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I have a few PCs at home, one of them, and HTPC, is connected to a storage device that holds most of my media. It's also connected to a TV, and I use XBMC on it to watch movies and TV shows.

I recently enabled the XBMC UPnP media server and turned off Media Player's one. I also installed XBMC on my other PCs and can now easily access my media library on them too. However, they can only access the library when XBMC is running on the HTPC.

Is there a way to keep the XBMC server running while XBMC itself isn't. Like a Windows service or something?

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  • What have you tried already? A quick Google shows several ways to run XBMC as a service, not even including generic approaches to run applications as a service.
    – mtak
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 8:14
  • I haven't tried running it as a service. Care to share these links you found?
    – Edgar
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 10:35
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    Take your pick
    – mtak
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 10:38
  • I was hoping a solution would be built into XBMC, but I guess it wasn't designed to be a media server.
    – Edgar
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 13:24
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    If you're looking for a media server, use Plex Software instead. It could be an all-around media server for your Anroid devices, PC, HTPC, SmartTV and also web browsers. There are "how-tos" on how you would do this. I've followed a guide before, I googled "how to setup a headless media server".
    – GaryP
    Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 11:49

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At the time of writing it looks like XBMC doesn't have a standalone media server. It's only active while the XBMC UI is running.

As an alternative I've started using Plex, which has the standalone server that I was looking for. The server is managed through a web UI, which also has a player.

Overall I believe Plex is a superior and a more user-friendly solution than XBMC.

  • It has player apps for all platforms, plus the web player.
  • The apps can play my media even if the device is not on the same network as my server, no VPN necessary.
  • My library is accessible and manageable online via app.plex.tv
  • My library can be easily shared with and played by other users, like my parents. Each user has their own watched statuses and resume states.
  • Library refreshing seems to be more automated and smarter than XBMC.
  • It basically lets you build your own Netflix as long as you have an HTPC to host it all with and a good broadband connection.

The only downside is that it's not free, you have to pay for the apps and some premium features like sharing, but it doesn't cost much, and I think it's worth the money.

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    @fixer1234 Thanks for taking an interest. I've written a more detailed answer.
    – Edgar
    Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 7:34

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