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Why DLNA?

Broadband is the new speed of choice. Meanwhile, new digital entertainment and mobile devices are introduced every day. Enabling these products to seamlessly interact is good for consumers. And for the industry.

Media Management, Distribution, and Control

Media management and control enables devices and applications to identify, manage, and distribute media content across the stationary home network, or to transfer it to mobile devices. UPnP Audio/Video (AV) technology addresses all of these needs for the home network and is the media management and control solution for devices developed according to the DLNA Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines.

UPnP AV specifications define the interaction model between UPnP AV devices and associated control point applications. The UPnP AV architecture allows devices to support entertainment content in any format and over any transfer protocol. UPnP AV specifications define the following four services hosted by Media Servers and Media Renderers.

  • Content Directory Service: This enumerates the available content (e.g., videos, music and pictures).
  • Connection Manager Service: This determines how the content can be transferred from Media Server to Media Renderer devices.
  • AV Transport Service: This controls the flow of the content (e.g., play, stop, pause and seek).
  • Rendering Control Service: This controls how the content is played (such as volume/mute and brightness).

In addition to the building blocks described, other issues need to be addressed for the digital home to work. The following are important capabilities that DLNA has also investigated.