The FAQ
From Miro User Documentation
Contacting Us
What is the Participatory Culture Foundation?
The Participatory Culture Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in February 2005. We're based in Worcester, MA, but many of us are based elsewhere. There are ten full-time staff, and many volunteers. Our funding currently comes from private philanthropists and non-profit foundations, as well as our users . Our mission is to build software and websites to create an independent, creative, engaging, and meritocratic TV system for millions of people around the world.
How do I contact the Participatory Culture Foundation?
For technical questions, please check out the rest of this FAQ and our user forums, and if your question is still unanswered, then feel free to e-mail us at feedback(at)pculture.org.
Press, please see our Press Page.
We love hearing general feedback - for example, features that you'd like to see in Miro, or suggestions for the user interface. Write us an e-mail anytime at feedback(at)pculture.org.
I'm having a problem with Miro - How do I report it?
If you think you've found a bug in Miro, the section below details how to tell us about it. You can also check out our forum and help section on the website; if your having a problem, it is likely that someone else has encountered the same problem, and may have the answer.
It seems like Miro has some bugs, is this getting fixed?
Yes! We're always working to fix bugs in Miro and we're releasing new versions regularly. If you think you've found a bug and want to help make Miro better, please check out how to submit a helpful bug report and then file a ticket.
FAQ for Viewers
What is Miro?
Miro is a free application that turns your computer into an internet TV video player. You can download it here for Windows, Mac, or Linux. This release is still a beta version, which means that there are some bugs, but we're moving quickly to fix them and will be releasing bug fixes on a regular basis.
What are the system requirements to run Miro?
Windows: Windows XP, 128MB of RAM.
Mac: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher and QuickTime version 7 (which you should be able to get through Software Update).
Linux: 500Mhz CPU with a good video card, 1GHz without, 128MB RAM.
Where can I see the open-source code for Miro?
Our source code is licensed under the GPL and is available at our development center.
Open standards like RSS and Bittorrent mean that our technology is open for everyone to read and implement and is compatible with other standards based efforts.
What video formats can Miro play?
Video playback works differently in the Mac and Windows versions of Miro, so the files that they can play vary to some extent.
Windows: The Windows version of Miro embeds VLC to play videos. This will play Windows Media, Quicktime, MPEG 1, 2, 4, H264, AVI, DivX, XviD, Flash, OGM, and lots more. You can see a full chart of what VLC can play right here.
Mac: The Mac version of Miro uses Quicktime 7, which is built into the operating system, to play video. In addition, we use plugins for Quicktime that allow us to play even more video types. The Mac version can play MPEG, MP4, MOV, H264, Flash, Xvid, AVI, OGG, and more. Also, there is a free extension for OS X that will play Windows Media files seamlessly. We strongly suggest that you download it.
Linux: Linux: The Linux version of Miro uses GStreamer or Xine to play videos. Xine supports: MPEG 1/2/4, DivX 3/4/5, Windows Media 7/8, QuickTime, Theora, and more. You can see the full list of what Xine can play right here. GStreamer has varying levels of support: Theora and AVI are well-supported; MPEG 1 is supported but has licensing issues; AAC and H.264 are not well-supported. See GStreamer for more information.
We strongly believe that format wars among commercial entities have been a huge stumbling block to advancing internet video. The best way out of the "format wars" is to support as many formats as possible and users shouldn't have to think about formats at all. We will be adding support on a continuing basis for AVIs, Flash, Real, and Windows Media.
In terms of open-source, patent-unencumbered codecs like Theora, our goal is to support them as soon as we can, and once open-source media players and publishing tools get a bit more solid and commonplace to nudge publishers to use them. Download & Installation
How do I install Miro?
Windows: clicking on the download link saves a .exe file to your desktop. Double click on that to run the installer.
Mac: clicking on the download link saves a .dmg (disk image) to your desktop. Double click on that to open it (if it doesn't open automatically). Drag the Miro icon into your applications folder and wait for it to copy over, then open the applications folder and double-click the Miro icon.
Linux: See LinuxNotes for operating-system specific instructions. Build instructions in the tarball are at tv/platform/gtk-x11/README.
If you're upgrading Miro, just 'replace' your existing version and your Channel subscriptions and video collections will remain. Miro won't launch.
Windows: make sure you meet the system requirements of Windows XP, 128MB of RAM.
Mac: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher and also QuickTime version 7, which is a software auto-update on Macs (run the second option under your Apple icon). This is most likely the cause. QuickTime 7 is also available here.
How do I uninstall Miro?
