Media Servers

List of Media Servers that support Video
This is an abbreviated list, limited to relatively mature products that are currently being maintained. They all support audio, video and photos. Most of the FREE products request or donation or limit usage but not severely. Most of the paid versions I have not tried.


iTunes - FREE. iTunes now supports streaming to AppleTV, which qualifies it as a Media Server. You have to keep the iTunes app running on your computer. Not a DLNA server, no transcoding.

JRiver - $39.95. Windows only. Supports DLNA. No transcoding. http://www.jriver.com/

Mezzmo - $24.95. Windows only.  Supports DLNA and transcoding. Mezzmo

MythTV - FREE. This original built to run under Linux, there are builds available for Mac (and most recently Windows). Installing and setting up MythTV takes a lot of "know how," such as setting up permissions on a MySQL server. Supports DLNA and transcoding. http://www.mythtv.org/

Nero MediaHome - $40. Runs on Windows, supports DLNA and transcoding. Nero MediaHome


Nullriver MediaLink - $20. Mac only. Supports transcoding, DLNA/uPnP. Somewhat barebones but works with many devices. It worked for me and all my devices could connect to it, but I couldn't get it to serve metadata. MediaLink

PlayOn - $4.99/mo or $79.99. Windows only. PlayOn is a proprietary server that was designed to support PlayOn clients. However, they have added DLNA support and they maintain a list of devices they've tested with here: http://www.playon.tv/supported-devices

Plex Media Server - FREE. Server runs on Mac OS/X, Windows or Linux. A media center that recognizes and plays all common media formats and scraps metadata from many online sources. Seems very similar to XBMC and in fact Plex grew out of the XBMC project a few years ago.  Plex diverged from XBMC before XBMC added DLNA support and Plex has tended to use proprietary methods to stream to devices, so device support may be pretty limited. Still, a nice alternative to XBMC for a HTPC. http://www.plexapp.com/


PS3 Media Server - FREE. Specifically created to stream to PS3, it transcodes everything into a format that can be played on the PS3. However, many other devices can play these same formats. Doesn't seem to be actively supported but a lot of people use this product so I included it. PS3 Media Server

ReadyDLNA- ReadyDLNA is a Media Server built into some NETGEAR routers. These routers allow a USB storage device to be attached and the ReadyDLNA server can serve the content on the storage device. Seems smart enough to use thumbnail images and read NFO files. Does not appear to support any kind of transcoding. http://www.readynas.com/

Serviio - FREE. Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. Requires Java. Can be set up to automatically query online databases to get metadata for media files, and can also use NFO files from XBMC. I like that is can be set up to only serve certain file types from various directories, so thumbnail files don't get served as photos. Supports transcoding. I got this to run for a while, but then it quit and never worked again, which I think had to do with user permissions on the files but even running as administrator didn't fix it. http://www.serviio.org/

TVersity - FREE. Windows only. Supports transcoding. http://tversity.com/


TVMobili - FREE with limitations. Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. Doesn't work with metadata very well. Most frustrating is that if thumbnail images (with JPG extension) are stored with the media files, it lists the thumbnails as separate options on the clients, which is confusing. The management interface is web based and very limited. But, this was the first DLNA server I got to work and it installs and runs nicely on Mac OS. Supports transcoding. Unfortunately, I ran into a bug where TVMobili was making the files unreadable by Google TV. http://www.tvmobili.com/

Twonkymedia - $39.95. Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and supports transcoding. http://www.twonkyvision.de/


XBMC - FREE. Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. XMBC is a player combined with a DLNA client and server. The application must remain running (it doesn't seem to run as a daemon or service). It's biggest strength is the automatic creation of a metadata database, which can be exported and used by other servers or clients. Doesn't yet have transcoding support and ongoing support of XBMC as a server is limited.  http://xbmc.org/


WD TV Live Hub - Western Digital really needs a catchier name for their product line. This device is a player and a server. It comes with 1 Tb of storage so you can load it with all your favorite media and then stream that to WD TV Live or WD TV Live Plus devices, which act as clients. The data is shared via an SMB share on the network, so should also work with a Boxee Box and can be accessed by home computers. No word on DLNA support.


Windows Media Services - I believe this is part of Windows Server. Can stream media to XBox 360 and other Windows computers. This blog will most likely not be a good source of information. Unfortunately, Microsoft often uses indistinct names for various products which can make defining what the various products can do very challenging. If an Microsoft evangelists want to explain to me the differences between Windows Media Center, Windows Media Server, Windows Media Services, IIS Media Services, Windows Media Player, and Microsoft Mediaroom, I'm listening.