Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

wahlburg reviewed v6.0 on May 5, 2013

Find yourself a nice collection of video sources, get Miro's capable download manager to auto-download them (file links, RSS feeds, torrents - whatever!), watch them straight from within the app, and tell me how you lived without this incredible peice of software.

Version 6.0 cuts down on CPU Usage (it's zero when no downloads are taking place), and my cheap-o dual-core Atom (2GB RAM) has no issues running this in the background. The interface is better than before (if a tad clunky) but functionality-wise, this is just plain unbeatable. And it's both free and open-source, to boot!

For podcasts alone, I've paid for apps that do a worse job!

I'm donating.

zxlotusxz reviewed v5.0.4 on Oct 9, 2012

I tried it out and I simply don't see the point in it?

cltx99 reviewed v5.0.2 on Jul 29, 2012

I don't like to be harsh, but this is a piece-o-crap.

tuncerd reviewed v5.0 on May 3, 2012

Cons:
Sound volume is low. It should be boosted as in VLC or KMP.
The interface is amateurish.
The software is laggy and a CPU hog.
Adding podcast/feeds is not simple enough.

Pros:
Cross platform
All-in-one podcatcher.
Miro has potential to be a must-have multimedia app.

keir reviewed v4.0 on May 28, 2011

Terrible memory usage in 4.0 and 4.0.1 when it's not doing anything.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v4.0 Beta 1 on May 3, 2011

looks good
I did not see any Zugo Toolbar
use custom install
do not agree to anything

kbsoftware reviewed v4.0 Beta 1 on May 2, 2011

A bit of a heads up, during installation you have the option to install a search home page, kind of a weird way of wording it but what it actually is, is the Zugo Toolbar. Miro does tell you how to uninstall this sucker even offer an uninstall program to help but you'll find both methods will fail. Zugo is notorious for doing anything they can to keep from being removed from a computer once installed, for that reason in my eyes it's malware.

I rate it a one because I don't dare run anything with the Zugo Toolbar no matter if I have a choice to install it or not.

DoHickey reviewed v3.5.0 on Oct 24, 2010

I rate this a 3 because of the way it's organized.
Would I use it, no. Not after trying it for an hour.
Not enough content.

Zoroaster reviewed v3.0.1 on Apr 14, 2010

I've never been quite fond of podcasts and so on, but that was until Miro. I have to admit that this application is incentive to a cool approach and handling of video (and audio) on the Web. Totally intuitive, elegant, fast. I've discovered channels of all sorts, this is a real passport to pleasure.

Jammerdelray reviewed v3.0.1 on Apr 13, 2010

Love it! They fixed the crash lingering since Vista and it runs very smooth and snappy now. My choice for watching Diggnation, Tekzilla and other shows.

No cons.

some guy reviewed v3.0.1 on Apr 13, 2010

nothing more the external links pure garbage, if you like this you will Like Real Player and Aol web browser

Prospero424 reviewed v3.0 on Mar 26, 2010

New version is nice and clean, and seems to load up a lot faster. I had stopped using this for a while because I just began to use the Boxee alpha for video podcast catching/viewing, but the new Boxee beta doesn't yet support adding feeds (they're working on it), so I came back to Miro, which I've always liked anyway.

@SBMongoos:

See my tips in the "Discussions" link for this app above and reply there if you still can't get it to work. I'll try to help you out.

dzjepp reviewed v2.5 on Jul 27, 2009

Very nice. Easy to follow some very interesting video feeds.

For ease of use, it's hard to beat

SBMongoos reviewed v2.0.5 on Jul 7, 2009

Would really like to use it but I cannot get any video. Sound, but that's it. Running XP SP3. Do have KLite installed. Been searching at their site but have not found an answer and this exact question is still open waiting for an answer at the Participatory Culture Foundation. Anyone have any ideas? Would really like to test this out.

emanresU deriseD reviewed v2.0.5 on Jun 29, 2009

"This port mapping problem is almost certainly a product of that particular reviewer's network configuration and/or hardware since, as far as I'm aware, Miro uses the highly-regarded libtorrent to do torrent port mapping. I don't even see a single person complaining of this problem on Miro's interactive troubleshooting page. And this is NOT a tech support page."