Windows: Click on Start Menu > All Programs > Miro > Uninstall Miro and then follow the steps. To remove the user data (channel subscriptions and your channel database), delete the folder C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Participatory Culture Foundation\. Downloaded videos, by default, are stored at: C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\My Documents\My Videos\Miro\.
Mac: Delete the Miro application, which is usually stored in your Applications folder. To remove the user data (channel subscriptions and your channel database), delete the folder /Users/<your username>/Library/Application Support/Miro/. Downloaded videos, by default, are stored at: /Users/<your username>/Movies/Miro/.
I'm having problems with Miro on Ubuntu Feisty.
Try following the Feisty specific instructions on this page.
How do I request a new feature?
- Create an account in our Bugzilla system
- Use this form to post enhancements (aka feature requests). Make sure you search for your feature — duplicates are a big waste of time. If it already exists, vote on it!
How to Vote on your Favorite Feature Request(s)
- Create an account in our Bugzilla system
- Every bug/feature report has a box in the lower left corner that allows you to add vote points. You have 20 points and can use a max of 10 points on a single item. You can always retract points and use them elsewhere, if you want.
Why are there so few search results for YouTube and other video hosts?
The results are limited because every time you search, Miro is directly connecting to YouTube.com (or other service) for an RSS feed of results. The hosts limit the length of the RSS results (for a variety of reasons), so it isn't something we have direct control over.
Using Miro
How do I use Miro?
We've made a video demonstration of Miro. The following section has a textual description of the software.
How do I play videos in fullscreen mode?
There are two ways: either by using the menu at the top of your screen to select Playback > Fullscreen; or, once a video is already playing, by clicking on the "play fullscreen" button this is the smaller "play" arrow with a square around it, located directly to the right of the normal "play" button at the bottom of the player. For Mac, simply single click anywhere on a video that is playing.
How do I exit fullscreen mode while a video is playing?
Do just the opposite press the fullscreen button again or use the Playback > Fullscreen command. For Mac, single click anywhere on the video to exit.
Why are there channels already subscribed when I first installed Miro?
Just to help you get started in the fascinating new ecosystem of open internet TV. You can unsubscribe from any of the default channels at any time, of course, and re-subscribe whenever you want by finding them again in the Miro Guide and subscribing.
How do I subscribe to channels?
Use the Miro Guide to find whatever interests you. You can browse the Guide by category, tag (submitted by the channel publishers), date submitted, popularity, High Definition (HD), or by searching for keywords. Click on any channel's Subscribe button in the Guide and it will be added to your list of subscriptions in the left-hand sidebar of Miro.
How do I un-subscribe from channels?
Right-click (Mac users: control-click) on the name of the channel in the left-hand sidebar of Miro and select Remove — the channel will disappear right away. You may re-subscribe to any channel again by finding it in the Guide and clicking Subscribe, nothing special required. To remove multiple channels, hold ctrl (Mac users: apple) and click the channels you want to remove — when you've got them selected, click the delete button in the middle of Miro. We encourage you to browse and subscribe to channels with a sense of curiosity and impunity!
How do I automatically download (auto-download) everything from a channel?
At the top left of Miro, there is a drop-down selector for auto download. You can adjust this setting at any time.
How do I watch videos?
Click anywhere on a video thumbnail (with a blue down arrow on it) to download the video. Turn auto-download to New and Miro will automatically download new videos, whenever they are posted on that channel. Click on any video thumbnail (with a green play button on it), whenever you'd like to watch the videos.
How do I know when new videos are available to download, or have already downloaded and are ready to watch?
Next to each channel's name, two indicators may appear: a blue circle indicates that the channel has published new videos that you haven't seen and a green circle indicates that you have videos in that channel that are downloaded but haven't been watched. When you have new videos downloaded, the green circle next to the channel's name turns into a play button when you hover over it — click it! Miro's default is for videos to remain on your hard drive for 6 days, but you can change that in the Settings panel of Miro (upper-right hand corner).
I'm trying to download a video, but the video isn't downloading.
First, give Miro some time to make the connection. If after a few minutes the download hasn't started, there are a number of possible causes. Most likely, the publisher of the videos you've selected is experiencing difficulties. Their video publishing connection might have been interrupted, or the video might have been published using BitTorrent but no longer has people sharing the file (check here for more details on slow/stopped bittorrent downloads). You can try to click on the download button in a few minutes to see if the publisher's connection is back up. If you have a channel set to Auto Download and you see the message Pending Download next to each video in the channel, don't worry, videos will download shortly. Videos in pending download mode are added to the download queue and will start downloading when there is space for more downloads (there is a maximum number of downloads at a time, which is adjustable in the Settings dialog).
I subscribed to a channel but it's empty. The channel does not show any videos available to download.
