We all are fond of music and videos and everybody has their own collection of media files both on computers and smartphones. But you can’t carry every time your huge collection of movies, songs, and other media files with you. In such a situation, the home media server comes in handy. There are a bunch of the best open-source and free media server software available online that can set up on your own personal home computer. You can store all your media files in one place on the media server and can access them remotely or locally using a computer or smartphone. For example, you are out of town and want to access your movies or music, what you will do, just take out your smartphone enter your home media server address, and boom!! Using media servers you can create your own personal YouTube, Netflix, and Vimeo. Some Media servers based on lightweight Linux, which means to save electricity and other resources you can install them on Rasberry Pi.
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Best Free & Opensource Media server for Linux, Mac, or Windows
Here we have listed Free and Open source Media server software to be used in 2021 that can be work on both Linux and Windows.
VLC Media Player is a great free way to access a variety of media files directly on your Mac, with no conversions required. It could stand a bit of a facelift, but overall, it's a convenient app. 5KPlayer is a mixture of free AirPlay media streamer, online video downloader, music player and movie player for Mac. All HD, 4K, 5K videos including MKV, MTS, AVCHD are supported. With AirPlay streaming tech, you can as AirPlay sender/receiver: stream video music from iPhone, iPad to PC or from PC to Apple TV. OpenFLIXR 2 is the easiest free all-in-one home Media server that offers all media solutions in one package. OpenFLIX Media server software download, install updates of media programs automatically. This home media server is a combination of all well-known open-source projects out there including Plex Media Server.
PLEX Media Server (Freemium, not opensource)
We already have a done couple of articles on Plex and it really has some great features that allow it in our best media server list. The Plex Media Server is available for a variety of platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker, and third-party NAS (network-attached storage device) Synology, Qnap, Netgear, Seagate, and more…
The Plex media server is not open-source instead of freemium software and offers some features on a subscription base only. However, still here because of its easy to use and install capabilities.
Whereas the Plex player comes under both freemium and open source license GPL v2. Due to its vast range of devices support the Plex continuously gaining popularity as a media streamer.
Plex server and Plex apps
The Plex media server is based on a client-server model. It offers a wide range of client apps for different devices to support and stream its media server content easily. The Plex app is available for Android, Web, Windows, Kodi, Windows Phone, TiVo, SONOS, Android TV, Chrome cast, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Amazon Alexa, Roku, Nvidia Shield, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 & 4 and Smart TV.
Plex Media Server Features:
- Account management
- Support all format videos and audios
- iOS, Windows, and Android Mobile platform support
- Privacy and security
- Media Libraries Sharing
- No Storage Limit
- Online channels
- Live TV
- Plex cloud
- Mobile and Cloud Sync
- Parental control
- Audio Fingerprinting
- Remote Controls
- Media Optimizer and more…
If you are interested in PLEX, also see: How To setup Plex Media Server on Ubuntu Linux.
Kodi Open Source Home Theater Software
Kodi 100% Opensource Media center software that stores all your digital media files in one place like Plex and gives you a beautiful interface to access them. The Kodi was previously known as Xbox Media center or XMBC. Kodi provides a bit different media server software approach. It works more as a local media streamer rather than functions a server-client relationship like PLEX. It was developed as an XMBC open-source media center and still distributed under open source licenses. It plays content from two sources one is locally saved content and the second is via plugins.
It has a vast range of Addon for popular web services, applications, and scripts such as Pluto.TV, PS Vue, HDHomeRun, SoundCloud, Kodi Android Installer, Rooster Teeth, and more… It also provides an add-on to stream, video content from various sources like NBC, CBS, Funimation, and Crunchyroll. It is a perfect mixture of a media center PC/homer sever software. Kodi is also multi-platform support Media center/server software and supports Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and embedded devices like the Raspberry Pi.
Kodi Features:
- TV Shows library supports
- Supporting all the main video formats
- Kodi can play all your music including mp3, flac, wav, and WMA formats
- Import pictures and view them in different styles such as slideshow
- Support Live TV recording
- JSON-RPC based remote interface
- Smartphone and Tablet Apps
- Add-Ons for popular web services, applications, and scripts.
- Works popular backends such as MediaPortal, MythTV, NextPVR, Tvheadend, and much more.
