite up to the task.

The real power of Miro can be seen by downloading videos from the net. A few example videos were downloaded and played via the Miro Guide, fortunately there was no evidence of the jerky playback here. It is possible to select a number of videos, then download them in parallel for later playback. Downloads can be paused and aborted if necessary. Miro marks the downloaded videos as UNWATCHED so that the user knows what has not yet been viewed. Once playback is started, the videos are shown in the sequence that they were downloaded. This makes viewing much more a TV-like experience when compared to watching videos from a web browser.

Creating a playlist is trivial, one simply clicks on the video in the New window and drags it to the desired playlist label. Playback is started by clicking the play button on the first video, videos are played sequentially until they are all finished.

Miro greatly improves the experience of downloading and viewing online videos. The designers should be congratulated for making this big step forward. Give Miro a spin, you won't be disappointed.

Comments (8 posted)

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Desktop Applications

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The following new KDE software has been announced this week: You can find more new KDE software releases at kde-apps.org.

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Interoperability

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Languages and Tools

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C

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PHP

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Libraries

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