A media server designed to play videos on consoles.
Universal Media Server is a project forked off of the PS3 Media Server which includes a few enhancements over the original project. The program was designed to enable your Playstation 3 console to playback media formats which were traditionally not supported, the most popular being MKV files.
The main function, apart from being a media server, is to transcode video so that your DLNA-compliant media player can display high-definition movie files without issues.
The main program interface is certainly not pretty, yet it is certainly functional and well laid-out. Upon launching Universal Media Server, you are greeted with the Status tab which displays the trancoding status. Moving on, there is a Traces tab which acts as a server log and beside that is the general configuration tab which allows you to make changes to the default settings of the application like the language, ability to install the server as a Windows Service and advanced network settings.
The navigation tab is where you're given the option of setting thumbnails on your media device, setting up the cache and modifying general display settings.
Where the meat of the program lays is in the Transcoding Settings tab where you can make fine adjustments to transcode settings such as the video codecs, audio codecs and more. The default settings here are to use open source engines such as MPlayer, FFmpeg Audio and VLC Video Streaming. In general, you should leave these settings alone unless you're experiencing issues.
Overall, Universal Media Server is an admirable project which allows you to play (formerly) non-traditional video files on your television or mobile phone with the help of consoles or web TV devices.
Features of Universal Media Server
- Customization: Fully customizable user interface.
- DLNA streaming: Stream media to any DLNA-compatible device.
- Flexible: Supports many different media formats.
- Media Library: Create a media library for easy access.
- Organization: Organize media into categories.
- Playlists: Create and manage playlists.
- Plugins: Expand functionality with third-party plugins.
- Remote access: Access your media from anywhere.
- Secure: Connections are protected with HTTPS encryption.
- Sharing: Share media with friends and family.
- Streaming: Stream audio and video to any streaming device.
- Subtitles: Supports subtitles in multiple languages.
- Video transcoding: Automatically transcode video to fit the device.
Compatibility and License
Universal Media Server is available for free and released under the open source GPLv2 license on Windows from media servers. The license provides the options to freely download, install, run and share this program without any restrictions. The source code for Universal Media Server should be freely available and modifications are certainly permitted as well as the option to inspect the software.
subjunk accepts donations for the continued development of this free software.
What version of Windows can Universal Media Server run on?
Universal Media Server can be used on a computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10. Previous versions of the OS shouldn't be a problem with Windows 8 and Windows 7 having been tested. It comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit downloads.
Other operating systems: The latest Universal Media Server version from 2024 is also available for Mac.
Filed under:
- Universal Media Server Download
- Free Media Servers
- Open source and GPL software
- Folder Sharing Software
