Miro Review: A New Open Source Media Player

Miro Review: A New Open Source Media Player
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Miro bills itself as “the only internet TV you’ll need.” While it does combine a lot of the best places to enjoy free entertainment on the web, I think I’ll still be looking elsewhere for my internet TV fix, thank you very much.

Download and Installation (4 out of 5)

When is this not easy with a Mac? Downloading Miro is very simple, and all you have to do to install it is open it and it prompts you to copy it into your Applications folder. Once done, Miro is ready to run.

Features (3 out of 5)

Miro looks nice and fits in with the Mac aesthetic quite well. It also has a list of impressive features. It offers “6,000 free internet shows and podcasts” and boasts a large amount of HD content, downloaded directly onto your Mac. Miro also downloads torrents and supports the following video formats: Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, among others. In addition, Miro offers various video sharing websites, such as YouTube and Google Video in HD. With all of these features how can it be bad?

Well, for one the interface is not very user friendly. There are a limited number of ways to browse content (none of them alphabetically either). You can search for videos, but that only works if you have something specific in mind. Also, the content is not that mind bending. All of the shows Miro offers are just pulled off of sites like Hulu. I can watch the same thing with FireFox, so why do I need this software? The same thing goes for videos from YouTube and Google.

Also, since all of the content on Miro is free, most of the 6,000 internet shows and podcasts aren’t anything to shake a stick at. Who cares? I don’t.

As for the various video formats supported by Miro, it’s not that important. VLC players support more, so there is no need for MIro if you have one. The same goes for the torrent download. Vuze is user friendly and works just as well. Also, Miro steers clear of violating any copyright laws with its free content, so why include a bittorrent client? Not all torrents are illegal but many are. This just seems a little hypocritical to me.

Usefulness (1 out of 5)

Not much. Miro is just a program that combines FireFox, VLC players and Vuze into one. Unless you are really bad at using the internet (which you mustn’t be since you are reading this) I’m not sure why you would need this software. A few internet searches and you can find what you’re looking for in greater numbers than with Miro.

Overall (2 out of 5)

Miro claims to be a cure all for internet TV when in reality it’s just a combination of other (better) software ideas. I can’t say I recommend Miro at all, but if you want to try it out it is freeware, so you have nothing to lose.

Download Miro