I agree it's almost free for all the stuff it offers. I've done my research and haven't found anything better for myself but that doesn't mean one couldn't exist. That's why ask you


Thanks! I'll definately check it out in the following days.

Ahh, Universal Media Server cannot stream outside your own network without a modded version that isn't really that all that well supported.

I use playon to do this. I originally got it to stream local files to the tv through a roku. You can stream to outside of your local network as well, but I've never tried it. I don't remember pricing though, I think I paid $25 for the lifetime license.

Edit: after reading this all again, I see some more hoops you'll need to jump through. In order to access it remotely, you'll need to be able to reach it. This could involve firewall openings and a dynamic dns service. Both are easy (free), just something to think about.

This post was edited by Qord on Feb 13 2016 08:13am

Both are already set up.

For some reason I thought PlayOn was more expensive. Thanks for making me reconsider!

Btw, subtitle support is a must, transcoding or not. I have already ripped all subtitles out of .mkv files with mkvtoolnix + a little script, so the server only needs to support .srt subs.

I gave PlayOn a spin (btw it's $60 for lifetime, currently sale for $50). As I really don't need a service to stream me Netflix or any TV channels, I felt PlayOn had no substantial improvements over Serviio (one could argue the UI is better, though).

A big minus was it being Windows-only, I did not intend to run Windows on the server and PlayOn didn't offer enough to convince me otherwise. Plex being priced close enough and being available on multiple OS', PlayOn does not seem like a worthy downgrade from Plex.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestion, feel free to hit me up with more if you know any rivals for Serviio and Plex or other possible solutions. The real reasons for me to ever step up from Serviio to Plex are more universal subtitle support, capability to easily sync transcoded files to your phone while on lower quality network and cloud transcoding (I could run the server from a pos potato if I so choose). So far it seems none of that is necessary for me. Considering the quality Serviio offers for less, I find myself very eager to support the developers instead of jumping on the Plex-wagon.

I partially wish to explore these tools so I can help my friends to choose their streaming platforms according to their needs, when such situation arises.