Digital Living Network Alliance - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a non-profit collaborative trade organization established by Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

in June 2003, and has more than 250 member companies in the mobile, consumer electronics, PC, and service provider industries. Alliance members have stated the common goal of using standards-based technology to make it easier for consumers to use, share and enjoy their digital photos, music and videos. As of January 2011, over 9,000 different devices have obtained "DLNA Certified" status, indicated by a logo on their packaging and confirming their interoperability with other devices. It is estimated that more than 440 million DLNA-certified devices, from digital cameras to games consoles and TVs, have been installed in users' homes.

History

Sony established the DLNA in June 2003 as the Digital Home Working Group, changing to its current name 12 months later, when the first set of guidelines for DLNA was published. Home Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines v1.5 was published in March 2006 and expanded in October of the same year; the changes included the addition of two new product categories — printers and mobile devices — as well as an "increase of DLNA Device Classes from two to twelve" and an increase in supported user scenarios related to the new product categories.

Specification

The DLNA Certified Device Classes are separated as follows:

Home Network Devices:

Digital Media Server (DMS): These devices store content and make it available to networked digital media players (DMP) and digital media renderers (DMR). Examples include PCs and network-attached storage
Network-attached storage
Network-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...

(NAS) devices.
Digital Media Player (DMP): These devices find content on digital media servers (DMS) and provide playback and rendering capabilities. Examples include TVs, stereos and home theaters, wireless monitors and game consoles.
Digital Media Renderer (DMR): These devices play content received from a digital media controller (DMC), which will find content from a digital media server (DMS). Examples include TVs, audio/video receivers, video displays and remote speakers for music.
Digital Media Controller (DMC): These devices find content on digital media servers (DMS) and play it on digital media renderers (DMR). Examples include Internet tablets, Wi-Fi enabled digital cameras and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Digital Media Printer (DMPr): These devices provide printing services to the DLNA home network. Generally, digital media players (DMP) and digital media controllers (DMC) with print capability can print to DMPr. Examples include networked photo printers and networked all-in-one printers

Mobile Handheld Devices

Mobile Digital Media Server (M-DMS): These wireless devices store content and make it available to wired/wireless networked mobile digital media players (M-DMP), digital media renderers (DMR) and digital media printers (DMPr). Examples include mobile phones and portable music players.
Mobile Digital Media Player (M-DMP): These wireless devices find and play content on a digital media server (DMS) or mobile digital media server (M-DMS). Examples include mobile phones and mobile media tablets designed for viewing multimedia content.
Mobile Digital Media Uploader (M-DMU): These wireless devices send (upload) content to a digital media server (DMS) or mobile digital media server (M-DMS). Examples include digital cameras and mobile phones.
Mobile Digital Media Downloader (M-DMD): These wireless devices find and store (download) content from a digital media server (DMS) or mobile digital media server (M-DMS). Examples include portable music players and mobile phones.
Mobile Digital Media Controller (M-DMC): These wireless devices find content on a digital media server (DMS) or mobile digital media server (M-DMS) and send it to digital media renderers (DMR). Examples include personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones.

Home Infrastructure Devices

Mobile Network Connectivity Function (M-NCF): These devices provide a bridge between mobile handheld device network connectivity and home network connectivity.
Media Interoperability Unit (MIU):These devices provide content transformation between required media formats for home network and mobile handheld devices.

The specification uses DTCP-IP

Digital Transmission Content Protection

Digital Transmission Content Protection, or DTCP, is a digital rights management technology that aims to restrict "digital home" technologies including DVD players and televisions by encrypting interconnections between devices...

as "link protection" for copyright-protected commercial content between one device to another.

Member companies

As of June 2011, there are 26 promoter members and 199 contributor members. The promoter members are: ACCESS

Access Co.

, founded in April 1979 and incorporated in February 1984 in Tokyo, Japan, by Arakawa Toru and Kamada Tomihisa, is a company providing a variety of software for connected and mobile devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, video game consoles and set top boxes....

, AT&T Labs

AT&T Labs

AT&T Labs, Inc. is the research & development division of AT&T, where scientists and engineers work to understand and advance innovative technologies relevant to networking, communications, and information. Over 1800 employees work in six locations: Florham Park, NJ; Middletown, NJ; Austin, TX;...

, Awox, Broadcom

Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los...

, Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...

, Comcast

Comcast

Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

, DIRECTV

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, Dolby Laboratories

Dolby Laboratories

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. , often shortened to Dolby Labs, is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encoding/compression.-History:...

, Ericsson

Ericsson

Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...

, Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...

, Huawei

Huawei

Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...

, Intel

Intel Corporation

Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most...