Emby Media Server
Emby is a great and best free Media server similar to Plex in features and user interface. While Plex is a closed source or freemium, Emby is totally open-source media server software. In comparison to Plex, the Emby is much easier to install for newbies and you can see our article: How to Install Emby media server, step by the step installation process. Emby offers lots of customization, media management, and database options.
The Emby Media server is available for Windows, Linux, Nas Devices, Mac OS, Docker, and FreeBSD. Like Plex, the Emby is also has a dedicated Linux installer for Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, Fedora, and CentOS. If you are looking for a 100% open-source Media server for your office or home then Emby is the best one.
Web-based Management System of Emby to install plugins, edit metadata and subtitles, Sync, and more…
open-source Media server
Emby also offers Apps for the mobile operating system: Emby Web client, Android, iOS, Windows 10, and Windows Mobile. Apart from the Emby Apps, it also has a good collection of TV Apps as follow:
- Android TV
- Amazon Fire Tv
- Shield Android TV
- Apple TV
- Chromecast
- Roku
- Emby Theatre HTML5
- Emby Theatre for Windows
- LG Smart TV
- Samsung Smart TV
- PS4
- Xbox One
- Windows Media Center
- Xbox 360
- Kodi
- PS3
Emby Media Server Features
- Emby Server automatically converts and streams the media
- Stream Live TV to any device
- Web-based tools to edit metadata and subtitles
- Easy DLNA
- Parental Controls
- Easily control content access
- Cloud Sync
- Chromecast
Jellyfin Media Server
Jellyfin is another popular open-source project that lets us create quickly a modern media server with an interactive web user interface to manage videos, images, and music from any device.
We can browser media content using Jellyfin on various devices such as computers, apps on your Roku, Android, iOS (including AirPlay), Android TV, or Fire TV device, or via your Chromecast or existing Kodi. Whereas when it comes to installing the Jellyfin server platform it doesn’t limit to Linux only, we can set it up on machines running Microsoft Windows, macOS, or in a Docker container.
Learn the process to install Jellyfin on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 or Debian.
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is a well-featured open-source HTPC media center and similar to Kodi. It does not have features like Emby and Plex, but still, it’s very good open-source media server software. Using it you can watch, schedule, and record live TV like TiVo, streaming media, radio, and TV to any HTPC connected to your network., Check the weather, news, slideshow of pictures & videos, and more. It can access easily the web or mobile device. It also based on Client/Server Architecture.
See:How to Install and Configure the MediaPortal Media server on Windows 10 PC
Media Portal Features
- Watch TV, Videos, and DVD
- Watch Online Videos
- Listening to Music, Radio, and Web Streams
- Schedule Recordings
- Client/Server Architecture
- Skin System
- Plug-in System
- Check Weather Forecast
- Picture and video slideshow Viewer
- Multiple Tuner Support
- Time Shifting, Pause, and Record TV/Radio
- Read RSS Feeds
OpenFLIXR Media Server
OpenFLIXR 2 is the easiest free all-in-one home Media server that offers all media solutions in one package. OpenFLIX Media server software download, install updates of media programs automatically. This home media server is a combination of all well-known open-source projects out there including Plex Media Server.
OpenFLIXR Media Server all-in on video streaming server
Software used in OpenFLIXR are:
- CouchPotato + Radarr for Movies
- SickRage + Sonarr for automated TV show downloading
- Headphones- Automated music downloader
- Mopidy-Music Server
- Ubooquity-Comics and Ebooks & Web-based Reader
- Subtitles- AutoSub, Sub-Zero, Sickrage
- HTPC Manager
- Plex Media Server to organizes movies, series, music, and photos
- SABnzbd, NZBge, qBittorrent
- Netdata + Monit for monitoring
- Home-Assistant
- And More…
Free Media Player For Os X
The OpenFLIXR media server needs a virtual machine to install since it is a virtual application.
OpenELEC
OpenELEC is a lightweight Linux operating system built to create a media server like Kodi. The full form of the OpenELEC is Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center. Due to its lightweight, it can be easily installed on Raspberry, Apple TV, or low configurations systems.
