The new Miro 6 is all about one thing: speed!  We’ve just released it and it contains big speed improvements for launching Miro, navigating, downloading, etc.

We have finally got flash support for our community of linux users, and have some other good tweaks and fixes as well.

See for yourself!  Download Miro 6 Now

• Windows (2013-03-26-v6.0-rc0)
• OS X (2013-03-27-v6.0-rc0)
• Source (2013-03-26-v6.0-rc0)

We love to hear what you think in our support forums.

For translators: there were a few string changes for this release.  If you want to help update the Miro translations,  there is more information in the support forum section for translators.

As always – we appreciate your help and feedback.

We would really appreciate it if you could download the builds and try them out.

The focus of this release has been on performance enhancements; making tab switching and start up times measurably faster.  We’ve improved playback when  switching through the tabs and have included a slew of other bug fixes.

Please takes a look and let us know what you find either in bugzilla or even better, go to support forums where you can compares notes with the other beta testers, and find additional information.

Thanks for your time.

We at the Participatory Culture Foundation are so proud to announce a completely updated version of Miro Video Converter.  We have acted on your requests and the latest release adds some amazing new features such as:

1. Batch Processing
2. More devices and output formats
3. Better control for output size and aspect ratio
4. Output of progressive MP4 files for web playback
5. Improved WebM output quality with SD and HD options
6. Thumbnail generation
7. Some additional output options for video developers

And it’s all wrapped up in an incredible new UI!

New look

Keeping with the original simplicity of Miro Video Converter that has made it popular with all of our users, the updated Miro Video Converter comes with a great new look.

Just drag and drop or browse to your list of video files.

Choose your output device or format.

Click the Convert button.

It’s that easy!

More details:

1. You can add more files to the list while conversions are in-progress.
2. You can  choose a different output selection once the initial list of video complete.
3. You can convert several files at one time (based on the number of available processors).
4. You can adjust the output size or aspect ratio after making a device or format selection.
5. Miro Video Converter works on Windows 8.
6. Source is available for linux users.
7. Miro Video Converter is free and open source software licensed under version 3 of the GNU General Public License.

Download Miro Video Converter!

As someone who doesn’t own a TV, I was a bit dismayed once I started researching my options for watching the Olympics this year.  I had no problem driving to town to watch some key matches of the Euro 2012, but the Olympics are non-stop events that go on for weeks.

There are numerous posts detailing the requirements for the NBC Olympic coverage which are not super helpful if you don’t live in the USA.

However digging a bit further I found the Eurovisionsports stream and some podcasts to keep me up to date on all the action and commentary.

For your viewing pleasure – I put together an OPML file of some key websites for streaming, an events schedule and some podcasts so that you don’t miss any of the action or features.

To watch the Olympics with Miro:  Download Miro-5.0.2 and this OPML file.

Once Miro is running from the Sidebar menu, choose Import Podcasts (OPML),

browse to the downloaded OPML file.  The website and podcasts will be added to your sidebar.  Enjoy!

Chimel, who works on the French localization has posted a nice summary of the changes.

Here is the getting started info for translators.  You can post questions, see announcements and discuss in our new Translators forum.

The latest release of Miro will allow you to clean up your music collection by changing titles like Track 01 to their real title with a single click! Unknown Artists are replaced with the actual name.  Browsing your collection is vibrant and organized in the new Album/Artist view.

If you are tired of listening to the same old tracks on your device, it’s time to freshen it all up with Miro 5.

We’ve added eMusic to the Stores section, so you can sample and buy, and keep it all organized in your Miro music library.

There are new options added to device syncing.   You can sync automatically when you connect your device.  Choose to have Miro fill a percentage of your available space with an assortment of music and podcasts based your preferences with the new Auto Fill option.

And don’t forget the conversions. We have updated to the latest and greatest from ffmpeg to convert any media file to apple, android, KindleFire and web-friendly formats.

If you love your internet video, on Miro, it has just gotten better.  We’ve added support for HD downloads from Vimeo. We’ve upgraded libtorrent.  On Windows, we have updated everything on the backend, bringing a cleaner UI, better browsing, and clearer, sharper playback.

Along with the new release, we’ve moved Miro’s Support and Forums to a new platform to help us help you, and to assist you in helping yourselves and others. Have a question, or maybe some answers? Join in to discuss Miro here.

Miro 5 is the media player you need to share with your friends.  If you haven’t tried it yet, what are you waiting for?

Get Miro!

Download here:

• Windows (5.0-rc2)
• OS X (5.0-rc2)
• Source (5.0-rc2)

Thanks to all the users who downloaded release candidate 1 and provided feedback.  We’ve fixed up the bugs that you found and few more that we found, and we are ready for you to check out RC2.

One of the great new features coming in Miro 5 is the ability to look up song information and album art.  Here’s a blog post that explains how it all works.  We encourage everyone to try it out and let us know how it goes.

You can also help with testing and translations.

• Test this release. See the detailed instructions on the miro testing blog post.
• To help translate, see the translation guide.

Thanks to everyone who’s helped us get this far!

New in the upcoming version 5.0, Miro can look up missing music information and album art. The song information is retreived from the Echonest database and the album art comes from 7Digital.

Setup after upgrading from earlier versions of Miro

If Miro is upgraded from a version earlier than Miro 5.0. The first time the Music tab is clicked, a dialog asks to use the song info look up.

New User Configuration

When installing Miro for the first time: an option to turn on look up is provided in the Music Settings screen of the first time start up dialog.

Turning on / off Lookup from the Preferences Panel

The Preferences Panel General tab controls turning metadata look up on and off for all audio files or for newly added music files.

To run look up for all audio files:

Click Run Online Lookup for All Current Music 

To remove look up data from the item metadata display

Click Remove All Lookup Data 

To look up information for all newly added items:

Check Automatically run online lookup for any new audio files that I add to Miro 

Toggling on and off from the File Menu

To toggle the use of Echonest data for one or a few items:

1. Select the item or items
2. Open the File menu
3. Choose (Don’t) Use album art and song info from online lookup database (Echonest)

Toggling on and off from the Context Menu

To toggle the use of echonest data for one or a few items:

1. Select the item or items
2. Open the context menu
3. Choose (Don’t) Use album art and song info from online lookup database (Echonest)

Download here:

• Windows (5.0-rc1)
• OS X (5.0-rc1)
• Source (5.0-rc1)

…And we need your help!

Test this release. See the detailed instructions on the miro testing blog post.

To help translate, see the translation guide.

There are some awesome improvements in this release.

1. Song information and Album art lookup

Clean up your music collection by automatically looking up
the Artist, correct title, and album name and artwork among other thing.

2. Album View

A clean view to group together all your songs by Album and Artist.  Also a simplified way to view video items by kind (Movies, Clips, Podcasts…)

3. Faster Device Syncing and Conversions

We’ve added a Quick fill option to get your music onto your device fast!  Automatic syncing,  options to convert only when necessary, and updates to the ffmpeg binaries.

4. eMusic in the Stores section

Purchase music from eMusic and add it straight to your library.

5. Download HD videos from Vimeo feeds

When available, you can now download HD quality videos from Vimeo podcasts.

6. Massive updates to the Windows backend

From playback to gui display to libtorrent, everything is updated and upgraded.