Yeah, right. I have a Linksys WRTSL54GS running the very highly-esteemed Tomato firmware. I have used many applications that use UPnP, and I have NEVER had this problem before.

And BTW, I wasn't seeking "tech support". That should be obvious.

You probably don't see anyone else complaining about this because they don't bother to check. How many people check their router's actual UPnP mapping status? I do because I have been a software engineer and professional software tester*, and I know what crapware signs to look for. It wasn't hard with Miro.

* I'm not trying to impress anyone; just stating the facts.

Prospero424 reviewed v2.0.5 on Jun 28, 2009

Edit: I use Tomato on a WRT54GL, but I disallow UPnP for security reasons, don't forward any ports for Miro, and it still works just fine on all my internal clients (I think libtorrent can do NAT traversal). However, I did temporarily enable UPnP and it did indeed leave the ports open after closing Miro, as emanresU deriseD describes. I still find it odd that I can't find a single other person complaining about or even reporting this. Maybe it's an issue between Miro and Tomato (not that it's necessarily Tomato's fault)? Edit2: I just tried the Halite Bittorrent client, which is also based upon libtorrent, and it does the same thing with Tomato! I guess that explains that.

I will say that it would be nice if Miro supported NAT-PMP instead of just UPnP. Still, I don't see that as any reason for anyone to give Miro the lowest score possible for this, especially if you're comparing it to KMPlayer (which I love), because the two pieces of software do NOT perform the same or even similar functions. Miro is a video RSS catcher, KMPlayer is a dedicated media player.

I use Zoom Player or KMPlayer as my mainline media players and Miro when I want to watch vodcasts. By this logic, one might as well be blasting KMPlayer for not having an RSS catching/browsing feature, which would be silly. That's not what it's intended for.

Let's move any further discussion to the dedicated discussion section.

Pkshadow: the reason nobody probably addressed that point is:

1. There was no Miro 2.04 (version got skipped), so some of us didn't have the chance to write a follow-up review until now.

2. This port mapping problem is almost certainly a product of that particular reviewer's network configuration and/or hardware since, as far as I'm aware, Miro uses the highly-regarded libtorrent to do torrent port mapping. I don't even see a single person complaining of this problem on Miro's interactive troubleshooting page. And this is NOT a tech support page.

But really, if you have concerns and you haven't even used the program, the least you could do is put your question(s) in the discussion section instead of the review section. You're screwing up the score out of nothing more than ignorant (as you admitted) spite.

Review: This release includes some simplifications to the library and some major speed and memory improvements due to a more efficient database, which can now be accessed externally.

This has indeed become a "killer app" for the open source community. Nothing else does what it does nearly as well, much less does it across every OS and hardware platform (within reason). It's one of the few apps I use every single day. It's how I watch the nightly news (in full with commercial breaks that last mere seconds), my favorite PBS shows, all my tech shows (like Revision3's stuff), a bunch of high-quality independent content, and even video journals and feeds from NASA and the JPL.

The resource usage is actually quite good, now (it was very high in Miro 1.x versions), and the speed seems to have improved over the early 2.x versions.

The detachable video window is a must-have feature, and I'm glad they added it to Miro 2. That was a big sore spot with Miro 1.

Excellent program that does everything you'd expect and more. Nothing else comes close.

SBMongoos: see discussion section

Pkshadow reviewed v2.0.5 on Jun 27, 2009

I do not usually review programs that I have not tried.
With that said I find it very strange that the people who decide what is said about this program did not address previous reviews comments/reviews of the program. This in it self is not that strange but when people suggest mapping ports and ports are left open even after uninstalling the program I would think THIS would be a must to address.
Since it was not addressed, no down load, no install and a 1 for ignoring us "your" public!

emanresU deriseD reviewed v2.0.3 on Mar 20, 2009

I'm not sure why anyone would like this thing. It's free but whoppdy doo. I installed it, and besides it being slow, it is devoid of features. I can't set hotkeys or control the player using the keyboard and/or mouse the way I can with KMPlayer. The seekbar is ridiculously narrow.

It also mapped BitTorrent ports in my router (using UPnP) for no reason. And I found that those ports remained open, even after closing Miro, and even after uninstalling it. That's just sloppiness.

