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.
v6.5 [Aug 3, 2016]
General:
Respect the renderer setting H264Level41Limited when deciding whether to stream or transcode
Search for subtitles in alternative folder even when a subtitle was already found (thanks, tdcosta100!)
Logging improvements
Improved program shutdown stability
Updated docs
Updated image parsing from MediaInfo and Sanselan to Imaging
Fixed manual renderer selection
Improved support for OGA, MKA, ADTS, WEBM, 3GA and 3G2A files
Made disabling transcoding more reliable
Minor bugfixes
Languages:
Minor English updates
Synchronized translations with Crowdin
Renderers:
Added FLAC support on Sony PS4
Improved AAC support on LG LM620 TVs
Improved detection of Sony Bravia W series TVs
Improved AVI/DivX support on Panasonic TX-L32V10E TVs
Improved Google Chromecast support
Fixed LPCM audio on Sony PS3
Fixed aspect ratios on Sony Bravia 5500 series TVs
Dependencies:
Updated h2database to 1.4.193
