Universal Media Server or UMS is a cross-platform and open source software designed to provide users with a highly configurable and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compliant UPnP media server.

The application’s user interface is very similar with the one of the PS3 Media Server product. In order to deliver a great and powerful media server, the project uses open source software like FFmpeg, MEncoder, MPlayer, AviSynth, tsMuxeR, MediaInfo or VLC Media Player.

Being quite similar to the PS3 Media Server project, it supports streaming or transcoding of many different media formats with little to no configuration on all the supported platforms. However, it can be easily extended through plugins.

Supported devices include Google Android, XBMC Media Center, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Panasonic, LG, Vizio and Philips TVs, AC Ryan PlayOn!HD, LG Smart TV Upgrader, Freecom MusicPal, Showtime, Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod, DirecTV HR, Boxee, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, and Philips Streamium.

It also supports Western Digital WD TV Live, Asus O!Play, D-Link DSM, Pioneer Kuro, Yamaha A/V receivers, Sony Blu-ray players, Freebox HD, Popcorn Hour, Sony A/V receivers, Xtreamer, Brite-view CinemaTube, Philips PFL, Philips Aurea, Realtek media players, Nokia N900, Sony network media players, OPPO Blu-ray players, and Samsung smartphones.

A quick look under the hood will give us a better idea about the main components of the application. For example, we can report that it is written entirely in the Java programming language, including the graphical user interface. It is supported on the Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

The plugin architecture will allow the application to integrate with the Rhythmbox, Banshee and MediaMonkey music database, stream MythTV live streams and German TV channels, as well as to browse and listen to music from Subsonic and SoundCloud audio streaming services.