You can keep this piece of crap.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.3 on Mar 16, 2009

I uninstalled this. Too crashy. I like the idea, but seriously guys, focus on the stability of your product.

raveren reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 13, 2009

It's simply excellent at what it does, but it crashes very often. I mean I haven't even once closed it properly, it just hangs and disappears in the middle of me watching something :(

Still a 5/5 for the simplicity, excellent design and I am looking forward to bugfixes and new features.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 9, 2009

o #11385 FIXED support for both libtorrent 0.13 and 0.14
o #11413 FIXED single quote and double quote translation into Miro 2.0
o #11423 FIXED Delete unused icon cache files
o #11430 FIXED ValueError?: Multiple default guides!
o #11432 FIXED EOFError loading config
o #11456 FIXED 'Show More' crashes with UnicodeDecodeError?
o #11460 FIXED Non-UTF8 locales break things
o #11477 FIXED Miro shows no videos in a specific invalid feed
o #11478 FIXED TypeError?: 'NoneType?' object is unsubscriptable
o #11479 FIXED AttributeError?: 'AppController?' object has no attribute 'pausedDownloaders'
o #11474 FIXED Can't process cookie expiration. Thanks Uwe!
o #11022 FIXED "File name:" string is bold. Thanks Zach!
o #11245 FIXED OPML import/export issues with non-ascii filenames
o #11525 FIXED migrating folders with non-ascii characters
o #11527 FIXED watched directories with non-ascii characters
o #11528 FIXED playback fails for items in directories with non-ascii characters
o #11544 FIXED handling for site type in subscriptions
o #11546 FIXED pause all does not pause queued downloads
o #11435 FIXED re-worked xine driver code so that it respects xine-driver property
o #11522 FIXED error loading windll.winhttp
o #11539 FIXED OSX crash when migrating to directory with non-ascii characters
o #11557 FIXED non-ascii directory names are not displayed properly in Folder panel of preferences
o #11575 FIXED non-ascii movies dir - startup check dir name mangled
o #11554 FIXED first time startup search, non-ascii directory
o #11560 FIXED crash when updated torrent that is in a folder with other files
o #11568 FIXED Miro_Downloader Crashes on Launch
o #11588 FIXED gstreamerrenderer passes "python" as executable for gst_extractor -- now uses sys.executable

* Updates
o updated translations synced from LaunchPad? on 3/04/2009
o #11516 Updated to libtorrent 0.14.2

* New Features
o #11518 NEW Added metavid.org search support. Thanks Uwe!
o #11461 NEW Added 5min.com search support. Thanks Uwe!
o #3858 NEW Added EveryZing? search support. Thanks Uwe!
o #11458 NEW Added vimeo.com url scraping support. Thanks Uwe!

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.1 on Feb 12, 2009

* FIXED downloader process on gtkx11 uses same python executable as miro process
* FIXED attributerror with getElementThumbnail
* FIXED updating from 1.2.8 deletes videos from feeds that have multiple enclosures per item and Miro picks a different one between 1.2.8 and 2.0

Prospero424 reviewed v2.0 on Feb 12, 2009

Absolutely fantastic open source, cross-platform software. Screw iTunes, THIS is the way to get and watch vodcasts, and now it supports audio podcasts. It allows content providers to serve videos through more traditional methods as well as through integrated Bittorrent, which can provide massive savings in gross bandwidth costs. In addition, now you can add web sites and seamlessly add streaming shows from providers like Hulu directly through the Miro guide as well as the ability to browse, search for, and even download any video from YouTube.

All of the complaints I had about the interface have been resolved: now you can detach any playing video from the interface and keep browsing as it plays, it doesn't choke on feeds with hundreds of videos, the color scheme is less "distinctive", and the screen real estate is generally just used more efficiently.

Performance and resource usage is GREATLY improved over the 1.x versions, and there are even more options for distributing content overall.

Issues still to be worked out in 2.01 version (hopefully):

1. You cannot "close" any sites you go to that you may have added to the sidebar. They basically open as hidden tabs as you visit them and you don't seem to be able to close them on demand, and they will take up resources until Miro itself is closed. This needs to be fixed.

2. It doesn't seem to be able to save passwords for any sites you browse. I tried it on Last.fm. You have to log in by typing your full login and password to each individual site every time you close and open Miro. This needs to be fixed, as well.

