Continuing with our series showing different ways to watch television and other video programs online, this week we bring you Miro. Think of Miro as a TiVo for your computer which will download and save Internet programs. Miro is available for all three major platforms, OS X, Windows, and various Linux distributions including Ubuntu.
The User Interface is very easy to navigate which allows you to easily search, save and organize your shows.
The Miro sidebar will come with preinstalled channels created of various subjects. You can customize them to your choices. Miro also has a neat feature that allows you to search and download content from some of the major video websites.
As of this writing Miro boasts 5,163 channels. You can search them by keyword, category, most popular, etc.
You can keep track of what is downloading and have the ability to stop some or all of the downloads at any time. This is very handy if you are using another application that requires additional bandwidth.
The viewing area in Miro is can be sized to your liking and even full screen.
There are several settings you can choose from to change the behavior of the application and manage your programs.
Conclusion
I have been a user of Miro since it was formerly called Democracy Player and it continues to get better with every update. With over 5,000 channels you are sure to find something interesting you like. After you subscribe to a channel or multiple channels just leave the computer on all day and when you get home there will be plenty of content to watch. The ability to download the video content is what I think sets Miro apart. The Participatory Culture Foundation is a non-profit organization that brings us this great application with a goal of to get people lots of media. I see nothing but great things coming from these guys!