, LG Electronics

LG Electronics

LG Electronics is a global electronics and telecommunications company headquartered in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea. The company operates its business through five divisions: mobile communications, home entertainment, home appliance, air conditioning and business solution...

, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, Motorola

Motorola

Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

, Nokia

Nokia

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...

, Panasonic, Promise Technology

Promise Technology

PROMISE Technology, Inc. is a Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturing company. A longtime manufacturer of hard disk controllers, they presently manufacture RAID host adapter cards and have recently introduced a NAS enclosure....

, Qualcomm

Qualcomm

Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...

, Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...

, Sharp Corporation

Sharp Corporation

is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...

, Sony Electronics

Sony Electronics

Sony Electronics Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif., is the largest component of Sony Corporation of America, the U.S. holding company for Sony's U.S.-based electronics and entertainment businesses.-External links:***...

, Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

, and Verizon.

Apple Inc. is not a member. Apple uses its own Digital Audio Access Protocol

Digital Audio Access Protocol

The Digital Audio Access Protocol is the proprietary protocol introduced by Apple in its iTunes software to share media across a local network....

instead of DLNA's UPnP protocols.

DLNA is run by a board of directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

consisting of 9 members. There are 8 permanent representatives from the following companies: Broadcom

Broadcom

, Intel, Microsoft

Microsoft

, Nokia

Nokia

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...

, Panasonic

Panasonic

Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...

, Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...

, Sony Electronics

Sony Electronics

, Technicolor

Technicolor

and one elected representative selected by the promoter members.

The board of directors oversees the activity of the four following committees:

Ecosystem Committee, planning the future development of DLNA guidelines
Compliance & Test Committee, overseeing the certification program and its evolutions
Marketing Committee, actively promoting DLNA worldwide
Technical Committee, writing the DLNA guidelines

DLNA-certified devices

There are more than nine thousand products on the market that are DLNA Certified. This includes TVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, games consoles, digital media players, photo frames, cameras, NAS devices, PCs, mobile handsets, and more. Predictions have been made as to how many DLNA Certified products are shipping:
“According to a study from ABI Research, nearly 200 million such products shipped in 2008; that number will rise to more than 300 million in 2012, and the growth curve accelerates even faster in the years that follow.”
Consumers can see if their product is certified by looking for a DLNA logo on the device or by verifying certification through the DLNA Product Search: http://www.dlna.org/products/

DLNA technology components

As the past president of DLNA pointed out to the Register in March 2009:

"The vendors of software are allowed to claim that their software is a DLNA Technology Component if the software has gone through certification testing on a device and the device has been granted DLNA Certification. DLNA Technology Components are not marketed to the consumer but only to industry."

DLNA Interoperability Guidelines allow manufacturers to participate in the growing marketplace of networked devices and are separated into the below sections of key technology components.

Network and Connectivity
Device and Service Discovery and Control
Media Format and Transport Model
Media Management, Distribution and Control
Digital Rights Management and Content Protection
Manageability

DLNA-certified software

In early 2011, DLNA began a Software Certification program in order to make it easier for consumers to enjoy and share their digital media across a broader range of products. DLNA is certifying software that is sold directly to consumers through retailers, websites and mobile application stores. With DLNA Certified software, consumers can upgrade products from within their home networks that may not be DLNA Certified and bring them into their personal DLNA ecosystems. This helps in bringing content such as videos, photos and music stored on DLNA Certified devices to a larger selection of consumer electronics, mobile and PC products.

The first application to be certified under the new Software Certification program was Skifta

Skifta

Skifta is a media shifting service developed by , Inc. It enables Android smartphone users to access their music, pictures, and videos from their phone, from cloud media services or remotely from another location via an Android phone, and stream media to connected consumer electronics anywhere that...

for Android, a product of Qualcomm Services Labs Inc. Skifta is an application-based media shifting service that allows consumers to access and play their digital media from virtually any source, whether it's accessed on the phone, from the cloud, or remotely from home.

DLNA-certified products

Below are some examples of DLNA Certified Products, however this is not a comprehensive list of all devices.

2player is a controller, and player, with download support (DMC, DMP, M-DMD), for Android devices.
AllShare™ is Samsung Electronics trademark name which includes DLNA as well as other related features. Look for this in DLNA compatible Samsung devices.
ArcSoft TotalMedia 3.5. Appears to be just a DMS.
AwoX mediaCTRL for iPhone is a commercial controller with upload and push controller (DMC +UP+ +PU+). It is based on AwoX DLNA Technology component software development kits.
Coherence is a complete UPnP python framework including a DMS, a DMR, and a DMC.
CyberLink
CyberLink
CyberLink is a digital entertainment and multimedia products software corporation. CyberLink's 2008 revenue was $140 million with market capitalization of $420 million. Cyberlink's headquarters are based in Taipei, Taiwan with worldwide offices in Fremont, USA; Tokyo, Japan; and the Netherlands...