First, give Miro a moment to find all the available videos. It sometimes takes a minute or so after you first subscribe to a channel for all the images and videos to appear, though usually it happens right away (By the way, this is because there's a myriad of publishing and RSS formatting options.) Second, if the channel still doesn't show any videos, right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) on the channel name in the left-hand sidebar of Miro and select Update Channel Now. This will refresh the channel and may cause new images or videos to appear. If no videos appear even after refresh, the channel is likely exeperiencing difficulties — you may choose to contact the channel publisher to alert them, using the contact information they have made public on their channel's profile in the Miro Guide.
The green Downloaded, orange Downloading, and blue Items on this Channel bars, under the channel title, can also collapse and expand — don't forget to check those for videos that might have slipped your vision.
I downloaded a video, but it won't play.
First, check the file format to make sure it's compatible with Miro — if you're on Windows, that it would play in VLC, and if you're on a Mac, that it would play on QuickTime v. 7. Second, check the file format of what you downloaded to make sure it's a video — the publisher might have put out some audio files (for example, .mp3 files), which of course do not include video. Third, check the size of the file you downloaded to ensure that it's not zero. If none of those work, the publisher is likely experiencing difficulties and may have published an invalid file.
How do I view a channel that's not listed in the Guide?
Simple: click Channels —> Add Channel, from the menu, paste in the RSS feed address, and let Miro find the available content. Miro can sometimes scrape websites for video content, in cases where RSS feeds aren't available and you'd like to enjoy video in Miro, though often the player takes a little while to find all the available videos on the website — try refreshing the channel, that usually helps.
How do I share videos or channels I like? How do I tell a friend about interesting videos or channels?
When a channel is selected, there is a Send to a Friend button to the lower left of the channel title. Pushing this button will open a browser window to the Video Bomb send page. At the bottom of this page is a link to use the default email client.
Every video item has a share button that includes a host of options for sharing the video.
Why do all my media files have Miro logos now? I want to use a different program to play these files!
During install, Miro asks how you want to manage particular types of files (file associations). To change the associations, check out these guides: windows, mac.
How do I set preferences to manage the videos I've downloaded?
Miro has a full set of preferences for how many videos you download and how long they remain on your hard drive before expiring. You may access it using the top menu — if you're using Windows, go to Edit —> Preferences; if you're using a Mac, go to Miro —> Preferences.
On these settings menus, users have several options: you may choose to run Miro at startup; you can set how often you check channels for new content; you can set the default folder that Miro downloads to; you can set your upstream limit; you can choose how many videos will be downloaded simultaneously; you can you can specify custom ports for bittorrent; you can choose folders, on your hard drive, to watch for new videos; you can manage how much disk space Miro should leave available, including the default rate by which videos expire; you can choose to auto-resume playback on videos that have been interrupted; and you can also decide if you want to play back videos sequentially or stop after each video.
Feel free to delete any videos you like from within Miro, you can always download the videos again at a later date. The default rate by which videos expire off your hard drive is set to 6 days — you may adjust this however you choose by going to Preferences —> Disk Space. It's a really simple process, just use the drop-down box to select the number of days you wish to keep videos, and set the amount of disk space you wish to remain available, nothing technical required. I downloaded a video but it's gone from my collection.
The video most likely expired — Miro has a default setting that videos 6 days old, that have not been specifically "saved," expire in order to preserve disk space on your hard drive. Feel free to adjust your preferences on the Settings section of the player (look in the upper-right).
Can I sync my videos to an iPod or other video device?
Right now Miro does not allow direct syncing to portable devices. However, we will be working on this in future versions. In the meantime, you may be able to sync the video files themselves with a separate program.
How do I import video podcast subscriptions from iTunes into Miro?
You must be subscribed to a video podcast, before you can access the feed URL (use the iTunes music store to find free video podcasts). Once subscribed, open iTunes, click File —> Export. Choose OPML as the format and then save the file. Open the OPML file and copy the xmlUrl values for each channel you're interested in. Open Miro, choose Channels —> Add Channel, and paste in each individual feed URL. Soon, we will support importing from iTunes automatically.
What are the keyboard shortcuts for Miro?
You can find keyboard shortcuts, for all versions of Miro at https://develop.participatoryculture.org/trac/democracy/wiki/KeyboardShortcuts/ (program your remote control!).
How can I get English language to work in Miro for OSX?
Close Miro, open your System Preferences (in the apple at the top left of the screen), click International (the flag), click Edit List, uncheck any languages other than English, and then restart Miro.
Bittorrent downloads don't work / are slow
There are a few things you can do to potentially speed up Bittorrent. The first is to check and see if there are any seeds on the torrent, using the details drop-down for the video (near the top right of the video that is downloading) in Miro. If the word Seeders has a 0 next to it, there is no one there you can download from.
