If you've built a library of movies, music, and photos, Universal Media Server (UMS) can turn your computer into a private, on-demand streaming hub. It makes your local media instantly accessible across your home network, on other computers, smart TVs, game consoles, and phones – all without uploading anything to the cloud.

UMS is a free, open source media server that relies on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) protocols. These protocols allow UMS to detect and connect with any compatible device on your local network. Once set up, you can browse and play your media collection directly from your TV or media app, just as if it were stored locally on the device.

Install UMS

UMS provides several installation options for Linux, including a tarball, an AppImage, and a Docker container. The latest version, UMS v15.2.0, brings improved transcoding, device compatibility, and an upgraded web interface.

Start by installing the required multimedia packages, which UMS needs to handle different media formats and to transcode videos on the fly.

On Ubuntu and Debian-based systems, use

sudo apt install mediainfo dcraw vlc mplayer mencoder ffmpeg

On Fedora and RHEL-based systems, use

sudo dnf install mediainfo dcraw vlc mplayer mencoder ffmpeg

Next, download the latest UMS tarball from the official website [1]. UMS is written in Java and the tarball includes a compatible version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Extract the contents and move into the extracted directory with

sudo tar zxvf UMS-Linux-* -C /opt/
/opt/ums-*

Now launch the server:

./UMS.sh

Configuring the Server

When you start UMS for the first time, it launches a simple setup wizard. You can skip the wizard and run with the default settings, but using the wizard makes the initial setup much smoother.

After you've selected your preferred interface language, you'll get the option to have UMS hide its advanced options. The wizard will also ask you to point to your media library. If you have media across multiple folders, for now point to one, and you can add others later from within the app.

If you frequently make changes to your media folder, you should enable the option to scan the media folders every time UMS starts up. This ensures the server is aware of the latest files in the library, but it might cause a slight performance lag while it is scanning the folders.

Finally, you'll be taken to the browser-based administration console, at localhost:9001, where you'll be asked to create the login credentials for the admin user.

Once you're inside the web dashboard, make sure you're in the Settings tab (Figure 1). Now head to Shared Content, where you will add and organize your media folders.

Figure 1: On a fresh install, the UMS interface appears bare.

Click the Add new shared content button and point to the directory that contains your videos, music, or photos (Figure 2).

Figure 2: You can add as many folders as desired.

The Authorized groups field lets you limit access to the shared content. This is a very helpful option for restricting access to content to specific users, which I'll explore in detail a little later. You can ignore it for now.

When you're done, hit the Save button to save the configuration. It's also a good idea to press the Scan all shared folders button every time you add a new folder.

Add Web Content

UMS isn't limited to just local media files. You can also subscribe to video feeds and channels from across the web. This feature lets you stream online content directly through your media server, whether it's YouTube channels or RSS-based audio and video podcasts.

To add a video feed, open the UMS settings panel in your web browser and head to the Shared Content section to access your media sources. Click the Add new shared content button. For web content, choose the Video feed type from the pull-down menu.

You'll now need to fill in details about the feed. The Name field will be grayed out for video feeds because UMS pulls this information directly from the feed metadata, so there's no need to enter it manually.

The Source/URL field is where you enter the actual link to the video feed. Simply paste the channel URL directly (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/@WeAreTheRace). You can add podcast feeds the same way. Select the Podcast type and then paste in the RSS feed URL, organize it with your preferred path structure, and add it to your library.

The Path field helps define the directory structure that will be displayed by UMS to the viewers. For example, if you enter Web/YouTube, your feed will appear inside the YouTube directory, which is nested within the Web directory (Figure 3). This organizational structure lets you group similar content together and keep your media library tidy. You might organize feeds by topic, source, or any other scheme that makes sense to you.

Figure 3: Specifying a video feed is optional.

Once you're happy with the options you've entered, click the Add button. UMS will subscribe to the feed and begin pulling in the available videos.