3. It crashes for a lot of people on exit, including myself. This doesn't cause any problems I can detect, but it's an obvious bug that needs to be squashed.

Overall, I'm really, really pleased with the direction they've taken this program. If they iron out these bugs and issues, this has the potential to become another killer app for the OSS movement.

Zoroaster reviewed v2.0 on Feb 11, 2009

No Unicode support ; moreover, doesn't seem to be accomplished. New GUI is charming, but the app is still buggy, IMO

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0 on Feb 10, 2009

This is a slick app. By far the most polished of the download video apps I've seen. Just the ability to watch the onion in full screen is well worth it.

edit: after watching two HD nature shows, it crashed. :(

argybee reviewed v1.2.6 on Aug 18, 2008

Not much imagination here Jammerdelray....
If your pc runs a 40"HD or more monitor and pumps out all 'normal' TV sources (via TV card?) then you MUST be miles ahead in terms of optional viewing AND quality. You should also be aware that computer montior resolution has (until fairly recently) been way beyond TV resolution. TV is only now catching up with HD.
This app is potentially a way of the future. It is very well thought out and designed and runs well on my 10yr old pc. It DOES NOT stream while you watch so any viewing lags are within your machine setup.
The only issue with this at the moment is the number and quality of source 'transmissions' but that can only improve with time.
At least you gave it a 5 anyway!?
Cheers... RGB

Jammerdelray reviewed v1.2.6 on Aug 15, 2008

"Please explain to me why someone would want to watch anything on a computer screen when you can get a better picture on your tv. Resolution is better and you don't get the stuttering effect as on streaming stuff."

You can't watch shows like diggnation, tekzilla etc on tv etc.

Prospero424 reviewed v1.2.3 on Apr 23, 2008

I don't know why people complain about the quality with regard to Miro. The quality is up to the broadcaster, not the application. It's built on VLC; it can do whatever quality you throw at it as long as your PC is powerful enough. There are a LOT of 720x480 and even 1280x720 channels (like Revision3's stuff) available.

Not enough channels? Every channel I've looked for has been there - certainly most podcast channels available for free on iTunes.

Complaints about streaming video!? This ISN'T streaming. Anyone who reads even the shortest accurate description of this, much less actually uses it, knows this. WTH?

Great app. The fact that it's open source and cross-platform makes it better. The fact that it makes videocasting cheaper through Bittorrent makes it even better still.

The interface is relatively good, and will improve. It's still a relatively young program, and very successful considering that.

sjc001 reviewed v1.2.3 on Apr 22, 2008

My monitor is bigger than my TV and its resolution is also higher as well and I have a 15 Mbit cable connection. Someone is behind the times.....

DudeBoyz reviewed v1.2.3 on Apr 22, 2008

Not so bad. You can save YouTube videos to your local drive to replay them when you want, which is cool, but I do agree - the interface is a bit wonky.

madmike reviewed v1.2.2 on Mar 30, 2008

Tis ok, the quality is reasonable however not enougth channels and some dead links also which spolis an otherwise ok product.

Prospero424 reviewed v1.1 on Mar 21, 2008

I think the interface is rather good, except for one major thing:

The user needs to be able to browse the channels and the library while a video is playing windowed. The application basically goes dumb when playback is started, and people expect to be able to interact with it these days.

I still stand by everything I said below except I found out that they allow merchandising through their "co-branded" player program. That's actually really smart.

Qlib reviewed v1.1 on Jan 12, 2008

I cant even imagine a worse gui.. it totally destroys ANY use this program might have otherwize had..

Prospero424 reviewed v1.0 on Nov 26, 2007

I have to admit, I was skeptical of this program when it was first proposed. I slogged through the alphas and betas thinking they were going to make the usual mistake: going strong on concept but screwing up the interface.

These later stable releases have proved me wrong. The drag-and-drop interface is spot on; intuitive as anything I've tried. Just set it to your favorite channels, and it'll grab anything new and delete anything older than six days (I set it to three). It'll also index any local directories you tell it to; seamlessly integrating traditional media center behavior.

