Universal Media Server can stream media contents, including audio, images and video, to various networked devices, such as game consoles, music centers and televisions. Besides the main advantage of allowing you to store all files in a single place, this also helps you avoid compatibility issues that may arise between the original formats and those supported by the target device.
Unfortunately, Universal Media Server doesn’t have a visually appealing interface. In my opinion, the application should have been designed more in accordance to its entertainment purposes. It’s a good thing, however, that it also has a web interface, which allows you to navigate the media library and play files directly from your browser. Although configuring the program may be a difficult task, there’s an initial configuration wizard to help you. Moreover, advanced options can be hidden if you don’t want to be overwhelmed by so many details. Finally, I’m glad the server is accompanied by an excellent user guide.
From the technical point of view, Universal Media Server is flawless. Do you remember what I said about avoiding compatibility problems? This tool can perform on-the-fly, transcoding and remuxing, which means that it can simply retrieve media and translate it into a format that your device can understand. And not only that, it can do this in real time, provided your computer’s processor is powerful enough. In addition, it also supports streaming subtitles. Last but not least, the program comes with everything it needs to work properly, which doesn’t mean its features cannot be expanded by installing additional plugins.
All in all, Universal Media Player is a good choice. If you’re wondering why you would need such a program when Windows Media Player can also stream media contents, the answer is because your system’s built-in player doesn’t support transcoding, so many of your files are likely not to be supported by the receiving device.
v4.0 [Jun 3, 2014]
Changes since 3.6.2:
General:
Added a web interface, available at localhost:9001
Added a new transcoding option to allow H.264 video with AAC audio
Added documentation for more renderer options to PS3.conf (CustomFFmpegOptions and OverrideVideoFilter)
Added support for configuring whether UMS can run just one or multiple instances
Changed the names of transcoding options in renderer config files for clarity
Output surround audio (AC-3) instead of stereo (MP2) when using VLC (needs testing)
Enabled subtitles in VLC (thanks, tdcosta100!)
Made FFmpeg the default transcoding engine
Improved the TextWrap function, which makes filenames fit better on certain renderers
Fixed padding in FFmpeg for DVD video resolution
Renderers:
Added support for Google Chromecast
Added support for nPlayer, skifta and TwonkyBeam on portable Apple devices (thanks, MattDetroit!)
Added support for LG LM620 TVs (thanks, michal-sapsa!)
Added support for Sony Bravia W7 series TVs (thanks, shtirlic!)
Improved support for OPPO devices
Improved support for Panasonic TX-L32V10E TVs
Languages:
Updated Spanish translation (thanks, AlfredoRamos!)
External Components:
Updated Apache commons-lang to 3.3.2, which:
Fixes bugs
Updated Logback to 1.1.2, which:
Fixes bugs
Updated Maven Git Commit ID Plugin to 2.1.9
Updated Netty to 3.9.1, which:
Fixes bugs
Updated slf4j to 1.7.7
