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Blog
The field notes behind Quven.
Release stories, engineering decisions and practical guidance for building a private media library that feels at home on the devices you use.
Featured Engineering
Read manga right to left on your own media server
Quven, the self-hosted media server, reads your CBZ and CBR manga right to left, with the cover and double plates kept alone in two-page view.
ReadFrom the journal
Latest articles
Clear product updates and durable technical context, written by the people building Quven.
36 articles shown
Read manga right to left on your own media server
Quven, the self-hosted media server, reads your CBZ and CBR manga right to left, with the cover and double plates kept alone in two-page view.
Comics Read
A spoiler-free character list for your own ebooks
Quven, the self-hosted media server, lists the characters you have already met in your own ebooks, quoted from the book and never a page ahead of you.
Who is who Read
Lossless music away from home, without converting
Quven, free for personal use, sends FLAC and hi-res recordings to its apps exactly as stored, at home or away, over your own route or its relay.
Remote access Read
Media server or the TV's USB player: what you gain
A TV's USB player plays only what its own chip decodes, on one set. Quven, free for personal use, converts the rest and reaches every screen at home.
TV USB player Read
Documentaries and concerts: Quven, Plex, Jellyfin
Quven gives documentaries and concerts library types of their own, free on every plan. Here is what Plex and Jellyfin offer for the same titles.
Concert films Read
The new Quven website, in four languages
The Quven website now reads in four languages, with real captures of the apps, a page on server hardware and every Lifetime price step published ahead.
Website Read
Anime episode order: Quven vs Plex and Jellyfin
Quven reads absolute anime episode numbers and files each episode in its season, with AniDB and TVDB built in. Here is how Plex and Jellyfin compare.
Anime Read
Is a media server worth it in the streaming era?
Streaming titles leave when a licence ends. See what Netflix and Prime Video can take back, and why Quven keeps your own films at full quality, free.
Streaming services Read
What a home media server costs to run for a year
A home media server's yearly bill is mostly electricity. See how many kWh each box draws, and why Quven's free plan keeps the software at zero.
Power consumption Read
Sharing a media server with family on every device
Quven gives everyone at home a profile and lets relatives elsewhere join by email invitation, free on every plan and on the phone and television apps.
Family profiles Read
How a server price rise affects your media library
A price rise can't touch your files or the nine capabilities Quven keeps free. See what it can reach and how to keep your own copy of the library.
Media server prices Read
A premium media server on TV: Quven, Plex and Emby
On a TV, premium means the film as stored and screens made for the remote. Quven's app does both free, where Plex and Emby charge for parts of it.
Android TV Read
Best Plex alternative for a Synology or Unraid NAS
Quven runs on Unraid and Synology, draws Blu-ray subtitles in its apps instead of transcoding, and uses the NAS's graphics free on every plan.
Plex alternative Read
Which media server shows no ads? Quven and Plex
Plex's free films and live TV carry ads that Plex Pass does not remove. Quven shows no ads on any plan and builds its home screen from your library.
Plex ads Read
Emby Premiere features that Quven includes for free
Emby Premiere sells hardware transcoding, HDR tone mapping and full app playback. Quven includes them on its free plan, with no device limits.
Emby alternative Read
Quven or Jellyfin: two free media servers compared
Jellyfin and Quven are both free. Quven also builds in a Plex import, one account for every server and, with Pro, a relay that needs no open port.
Free media server Read
Generate subtitles from audio: Quven, Plex and Emby
Quven writes a missing subtitle from the film's own audio on your server, and the audio never leaves it. Plex and Emby search online databases instead.
Speech to text Read
Films, music, ebooks and comics: Quven, Plex, Emby
One Quven server holds films, hi-res music, ebooks and comics, free for personal use. Plex's five library types include none for ebooks or comics.
Ebooks and comics Read
Quven is on Product Hunt: what the listing shows
Quven, the self-hosted media server free for personal use, is listed on Product Hunt: what it does, which screens it plays on and how to comment.
Announcement Read
Quven, Plex, Emby on Fire TV, Android TV and iPhone
Quven, Plex and Emby all have apps for Fire TV, Android TV and iPhone. Quven's play every film in full on the free plan, hardware transcoding included.
Media server apps Read
Lifetime media server licences: Quven, Plex and Emby
Plex tripled its lifetime pass in 2026. Quven Lifetime costs less than two years of annual Max, and the free plan already includes hardware transcoding.
Media server pricing Read
Quven on r/selfhosted: Docker and Unraid
Quven, the self-hosted media server free for personal use, is on r/selfhosted: how it runs on Docker, Unraid and Linux, and what stays free.
Docker Read
Why Blu-ray subtitles make a media server transcode
Blu-ray and DVD subtitles are pictures, so most servers re-encode the film to show them. Quven's native apps draw them and leave the file untouched.
PGS subtitles Read
Leave Plex and keep your watch history and playlists
Quven imports your Plex watch history, collections and playlists without touching Plex or your files. See what comes across and how to switch.
Library migration Read
Which media server offers free hardware transcoding?
Quven includes hardware transcoding and HDR tone mapping free on every plan. See which graphics cards it drives and what Plex and Emby charge for the same.
Hardware transcoding Read
A Plex alternative with free remote streaming
Plex now charges to stream your own videos away from home. Quven does it free on every plan, for you and for everyone you share your server with.
Plex alternative Read
A Raspberry Pi media server, and where 4K stops it
We left a Pi 4 on a shelf and measured it: H.264 at twice real time, HEVC at 1.78x once the Request decoder is wired in, 4K Dolby Vision at 0.05x.
ARM64 Read
Why your media server transcodes, and how to stop it
What media transcoding is, the five things that make a server re-encode a film, and how Quven keeps direct play with native apps and free GPU encoding.
Transcoding Read
Media server remote access without opening a port
Port forwarding, a private network or a managed relay: the three ways to reach a self-hosted media server from outside, and how each behaves under CGNAT.
Managed relay Read
Quven Server now runs in a Docker container
Quven Server now ships as a signed multi-architecture image: quiet beside your library, explicit about hardware and built to survive an upgrade.
Linux Read
What real discs demand from a subtitle pipeline
PGS timestamps, transcripts that keep whole sentences and speech recognition on the GPU: three things real discs demand, and how Quven handles each.
Speech to text Read
The iPhone and iPad app is on the App Store
Apple approved Quven for iPhone and iPad on the first submission. It is free, it needs iOS 17, and it is a window onto the server you already run.
Release Read
A media library should survive the next server
A new media server should not turn a personal collection into a cleanup project. Keep files intact, test the awkward cases, let the catalogue earn trust.
Media organisation Read
A living-room media server must handle PGS subtitles
PGS, VobSub and files without a usable subtitle track reveal whether a media server can preserve timing, text and a proper evening on the sofa.
PGS OCR Read
When a film library outgrows a folder: why Quven
A hard drive full of films is not yet a library. Quven turns it into a place that is organised, watchable and built to survive the next computer.
Library organisation Read
Quven vs Plex, Emby and Jellyfin
Why people with a library choose Quven: free hardware transcoding and remote access, picture subtitles turned into text, watch history imported from Plex.
Native playback Read
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Bring your library home.
Free for personal use, installed on your own hardware in a few minutes.