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.
v6.4 [Jun 27, 2016]
General:
Regularly initiate UPnP searches for new renderers
Added renderer config settings HalveBitrate and SupportedVideoBitDepths
Prevent sleep mode while streaming by default
Tweaked language
Improved/fixed some documentation (thanks, Sami32!)
Improved file parsing speed
Improved logging
FFmpeg no longer defers to MEncoder for embedded fonts since it supports them
FFmpeg no longer defers to MEncoder for internal ASS subtitles
ALIVE messages send less frequently by default
Fixed support for CMYK JPEG images
Fixed 24-bit FLAC fake videos showing up for non-PS3 renderers
Fixed unsupported subtitles being streamed
Fixed transcoding bitrate in rare cases
Fixed MIME types for WAV audio and TIFF images
Fixed renderer TextWrap
Fixed renderers only being detected if they are started before UMS
Renderers:
Added support for VLC on Apple TV
Improved video quality on wireless networks for Panasonic VT60
Improved support for subtitles on Panasonic CX700 Series TVs
Improved support for Panasonic CX680 Series TVs
Improved support for Panasonic E6 Series TVs
Improved support for Sony Bravia NX800 TVs (thanks, prescott66!)
Improved detection of Vizio TVs
Languages:
Czech translation was completed (thanks, jirkapas and panther7!)
French translation was completed and validated (thanks, archaos, Kielo, Kirvx, misterfred and Nadar!)
Italian translation was completed (thanks, alebrambilla1986, av3c01, bonatigennaro7, FoxGhost07, fsc_mar, johnjonh, jumputer, morag87, RickyReds, supp and vladiesel!)
Polish translation was completed and validated (thanks, anonymodmous, K4r0lSz, Nadar and robo25!)
Russian translation was completed (thanks, antonyfg, dronidzer, guzu-guzu, lxnderty, Nadar and Tianuchka!)
Swedish translation was completed (thanks, klebom, linushg111, mattias_karlsson_89, millenniumb, Nadar, qwert352, rchk, richarda, Rowly, sebastianboos, Stetoskop, strayhat and swarish!)
Turkish translation was completed and validated (thanks, hasanbahcekapili, OnarEngincan and onuroztemizel!)
External Components:
Updated FFmpeg to builds from this month
Updated FLAC to 1.3.1 (thanks, Sami32!)
Updated h2database to 1.4.192
Updated MediaInfo to 0.7.86