The next step is to make sure you don't have firewall software (info on windows firewall) blocking Miro. The third thing is to enable UPnP on your router (google your router model + upnp).
How do I configure a proxy for Miro to work?
Miro is running well but cannot retrieve any channel information, and your Internet connection uses a proxy? Miro doesn't support automatic proxy configuration files (*.pac) so you have to configure your proxy manually (server + port). In windows, go to the configuration panel / Internet properties, Connections tab then Network properties.
How do I save my database?
If you want to save your database, you can follow the instructions in this post from our blog.
FAQ for Creators
What is Broadcast Machine? Where can I find user support for Broadcast Machine and making channels?
Broadcast Machine was our open source publishing software for videos. Unfortunately, it is no longer supported by the Participatory Culture Foundation.
They are looking for a replacement.
source:http://www.getmiro.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=48
Making a Channel
What is an internet TV channel and how can I make one?
You can find all the instructions for making channels at MakeInternetTV.org.
Another way to create an internet TV channel is to use our free website Videobomb.com — you can submit links to video located anywhere on the web, as well as re-publish other videos anywhere you find them, and anyone can subscribe to your channel (RSS feed) to view in Miro.
If you have already have an RSS feed and you'd like to make it Miro-compatible, click here for more info on Miro's open RSS standard.
Submitting a Channel
How do I submit a channel to the Miro Guide?
We're proud to offer open submissions to the Miro Guide, and Miro will play most video RSS feeds out there already. Channels can be RSS feeds with video links in them or webpages with links to videos. We encourage everyone to submit their channel to the Guide and we hope to grow it into a fascinating but welcoming labyrinth of internet TV offerings. We accept most channels, barring highly offensive or adult content. For more information, please read our Terms of Use. So by all means, come on in...
First, thanks for submitting your channel and including your voice in the growing mass medium of internet TV.
We recommend that channels:
- Have a Miro-compatible video RSS feed. Please consult our ideal RSS format for more info — it's RSS 2.0 with media extensions.
- Have videos in a Miro-compatible format. Anything that plays in VLC will play in the Windows beta version of Miro, and anything that will play in QuickTime v. 7 will play in the Mac version of Miro. Miro also has Flash playback on Mac and Windows.
- Have an associated image for the channel that will display in the Guide. The preferred dimensions for the channel image are 260px by 200px, and it should be less than 40kb. Channel images tend to look best when they have the name of the channel in the image itself. If you don't have an image, we recommend you take a screenshot of one of your videos — but you may need to reduce the image size.
- We recommend — but do not require — that each video in your channel have an associated thumbnail image. These thumbnails can be any size you like, but generally don't need to be bigger than 200px by 133px. Thumbnails make a much, much nicer viewing experience for the user, so please try to make sure your channel's thumbnails are coming through in your feed.
- It will greatly facilitate your channel's approval process if you test it yourself in Miro before submitting it to the guide. You can test your video RSS feed at any time (even if it's not in the Guide) by manually adding it — just click Channels —> Add Channel. Please ensure that your videos download and play in Miro, that your channel icon is displaying properly, and ideally that each video has an accompanying thumbnail image.
- It is also HEAVILY RECOMMENDED to use feedburner (http://feedburner.com) as your feed. Not only does it provide very useful stats (what clients used - such as Miro, iTunes) but also total number of subscribers and more.
If you meet the above requirements, then go into the Miro Guide and click on Submit a Channel (at the top of the Guide). You'll first need to register with the Miro Guide, and then you'll be able to log in and submit your channel, which will then go into our moderation queue for approval by a volunteer channel moderator.
I tried to register with the Miro Guide and I did not receive a registration e-mail to my specified e-mail address.
Check your junk mail, or your email spam filter, for an e-mail with the subject heading that includes the terms "Miro Guide" or other relevant terms — it may come from the e-mail address channels/at/pculture|dot|org, but not necessarily. If you have not received anything, please email feedback(at)pculture.org and we can help you get an account working.
I submitted a channel to the Guide, and it hasn't shown up yet.
It's likely that your channel is in the moderation queue, where it will be tested and reviewed by someone from the Participatory Culture team or a trusted volunteer. We test all new channels for a couple of things: first, that it meets the PCF Terms of Use; second, that the requirements outlined above are met — basically, that videos play, and hopefully that thumbnails are plentiful.
If your channel is fully functional in Miro, it will likely be added to the guide in less than ten days. Otherwise, we'll be in touch to let you know what needs to be fixed.
Anything we're missing? Send questions / comments to feedback(at)pculture.org.
