clearer
1st September 2007, 11:09 AM
I recently (yesterday) discovered that there is an open alternative to Joost, which is ready for mass consumption (as much as such a product can be) now.
The name of the app is Miro (aka Democracy) and it works on the three big OS'.
First of all, Miro appears to be using libxine for video -- which to me is a stamp of quality (well on the video side at least). Xine is the only video player library which has given me no hazzle on any nix.
The app is really just a torrent enabled podcastdownloading video player with a search function embedded in it. And it works quite well.
Just like Joost it is lacking in the content department -- unlike Joost this is easily fixed. AFAIK Joost can only transmit cleared content which Joost has to approve. There is no option to setup your own channel. With Miro, that's quite easy. As far as I can tell, all it requires is a http server -- torrents are optional and an RSS feed is more or less what you need.
On the userinterface side of things, Miro uses GTK+ for the widgets and includes readily available search controls, video and audio controls, a tree style organization area with "folder" for downloaded videos, new videos, a download area and another place to search (broader searches can be done in the guide area).
System: See below.
Overall description: Video podcast player.
Gotchas: None found.
A link to some screenshots of the program running under Fedora
Assessment of installation: Yummy 5 stars (use yum -- no need for extra repos).
Assessment of the ease of use: 4 stars
Assessment of the features: 4 stars.
Assessment on the quality of the program: 4 stars.
An overall assessment out of 10: 8-ish. I'd say 9, but there is a formula for this kind of thing so it has to be 8.
The name of the app is Miro (aka Democracy) and it works on the three big OS'.
First of all, Miro appears to be using libxine for video -- which to me is a stamp of quality (well on the video side at least). Xine is the only video player library which has given me no hazzle on any nix.
The app is really just a torrent enabled podcastdownloading video player with a search function embedded in it. And it works quite well.
Just like Joost it is lacking in the content department -- unlike Joost this is easily fixed. AFAIK Joost can only transmit cleared content which Joost has to approve. There is no option to setup your own channel. With Miro, that's quite easy. As far as I can tell, all it requires is a http server -- torrents are optional and an RSS feed is more or less what you need.
On the userinterface side of things, Miro uses GTK+ for the widgets and includes readily available search controls, video and audio controls, a tree style organization area with "folder" for downloaded videos, new videos, a download area and another place to search (broader searches can be done in the guide area).
System: See below.
Overall description: Video podcast player.
Gotchas: None found.
A link to some screenshots of the program running under Fedora
Assessment of installation: Yummy 5 stars (use yum -- no need for extra repos).
Assessment of the ease of use: 4 stars
Assessment of the features: 4 stars.
Assessment on the quality of the program: 4 stars.
An overall assessment out of 10: 8-ish. I'd say 9, but there is a formula for this kind of thing so it has to be 8.
