CNET Editors' review
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. The latest major point to version 4 introduces strong support for importing iTunes libraries and Android device syncing, in effect attempting to become iTunes for Android. Somewhat remarkably, it does a good job at this challenging task.
The concept behind Miro is brilliant, yet simple: create a jukebox video and audio player that can subscribe to and download podcasts while managing your locally saved media. On the face of it, this might sound like iTunes, but the sharing component is an essential aspect of the program. The new version now heavily resembles iTunes, with a left nav area for navigating between your audio, video, and connected devices, the Amazon MP3 store and Appstore for Android, and Google's Android Market. New to version 4 is a right nav area that links to recently watched videos, recently played songs, and recent downloads, while the center of the program is where your media discovery and playback happen. Playback controls are on the bottom.
The new Android syncing worked smoothly and ought to feel comfortable to anybody familiar with iTunes syncing--although, notably, it came without the iTunes headaches. Importing more than 10,000 tracks went quickly because Miro recognizes iTunes and Windows Media Player media libraries that are already on your computer.
Main interface of Miro 4
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Miro's other features include support for downloading torrents and viewing their content in the same app; folder watching; resumable playback; channel surfing, which organizes video feeds by topic; robust video conversion, sharing, and hosting; and assistance in creating and distributing videos. While version 3 introduced extensive subtitle support, better metadata management, and a higher maximum volume, the new version 4 focuses on more substantial gains. In addition to syncing movies and music with your Android phones and tablets, Miro now lets you stream your files and share them with other computers running Miro on the same Wi-Fi network. Basically, you can use it to manage media libraries on more than one computer.
Also new is the ability to browse both Amazon.com's Appstore for Android and Google's homegrown Android Market. Click the link in the left nav for either and you'll be able to access full marketplace features from within Miro. The same goes for the Amazon MP3 store. Miro 4 does not yet support Wi-Fi syncing for Android devices, although that feature is expected sooner rather than later.
Be warned that Miro's installation process not only opts you in to installing the Bing toolbar, using the Bing search engine, and setting Bing as your home page, but if you uncheck all three, Miro asks you if you're sure you want to harm its revenue stream. That's fairly aggressive for an open-source program, although this is unfortunately not new to Miro. It's not likely to change anytime soon, either.
Miro has long since passed its unstable early days, and the Android support is clearly geared toward building a user base beyond the niche of open-source fans. It's a solid tool, as long as you can get past that noxious installation.
Publisher's Description
From Participatory Culture:
Miro makes video on the Internet less frustrating and more enjoyable. You can subscribe to channels of Internet video, download videos, and watch them full screen, one after the other, all in one application. Internet video becomes Internet TV.
More Popular Video Players downloads
- Flip4Mac WMV Player
5,745 downloads
- Elmedia Player
814 downloads
- Mac Bluray Player
264 downloads
- AirPlayer
137 downloads
- Air Video Server
108 downloads
-
All versions:
4.3 starsout of 24 votes
-
Current version:
0 stars Be the first to review this product -
My rating:
Write review
-
"Sort of Pointless."
Version: Miro 4.0.3
Pros
Miro used to provide what wasn't available elsewhere, now it's redundant.
Cons
There are better options to this
-
"Been using Miro for years."
Version: Miro 3.5.1
Pros
Flies under the peer/peer radar.
Cons
Too much automation
Summary
Works fine in the background fine.
-
"Nice program"
Version: Miro 3.5.1
Pros
Seems easy to use.
Cons
I have found none.
Summary
I would recommend this program to anyone looking for something similar.
This program seems to work well and I enjoy using it.
Updated on Dec 23, 2010 -
"Better and Better"
Version: Miro 3.5
Pros
"One-stop shopping" with lots of content to download, improved speed, visually appealing.
Cons
File organization in need of an overhaul, as it can get quite confusing. No obvious, simple way to transfer files to iTunes.
Summary
Excellent app for "one-stop shopping" of video content, continually improved upon by the developer.
-
"this looks really cool"
Version: Miro 3.0.3
Pros
It allows me access to us based vids without having to switch to the stupid and always lame Canadian version.
Cons
too soon to be throwing stones.
Summary
I have only just downloaded this app but am impressed with the speed and ease of use.
-
"Great program for the casual viewer"
Version: Miro 2.5.4
Pros
User friendly. Lets me watch old movies and TV programs. Downloads and stores YouTube videos locally. Open source.
Cons
It is very easy to end up with many gigabytes of stored video :-)
Summary
This is a very good program for the casual user of online video. And the price is right.
-
"exceeelent product and great search"
Version: Miro 2.5.4
Pros
easy t find videos but would like to ssee open or closed captioning for the hea ring impaired.
Cons
no closed captioing.
-
"HULU WORKS NO MORE AFTER LAST TWO UPDATES"
Version: Miro 2.5.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Sadly something is amiss and one cannot view Hulu in Miro anymore. I can see it fine in my web browsers (Firefox and Safari) but Miro just sits there--doesn't begin to que/buffer or anything.
Hulu Desktop also works fine and I cannot believe I am now forced to recommend Hulu Desktop or web browsers over Miro.
Sorry guys. It was fun while it lasted but I guess it's goodbye for now. Guess I'll check back in a few months after Snow Leopard to see if all is well again. -
"Anyone having problems with Hulu inside Miro?"
Version: Miro 2.5
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Since the last two updates (this and the previous), my Hulu seems to have stopped working in Miro. It never pulls in a video program. I know it works properly outside in both Firefox and the Hulu Desktop application, so something seems awry in Miro.
Anyone else having this problem? -
"What happened to the ''new'' sidebar list unde..."
Version: Miro 2.5
Summary
...''Li
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I'm sure there are a lot of nice new things here but why did you have to remove the sidebar list under the Library where one could simply find and play newly downloaded stuff? What was nice about this was the simplicity. New stuff not played appeared here and within a few seconds of clicking ''play'' it would unlist, leaving only the ''new stuff'' that had not been played yet.
PLEASE bring this back. It was really nice.
Or--is this a new smartlist kind of thing I have to create myself?
Going to check your forums now to see...
Add Your Review
Submit your reply
E-mail this review
Report offensive content
See more CNET content tagged:
Previous Versions:
