I'm looking for a program to run a media server 24/7. I can access all my files and stream them through even the most simple FTP solution, but that kind of shit is unable to transcode all my movies on the fly to lower quality for mobile use whenever I'm on the move in places where I cannot be sure I have the best bandwidth available. Also needs to be able to support subtitles in some form.

Plex is a good example, but costs 5$/month.
I looked through all the ones I could find, so far best $/functionality ratio I've found is Serviio. It costs 25$ for the licence and transcodes all the files on your server's CPU (my i5 3570K can handle that). No need to pay 5$/month for rest of my life if I want to use it.

The solution to that is not a software upgrade. The solution is to duplicate the files. Usually thats only like a 30% increase in used storage.
Like Original 16gb, then then you can add a 4gb, a 700mb and a 300mb version.

real time transcoding will fail as soon as 2-3 people access it at the same time.

This post was edited by maulepan on Feb 12 2016 06:54am

Only one person will access, say a movie that requires transcoding, at a given time.

I was going to add, that the server will also be a download center when I'm on the move. In a situation where my phone has only low bandwidth available but my server has the regular, it can download the movie for me and then transcode when the download is complete.

Then i dont get it? What is the point of a media server if you are the only one that access it? You could just take your hard drive with you if you want to watch some movies on the go.

plex

to access from anywhere with any device?

There will be me and my gf accessing it, but never should it occur both of us want to watch something that requires transcoding at the same time.

It will obviously be accessed with multiple different devices, which might or might not be computers. My phone, would be a good example. I did specify I can use any FTP'esque solution to watch them at full quality, but that can't be guaranteed when I'm in a train, a car or a bus. Therefor the transcoding.

A portable hard drive is a very bad solution and requires me to plan ahead every movie I wish to watch on a trip which might be 2 hours or 2 weeks even if I did have a way to use it with my phone and lets say a hotel TV. The whole point is ease-of-access after I've jumped the necessary hoops to get it running.

Edit #2: I forgot to specify, the server will obviously cater all the media files to both me and my girlfriend when at home, but when at home it needs to be nothing more than a network drive. What I'm looking from you is an alternative streaming platform with capabilities to transcode videos.


Plex is great, but a solution which does not require monthly payments and does the same thing for me costs less (aka Servioo), so I've already pretty much ruled that one out. I might later on proceed to use Plex, if I find the other solution cumbersome.

Edit: The whole point of this thread is to find an alternative to Plex and Serviio, if one exists.

This post was edited by nexcoor on Feb 12 2016 08:24am

Why exactly do you look for alternatives? 25$ is cheap as fuck. I hardly think their is any quality product around thats cheaper.

been using plex myself debated buying lifttime

now I think I may try servioo

try Universal Media Server