Miro: The Best Internet Video Application Available?

Posted on 27. Aug, 2009 by Alex.Braz in Software

Overview

Miro was advertised as TiVo for Internet videos and the whole idea behind it is searching for quality videos and downloading them.

Features

Miro comes packed with features that will make your experience with videos all around the Internet much, much better.

Format Compatibility

Miro hates wars between formats, so it decided to play almost every video format there is (MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, Divx, WMA, etc.).

Playlists

Since we love playlists, it’s great to find one in Miro. Let’s say you and your girlfriend (or boyfriend) decide to watch all the videos your favorite band made. All you have to do is download them and drag them in the playlist. Oh, but what if you are going on a sleepover and want to surprise your friends with an awesome video playlist?

Fear not, my friends, for you can move your awesome video playlist to your USB drive and take it with you! In case you have some cool videos already on your computer, just tell Miro to find them and put them in your playlist.

Torrents

It’s the 21st century and just about everyone knows about torrents. The developers have put some torrent searching-and-downloading gizmo under the hood of Miro, so you can download torrents right in the application. If you have troubles with space on your disk, tell Miro to stop when it reaches a certain limit. Pretty useful if you are like me and have loads of things on the computer that you don’t want to delete.

Videos

Another feature concerning downloading is an ability to download individual videos via URLs. So if you find a nifty video on YouTube, just copy its address and throw it in Miro.

RSS

Another useful feature is Audio and Video RSS. In case you have favorite podcasts, you can bring them in the application and when the new episode is online, you’ll be the first one to get it. Well, not really the first one, but you’ll get it instantly. In order not to bother you with clicking every time you get a new episode, you can set an auto-download option. Pretty useful if you are on, say, vacation and want every single episode of your favorite show on your computer when you get back.

Compatibility

Not only is Miro free, it is also compatible with all three major OSs. Since the developers want it to be accessible to everyone, it works with Windows, Mac and Linux. Besides that, there is a global community involved, which tests, translates and codes Miro to make it even better. There are over 40 languages already available, but you can help them translate the application for your language as well.

Streaming

Of course, not everything is about downloading. Miro enables you to watch streaming videos as well and have them stored in the sidebar so you don’t lose them. If you are interested in particular videos, you can create the so-called search feeds, which will get you new videos that fit your search terms as soon as they are published.

Finding Videos

But what if you don’t have a clue what to watch? Then you can use Miro Guide, which recommends you new videos by genres or language. It recommends you HD shows, most popular, top rated and new shows. You can download or watch the video online, share it with your friends (e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and so on) and rate it.

If you rate enough videos, the recommended videos will base on your ratings. Besides that, you can submit your own videos and be featured in the Guide, you can submit your own RSS feed or create an alternative guide to recommend your favorite videos to everybody else.

Make Internet TV

Another sweet feature is the Make Internet TV option. Lassies and lads at Miro give you some useful tips on creating your own news and publishing them online. Here’s the link.

Conclusion

All in all, Miro is a wonderful application. It’s free, it’s powerful and extremely useful for both, watchers and publishers. If you already know Miro and have cool tips’n’tricks, tell us about them in the comments. Of course, if you know any other similar useful tools, don’t hesitate to share them with us.

(By) Alex is a blogger from Slovenia who loves internet novelties and runs the Renton Blog.

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