While it's appealing to share your photos, music and movies between computers and on your home theater, the thought of setting up a home network may be daunting. There's help. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) set out to make it easy for people to share their media over a home network even if the devices are made by different manufacturers.
When you connect a DLNA certified network media component to your home network, it simply appears in other networked components' menus. Your computers and other media devices discover and recognize the device without any setup.
DLNA certifies home network products by the role they play in your home network. Some products play media. Some products store the media and make it accessible to media players. And still others control and direct media from its source to a particular player in the network.
By understanding the different certifications, you can understand how the home network puzzle fits together. When using media sharing software and devices, you see a list of these categories of devices. Knowing what they are and what they do will help to make sense of your home network. While a digital media player obviously plays media, the names of other devices are not as evident.
Basic Media Sharing DLNA Certifications
Digital Media Player (DMP) - finds and plays media from other devices and computers. The media player lists the components (sources) where your media is saved. You choose the photos, music or videos that you want to play from a list of media on the player's menu. The media then streams to the player. A media player may be connected to or built-into a TV, Blu-ray Disc player and/or home theater AV receiver, so you can watch or listen to the media it is playing.
Digital Media Server (DMS) - stores a media library. It may be a computer, a network attached storage (NAS) drive, a smartphone, a DLNA certified networkable digital camera or camcorder, or a network media server device. A media server must have a hard drive or a memory card on which the media is saved. The media saved to the device can be called up by a digital media player. The media server makes the files available to stream media to the player so you can watch or listen to it.
Digital Media Renderer (DMR) - similar to a digital media player, it plays digital media. However, the difference is that this device can be seen by a digital media controller, and media can be streamed to it from a digital media server.
While a digital media player can only play what it can see on its menu, a digital media renderer can be controlled externally. Some certified Digital Media Players are also certified as Digital Media Renderers. Both stand-alone network media players and networked TVs and home theater AV receivers can be certified as Digital Media Renderers.
Digital Media Controller (DMC)- the go-between device that can find media on a Digital Media Server and send it to the Digital Media Renderer. Often smartphones, tablets, computer software like Twonky Beam, or even cameras or camcorders are certified as Digital Media Controllers.
Notes about DLNA Certifications
- Often you will see the DLNA logo on a product or product description. But rarely will you see what certification it has been given. To know a product's capabilities, you need to know its certification. The DLNA website lists many products under each certification. This can help you to find what you need -- a Digital Media Server, a Digital Media Player, a Digital Media Controller, or a Digital Media Renderer.
- Other DLNA certifications include those for digital media printers and specific certifications for mobile devices. The mobile certifications include Mobile Digital Media Server, Mobile Digital Media Player, and Mobile Digital Media Controller.
There are also DLNA certifications for Mobile Digital Media Uploader and Mobile Digital Media Downloader. These certifications relate to the mobile device's ability to upload media through the network to a computer or other media server. An uploader can send files to be saved on a media server. A camera may have this ability so you don't have to connect directly to the computer or other device. Similarly, a mobile digital media downloader can find media on your computers or media servers and save the file to itself. For example, you can find music on your music library and load it to your phone via the home network.
- Windows 7 is not DLNA certified, but is compatible with DLNA as a Digital Media Server, Digital Media Renderer and Digital Media Controller. However you will need to set up the media sharing and network home group. More and more Digital Media Players are also Digital Media Renderers. This means that you can send files to play on it or you can choose files from sources directly from the player's menu.
- If you are looking at the list of digital media renderers on your controller -- smartphone or computer app, or camera-- and you don't see a media player that is connected to your home network, then it is not a Digital Media Renderer. You can not send media to that device.
- Once you have used a Digital Media Controller to start playback from the Digital Media Server (the media library's source) to the Digital Media Renderer (that's playing the streamed media), you no longer need the controller. In other words, if you used a cell phone to start the playback, you could leave with the phone and the playback would continue.
Understanding the DLNA certifications helps you to understand what is possible in home networking. DLNA makes it possible to walk in with your cell phone loaded with photos and videos from your day at the beach, press a button and start it playing on your TV without making any connections. A great example of DLNA in action is Samsung's "AllShare"(TM). AllShare is built into Samsung's line of DLNA certified networked entertainment products--from cameras, to laptops, to TVs, home theaters and Blu-ray Disc players--creating a truly connected home entertainment experience.