Democracy: Internet TV (Free, open-source software)

[aryayush]

Hello!

If you are viewing this in the preview by rolling over the topic title, click on this now. You won't regret it.

Democracy. The only video player you need.

*www.getdemocracy.com/images/walkthrough/mac/01-playing-rb.png​

Democracy Player is a powerful TV viewer that downloads, manages and plays the latest videos on your computer. There's no need to squint-- the Democracy Player can play the highest quality videos in full-screen, and will play them one after the other, just lean back and enjoy.

Simple, Yet Powerful
*img220.imageshack.us/img220/4175/03channelguideps8.th.png​

Once Democracy Player downloads to your computer, install it and start it up. You will see the channels that come pre-subscribed with the player, and you can subscribe to new channels in the Guide. Hit play on New Videos and any new videos will play one after the other. Democracy Player can be as simple to use as turning on your TV.

Find Videos
*img134.imageshack.us/img134/8536/04searchqf7.th.png​

Search for videos from YouTube, Google Video, Revver, and more. Better yet, turn a keyword search into a channel with the "Add This Search as a Channel" button. Democracy will automatically watch for new videos tagged with your keyword -- when new material is found, it'll be downloaded and waiting for you. You can also easily find videos inside your collection and channels with the search field at the top of the screen.

Manually Adding Channels
*img225.imageshack.us/img225/5552/05manualsubscribelk6.th.png​

You can add channels manually with "Channels > Add Channel" (Ctrl+N). Just paste in the URL from webpages with video or RSS video feeds and Democracy Player will handle the rest. If you want to unsubscribe from a channel, just right-click on the channel's name and select "remove" (you can re-subscribe anytime).

New Videos
*img225.imageshack.us/img225/7711/06newvideosdr3.th.png​

The "New Videos" channel makes Democracy Player into a simple TV-viewing application. Whenever a new video is downloaded to your computer, it is added to this list. You can browse and manually pick certain videos to watch from the list. Click the video at the top and all new videos will play in order, one after the other. When you're done watching your new videos, you can choose to save them by clicking on the "Save" button to the right of the video description. If you don't do anything, the videos will automatically expire after a set time (6 days by default) freeing up space for fresh videos. You can always re-download videos that expire.

Auto-Download
*img228.imageshack.us/img228/7039/07channelsl5.th.png​

Auto-downloading makes using Democracy Player really simple. When enabled, the Democracy Player will grab new videos from a channel as soon as they're available. You can turn auto-download on for any channel by checking the box off at the top of the channel view. As soon as you know you like a channel, there is no need to think about it again; let Democracy Player handle the downloading.

Playlists
*img237.imageshack.us/img237/8263/09playlistjc9.th.png​

Creating playlists of your favorite videos is simple. Just drag any video you've downloaded onto a playlist in the sidebar. You can rearrange the order of videos inside a playlist by dragging them up and down. To create a new playlist, choose Playlists > New Playlist (apple+P).

Download Democracy Player

*www.getdemocracy.com/downloads/images/os-apple.gif *www.getdemocracy.com/downloads/images/os-windows.gif

*www.getdemocracy.com/downloads/images/os-fedora.gif *www.getdemocracy.com/downloads/images/os-ubuntu.gif *www.getdemocracy.com/downloads/images/os-debian.gif *www.getdemocracy.com/downloads/images/os-gentoo.png​

If you are a fan of watching videos and movies and/or have a huge library of them, you'll love me for telling you about it after using this application. I am shocked that no one had posted about it here till now. Guess it did not make as much of a news in the Windows world as it did in Mac-dom.

*www.getdemocracy.com/images/img_supportdemocracy.gif​

 

[dd_wingrider]

awesome find, will try it out,

deserves a rep

 

[crystal_pup]

nice video player dude...kip it up..

Cheers,
Kunal

 

[koolbluez]

Only one question... Didja use it ?

I knew about it... long time back.. when I got my DataOne 900 Unlimited

The only free IP TV viewer... Big download... resource-hugger. And not to our taste is what I felt. Uninstalled it. Not impressed.. Either it has to be reworked better or my 256kbps has to b upgraded.

How many of u guyz can really enjoi it? Need user comments.
If u get greater than 256kbps speeds, u've data caps. So can't use it. It's like the torrents. Need to upload & download. Useful only if ur connection is an unlimited one.

 

[aryayush]

Yes, I did - which is why I thought everyone in this world should know about this fabulous little application. It has been completely re-worked and works wonderful. It also looks very beautiful.
I used it for about two minutes because I am downloading torrents at present and didn't want to pause them. But those two minutes were enough to tell me that this little application is going to be with me for a long time.
BTW, it has VLC media player built right into it so it'll play almost any media format out there.

Here's a review by Smaran Dayal if it'll help calm your inhibitions:

Democracy Player is possibly the most complete Internet TV offering on the market today. It’s podcasting, BitTorrent, and YouTube all bundled into one, and serves as a library for all your videos, too. And since it’s open source, it’s not restricted to a single operating system or processor architecture (think Joost + Intel). Democracy Player is developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation and distributed freely over the Internet. It was released first for the Mac, and then for other platforms. And though it runs well on Windows and Linux, it resembles the iTunes interface and is distinctly Mac-like.
What one might wonder is why one needs a separate video downloader and library application when iTunes already does so much? There are a number of reasons. iTunes cannot subscribe to BitTorrent RSS feeds or download torrents, and is limited to just a couple of video formats, whereas Democracy Player has the popular VLC media player built into it and is able to playback a large number of video formats. But what’s really unique is Democracy Player’s ability to search a number of video sharing sites like YouTube, DailyMotion, and Google Video and download videos to your library.

