Windows 7 built in media server

Remote access is ready out of the box and does not require any port forwarding or additional setup. The menus were fast and easy to navigate, though I did run into some hiccups trying to browse my stupidly large music collection. If you have multiple terabytes of media content with metadata, cover art, etc.

Aside from this folder-specific issue, the menus are beautiful, fast, and easy to navigate from every platform I tested. Plex transforms your library, adding metadata like cover art and IMDB results to enhance your viewing experience. Like other options, Plex also transcodes on the fly and automatically adjusts its performance and quality for available bandwidth.

During my testing, I had no trouble with streaming wirelessly over my gigabit router and mid-tier Internet service, nor did I encounter any codec errors from playing an incompatible file.

These include access to some nice features of the otherwise free Plex mobile apps, the ability to sync a cloud storage system, and much more. The remaining question will no doubt be: is a Plex Pass worth the price?

And for many, the answer will be definitely. An all-around solid choice, Plex is a top contender for your media storage solutions. It is not the most user-friendly home media software out there but it supports an absolutely insane amount of add-ons, making it one of the best options for those who want to host downloaded content alongside their favorite paid streaming services.

Kodi can even be used to side-load any of the other media streaming services we recommended. You can also install Kodi on pretty much any other playback device but this typically requires the use of unofficial methods. This may sound intimidating but you can find step-by-step instructions for pretty much any device on the Kodi Wiki. It is somewhat ironic that you have to take these extra steps, though, as the Kodi UI is definitely optimized for a streaming box.

It was, after all, originally called Xbox Media Player. Regardless of how you navigate Kodi, it will automatically organize your content to give it a more polished look. You can set it to scrape metadata from your choice of sources to deliver synopses, reviews, movie posters, titles, and genre classification for your downloaded media.

You can also install custom skins to give your media library its own unique feel. The software is lightweight and snappy and loads fairly quickly. It can handle almost all popular audio and video formats around.

New users are advised to read the Wiki carefully before getting started. Emby is a newer media server software that combines the polished interface of Plex with the open-source foundation of Kodi to deliver a highly customizable media experience that has a premium feel.

But how exactly does this software combine an open-source platform with commercially licensed features? It evolved with the times. That said, Emby still offers a considerable set of features even if you just stick with the free version of the software.

Alternatively, you can use the web app on another PC. If you are using the free version, these must be on the same local network as your server. TCP is optimized for non-real-time applications such as file transfer and remote log-in; therefore, it maximizes data transfer rates while ensuring overall stability and high throughput for the whole network.

TCP achieves reliable data transfer by re-transmitting all lost packets, but it can't ensure that all resent packets will arrive at the client in time to be played, and so sometimes wastes bandwidth. With IIS, you have a choice. You can use standard progressive downloads, with the limitations mentioned above, or you can use a new IIS feature called Bit Rate Throttling , described below, which provides some of the benefits of traditional streaming to almost any type of media file.

With its built-in bandwidth-management capabilities, a Windows Media server is an ideal way to deliver digital media content to large numbers of concurrent users using traditional streaming.

A Windows Media server sends data at the same bit rate as the content, leaving more bandwidth available for servicing concurrent client requests for content and resulting in better quality audio and video for connected clients.

There is typically a delay between the time the stream is received by a player and the point at which it starts to play because the player must first buffer some data in case there are delays or gaps in the stream. This buffer allows the media to continue playing uninterrupted, even during periods of high network congestion. Because data streaming and rendering occurs almost simultaneously, streaming also enables you to deliver live content.

Windows Media Services contains many additional features that are used to optimize network throughput. This section describes two of the most important: Intelligent streaming and Fast Streaming. The most difficult task of streaming audio and video over a network is maintaining a continuous presentation to the user in a highly changeable environment.

Buffering is the biggest problem of streaming digital media. It is caused when the client runs out of data in memory the buffer and must wait for more to arrive. The client will always run out of data if the bit rate of the incoming stream exceeds the current available bandwidth.

Unpredictability of bandwidth is taken for granted on the Internet. The actual bandwidth at any given point is determined by network conditions and traffic, which are constantly fluctuating. To ensure a continuous presentation during traditional streaming delivery, Windows Media technologies use intelligent streaming , which adjusts the bit rate of the content stream to counteract changes in available bandwidth.

When a client first connects to a stream, intelligent streaming ensures that the client receives content at the bit rate that is most appropriate for the current bandwidth. As the stream plays, intelligent streaming is designed to dynamically and seamlessly adjust the bit rate of the streaming content as the available bandwidth changes.

Intelligent streaming progresses through a series of strategies to modify the bit rate of the stream so that it plays continuously on the client regardless of the current bandwidth. As bandwidth fluctuates between server and client, the server detects the changes and adopts the best strategy. The strategies are as follows:. When bandwidth is at its best, the server uses the first strategy. As conditions worsen, the server tries each strategy in the previous list of options in succession until the bit rate is optimized for the current bandwidth.

A newer and improved form of intelligent streaming for delivery of media from Web servers is also available using IIS. See the Smooth Streaming section of this article for more information. Fast Streaming refers to a group of features in Windows Media Services that improve the quality of streaming media content for the user. These features allow for a combination of streaming, downloading, and caching to provide the best user experience:. The IIS Media Services extensions take advantage of the broader market availability of high-bandwidth networks, which make a Web server an increasingly practical option for digital media content delivery.

This section describes the following streaming and bandwidth management extensions that are available in IIS Media Services:. For more information about these extensions, and additional extensions that may be developed to enhance delivery of digital media content from Web servers, see the IIS Media Services Web site. Smooth Streaming is the Microsoft implementation of adaptive streaming technology, which is a form of Web-based media content delivery that uses standard HTTP.

Instead of delivering media as full-file downloads, or as persistent and thus stateful streams, the content is delivered to clients as a series of MPEG-4 MP4 fragments that can be cached at edge servers. Smooth Streaming-compatible clients use special heuristics to dynamically monitor current network and local PC conditions and seamlessly switch the video quality of the Smooth Streaming presentation that they receive. As clients play the fragments, network conditions may change for example, bandwidth may decrease or video processing may be impacted by other applications that are running.

Open 'Connect' tab and tap on 'Devices' item in 'Local Network' section. You will see the list of folders available on the media server. Open any folder with audio files.

Tap any file to start audio player. Tap 'Equlizer' icon near volume indication on the bottom of the screen to enable iPod Style equalizer with preamplifier. Nov 25,