I mean yeah, you can replicate the functionality by combining a Bittorrent client that includes an RSS .torrent catcher, then manually add your favorite feeds after manually entering your many filters, then set up your media player to watch the incoming directory and maybe, just maybe, thumbnail the contents. But that's not exactly an approachable task for most people.

This is an open program built on other proven, open programs (VLC, Mozilla) utilizing an open network protocol (Bittorrent), fulfilling a fundamentally democratic, open purpose: videocasting using as little source bandwidth as possible. It makes videocasting cheap.

Yes, it uses a good amount of memory, but the resource usage is certainly comparable to reasonable alternatives like iTunes and Windows Media Center/WMP11. And it supports WAY more formats because of the underlying VLC engine.

I've actually replaced VLC on my media machine with Miro altogether. The playlist functionality alone beats every VLC skin/distribution I've tried.

The only complaints I would make are that:

1. They need let the user switch between a standard interface and one designed for viewing on an HTDV/HTPC.

2. It has no ability whatsoever for merchandising or linking. So whoever makes content available isn't going to make any money off of it, as currently conceived.

But maybe that's the point...

1uk3 reviewed v1.0 on Nov 18, 2007

I've tired this on 2 Vista machines and it crashes on both after about a minute.

I was hoping to use it on my media center pc, on a large LCD TV but the text size etc would be too small for this use anyway - Joost works nicely on my media center but is limited in other ways.

Could be good in the future I guess - worth watching for future developments as I think it has potential.

anomoly reviewed v1.0 on Nov 14, 2007

Nice try but the internet is too large to think one prog can simply 'feed' you videos.
Complete resource hog and some of the feeds are unresponsive. BLOATWARE
5 for the gui but pc's, and the internet are not at the level this program is or wants to be.

freegoo reviewed v0.9.9.9.1 Public Preview 3 on Nov 6, 2007

This is a pretty nice program overall. Very good interface, and does the job of downloading videos/podcasts in the background well. Where the program falls, and falls HARD, is it's memory footprint and overall responsiveness. On my computer gobbles up 157 megs of memory while sitting idle. That's not counting the 17 meg downloader that is running as well. That's WAY too much memory usage for a program that is designed to be always running in the background and when Windows starts up. A general comment regarding it's snappiness... I'm running a pretty decent machine and Miro seems to holdup my Windows startup pretty bad. The window just sits there unresponsively for about 15-30 seconds while the 150 meg program is loaded up. Once everything is up, it runs pretty good, taking a few seconds to come up of "sleep" state, or whatever you want to call it.

Anyway, it's an excellent program and is what I am currently using for my podcasts and video downloads... but I really hope they clean up the code as it is just way too bloated in its current state.

robmanic44 reviewed v0.9.9 Public Preview 2 on Sep 27, 2007

This is primarily for downloads to media players. As a system download player it's not much.

Tao2005 reviewed v0.9.9 Public Preview 2 on Sep 5, 2007

WOW! Great UI. Haven't tried it, I'll rate it higher when I can download the Full version, not this bate crap..

Nikkie reviewed v0.9.8.1 Public Preview 1 on Aug 11, 2007

It does what it says.You can download videos and keep them.You have the option to have a nice sorted list and the media player all built in.I have no spyware due to this and it won't take over your current config...when installing, i noticed a list and it only had 4 of their own files checked off.the user below must have checked off more things and messed with the installation etc.

i may be doing this wrong but i don't notice anything high def...also, i just use vdownloader to download videos.

My only complaint is it started up slow.It seems fairly new, so im sure they will fix this up as time goes on..

caplanepourmoi reviewed v0.9.8.1 Public Preview 1 on Aug 5, 2007

I have just quickly tried out this software, I did a search on some keyword for the dailymotion site, Miro gave me a list of videos without preview thumbnail and when I clicked on the first video I had to wait about one minute for Miro to download it before being able to watch it, so to me it is more tedious to use Miro then using the dailymotion website directly since I can see preview thumbnail for each videos and watch them directly without waiting time.

Prospero424 reviewed v0.9.8.1 Public Preview 1 on Jul 25, 2007

Okay. I saw these complaints about adware or whatever and I got concerned for a minute. After all, how can complaints like this come out of nowhere?

I did a web search on three different engines for "Miro adware" and "Democracy Player adware", and the only results I got were for this BetaNews thread.

