Miro (video software)

Miro can automatically download videos from RSS-based "channels", manage them and play them. The application is designed to mesh with other Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) products such as Video Bomb, a social tagging video website, and the Channel Channel, a TV guide for Internet television.

Miro integrates an RSS news aggregator and podcatcher, a BitTorrent client (based on libtorrent), and a media player (VLC media player under Windows, QuickTime under macOS, and xine media player or GStreamer under Linux and FreeBSD). Since 2.0, Miro supports the adding of website bookmarks under the "Sites" category; by default, ClearBits.net is preloaded in Miro as a bookmark.

Examples of supported video files are QuickTime, Windows Media Video (WMV), MPEG, Audio Video Interleave (AVI), XVID as a video player. It also supports RSS BitTorrent. When a new video is available, the program will notify and download if possible.

The Miro Video Converter converts video formats.[http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/ Miro Video Converter] It is based on FFmpeg with profiles for the Theora (.ogv), .mp4, and WebM video formats supported by various devices.{{cite web

|url = https://develop.participatoryculture.org/index.php/ConversionMatrix

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20121220232927/https://develop.participatoryculture.org/index.php/ConversionMatrix

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 20 December 2012

|title = Miro Video Converter FFMPEG Conversion Matrix

|publisher = Participatory Culture Foundation

|date = 8 April 2011

|access-date = 11 October 2011

}}

A developer of Miro wrote that the Windows installer installs proprietary commercial software such as browser add-ons, also known as crapware,{{cite web | url=http://operationstech.about.com/od/glossary/g/crapware.htm | title=Crapware is software that is bundled with a new PC or other software package that the user is not fully aware that they are installing. | publisher=about.com | access-date=18 May 2014 | archive-date=19 May 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519021045/http://operationstech.about.com/od/glossary/g/crapware.htm | url-status=dead }}{{Synthesis inline|date=May 2017}} stating "This is one of the primary ways we fund continued Miro development."{{cite web

|url = http://bugzilla.pculture.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15208

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130901222623/http://bugzilla.pculture.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15208

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 2013-09-01

|title = Bug 15208 – Miro setup closes and restarts Firefox without notification

|date = 2010-11-14

|publisher = Bugzilla

}}

The application was first launched in 2005 as Democracy Player (sometimes abbreviated as DTV) and later on as Miro in 2007. Video searching of web-based video archives was included in 2007, with access to various archives changing over time.

Miro is mostly written in Python, although it links to various libraries written in a variety of languages. Versions through 2.x had an almost entirely HTML/CSS based UI. Miro uses embedded WebKit in a GTK window on Unix/Linux (Mozilla Gecko/XUL until 3.0.2), WebKit in a Cocoa window on macOS, and Mozilla in a XUL window on Windows. Since version 3.0, the macOS port uses Cocoa and others use GTK. The embedded web browser is used only for web pages.

Miro received a favorable review from Josh Quittner who wrote "I have seen the future of television and it’s an application called Miro."{{cite web

|url=http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2007/11/13/the-future-of-internet-tv/

|title=The future of Internet TV

|work=TechLand blog

|last=Quittner

|first=Josh

|publisher=CNN

|date=13 November 2007

|quote=I have seen the future of television and it’s an application called called Miro.

|access-date=27 October 2011

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003034751/http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2007/11/13/the-future-of-internet-tv/

|archive-date=3 October 2011

|url-status=dead

}} In May 2011, Seth Rosenblatt of CNET wrote, "Providing one-stop shopping for all your video and audio management desires, open-source and cross-platform Miro deserves much of the praise that's been heaped upon it."{{cite web

|title=Miro – CNET Editors' review

|first=Seth

|last=Rosenblatt

|publisher=CNET

|date=25 May 2011

|url=http://download.cnet.com/Miro/3000-2139_4-10587758.html

|access-date=27 October 2011

|archive-date=18 October 2011

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018025053/http://download.cnet.com/Miro/3000-2139_4-10587758.html

|url-status=dead

}} The Softonic review gave the software a score of 9/10, and described the software as "a perfect example of how video content from different sources can be integrated into one single application and served directly to your PC in a fast, easy and elegant way."{{cite web

|title=Watch internet videos like you watch TV

|date=25 July 2011

|first=Elena |last= Santos

|publisher=Softonic

|url=http://miro.en.softonic.com/

|access-date=27 October 2011

}}

{{Portal|Free and open-source software|Television}}

• Broadcatching
• Peercasting
• Popcorn Time, a similar media player
• Open Media Network

{{clear}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons and category|Miro|Miro (software)}}

• {{Official website}}
• [http://www.last100.com/2007/07/17/democracy-player-is-dead-long-live-miro/ Democracy Player is dead, long live Miro – last100, 17 July 2007]
• [http://download.cnet.com/Miro/3000-13632_4-10587758.html CNET 5 Star Review 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522180935/http://download.cnet.com/Miro/3000-13632_4-10587758.html |date=22 May 2010 }}
• [http://www.cnet.com/8301-13739_1-9775271-46.html CNET Blog article on how to use Miro to automatically download the latest TV shows of your choice]
• [http://reviews.cnet.com/4660-10621_7-6743226.html?tag=vid.1 CNET Video Review of Democracy Player – Dated]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080207173143823 Groklaw interview with Nicholas Reville], February 2008

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