With the advent of technology, media, and entertainment has taken a giant leap. Music, videos, and pictures are the new currency of entertainment. Sharing media over your network via shared folders is a regular practice but there is more to offer by Linux. A Linux media server helps archiving and sharing multimedia and lets you stream to more devices. Let’s have a look at some of the best Linux media servers.
Media Tomb
The first one on our list is Media Tomb. This Media server is an open source UPnP media server which implements the UPnP MediaServer Version 1.0 specification which is released under GNU General Public License. It runs on x86, Alpha, ARM, MIPS, Sparc and PowerPC with support for Linux. It helps you watch or listen to media from UPnP compatible media players and devices. You can watch YouTube videos on it and create links to watch other media through UPnP.
Jinzora Media Server
Jinzora is an open source web-based media streaming and management system which is coded in PHP and licensed under the GNU GPL. It can be installed on web servers supporting PHP in Linux and other similar platforms. It has a great interface which has themes in it. It serves as an online media library which helps you create playlists, organize, rate and search content. Metadata is also supported. It is a great Media Server for Linux.
Wizd
Wizd is an open source media server which works for Syabas-based media players and is released under the Public Domain License. It runs on most of the famous platforms including Linux and requires a minimal hard disk space to its disposal. It streams to most of the media players with the help of the Syabas middleware. You get customizable skins and the thumbnail mode lets you preview the pictures and bookmark feature helps you save your spot on MPEG movies.
Firefly Media Server
Firefly Media Server was formerly known as mt-daapd. This media server uses the DAAP, Digital Audio Access Protocol designed by Apple to share its content with iTunes, Rhythmbox in Linux and other players which support the protocol. It also has the feature of on-the-fly transcoding for converting content format which is not supported. It is one of the easiest media servers to use and it features a web-based interface too. It supports streaming radio stations online and user created smart playlist.
