I recently started using the open-source Democracy Player (it will soon be renamed the Miro Player) and I really, really like it. Not only can Democracy play just about every kind of video imaginable – Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, etc. – it helps you find some of the internet’s best video podcasts via its built-in Channel Guide. You can also use it to download, save and watch BitTorrent files as well as videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video. It even supports high-definition video too!

For those of you who already produce a puppet podcast or are thinking of starting one, Democracy offers video creators a number of helpful tools, including one click video subscription buttons, Broadcast Machine (for publishing videos on your web site) and Make Internet TV (a guide to shooting and editing video for the web). Even if you don’t want to use the Democracy software yourself, you can submit your show’s RSS Feed to create your own Democracy Channel to help you attract new viewers.

You can download the latest version of the Democracy Player via www.getdemocracy.com.