I ran several different spyware detection programs, and checked HijackThis! for strange programs.

I ran a virus scan with the latest definitions.

I checked the license agreement for Miro/Democracy Player looking for something that might hint at adware.

I checked the forums over at Slyck.com (filesharing news website) for any reports of this.

And I installed not only the latest version, but also several previous releases under both Linux and Windows looking for strange behavior.

I found nothing. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. This thread is the ONLY place I could find ANY report or hint of malicious activity. It didn't take over any file associations I didn't specifically tell it to any of my systems, and it doesn't seem to interfere with any of my other media players (iTunes, Media Player Classic, Zoom Player, Winamp, VLC, etc.)

This is a great, open, efficient video content delivery system that has phenomenal potential. It integrates VLC, Bittorrent, and a media browser in an incredibly seamless manner that makes consuming what content is available a pleasure, even if much of the "high def" content isn't exactly high def.

I really don't understand where the information for the negative reviews below could have come from. Maybe I'm just missing something, and I'm willing to admit it if I did, but I see NO facts whatsoever backing up these claims; just unfounded paranoia.

robmanic44 reviewed v0.9.8.1 Public Preview 1 on Jul 25, 2007

I've always disliked programs which try to monopolize my desktop. You simply don't know what this program is doing in the background. It may be doing things that you don't want done.

mjm01010101 reviewed v0.9.8.1 Public Preview 1 on Jul 25, 2007

Down with adware.

runningfool reviewed v0.9.8.1 Public Preview 1 on Jul 24, 2007

wow, glad to hear that someone found that adware hidden in this OPEN SOURCE media player...maybe next time people make up lies like this they should first understand that the source code is there to prove them wrong. and "monopolizing your desktop" is a really strange way to say "puts one icon on my desktop". seriously, where do these people come from?

all that aside, miro really is a great find. i dont use it as my dedicated media player. but considering it can download just about any type of streaming media, it definitely gets used. my previous review gave this a 4, but i decided to raise it to a 5 to offset the spammers who are giving this a 1 for no reason.

tinkerdill reviewed v0.9.8 Public Preview 1 on Jul 18, 2007

includes bbsee adaware

BBsee is an adware program that periodically displays various news, commercial advertisements and pop-ups. It can also generate system error messages. BBsee runs on every Windows startup. It is able to update itself via the Internet.

dadude reviewed v0.9.2.2 on Feb 11, 2007

when will it support resumable downloads (a bugbare of itunes too) as the open source code has existed for years now in even the simplest download managers. this is the problem with free stuff you have to wait for someone to fix it so the simpletons like me can use it... Until then i will stay with itunes (remove quicktime & install the smaller quicktime alternative codec)

isaacg reviewed v0.9.2 Beta on Dec 7, 2006

Just an update, memory usage on Windows is now stable, it doesn't balloon up anymore. Several other more minor things have been fixed also, definitely the best client out there now, IMHO.

isaacg reviewed v0.9.0 on Sep 12, 2006

Probably the best Video/Audio-Casting client out there. Maybe iTunes is better but I refuse to install it. 'Democracy' is a bit a unfinished but Open Source development seems to be moving along well. It's also cross platform and supports any old media RSS feed, not just the ones in their Channel Guide. Memory usage can creep a bit high (on Windows anyway) so a restart every few days is advised (like Firefox, which is built on some of the same components).

Gerwin reviewed v0.9.0-rc1 on Sep 8, 2006

I TV looked like this when they launched it, it would never have taken off.

molumen reviewed v0.9.0-rc1 on Sep 7, 2006

RC2 is already available! :)

war593122 reviewed v0.9.0-rc0 on Sep 7, 2006

Love it!

Bad link though!

It should be:

http://participatorycult...Democracy-0.9.0-rc1.exe

eclipsingdivinity reviewed v0.8.5 on Jul 25, 2006

So far so good. I guess I can agree with everyone that it's not really going to change anyone's life. But it does update Attack of the Show tidbits quite nicely, along with a few other channels I enjoy. It downloads fast and gives me something to do on my free time. 4 stars!

