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Major Release of Miro Aims to Compete With iTunes
ravrore writes "Miro 4 was released today, a major update to the popular multi-platform FOSS video player. The new version adds music support, local network stream and transfer, music purchasing, and Android syncing. Miro is positioning itself as the open iTunes for Android users. 'We believe the open media world can be just as integrated and usable as the closed, top-down, DRM'ed systems of companies like Apple. And we want to prove it,' says Nicholas Reville, Executive Director of Participatory Culture Foundation, which creates Miro."
It looks like the project still has a few rough edges, but is definitely getting there.
FOSS-speak: "Open media"
Translation: We've got public domain crap, idiots talking to their webcams, sucky indie bands who need to practice more and promote less, and that's about it--unless you want to pirate.
Seriously, the summary is trying to promote this as an iTunes competitor? Really? I hate Apple crap, and even *I* know that iTunes is way better than this.
Okay, you can all mod me down now for daring to criticize an open-source project. You know you want to.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It looks like the project still has a few rough edges, but is definitely getting there.
Still trying to figure out why it is acceptable for an FOSS product that aims to compete with iTunes to have "a few rough edges". We expect shit like this from commercial software makers because they are trapped in this 'launch now and patch' later mentality. But you're not the first one to market with media players, so you're not trying to get that early grab at mindshare, and obviously you're not interested in selling the software - so what's the excuse for Miro?
I would think that if you want to prove Miro can be better than iTunes, you would start by actually releasing a better product. And by that, I mean one that isn't broken and doesn't come with a promise for improvements later.
As of now, music on amazon and itunes is DRM free.
It won't be too hard to top the itunes interface for syncing though..
Content is king and if they ain't got the content, then they are not really going to be able to compete
I know people seem to like to bash Apple for DRM, but who do you think is pushing for DRM? (Hint: The people that control the content).
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
Any time any company or organization markets itself as "the [insert adjective] [insert proper noun] alternative for the [insert other proper noun]" the group is destined to failure. The issue is, at its heart, where the company is coming from. Rather than trying to invent a great music/video player, they are trying to invent an iTunes (or anything else) clone. Please STOP! Go invent a great, open source, cross platform music player without looking at iTunes and people will come.
Don't believe me? In the electronic music community, there is a synth called Zebra 2. Its from a company run and developed entirely by one guy who never advertised it. He never pitched it as the "something for the something else alternative." He just made a great fucking synth. After a short amount of time, word got out, all of the music rags covered it, and now it tops all of the "greatest synth" lists.
You will never get anywhere making a clone. You'll always be a step behind.
Though i did not read the article, i though every other full featured useful FOSS player have the same features except for android syncing.
Though every new iOS breaks it, libipod has worked in the past.
While it is Windows only, it is solid, offers Android support and just ... works. If you're Apple, you're gonna be an Fanboi anyway and use iTunes. If you're on Linux, you'll use some crappy software and feel all superior about not buying DRMed Music from Apple (which doesn't even sell DRMed music any longer).
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
No. The app was originally called Democracy Player, the name later changed to Miro.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
Did it change that much?
Last time I tried Miro it was such a waste of time it didn't survive more than 10 minutes on my harddisk.
I got the exact same error. I had my android phone plugged in to charge, but had ejected it so I could access the micro-sd card. Unplugging the cable fixed the problem.
Miro has 2 million active users, and this was before the current release.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
The Miro folks say that the Windows bug described in the 'rough edges' link above has been fixed and the update will be released today.
I see even they are on the "Democracy is over" bandwagon...
1)Works with my current music library. -- So does mplayer.
2)Converts and syncs to Android -- I don't have an android.
3)Buy Music and Apps inside Miro -- I like my music and apps free thanks.
4)Download and play almost any video -- So does mplayer
5)Convert any video -- Again, mplayer
6)Share Your Media on your Network -- This is what Samba is for.
7)Open-source - don't lock yourself in! -- Excellent point, but not superior to what I use now.
