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May 05, 2020 Plex Media Server for Mac. Plex Media Player apps for any devices you wish to use. Prepare your video and audio. Plex does a good job of identifying and cataloging your media all on its own, but it still needs a little help from you. We'll give you a quick guide here, but for more information, consult Plex's help files. Universal Media Server is a media server capable of serving videos, audio and images to any DLNA-capable device. It is free, regularly updated and has more features than any other media server, including paid media servers.

Mac Media Server Software

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1. Connect a Mac to Every TV or Use Macs as All-in-One Audio and Video Players

Part 1 of this series looked at how to create a Mac media center by attaching your Mac to a TV and using Apple’s Front Row to have easy access to all your digital media (photos, music, podcasts, movies, and so on). This is a great way to outfit your living room with an amazing home and family entertainment center. We also discussed Apple’s forthcoming iTV solution that enables you to stream content from a computer to a TV by way of a set-top box solution. But most households today have more than one television and more than one computer. This article takes the Mac media center concept from being a one-room solution to being a home media network that enables you to access all your digital media conveniently from any room in your house.

Connect a Mac to Every TV or Use Macs as All-in-One Audio and Video Players

In the living room, it makes a good deal of sense to attach a Mac or Apple’s forthcoming iTV to your television to use it as a media center. Unless you are opting to use one of Apple’s larger Cinema Displays or a 24-inch iMac, chances are that your TV offers a bigger screen than that of your Mac. However, the living room is often not the only room of a home to have either a TV or a computer. So, how do you take the media center experience from just being in the living room to also being in the bedroom, kitchen, or office?

One solution is an iMac (or even an older eMac) that offers a large clear display that can serve your computer needs and also provide access to all your digital photos, music, and video content. Another option is to attach a non-all-in-one Mac to a TV or monitor (and potentially a stereo system or speakers) in those rooms and create the Front Row experience there. In some cases, when a computer already is in the room, this can provide a less-expensive option than purchasing more than one iTV unit.

In choosing how to provide the ability to watch video or listen to music in your bedroom or have access to basic computing functions as well as digital media in your kitchen or office, you need to consider two things. First, what are your needs: just a computer, a portable Mac that can serve as an entertainment solution, a full-scale media center like that offered by Front Row or iTV but with no computing needs, or some mix of these options? The second consideration is that if you have multiple Macs (or Macs and PCs) in your house, how will you access and organize the photos, music, TV shows, and movies that are stored on them?

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We all are fond of music and videos and everybody has its own collection of media files both on computers and smartphones. But you can’t carry every time your huge collection of movies, songs, and other media files with you. In such a situation, the home media server comes in handy. There are a bunch of best open source media server software available online that can set up on your own personal home computer. You can store all your media files at one place on the media server and can access it remotely or locally using the computer or smartphone. For example, you are out of town and want to access your movies or music, what you will do, just take out your smartphone enter your home media server address, and boom!! Using media servers you can create your own personal YouTube, Netflix, and Vimeo. Some Media servers based on lightweight Linux, which means to save electricity and other resources you can install them on Rasberry Pi.

Best Opensource Media server for Linux, Mac, or Windows

Here we have listed Free and Open source Media server software that can be work on both Linux and Windows.

PLEX Media Server (Freemium, not opensource)

We already have a done couple of articles on Plex and it really has some great features that allow it in our best media server list. The Plex Media Server is available for a variety of platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker, and third-party NAS (network-attached storage device) Synology, Qnap, Netgear, Seagate, and more…

The Plex media server is not an open-source instead of a freemium software and offers some features on a subscription base only. However, still here because of easy to use and install capabilities.

Whereas the Plex player comes under both freemium and open source license GPL v2. Due to its vast range of devices support the Plex continuously gaining its popularity as a media streamer.

The Plex media server is based on a client-server model. It offers a wide range of client apps for different devices to support and stream its media server content easily. The Plex app is available for Android, Web, Windows, Kodi, Windows Phone, TiVo, SONOS, Android TV, Chrome cast, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Amazon Alexa, Roku, Nvidia Shield, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 & 4 and Smart TV.

Plex Media Server Features:

• Account management
• Support all format videos and audios
• iOS, Windows, and Android Mobile platform support
• Privacy and security
• Media Libraries Sharing
• No Storage Limit
• Online channels
• Live TV
• Plex cloud
• Mobile and Cloud Sync
• Parental control
• Audio Fingerprinting
• Remote Controls
• Media Optimizer and more…

If you are interested in PLEX, also see: How To setup Plex Media Server on Ubuntu Linux.

Kodi Open Source Home Theater Software

Kodi 100% Opensource Media center software that stores all your digital media files at one place like Plex and gives you a beautiful interface to access them. The Kodi was previously known as Xbox Media center or XMBC. Kodi provides a bit different media server software approach. It works more as a local media streamer rather functions a server-client relationship like PLEX. It was developed as an XMBC open-source media center and still distributed under open source licenses. It plays content from two sources one is locally saved content and secondly is via plugins.

Kodi Open Source Home Theater Software

It has a vast range of Addon for popular web services, applications, and script such as Pluto.TV, PS Vue, HDHomeRun, SoundCloud, Kodi Android Installer, Rooster Teeth, and more… It also provides an add-on to stream, video content from various sources like NBC, CBS, Funimation, and Crunchyroll. It is a perfect mixture of a media center PC/homer sever software. Kodi is also multi-platform support Media center/server software and supports Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and embedded devices like the Raspberry Pi.