Alex Stevens reviewed v0.8.5 on Jul 22, 2006

Even if this was a good program, that's probably the stupidest name for a piece of software I've ever heard. Democracy Player? Uh, ok. It doesn't really matter though because the program isn't very good either. If you're going to download videos anyway you may as well go to a site that actually has good content (unlike the garbage this thing offers), and then watch them on your own player of choice. There's really no point to this program that I can see.

sQin reviewed v0.8.5 on Jul 22, 2006

thats funny! i "turn on" my "tv", wait for an hour or more to dnld the content (warm up), then watch that..

Mirrebex reviewed v0.8.5 on Jul 21, 2006

laaaaaaame.. only sucky channels and you have to download the whoooole thing before watching it. totaly sucks..

templar™ reviewed v0.8.1 Beta on Mar 8, 2006

"Democracy Player lets you watch Internet videos like you watch TV."

Yeah, right! If by "watch TV" you mean having to download the shows that I "think I might be interested in" before I can watch them.

After excruciatingly long download time, if I don't like what I see, I have to go through the whole slow download process again to watch the next show.

rotjong reviewed v0.8.1 Beta on Mar 8, 2006

Tokar, it took about 2 seconds to figure out why the files would expire. It's a setting within the program. It deletes downloaded files after X number of days which you set. It's not DRM. It's to save disk space. That said, I like the program. I could live without it but it really is put together nicely and you can add sites you want and remove the ones you don't like. Nice piece of work and I'm sure it'll get better with time.

Tokar reviewed v0.8 Beta on Mar 5, 2006

Do not download the video titled "Smoosh" in the Video Music section of this program...unless you like Hansen reborn. Well, except in this case the artists are in fact girls. God...the claymation is great, but EEEGAWDS!!! 12 year old girls putting out a music video...GAHHHH!

The program interface is great...its skin mimics Longhorn Beta themes.

It has some built in channels which are nice. But sheesh...all the videos are HUGE...all of them are MPEG's with very long download times. At least the program shows a progress bar and a estimated remaining download time for the video.

After you download the video it says it expires in a certain number of days. I dont know if this is DRM or what, but I didnt venture to find out before I deleted the program.

spiked reviewed v0.8 Beta on Feb 23, 2006

An RSS reader which embeds a common media player (VLC on Windows, QuickTime on Mac OS X) and comes bundled with sample feeds from sites pretending to have better content than Youtube and Google Video...forgive me for being underwhelmed. Don't buy the exaggerated descriptions of "Internet TV" which imply exclusive content in high quality. There are a few high quality examples available for demo purposes, but a lot of the content is typical fare from random contributors. There are a few interesting clips, like the University of Michigan students who dressed up like Pac Man and a monster, and ran through a library and computer lab. I'll let you decide for yourself whether the music video showing retarded children how to throw away trash is funny or offensive. Either way, you can access this content just by browsing videobomb.com so installing the bloated Democracy Player mainly just gives you a prettier alternative place to click besides your web browser. Sure, it can pre-download videos and automatically purge them 6 days later to conserve disk space, but if you're too lazy to handle these things already, you probably never made it off the couch to boot your computer anyway. Perhaps the surest sign that Democracy Player is wasted effort: They're still trying to use the "channels" metaphor that Microsoft tried in 1997 and gave up on. Just because RSS is behind today's use of the channels terminology doesn't address the issues. The channel concept works for real TV because the limited number of content providers allows for comprehensive channel guides, there is zero overhead to have a channel available, and users can easily click through 100 channels a minute on pure whim.

kaching reviewed v0.8 Beta on Feb 23, 2006

Addicting! As others have stated here this app has great potential. If it wasnt for some slight bugs(expected for a first beta) i would give it a 5.
Works like subscribing to podcasts.

kazoom reviewed v0.8 Beta on Feb 23, 2006

Agreed, the potential of this is excellent. Really enjoying subscribing to some of the channels listed..hundreds are listed!
Some servers have higher download speed then others but you can watch other shows while downloading.
A little buggy this first windows Beta but damn fun to play with!
OPEN SOURCE!

xrayspex reviewed v0.8 Beta on Feb 23, 2006

A lil buggy but i love this. Has great potential.
Hundreds of "channels" to subscribe to. Open source and based on VLC media player and firefox :)
Looking foward to finished product :)