14 DAY TRIAL // What is democracy? Some people will answer that they don't know or simply can't describe it, although they are living in a democratic country, other people may not even taste democracy, being ruled by some other form of government or even by dictators, but the definition of this term is really simple...
Democracy is a form of government by the will of the people, coming from the Greek words "demos" and "kratos" - "people" and "rule". Guess what, today I found another form of democracy that can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter who's leading the country! All you need is a computer, a fair Internet connection and you're ready to go with this alternative Democracy...
Yes, you got it, I am talking about a computer software, and the best thing about it is that people using Windows, Mac OS as well as various Linux distros can use it without problems. Democracy, also known as Democracy Player or DTV is an Internet television software that's being developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation, is based on XULRunner and comes under the terms of the GPL license.
Democracy's last stable version for Mac OS X is 0.9.2 and was released last November. Before starting to use it, you have to download a package that has almost 9MB in size, and if you are worried about the fact that you own an Intel-based Mac, don't worry! First of all, congratulations for your purchase! Democracy is available as a Universal Binary that runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, so no compatibility problems!
OK, so you got it, you opened the DMG file, you dragged the program to your Applications folder...all done! Now, prepare to throw away your TV! Of course, that statement is true for those that own a TV, and if you are like me, without a TV but having all the media content available online (obviously, I am talking about content 100% legal, and I must assure you there's a lot available, all you have to do is search!) when I want it and especially having the freedom to choose exactly what I want, you'll still find Democracy really interesting. Why?
Democracy Player uses a straightforward approach to a really complex problem, being so easy, that its manual can be reduced to only two words: "use me". Despite the fact that, when I have seen it for the first time, I thought this is one of those really basic programs built for watching online TV stations, the reality is completely different. This program has an integrated Torrent engine for downloading content and is capable of playing almost any media format available, including H.264 encoded high definition media without the need to install any additional codecs!
The Channel Guide included in Democracy is your online TV guide, and all you have to do is look for the topics you're interested in and hit "Subscribe". I don't know if it can get easier than that, really! Once you downloaded a file, it will expire after a certain period, and when this happens, it will be automatically erased from your hard drive by the program. The default period of time that should pass between download and deletion can be set between 3 hours and 1 month, but you can also choose to keep the files on your hard drive "forever".
If Democracy is going to start an entire revolution, then I am glad I discovered it before seeing this happen. After all, we're talking about a program that didn't even reach its 1.0 version yet, so if you see it lock or crash, forgive it! These being said, I think the time has come for the conclusions and some screenshots, don't you think?
The Good
Democracy Player looks good, is incredibly easy to use, but has exactly the options that you need to avoid filling up your hard drive with useless media content, and the auto download feature can be really useful for most users.
The Bad
The only things that I missed here were the sound EQ and at least some basic image rendering controls, but I am sure they'll be added in future versions.
The Truth
Democracy Player gives people the power to watch what they want, when they want and as long as they want. The best part is that the content is legal, and I think we're on the right path to the new way of downloading and watching media the right way. From now on, you can forget about YouTube, Google Video or Yahoo Video, because they are all here, in a place called Democracy!
Check out the screenshots here:
