Reviewer: Tokar
 Read all my reviews
Date: 31 Dec 2006, 11:04 GMT
Overall rating:   | GUI:   Features: Ease of use: Value:
Considering that it is free, I suppose it is worth a five in value, since it is just another freeware streaming video software for your disposal.
The problem with the software is two-fold:
It not your generic Windows Media streaming server (let alone H264, DivX, or any other well-known video codec), and it is pretty hard to setup.
Think of that model car you just built. It took you a hell of a long time to build it, and you feel great to get it finished, but what now? Its just going to sit and do nothing.
That is pretty much the feeling with this software. There is a pretty well visited guide for setting up Unreal Media Server: http://www.pcquest.com/content/handson/2004/104013002.asp
And it is a pretty good guide at that. Without it, setting up UMS is damn hard, since nothing is intuitive.
On a side note: this guide never makes note of it, but two of the installers register windows services. If those services are not running, this guide is rendered useless. So make sure the two Unreal services are started in the windows services list (Start->Run->Services.msc).
OK, so you follow that guide and get it up and running. Great. Now what? Well, thats where the crappy part comes in. There is only one way to watch the stream: using their proprietary software. You can't use any other program except it. WMP? Nope. Real Player? Nope. etc. etc. etc. This means, if you want your friends to watch your stream, you have to tell them to install this proprietary Unreal player software. What a joke.
The program is very simplistic, the quality of the stream is horrible even when turned up all the way to max bitrate, and I found the stream to stutter way too much. Oh, and you are limited to 320x240 resolution at best.
See, this software isn't terrible, but considering the alternatives (VLC, Windows Media Encoders), all of which are free, and all of which work with WMP, Real Player, VLC, etc. it kind of renders Unreal Media Server rather useless.
Hey, try it if you want...I just dont see the point of it. |
