Universal Media Server | Forum

If you posted you logs I would be able to see why you could not see those new folders.

You can turn the metadata off if you do not want it, This is in general settings. Otherwise UMS does exactly what you want and that is how I use it on my PS4 which would not display this anyway.
The only thing I use for metadata is prettify filenames to show the episode name along with just the number.

Playing remotely from your network does add extra complexity as this is not what UMS was designed for and although it can do it the web browser is not the best at this.
If you used a dedicated media player like VLC then most of the videos will not need to be transcoded in the first place so will use less data.

mik_s wrote: ↑Sat Oct 18, 2025 10:07 pm If you used a dedicated media player like VLC then most of the videos will not need to be transcoded in the first place so will use less data.

Can you elaborate on this? I use VLC to play the streamed videos on my phone remotely at the moment, have done for years. I access my media files that are at home on my NAS via the Synology file browser app 'DSfile', play with VLC on the phone and cast to a chromecast. 1080p files just don't play smoothly, if at all. 720p will play but at peak times they can have issues. So how do I not need transcoding?

Depending on how the video is transcoded it can actually take more bandwidth, like a h265 video being transcoded to mpeg2, in which case streaming the original file can be more efficient. But I am only guessing as I don't know it transcodes for you.

You can use the #--TRANSCODE--# folder to force transcode (or stream unaltered) depending on the situation.
Transcoding should take in to account of your network speed to the device so will automatically pick the best bitrate for your connection.
You do need to have "Use automatic maximum bandwidth" enabled. This will run a speed test on that connection when UMS detects that device.
It only runs once when the renderer is detected so If you are out and about where the speed could change then this may not be good enough for you.
In this case you could manually set "Maximum bandwidth in Mb/s" to the lowest you expect to have. You could even do this in the renderer's conf file so it only affects that device and not any other renderers.

From DefaultRenderer.conf

I have no logs to show you. there's nothing in that section (I'm doing all the settings etc on my laptop then testing on the mobile) Why wouldn't the program have the logs in it? why do I have to go searching for them?
thats the only section I can see logs mentioned.

Is there a way to access the video files via UMS (so transcoding is done automatically) and have VLC play them remotely?

Again, this thing isn't what I'm looking for. I shouldn't have to be coming back here to ask questions all the time. I just want to see my files when I'm away from home, click on them and have them play and transcode if required. Basically a file explorer that transcodes. No bells and whistles or endlessly searching for every little setting.
I also want to be able to create an account for someone else, give them access to their own folders and they do the same without an endless back and forward just to have the basic requirement of click and play met.

I know people like to tinker with programs like this, but I don't, I want to spend my spare time watching my videos not trying to work out how to watch them.

Press the server/file button to get the logs. Easier to see in dark mode. The instructions for making logs are in the red section above.
There will be an option to restart in trace mode then you and attempt to play then pack the logs to post.

The setup for your situation is a bit more complex then most users but once done it will do what you want.
Usually for UMS if you are just streaming from the computer to your local TV it will just work as long as there is an existing conf for that TV.
Even if there is no suitable conf it should still work in most cases with some default settings but might unnecessarily transcode when it could stream.
The only thing you really need to do is set up a shared folder.

If you only intend to use it on the one device remotely you can set it up to force transcode. (I'm not sure but I think * for everything works) I would not suggest you use this if you want to play on other devices as this is a global setting so effects everything.
Ideally transcoding should be avoided if the device can natively play it.

If you know that you are running VLC on your phone you can make a custom conf with its unique ID so that it will always transcode and override the existing vlc.conf
This option is not on the webUI but if you use the old java GUI you can create an empty conf with the devices details. Which will open your text editor to allow you to edit it. You can then set this option and list all the extensions to transcode
You can also set the max bitrate here too I mentioned before.
Doing it this way will allow other renderers on the local network to use their recommended confs without being affected.
I think you can specify the IP instead of UUID so when your phone is on the local network it can use the existing vlc.conf to stream, but outside it will use the custom conf and force transcode.
I don't know exactly how to do this so you will have to experiment.



I have been pushing for things like this to be added to the web interface to make this a lot more user friendly but it is a lot of work and the devs don't have time to do this.
This is a hobby for them and they have other things going on in their lives, and this is rarely used.

Again mik, I really appreciate your help and I admire the passion you have for UMS, but it's just too much dicking around for me. I'm not interested in all the steps I have to go through to get something that still may not be what I'm after. Maybe it'll be there in the future, but it's not for me now.