8)Ultra-fast torrent downloading -- Do one thing and do it well. Can Miro be controlled programatically like rTorrent?
9) But it's not about the features! -- I'm not even sure what that means.
God, I hate marketing. Bullshit doesn't smell any nicer when it's coming from open source.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I have a lot of music, so far the search UI is pretty sluggish (and I've run it on the commaline so I could watch when the indexing was complete). I'm wondering if lucene would be a better choice than sqlite for building the index. Subsonic (yes, it's web based, so for streaming music, not the exact same thing - but about the same amount of data to index) uses lucene and its search functionality is very nice and fast.
fak3r.com
This article really makes me want to bring out an old trolling account...
Miro is not quite ready for prime time:
1) It uses GTK on Windows. This makes the app look childish. Why couldn't they use internal Windows decorations?
2) The interface is not up to snuff. It looks unprofessional.
Now, the good stuff:
1) I can finally use it as a replacement for iTunes to listen to my podcasts. I have tried this with each major Miro release and this is the first one that does what I would expect it to. If only it did this without looking as ugly as sin.
If I was a troll I might throw in something about how Gnome used to use GTK and how this made it also look childish. It wasn't until Ubuntu switched Gnome to something other than GTK that it began to look usable.
--Tim
They are talking about the software versus iTunes software. Not the store versus the iTunes store. This was an update to the player. The biggest point is synchronizing. They are saying, listen, we can sync very well without creating an artificial walled garden in the software. AKA - iTunes hates other music players, and is designed to only work with iP(od/hone/ad).
Of course the store sucks at this point. Google and Amazon, which have the real shots at popular stores, are working from a cloud perspective with cloud players. Miro is working from a local cache standpoint. Syncing to a computer and creating a local network cloud streamer.
If Google and Amazon are the big repositories, Miro is working on building the "last mile". Being that Miro is open source, they are really saying to Google and Amazon, if you like open source for Android, why not look at us as your open source music/video player for windows/linux/android. They are saying it to everyone, but I can bet they are hoping for a big check from the Googlzon to select them as the last mile solution to their crappy 1-off players.
I8-D
I've had it on my computer for a couple years now. It had codecs for a bunch of videos I had on my system from a LONG time ago. I like it. I noticed a new update popped up when I watched a video on it yesterday. I always have a couple redundant systems on my computer so if one of my old files doesn't work I can test it on something else. Miro is as good as anything else for watching movies on, and having options besides the big dominating one is always a good thing.
.
What pocket-size music playing device do you have instead, and what software do you currently use to sync to that?
I'm not the person you're responding to, but I decided to answer. I have a PSP (and an old V3xx Razr), and I use either the terminal or nautilus. Being of an older generation I think in terms of Albums, not singles.
Apple had the power to leverage (iPod sales, etc) to convince the large record companies to make their music available to purchase through the iTunes store.
Does an open source venture such as Miro have that sort of power?
(And do the people at Miro realize that iTunes tracks have been DRM free for over 2 years now?)
3)Buy Music and Apps inside Miro -- I like my music and apps free thanks.
Eh? I imagine there is some freely-released music out there, but by and large most artists are trying to put food on the table. Or did you mean free-as-in-screw-the-artist?
As for Miro itself, yeah, no thanks. First, the installer tries to put some Yahoo crapware on your system, which pretty much makes the app untrustworthy as far as I'm concerned. But it also tries to emulate the iTunes UI to a fault, while not really offering anything better in terms of finding/playing/arranging music.
> What pocket-size music playing device do you have instead,
An Android tablet.
> and what software do you currently use to sync to that?
For automated syncing: rsync.
For non-automated syncing: Nautilus.
There's usually no good reason to bother with special proprietary tools just to move files around.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
> Being of an older generation I think in terms of Albums, not singles.
I find that aspect of iTunes really quite annoying.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
So about 0.03% of the population huh.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
We don't give a fuck about that. We'll keep making better shit. That's its own reward. Inevitable world domination is just gravy.
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
I'd like to know if it syncs to normal mp3 players. I really used to like Miro, but the lack of that feature pushed me to Gpodder (which I also like, but lacks some whizbang stuff I had become used to with Miro, like a way better catalog).
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
below is my reply to the "9 Reasons why Miro is better than what you have now" on their website:
1."Works with your current music library"
really?? well, my current media player also works with my current music library. how is miro better?
2."Converts and syncs to Android"
i just pop out my x10 mini's 16gb microsd card and then its all just drag-n-drop. btw, drag-n-drop is better when you have just 16gb space and your music library is huge.
3. "Buy Music and Apps inside Miro
The Amazon MP3 store is built-in to Miro. Buy, download, and listen, seamlessly. Buy Android apps from the Amazon or Google app stores and they will sync to your device."
amazon store is built-in to firefox. android market is built-in to my phone. why should i use miro?
4. "Download and play almost any video"
vlc plays EVERY video.
5. "Convert any video"
windows 7 automatically does this for every device that supports mtp. no fiddling with 'presets' either.
6. "Share Your Media on your Network"
i don't need this, though it might be useful for some people. also win 7 and wmp do this automagically.
7. "Open-source - don't lock yourself in!"
the shittiest argument ever made.
8. "Ultra-fast torrent downloading"
do we need our media players to download torrents?? why not also provide a maps feature too, or firmware flashing? or any other random feature?
9. "But it's not about the features!"
actually it is about the features, it is about the usability and it is about not ripping some other product off. *cough*itunes*cough*
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
I've never encountered any problems with handling Albums in iTunes. Of course if you've got shoddy meta-data you'll have problems but then GIGO isn't an iTunes issue.
I have a Sansa Fuze running Rockbox. I 'sync' to it using cp. It's full of taper friendly music.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Don't we all know that 4.0 is the crashing-and-burning version, and that we should wait at least until 4.2?
PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
So now that they've finally bloated it to the point that it looks like and slugs like one of the apps I'll never ever allow on my computer and absolutely hate the look and feel of (itunes), what good alternatives are there for someone who just wants to auto-download RSS-feed-driven podcast type videos automatically? Bonus points for not having a web browser or video player inside it. I have a web browser. I have a video player. Both are better than any embedded one could ever be.
I've been using computers for 30+ years but I still struggle sync-ing my self-ripped music collection to the iPod Touch the missus gave to me when she went to iPhone. I find it incredibly unintuitive.
At the same time, I'm now on my second Android phone (due to a recent upgrade) and I can just plug it into Windows or Linux and it mounts as a drive that I can just copuy stuff straight to if I want to - hell, I even wrote a handful of simple rsync scripts that sync stuff to it (from Linux) pretty much automatically. As a media organiser and player, personally I don't think you can beat Banshee for intuitiveness.
And please make sure you compare like-for-like. ATI's drivers are NOT Open Source, that's precisely one of the reasons why they're not that good on Linux.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Because I use Linux, I know Linux well.
Because I know Linux well, I have a well-paid consultancy job supporting systems that run it.
Nope, still can't see this "disappointment" you mentioned, though I will keep looking for it & let you know if & when I find it.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Not a single person I know in high tech uses anything open sores any more.
Ah! Yes, I see the problem now and I can help you with this.
Because those high tech users don't use Open Source, they won't be using the TCP/IP stack. Consequently, they won't be able to connect to the Internet and therefore won't be able to use all those communications tools that would allow you to get to know them.
Fixed it for you now, and have great fun making your first new friends!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
No. Not by any reckoning.
Igor Presnyakov stole my hat
The problem with iTunes is that is doesn't allow organisation by directory; to delineate an album you need to set the Album Artist field in the ID3 tag (not present in any MP3s in my library at the time I first installed iTunes), or use a special iTunes ID3 tag that marks it as a compilation (again, not present). Oh, and there's another special ID3 tag required for gapless playback as well.