Features of OpenELEC are:
- TV Show Management
- Movie Organizer and Player
- Music and Audiobook Player
- Freescale iMX6 ARM builds for Cubox-i, CuboxTV, and Hummingboard boxes
- TV and Personal Video Recorder
- Addon available to expand its feature
- Picture Browser
OSMC Media Center
OSMC Media center is last on our list. It is an open-source media center with a simple design and intuitive navigation system. The OSMC media center is based on Kodi and Debian. It also offers paid hardware kits and other accessories to enhance the OSMC user experience such as the Vero 4K. It is a hardware device with OSMC that supports 4K, HEVC, 10-bit content, and HD audio. It supports almost every type of media file. OSMC Media center is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Rasberry Pi, Vero, and Apple TV.
OSMC Media Center
A verdict on Best Free & Opensource Media Server Software Options
Although Plex, Emby, and Kodi are the best and most popular media servers. But that doesn’t mean that other media servers are not good some of them like OpenFlixr are worth trying. We have put everything we know on this list, now it’s all upon you which you want to use. If you want to install a media server along with a NAS server then you can go for open-source NAS software like FreeNAS.
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Summary :
A powerful media player is of great importance when you watch movies and TV shows on your computer. What is the best video player for Mac computers? In this post, I’ve picked the 5 best multimedia players for Mac.
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Best Free Media Player For Mac
QuickTime is the built-in video player on macOS but supports only a few imported formats and has other limitations. If you are looking for the best multimedia player for Mac, don’t miss this post. Here are the top 5 media players for Mac. (Looking a video player and editor for Windows? Try MiniTool MovieMaker.)
5 Best Multimedia Players for Mac
- VLC: Free, open-source, and feature-rich but complicated to use.
- MPV: Free and open-source, control from the command line, highly customized functions.
- IINA: Free and open-source, dark mode, and has a beautiful user interface.
- Movist: Excellent performance, fully functional but needs to pay $4.99.
- Plex: free, intuitive interface, comprehensive platform support, abundant video streaming content but ad-supported.
1. VLC
VLC is one of the best free multimedia players for Mac. It supports playing almost all video and audio formats. It also lets you load external subtitles, play online videos, record video clips, crop videos, download videos from websites and many more.
To customize VLC media player, you can install some extensions like YTSubDownload, SubSync, etc. VLC is a freeware without ads.
Free Multimedia Player For Mac Free
The downside of VLC is that it stutters when playing 4K videos.
You may also like: How to Make VLC the Default Player
2. MPV
MPV is a free media player for Mac based on MPlayer, mplayer2, and FFmpeg. Different from other video players, MPV has a minimalist GUI. It allows you to play any video and control the video playback by using shortcuts. It has all the features of a professional media player. It supports a wide range of video, audio and subtitle formats, plays UHD videos without lagging, and streams videos from YouTube or other websites.
This video player is perfect for geeks!
3. IINA
Powered by MPV, IINA can play almost all media files you want. It supports dark mode, picture-in-picture mode, music mode, Force Touch, Touch Bar, thumbnail preview, online subtitle search, etc.
Aside from that, IINA provides you with command-line tools and browser extensions, so you can control the playback from the command line and play online videos in IINA from web browsers. IINA is the best multimedia player for Mac.
Also read: 10 Best Media Player for Windows 10 That You Should Have
4. Movist
Movist is a simple and powerful HD video player for Mac based on QuickTime and FFmpeg. You can choose the QuickTime or FFmpeg decoder to decode videos or reopen with other decoders. The interface of Movist is simple and sleek, which enables you to easily control the video playback.
Additionally, Movist supports SMB, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, so you can directly play online videos without downloading them. Movist is not free to use, it costs $4.99.
5. Plex
Plex is a media server and player developed by Plex. It’s compatible with macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other platforms. Unlike the above-mentioned multimedia players, Plex hosts thousands of free movies, TV shows, podcasts, and more. You don’t have to download videos from websites or open online videos via URL, you can directly enjoy your favorite movies with Plex.
What are the best Plex alternatives? I’ve compiled a list of Plex alternatives that can replace Plex. Check out this post now!
Free Video Player For Mac
Conclusion
Free Multimedia Player For Mac Download
The 5 best multimedia players for Mac are listed in this post. Choose the one you like and try it now!
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