Kodi Features:

• TV Shows library supports
• Supporting all the main video formats
• Kodi can play all your music including mp3, flac, wav, and WMA formats
• Import pictures and view in different styles such as slideshow
• Support Live TV recording
• JSON-RPC based remote interface
• Smartphone and Tablet Apps
• Add-Ons for popular web services, applications, and scripts.
• Works popular backends such as MediaPortal, MythTV, NextPVR, Tvheadend, and much more.

Emby Media Server

Free Media Servers

Emby is a great and best open source Media server similar to Plex in features and user interface. While the Plex is a closed source or freemium, Emby is totally open-source media server software. In comparison to Plex, the Emby is much easier to install for newbies and you can see our article: How to Install Emby media server, step by step installation process. Emby offers lots of customization, media management, and database options.

Emby Media Server

The Emby Media server is available for Windows, Linux, Nas Devices, Mac OS, Docker, and FreeBSD. Like Plex, the Emby is also has a dedicated Linux installer for Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, Fedora, and CentOS. If you are looking for 100% open-source Media server for your office or home then Emby is the best one.

Web-based Management System of Emby to install plugins, edit metadata and subtitles, Sync and more…

Emby also offers Apps for the mobile operating system: Emby Web client, Android, iOS, Windows 10, and Windows Mobile. Apart from the Emby Apps, it also has a good collection of TV Apps as follow:

• Android TV
• Amazon Fire Tv
• Shield Android TV
• Apple TV
• Chromecast
• Roku
• Emby Theatre HTML5
• Emby Theatre for Windows
• LG Smart TV
• Samsung Smart TV
• PS4
• Xbox One
• Windows Media Center
• Xbox 360
• Kodi
• PS3

Emby Media Server Features

• Emby Server automatically converts and streams the media
• Stream Live TV to any device
• Web-based tools to edit metadata and subtitles
• Easy DLNA
• Parental Controls
• Easily control content access
• Cloud Sync
• Chromecast

MediaPortal

MediaPortal is a well-featured open-source HTPC media center and similar to Kodi. It does not have features like Emby and Plex but still, it’s very good open-source media server software. Using it you can watch, schedule, and record live TV like TiVo, streaming media, radio, and TV to any HTPC connected to your network., Check the weather, news, slideshow of pictures & videos, and more. It can access easily the web or mobile device. It also based on Client/Server Architecture.

See:How to Install and Configure the MediaPortal Media server on Windows 10 PC

MediaPortal

Media Portal Features

• Watch TV, Videos, and DVD
• Watch Online Videos
• Listening Music, Radio, and Web Streams
• Schedule Recordings
• Client/Server Architecture
• Skin System
• Plug-in System
• Check Weather Forecast
• Picture and video slideshow Viewer
• Multiple Tuner Support
• Time Shifting, Pause and Record TV/Radio
• Read RSS Feeds

OpenFLIXR Media Server

OpenFLIXR 2 is the easiest free all-in-one home Media server that offers all media solutions in one package. OpenFLIX Media server software download, install updates of media programs automatically. This home media server is a combination of all well-known open-source projects out there including Plex Media Server.

OpenFLIXR Media Server all-in on video streaming server

Software used in OpenFLIXR are:

Mac Mini Media Server

• CouchPotato + Radarr for Movies
• SickRage + Sonarr for automated TV show downloading
• Headphones- Automated music downloader
• Mopidy-Music Server
• Ubooquity-Comics and Ebooks & Web-based Reader
• Subtitles- AutoSub, Sub-Zero, Sickrage
• HTPC Manager
• Plex Media Server to organizes movies, series, music, and photos
• SABnzbd, NZBge, qBittorrent
• Netdata + Monit for monitoring
• Home-Assistant
• And More…

The OpenFLIXR media server needs a virtual machine to install since it is a virtual application

OpenELEC

OpenELEC is a lightweight Linux operating system built to create a media server like Kodi. The full form of the OpenELEC is Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center. Due to its lightweight, it can be easily installed on Raspberry, Apple TV, or low configurations systems.

Features of OpenELEC are:

• TV Show Management
• Movie Organizer and Player
• Music and Audiobook Player
• Freescale iMX6 ARM builds for Cubox-i, CuboxTV, and Hummingboard boxes
• TV and Personal Video Recorder
• Addon available to expand its feature
• Picture Browser

Mac For Media Server Settings

OSMC Media Center

OSMC Media center is last on our list. It is an open-source media center with a simple design and intuitive navigation system. The OSMC media center is based on Kodi and Debian. It also offers paid hardware kits and other accessories to enhance the OSMC user experience such as the Vero 4K. It is a hardware device with OSMC that supports 4K, HEVC, 10-bit content, and HD audio. It supports almost every type of media file. OSMC Media center is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Rasberry Pi, Vero, and Apple TV.

OSMC Media Center

A verdict on Best Free & Opensource Media Server Software Options

Plex Media Server For Mac

Although Plex, Emby, and Kodi are the best and most popular media servers. But that doesn’t mean that other media servers are not good some of them like OpenFlixr are worth trying. We have put everything we know on this list, now it’s all upon you which you want to use. If you want to install a media server along with a NAS server then you can go for open-source NAS software like FreeNAS.

Mac Media Server

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