What a difference a year makes. When we last reviewed the Miro video player in 2008, we loved the fact that it essentially turned your PC into a Swiss army knife for video: It can download or play streaming video, download and play video hosted in the BitTorrent file sharing network, and even set up searches for video from within the player itself. With the latest update, however, Miro has added several new tools to its kit.
Several of the big new features have do to with downloads: Miro can download videos directly from YouTube with a single button-click, download audio as well as video podcasts, and downloads videos automatically if you add the RSS feed of that video source. Sharing is the other new theme. You can now share videos (or links to streamed videos) with friends and family by e-mail, social networking posts, or by exporting lists of feeds to a file which you can share.
As with previous versions, Miro can play video encoded in virtually any format, including HD video. It can also remember where you were in a video when you stopped watching it, so you can resume playback later from the point where you stopped. If you use your computer as part of a home theater, the program has keyboard shortcuts for all playback commands so you can easily set up a remote control to issue commands to Miro player from across the living room.
--Andrew Brandt
Reviewed by: Kentc
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