Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)

Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a medium to send content wirelessly from devices like laptops, tablets and smartphones to a compatible TV. It allows group of user to share media. It was set up by Sony in 2003.

Now it has been adopted by a wide range of modern home entertainment devices and it allows videos, music and photos to be streamed on a big screen or home cinema system quickly and easily.

DLNA is a group of organizations having many consumer electronics manufacturers which have created a standard enabling all DLNA devices to share media over a home network. However, you can't add DLNA support to your existing devices.

DLNA brings all tech together by being bridge between the devices.

Types of DLNA Products:

DLNA Servers: Such as PCs or a networked storage device which stores and sends your movies, music and pictures.

DLNA Clients: is the device on which the content is viewed or played, and such products include most smart TVs, sound bars and digital radios.

How DLNA works?

DLNA separates multimedia devices into three broad categories, subdivided into 10 classes:

1) Home network devices: (PCs, TVs, AV receivers, game consoles)

2) Mobile handheld devices: (Smart phones, tablets, digital cameras)

3) Home infrastructure devices: (Router and hubs)

All DLNA: certified devices use universal Plug and play (UPnP) to discover and talk to each other on the network. When user connects one device to router, it automatically appears on any other DLNA-certified component's menu without needing user to perform any setup.

Disadvantages:

a) File formats can be a bit of an issue. Some DLNA devices might play MP4 video files, but the device the MP4 is being sent to may be unable to recognise this particular file type.

b) Digital Rights Management (DRM) is another issue faced by DLNA. DRM controls the way that people can share digital media in order to protect copyright.

c) Some big manufacturers offer their own take on home networking and some doesn't support at all such as Apple.

Steps to enable DLNA on an Android device:

1. Tap apps from home screen.
2. Go to apps settings
3. Tap on "More"
4. Tap on "Nearby Devices"
5. Tap the File sharing switch to enable or disable
6. Tap on "Content to share"

Now you are good to use DLNA on your devices.