DLNA
Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a set of interoperability standards for sharing home digital media among multimedia devices. It allows users to share or stream stored media files to various certified devices on the same network like PCs, smartphones, TV sets, game consoles, stereo systems, and NASs. DLNA incorporates several existing public standards, including Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for media management and device discovery and control, wired and wireless networking standards, and widely used digital media formats.
Developed by | Digital Living Network Alliance |
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Introduced | 2004 |
Industry | Local area networks |
Compatible hardware |
DLNA was created by Sony and Intel and the consortium soon included various PC and consumer electronics companies, publishing its first set of guidelines in June 2004. The Digital Living Network Alliance developed and promoted it under the auspices of a certification standard, with a claimed membership of "more than 200 companies" before dissolving in 2017. By September 2014 over 25,000 device models had obtained "DLNA Certified" status, indicated by a logo on their packaging and confirming their interoperability with other devices. In many cases DLNA protocols are in use by services or software without openly stating the name: examples include Nokia's Home Network functionality, Samsung's All Share, the Play To functionality in Windows 8.1, and in applications such as VLC media player or Roku Media Player.