Miro Magic

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I first came across Miro when watching Channel 5’s ‘The Gadget Show’ a couple of weeks ago. It’s a free application for channels of internet video (podcasts and video rss). The website says, “Miro is designed to be easy to use and gives you an elegant full screen viewing experience.” Unlike YouTube the videos are usually very high quality and download completely before you start watching, lessening the chance of skipping and stuttering. (It works on the same principle as the BBC iplayer.)

The way Miro stores and manages videos is very neat, creating a library (similar to itunes) which holds your videos for five days unless you specify for it to be held for longer. The automatic deleting stops the library from clogging up with too many videos - this is particularly useful when using the automatic grab function which saves all of the videos from your favourite channels.

It was developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation, a non-profit organisation. Their mission is to “enable and support independent, non-corporate creativity and political engagement.” The software was previously known as Democracy Player but as Steve O’Hear, editor of last100, explains “the feedback received was that the name evoked different, yet equally negative responses. For many Americans it conjured up an image of yet another left wing media project, and to the rest of the world it was, rather bizarrely, being associated with the policies of the Bush administration. In contrast, the new name is purposely abstract.” Take a look at Steve’s blog for some useful tips on using Miro.

With over 1,500 channels and a slick, easy to use layout, it’s hard to see why Miro won’t become the new choice for downloading videos. My favourite video so far is the world record for xylo throwing (a frisbee type toy designed by NASA).

For an easy step by step video guide on how to use Miro follow the link to watch it now.