SoftDMA 2. Appears to be just a DMP.
iMediaShare is a smartphone application that supports Media Server specifications of UPnP/AV.
ZappoTV is a controlpoint that acts as a mobile media center for certain DLNA Renderers.
J. River Media Center
Media Center (software application)
Media Center, or formally, "JRiver Media Center" is a multimedia application that allows the user to play and organize various types of media on a computer running Windows....

A multi-faceted media player/organizer with a DLNA/UPnP server, controller, and renderer, including conversion.
LinuxMCE
LinuxMCE
LinuxMCE is a free and open source software platform with a 10-foot user interface designed to allow a computer to act as a home theater PC for the living-room TV, personal video recorder, and home automation system. It allows control of everything in the home, from lighting and climate to...

as a complete free solution has Fuppes integrated, but plans to switch to MediaTomb.
tubeCore a free Windows Media Center Media Receiver plugin that provides a DLNA compliant user interface to DLNA Media Servers.
Windows Media Connect
Windows Media Connect
Windows Media Connect is a UPnP AV server from Microsoft for Windows XP and later Windows operating systems, to share and stream media on a Windows computer to WMC clients. The first two releases of WMC were made available as stand-alone software, and included a client as well...

and therefore Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...

11 reportedly support DLNA, but there appear to be problems, for example, with PS3 consoles.
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...

12 (bundled with Windows 7) supports all DLNA roles.
XBMC a free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media available for Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, as well as the original Xbox game console. XBMC

Servers

Asset UPnP/DLNA, Free Audio specific UPnP/DLNA server for Windows & Windows Home Server. Features album art, audio WAVE/LPCM transcoding from a huge range of audio codecs, replaygain support for streamed audio. Customizable browse tree.
CyberLink
CyberLink
CyberLink is a digital entertainment and multimedia products software corporation. CyberLink's 2008 revenue was $140 million with market capitalization of $420 million. Cyberlink's headquarters are based in Taipei, Taiwan with worldwide offices in Fremont, USA; Tokyo, Japan; and the Netherlands...

Media Server 2. Appears to be just a DMS.
Jamcast, a DLNA compliant media server for Windows that is capable of streaming any audio playing on the PC to DLNA devices.
Mezzmo is a feature-packed UPnP/DLNA media server with on-the-fly transcoding and media organizing features.
PlayOn from MediaMall. Appears to be a DMS, also capable of serving streamed internet media such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, CNN, ESPN.
PS3 Media Server
PS3 Media Server
PS3 Media Server is a DLNA compliant UPnP Media Server. Originally written to support the PlayStation 3, it has been expanded to support a range of other media renderers, including Xbox 360 and various Samsung and Sony televisions. Written in Java, it streams or transcodes many different media...

. An open source (GPLv2) DLNA compliant UPnP Media Server for the PS3, written in Java, with the purpose of streaming or transcoding any kind of media files, with minimum configuration.
Serviio is a free DLNA media server and works with any DLNA compliant device (TV, PlayStation 3, etc.) and some other (Xbox 360). It is updated frequently.
TwonkyMedia server
TwonkyMedia server
TwonkyMedia server is DLNA-compliant UPnP AV server software from PacketVideo. It runs on Macintosh, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Home Server, Windows 7 and Linux. TwonkyMedia server is also available for Android and other mobile platforms...

runs on PC, Mac, Linux and Android and enables media sharing of local and online media among a large variety of devices.
TVMOBiLi - A shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...

DLNA/UPnP Media Server for Windows, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

and Linux. Appears to be just a DMS.
TVersity
TVersity
TVersity Media Server is a software package that allows a personal computer to stream content to UPnP devices, such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii, regardless of the limitations of the device. For example, the Xbox 360 does not support most codecs or Internet videos such as YouTube...

, a free UPnP MediaServer with strong device support and on-the-fly transcoding. Appears to be just a DMS.
Wild Media Server (UPnP, DLNA, HTTP)], a media server for Windows, Wine (Linux), CrossOver Mac (MAC OS), individual device settings, transcoding, subtitles, restricted device access to folders, Internet-Radio, Internet-Television, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), etc. It provides a lot of features, however, it is very expensive because you have to purchase a license for each client "MAC Address" instead of for each device.
Coherence
Coherence (UPNP)
As a stand-alone application Coherence acts as a DLNA/UPnP MediaServer and exports local and remote media files via its backends to other UPnP clients.And together with a supported client it forms a controllable DLNA/UPnP MediaRenderer...

is a framework written in Python to enable applications access to digital living network resources. As a stand alone application it can act as a UPnP/DLNA media server, in combination with a supported client as a media renderer.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.