Stream it!
The open source guide to enjoying your media anywhere in your home
Build the perfect shared media library PC, Raspberry Pi and Android advice Record and enjoy live TV – it’s easy!
“You’ll discover how to stream your media to just about any device you can think of…”
These days, we consume media – from music and photos to movies and TV – on a variety of devices in various locations. Digital media is both liberating and yet constricting at the same time. If you’ve built up a huge media library and want quick and easy access to it from any location, then you need a media server.
A media server enables you to collect all your media together in one location – your PC’s main storage, a USB-attached drive or even a network-attached drive – and then access it from just about any smart device you own. These could be other computers, your phone or tablet, even the set-top box or smart TV in your living room. It provides you with a consistent experience wherever you happen to be, and makes it possible to start watching on one device, then finish on another without having to manually skip to the right place.
Which media server package should you choose? We’ve gone with a free, opensource package called Emby, which is powerful, flexible and shows off your media in the best possible light. Some features are locked away behind a paywall, but if you’re strapped for cash never fear – you can do plenty without shelling out a penny for the privilege.
We’ll kick things off by taking a look at what hardware you’ll need, then reveal how to install Emby on your server. Then it’s a case of organising your media before setting up the server to point towards your media libraries. You’ll discover how to stream your media to just about any device you can think of, plus we’ll reveal how to get more from your media server, from using it to watch and record live TV to setting up user profiles that provide filtered access to your library. This is particularly useful if you have children in the house.
One things for certain: once you’ve experienced your media through your Linux-powered server, you’ll never consume it in the same way again. Read on to start the revolution…