While the latter is exclusively for smartphones, allowing for full TV season recording and ads skipping. The former works as a media server for Windows 10/11/8/7 only which enables you to save recordings to PC for local playback and access your recordings on compatible devices like Roku, Chromecast, Android and iOS devices. The home media server software is available in 2 forms: PlayOn Home and PlayOn Cloud. With PlayOn, you can record and download streaming movies and shows as MP4 from the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and more. Supported devices: Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Roku, and more.įor home theatre enthusiasts, PlayOn is another great media server solution, accompanied by a DVR and streaming service aggregator all-in-one.Summary: Best media server software with DVR features.Gaming and podcasts features are removed.Growing library of video streaming content.Intuitive interface and easy-to-sort navigation.However, you may be frustrated by its buffering error when playing 4K HEVC or other computer-intensive video unless you upgrade to its $4.99-per-month Plex Pass and enable the hardware acceleration to fix the issue.

On the playback side, Plex supports nearly any media files you throw at it, including MP3, M4A, FLAC, MP4, MKV, HEVC, AVI, MOV, DIVX. In addition, Plex media server offers as many as 50,000 movie and TV show database so that you don’t even need to store on your server. If you have a mess of local media collection scattered across your computer or external hard drive, Plex is your perfect solution, available for you to wrangle your messy files into a slick interface and stream them across multiple devices, ranging from TVs, mobiles, game consoles, to desktops. Plex earns a top rating for its easy setup, reliable performance, and excellent organizational tools. Plex is one of the best media players that also works as a perfect combo with a media server software.

Supported devices: Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, Smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Xbox, PS5, and more.

Summary: Best freemium media server software overall.

Home server streaming