Read more...

This is what the application's installation screen looks like:

*applematters.com/images/uploads/Democracy_Entry_1.jpg

Isn't it sweet?

awesome find, will try it out,

deserves a rep

Thanks a bunch, buddy!

 

[koolbluez]

Not enuf clarity @ all... only when u've 512kbps or more steady broadband connection'll u really get good clarity.

U'll definitely not get the clarity as *www.getdemocracy.com/images/walkthrough/mac/01-playing-rb.png until & unless u r having 2Mbps or higher speeds.

Esp after the HDTV's, DVDs, Blu-rays, Tata Sky, DishTV... we wont really enjoi this quality.

Well, I'm talkin for the Indian users here

And the worse thing I like in these sorta things is.. no channels I like.. as all r paid
No TenSports & the like...

Well, there r paid sw like Democracy player... but... well how many used them? May the p!r@tes stand up. No one's gonna pay for IP TV right now. Not with fake ~256kbps broadband

 

[aryayush]

What are you talking about!

The clarity has nothing to do with your connection quality. It does not stream content, it downloads and saves them. So, you can just start the download, make yourself a toast, do some exercises, check your email and then watch the video with relaxation when it is downloaded.
You'll get the clarity shown in that screenshot if your video is of that standard. That is a high definition video. Get yourself a high-definition movie and then play it in Democracy.
People download movies using torrents, watch them on YouTube and have a lot of videos strewn about on their hard-drive. Democracy makes doing the three tasks easier and well integrated into a beautiful interface. I cannot see a single flaw in either the application or the idea behind it.

 

[koolbluez]

WHAT... it used to stream download earlier.. it downloads & displays now! Then maan.. I'll prefer my GOM player & µTorrent. Both being damn light on my poor babe (my rig )

And it'll take @least 2hrs to download a HQ 30min show on a 256kbps connection!!!
Maan.. isn't it better to watch TV

But... as my dear friend is goin all gaga over it.. I think the new & improved version is worth tryin. But.. 20mb download. It'll strain my already strained-to-the-@$$ rig after installation. I rarely use 10Mb+ applications on my PIII 256MB rig on a steroidal dose of XP Pro. Except my fav.. Photoshop of course

 

[caleb]

Automatix2 gave me the option to download / install Democracy but I did not select it...but after your excellent review I'll go ahead and download it...will definately try watching some videos this weekend on Democracy. Rep'd you for presenting it so beautifully.

 

[aryayush]

Thank you! Hope you like it too!

And the worse thing I like in these sorta things is.. no channels I like.. as all r paid

Everything is free, including all the channels.

And it'll take @least 2hrs to download a HQ 30min show on a 256kbps connection!!!
Maan.. isn't it better to watch TV

No television channel in India offers high definition content and no Bollywood movie has been released in HD format either.
Democracy is primarily for those who like to download YouTube videos and watch foreign TV serials and movies. Those who use torrents for download all this stuff.
I spend one week downloading one torrent 24/7. So two hours is absolutely no big deal for me. I have just completed downloading an eight gigabyte file.

 

[caleb]

Thank you! Hope you like it too! I have just completed downloading an eight gigabyte file.

You are welcome...which was this 8GB file you downloaded? anything interesting...share it I may want to download it.

 

[aryayush]

It would be against the rules of the forum.

 

[koolbluez]

I spend one week downloading one torrent 24/7. So two hours is absolutely no big deal for me. I have just completed downloading an eight gigabyte file.

u r patient!!!! I never dl more than 4.5GB @ a stretch.

 

[aryayush]

Well, I am sure that takes more than two hours too.

 

[caleb]

It would be against the rules of the forum.

Damn!... you guys are King Kong's...the max I ever downloaded was 3.2 GB at a stretch for downloading Sabayon Linux and another time Ubuntu 6.10 which was also around some 3GB plus...it took some 18 odd hours on my 256kbps broadband.

 

[koolbluez]

^^^ same thing here... I download in intervals.. not continuous now.. about 1.5GB per day on the same 256kbps connection.
@aryayush.. it'll take 2hrs or more.. but I get what I wanted. Not any program on any free channel anywhere
Take ur pick.. DDSports or TenSports... the paid channels r better. But hope they cost lesser

Anyway.. downloaded Democracy... installin it.. Can't use right now.. huge dldin goin on
Hope it's worth ur promo
'll rep u if i like it

Hey.. my 800th post

 

[Tech Geek]

Hey
Its nice
thanks

 

[caleb]

^^1.5GB per day...WOW! That's 45GB a month...what do you download?...if you don't mind sharing it...unless it is some "dinchak" stuff which is against the forum rules. he he he

 

[prateek_san]

really good job man....i saw this at NDTV Profit the program called Gadget Guru... nice share man.

 

[caleb]

Hey guess what I downloaded and installed Democracy just a few minutes...will try it a bit later let you know what I think of it.