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I've used a local server and just DLNA for over a decade and that's been fine on almost every device I've used it on.

There's also Jellyfin if you're really into the whole Plex thing.

There's also Kodi if you use Android based devices and only need local playback. NFuse works similarly for Apple.

They just stream straight from the file share. No transcoding nonsense or server necessary.

DLNA doesn't do me much good... I need the parental restrictions and other such features.