![]() Here's a common situation that all too many people find themselves in. We’ll have a story explaining how VidiPath will work in the near future.Plex Media Server is a user-friendly way to store and stream your movies, shows, and other media in from one place, whether you're at home or on-the-go. If you're looking for a no-headache way to watch TV and movies anywhere, this is it. ![]() It’s latest initiative-dubbed VidiPath-is designed to enable consumers to stream their pay-TV content over their home networks without needing to additional set-top boxes for each TV. Just be aware of its limitations and be prepared to endure some trial and error before you find the combination of components and server software that works best on your network.Įven if DLNA eventually falls by the wayside, the alliance itself continues to do good work. Still, if you have gigs of media just sitting on a hard drive, it’s worth giving DLNA a try. ![]() Sony, DLNA’s founder, doesn’t even support the standard on its PlayStation 4 (though it looks like it might add it in the future). Our current bounty of online media-streaming and -sharing sites like Spotify, Netflix, and Flickr have since satisfied DLNA’s original intent with a much simpler process. Has DLNA outlived its usefulness?ĭLNA was developed more than a decade ago, when tapping into your vein of locally stored media was the only way to stream a movie or photo slideshow from your computer to your TV. Some DLNA server software will try to make up for this shortfall by transcoding files from a non-compliant format to a compliant one on the fly, but results vary. ![]() And even supported formats may not work if the container, bitrate, or other details don’t comply with the DLNA spec. To make it more complicated, different implementations of DLNA support different codecs. FLAC, AVI and MKV files, and many others, aren’t supported. The DLNA specification only allows for a few common audio and video formats like Windows Media Audio, MP3, MP4. Philips’ SimplyShare is simply a private-label version of DLNA that lets you stream music and other media between smartphones, media players, media servers, other devices to smart TV on your network.Īnother area where DLNA gets messy is codecs. Even if a component manufacturer steers you to its branded media-server program-for example, Samsung’s AllShare for Windows, you may still be able to use one of these third-party options, but finding which application works best with your component’s brand takes some experimentation. If you have an older model, however, you can still turn it into a media server by adding a program like Plex, Twonky, TVersity, or Windows Media Player. If you own a recent model PC, NAS, smartphone, or tablet, it probably came with bundled DLNA-certified software that will allow any media on it to be recognized by your networked components. Depending on the manufacturer, the product may use a branded version of DLNA such as SmartShare (LG), SimplyShare (Philips), or AllShare (Samsung), but rest assured it’s all the same technology and it will all interoperate. With more than 4 billion DLNA-certified products on the market-including TVs, Blu-ray players, storage devices, media boxes, smartphones, tablets, game consoles and software-chances are good you already have more than one compliant device or application in your home.
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