As a new and developing tech market, internet TV has a varied and fairly short history. First, there was streaming video, and the quality of what you could watch depended on your connection speed. As people moved into the world of broadband internet, the quality and ability to access video online increased as well.

Then came YouTube, which popularized the idea of social interaction with video, and finally showed that streaming video was here to stay. But many of us got tired of watching video on small little pop up windows, and the idea of having high definition video that utilized fast broadband speeds to stream content over the internet came about. Now, products like AppleTV and Joost bring the best elements of on-demand television and streaming video together, creating a whole new field of contenders in the internet TV market.

While Joost remains one of the biggest players in the internet TV market, it's certainly not the only one. Miro, an open source program devoted to high quality internet TV, is one software platform that hopes to take a large piece of the internet TV pie, and Miro is doing so through a completely open and free platform that is not controlled by content providers or advertising revenue. Earlier this month, Miro finally hit the big time by releasing Miro 1.0 and added many improvements to the interface and program itself.

What this means for consumers is that, with Miro, you get a platform that is open to anyone who packages their original videos into a standard RSS feed, much in the same way you would access blogs or podcasts on a Web site. Additionally, Miro's open source credentials mean that anyone technically minded can add to the program new plug-ins and services just like Mozilla's Firefox browser. It's like YouTube for the technically minded, offering much more flexibility than the competition.

The Miro 1.0 welcome screen.

The first noticeable difference between Miro and Joost is that Miro has an interface more in line with iTunes than a media center product, giving you an easier way to navigate programs before you watch. Miro also claims to have over 2,000 channels, where Joost has around 300 channels. But let's be clear about something: the quality of Miro's "channels" varies from major media broadcasts (NBC, Adult Swim, etc.) to some guy with a web cam, so it's often more difficult to find good entertainment. However, Miro has a larger collection of "news" channels, while Joost only has a few of the major ones like CNN and CBS.

While Miro's content quality varies, it does have nearly the same stuff that Joost offers, except commercial free. And one advantage with Miro 1.0 (or disadvantage, if you have a fast connection) is that programs are downloaded automatically to your computer instead of streaming over the internet, giving more access to those with slower computers.