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.

Comments

"Open Media"

[elrous0]

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.

Re:"Open Media"

[iluvcapra]

No you're fine. Everybody basically acknowledges this, but you're skipping all the good closed media Miro will be selling too: the Miro will let you buy from the Amazon MP3 store, so there will be a good selection of DRM-free music available on the platform, too.

Re:"Open Media"

[ravrore]

Miro has Amazon MP3 store built in, so it has the same content access as iTunes and is has things like Android syncing, video conversion, and local network file transferring that iTunes doesn't do.

Re:"Open Media"

[605dave]

How do you know within an day of release that iTunes is way better? Have you tried Miro? Have you been trying the betas? Just curious where your strong opinion comes from.

Re:"Open Media"

[jo_ham]

Sure it will, if you use something like MarkSpace's Missing Sync:

http://www.markspace.com/products/android/missing-sync-android.html

The sync API for iTunes is documented and available to anyone who wants to write something that works with it. What you can't do (and what Apple somehow turned into the bad guy for stamping on) is pretend to be an iPod by spoofing Apple's USB vendor ID so you can be super lazy and not write an interface to iTunes' own sync system.

Missing Sync isn't free, but the sync API (certainly in OS X) is open and documented so you can write your own if you want to.

Re:"Open Media"

[drb226]

unless you want to pirate

Miro makes it quite easy to torrent music/vids right into your library...don't underestimate this angle, although it's not exactly the kind of thing Miro is going to go around announcing publicly, for obvious reasons.

Re:"Open Media"

[Risen888]

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.

Shows what you know. Almost without exception, all of the new music that I've really gotten into in the last couple of years has been CC licensed. Hell, Chuck D is putting stuff out under CC these days. I listen to podcasts twenty times more than I listen to the radio. They hooked me with free, they kept me because it's generally better than the commercial alternatives.

Is that going to convince someone's kid sister who only listens to the pop station and doesn't have the attention span to listen to any spoken word longer than a 30 second commercial? No. Do I give a shit? No. I will continue to get more out of my entertainment budget (in terms of both money and time) than they do and be perfectly happy with that.

So for all that, would I call Miro an "iTunes competitor?" Nah. iTunes never had a chance with me in the first place. Get with the times.

Re:"Open Media"

[dogmatixpsych]

iTunes has its faults but it's really quite good for what it can do. I think Apple needs to completely rework it from the ground up but it's certainly not "crap." It is better in OS X than Windows though; it's frustrating in Windows at times but then again, so is Windows!

Re:"Open Media"

[Draek]

In theory, you'd be right. In theory. You see, in theory the big labels would hire the best bands out there, give them the best resources available so they can do the best work they can, while the indies only have lower prices to compensate for their lack of talent and resources.

However, what happens in *practice* is that the big labels hire whatever's more marketable (read: a young, attractive singer), then hire an engineer that destroys whatever semblance of music was there by making everything LOUD while the indies continue making actual music, many of which had more musical talent than the marketable hires even before they were hired so the end result is that the indie album produced on a shoestring budget ends up being a hundred times more pleasant than the LOUD trash of the big labels.

It's a pity though, as the best non-classical album I've ever heard was from a professional sound engineer making rock albums for pleasure. Makes one wonder how much better the labels' music would be if they didn't cripple themselves at every step of the way.

music on Amazon and Itunes has no DRM

[acomj]

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..

Re:music on Amazon and Itunes has no DRM

[jo_ham]

Use iTunes itself to break that DRM, as Apple have encouraged strongly all along: burn it to audio CD. This has always been possible, ever since DRMed music was available in iTunes. You sacrifice a little if you then re-rip into a lossy format, but it is free. Alternatively you can upgrade your old purchased tracks for 20 cents (or local currency equivalent) to the higher-bitrate, non-DRM versions that are now available in the store.

Re:music on Amazon and Itunes has no DRM

[EraserMouseMan]

I divorced Apple earlier this year. I found "Daniusoft DRM Converter" to strip off all the DRM on my older iTunes downloads. I'm loving my media situation with no iTunes in sight.

Re:A few rough edges

[GeorgeMonroy]

I agree. I feel that just because it is open source we are expected to praise it. The truth is that open source is not the solution to everything.

Re:Content is king..

[Lunix Nutcase]

I know people seem to like to bash Apple for DRM

And wrongly so since the music bought from iTunes hasn't had DRM in for more than 2 years now.

Not going to work

[gentlemen_loser]

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.

Re:Not going to work

[Bob9113]

> You will never get anywhere making a clone.

There are a few examples of clone software that has done fairly well. Consider DOS, Lotus 1-2-3, Macintosh OS, Windows, Word, Sql Server, MySQL, Excel, OpenOffice, Netscape, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari. Many of which were not just de facto clones but explicitly so.

Re:And I'm so sure

[605dave]

Miro has 2 million active users, and this was before the current release.

windows bug fixed today

[ravrore]

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 Use Miro

[Gnaythan1]

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.
.

The power behind Apple

[theurge14]

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?)

Re:A few rough edges

[Risen888]

That's probably because everything supports OGG now. Because of us zealots. We won. Again. Enjoy your practicality, but remember who paid for it.

Re:A few rough edges

[Risen888]

Explain to me how OGG support makes the majority's life harder. In small words.

Re:why miro is FAIL

[Myopic]

Boy, there's a lot of Miro haters on Slashdot today. I used Miro as a television interface a while back, but didn't look at it recently until I saw this story on Slashdot. If Miro will enable my Mac to sync to my Archos tablet, then I'll definitely use it instead of iTunes, which won't do that. I'll be one step closer to shedding Apple, which would be nice. I don't see why everyone is so down on Miro, and I can't figure out when hating on open source became cool at Slashdot. If it does all the things you mentioned could be done with sundry software, all in one nice package, then that's quite compelling.