Universal Media Server

Version: 13.2.0 Web: www.universalmediaserver.com

With Universal Media Server (UMS), you can stream all kinds of media from your Linux computer via the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol to any DLNA-compliant device. DLNA is found on popular gaming consoles including the PlayStation and Xbox, and even several smart TVs.

UMS is written in Java and includes JRE 8, which should work for most users. Download and extract the tarball from UMS’s website and launch the server:

$ tar xzvf UMS-.tgz

$ cd ums-

$ ./UMS.sh

You’re taken through a small setup wizard on the first run. UMS is fairly straightforward to configure; all you really need to do is point it to the folder that houses your media. The location can later be tweaked.

UMS uses FFMpeg, Mencoder, Mediainfo and other open source libraries to support virtually every media format. Once you’ve run through the configuration, the app fires up its web interface and lists all the media servers it has detected and can stream to.

In addition to the traditional DLNA/UPnP compatible players, you can also stream media to desktop players such as VLC Media Player and software media centres like Kodi. Just fire them up on the local network, and they’ll be able to detect the UMS server and vice versa.

You can also use the BubbleUPnP app to transform your Android smartphone or tablet into a UPnP device.

After you’ve set up UPnP devices in your network, you can now connect to the server from any of them and browse and stream media on the machine on which you’ve installed UMS. You can use UMS to stream to multiple UPnP devices simultaneously without any issues.

You can stream media to any device on the network by connecting to UMS’s web-based player that runs on port 9001.