Video Podcast Shootout

Miro vs. iTunes by Nicholas Reville

Comparing iTunes and Miro is a bit like comparing apples and oranges (I guess Miro would be the oranges). iTunes is a music player first and Miro is a video player first. But that's precisely why I want to make the comparison: iTunes is first and foremost an audio player, while Miro is a much better video player and video podcast client.

So let's get to the point by point comparison-- I'm very biased, of course, but I'll try to be as fair as possible.

Audio Playback and Audio Podcasting

iTunes wins hands-down. Miro is not an audio player. I use iTunes for music every day, but this is a video shootout!

Video Formats

On Windows, Miro can play almost all major video formats, except Real Video. That includes Quicktime, MPEG, WMV, AVI, XVid, OGG, FLV, and many more. In the rare case when Miro can't play a video, it allows you to easily launch the file in a separate app (such as Real Player). iTunes for Windows can't play Windows Media, XVid, most AVI, and others.

On Mac, both iTunes and Miro use Quicktime as a built-in playback engine and therefore they both play the same video formats. As on Windows, Miro lets you launch a video externally if the Quicktime engine can't play it. Since Miro on Mac comes with VLC, you are able to play nearly every popular format this way.

Browsing Video Channels

I think it's fair to say that the video interface on iTunes was a little bit tacked on. iTunes is definitely an audio player at heart. Video podcasts appear along with audio podcasts in the podcast tab. The interface there is no nonsense and works very well for syncing with an iPod. However, it doesn't work well for browsing videos on a feed-- descriptions are limited in length and there are no thumbnails for the videos. That said, the iTunes 'Videos' tab is simple, elegant, and very functional. iTunes also generates thumbnails for each video that you have, which Miro doesn't do.

Miro was built from the ground up to download videos feeds and play videos. The screenshots below compare browsing a video channel with iTunes and with Miro.

 

Video Playback and Fullscreen

Videos play on Miro in the large main window of the screen, with playback controls below the video that you are watching. Miro also plays video fullscreen. It has beautiful fullscreen controls on Mac and pretty good fullscreen controls on Windows and Linux.

iTunes video playback strikes me as a little bit odd. When you play a video, it first appears in the tiny box in the lower left hand side of the interface, where album cover art usually appears. If you click on this box, the video pops up into a separate window.

I believe Miro offers a video playback experience that is superior to iTunes in simplicity and ease of use.

iPod Syncing

Miro does not currently sync to iPod, but we're working on adding that functionality in an upcoming version. Until then, for getting videos to your video iPod, iTunes has Miro beat.

Content Access and Content Quality

iTunes' limited support for video formats restricts which video RSS feeds you can subscribe to in iTunes. Limitations like this can discourage diversity and independence in video publishing. There are thousands of video RSS feeds in other formats, such as XVid or Windows Media, that iTunes for Windows can't play. Miro does support these feeds.

In addition, Miro supports BitTorrent feeds and also works as a standalone BitTorrent client. As a user, this means that you have access to videos and video feeds that iTunes can't download. Most importantly, BitTorrent technology lets video makers publish very large, very high quality video files without paying for all that bandwidth. There are already dozens of high-resolution video channels in the Miro Channel Guide, but these channels won't work in iTunes.

Lastly, Miro's built-in Channel Guide lists more than 500 video channels, compared to only about 150 browsable channels in iTunes' video podcast directory. Miro can play any feed that works with iTunes and most feeds that are in the iTunes directory are also in the Miro Channel Guide.

One-Click Subscribe

iTunes and Miro both let users click on a button on a website to subscribe to a feed. However, Miro's 1-Click System goes beyond iTunes' in two ways. First, publishers can create 1-click subscribe buttons for batches of channels, not just a single channel. That means that if you publish more than 1 channel, you can subscribe users to everything you've got with a single click. Even better, Windows users that don't have Miro installed already can download a version of the player that comes with your channels instead of the standard default channels. It's like your own branded version of Miro.

Openness

Miro is free, open-source software, built by a non-profit organization. Being open means that anyone can view the source-code for the program and change it if they want to make something that works differently. In addition, Miro does an excellent job of implementing RSS standards. iTunes is closed-source software.

Linux

Miro runs on Linux. There is no iTunes for Linux.

Conclusion

Clearly, we think Miro is a better video player and video RSS reader than iTunes-- after all, if we didn't think so, why would we be building it? But we aren't writing this article to criticize iTunes (I'm actually listening to iTunes right now), we're just very proud of the video experience that Miro offers.

VIEWERS: We hope this article has convinced you that it's worth trying Miro for internet video. If so, go Download Miro. There are some amazing internet TV channels out there, and ultimately the content is what this is all about.

CREATORS: If you're convinced that Miro is the best way to present your content, don't forget to Make a 1-Click Subscribe Button and Submit Your Channel to the Channel Guide.