(If youve got a Mac, you can download Windows Media Components for QuickTime to play.I would like to have all my music, video and pictures on one large, central hard drive, and then wirelessly access/play back this media from a variety of devices. Use this table to find the right version of the Player for your system. MKPlayer is an easy-to-use media player designed to offer unique features to enjoy watching videos and listening to music: - Play movies on your TV with a simple click (check compatibility before unlocking) - Safari Extension to help you to easily open. Download MKPlayer - MKV & Media Player for macOS 10.10 or later and enjoy it on your Mac.Of Mac or PC comes to mind when discussing a media server as well. Plex is a media organization service. Using Plex is a fantastic way to store all of your Movies, TV Shows, Home Videos, Pictures, and more in one centralized location. The following in-depth guide will show you how to set up and use Plex Media Server for all your home media needs.
Intel-based PCs are usually more powerful and more versatile, and include graphics cards and HDMI ports, but they may be bigger, noisier and more expensive. Picking a serverYour server could be a PC or a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, and will be on all the time. Still, if you want a non-proprietary solution, almost everyone except Apple supports DLNA. The standards should mean that all the bits work together correctly, but they don’t always. (There are non-Apple devices that support Airplay but they are licensed by Apple.) Alternatively, all the components could work to common standards, usually UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). Finally, each of your devices – the clients in your client/server system – runs a separate program to display whatever the server sends its way.All the components could be developed by a single company, which is basically what Apple did with Airplay. PCs can transcode files, stream movies from services such as Netflix - in principle, they can do anything you can do with a Roku or Apple TV-type device - download things from the net and perform other tasks.Transcoding is important if you use small devices such as smartphones. This includes “ home theatre PCs” that people typically plug directly into their main TV set, and use to stream media to other devices. Because you don’t, it’s worth considering a PC instead of a NAS. Beat Media Server PS3 Media ServerThe main alternatives include XBMC, Universal Media Server, PS3 Media Server, and Serviio. At the moment, Plex seems to be the most highly regarded. Almost all run on PCs, some run on NAS servers, and a few also run on games consoles such as the Microsoft Xbox 360 and/or Sony PlayStation 3. Media centre softwareThere are lots of programs that will make your PC or NAS work as a media server. For media serving, QNAP may have the edge. A low-power server or NAS may stutter when doing that, especially if it’s serving several streams at once.For more information about NAS boxes, please see my earlier answer on Which NAS should I buy to store files? I usually recommend Synology and QNAP, even though they are not the cheapest. Nonetheless, lots of Windows 7 users install Plex, XBMC and other programs instead of using Windows Media Player. Microsoft explained its development, and has a guide to setting it up. You may find that UMS’s simpler table is better for your purposes, bearing in mind that it’s promoting Universal Media Server.If you take the PC route with Microsoft, Windows 7 already has a DNLA/UPnP media server built in. That’s where Plex may have an advantage. Streaming clientsAny player that supports UPnP should be able to play streams from your media server, and that includes the widely supported, open source VLC media player.There are two ways to approach client programs: either you could hunt down the best UPnP app for each of your devices, or you could use the same software on each device. It offers Qfile mobile apps for Apple’s iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8. QNAP’s NAS boxes also include Twonky Media Server and can run Plex, XBMC and the BubbleUPnP “music cloud” app, among others. Synology DiskStations support DNLA/UPnP as standard and many of its NAS servers can run Plex. Plex is a proprietary program whereas XBMC and Universal Media Server are free/open source (GPL) software.You will have a smaller choice of software if you choose a NAS. Convert flac to mp3 for macIf you don’t need 6TB, you could leave one bay empty or use it to back up the other drive. Other mattersWhether you decide on a PC or a NAS, it should take at least two 3TB drives. Sometimes you may need to find a different program to handle a particular need, such as displaying subtitles. I assume you can use this as a client for a Plex server running on a different machine - please post a correction below if I’m wrong!Of course, there’s no reason why you can’t have two or more UPnP client programs on each device. There isn’t an app for Ubuntu, but the server version of Plex includes the Plex Web App, which includes a player. They can all do back-ups and almost all of them can stream media, but some may not be able to handle certain downloads or streaming services.Plex has a Quick-Start: Step by Step guide to setting up a media server for the first time. If buying a NAS, check that it will be able to do what you need. Keep the second drive in a different place and only plug it in once a week to back up your back-up.A PC running Ubuntu or Windows will obviously be able to download and save or stream files from the net. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set.
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