what is the benefit of DLNA support on a media device?

techead

techead

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right, so Im wondering what the real benefit of this is? So you can steam from all devices or something, but if your media player can support a windows share from your NAS device then what is the point of DLNA?? :confused:
 
Its for streaming media. e.g. You set up a streaming service on a PC & then your TV connects to it.

Tried it. Didn't like it. Nails the quality. Needs powerful CPU...C2D generation won't cut it.
 
HavocXphere said:
Its for streaming media. e.g. You set up a streaming service on a PC & then your TV connects to it.

Tried it. Didn't like it. Nails the quality. Needs powerful CPU...C2D generation won't cut it.
Click to expand...

What receives it on your TV? Sounds like niche technology.
 
Think xbox also allows you to make use of dlna.
 
HavocXphere said:
Its for streaming media. e.g. You set up a streaming service on a PC & then your TV connects to it.

Tried it. Didn't like it. Nails the quality. Needs powerful CPU...C2D generation won't cut it.
Click to expand...

You are possibly using the wrong DLNA server, DLNA is not CPU intensive at all even the WRT54G devices can do DLNA, I wrote a howto on getting a PS3 to playout my videos and music http://www.topdog.za.net/2009/01/25/setup-a-linux-playstation-3-media-server-ubuntu/ sometime ago, These days you don't even need a PS3 the TV's are DLNA enabled.

Anyway back to the question, the advantage is that you can access you media from compliant devices, put you media on a server in your storeroom/serverroom and watch the stuff on your TV in the lounge.
 
DLNA is awesome shared files on my windows home server and windows 7 computer can be accessed from the remote on my Samsung TV ( WHS 2011 is DLNA compliant ) they are all connected on a Gigabit switch no setting up necessarily at all apart from designating the shared folders.
 
techead said:
but if your media player can support a windows share from your NAS device then what is the point of DLNA?? :confused:
Click to expand...
The point is most (non-PC) consumer electronic devices don't support (smb) shares e.g. TVs, game consoles, Bluray players etc. Rather they implement DLNA which is a simpler method of discovering media sources across the LAN and streaming from them.

DLNA also has different types of methods of interaction (services). For example besides the popular "pull" method (client from server), there is also a "push" method. My Samsung TV for instance supports "push", in Win7 I can select a video, pic, song and right click Play To -> [TV name].

DLNA however has the same limitations as shares when it comes to transferring additional media metadata (only get name & thumbnail). This is where more advanced over the LAN (or Internet) systems like Plex come in to play. Using a more complex xml/streaming interface Plex is able to transfer all sorts of additional info between server & client incl. file encoding info, multiple poster + background art, synopsis, soundtrack, cast & credits etc. etc.
 
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HavocXphere said:
Its for streaming media. e.g. You set up a streaming service on a PC & then your TV connects to it.

Tried it. Didn't like it. Nails the quality. Needs powerful CPU...C2D generation won't cut it.
Click to expand...

Running Serviio as my Dlna server on an HP micro, streaming to 2 tv's in the house. I can stream to both tv's and my iPad, and the CPU usage will be around 10-15%. Same server also handles downloads and 2 other vm machines.

You're probably just using crappy dlna server software.
 
Oh, check out Plex as well as a dlna server, with the right client (eg. Samsung Smart TV), it displays all the movie and series info, like covers, backdrops, descriptions etc.
 
I thought DLNA is a "standard" or "guideline" for sharing/streaming media between devices. So the implied benefit is you should find a zillion apps,devices and content that support this (as opposed to using a proprietary system that only works on a single device).

I'm using Tversity http://tversity.com/ and almost anything in my house can connect to it , because of the DLNA goodness :). Xbox , Ipad, Laptop , Phone . The PC hosting all this is definitely not struggling in the CPU department. Usually DLNA servers have a web interface too (if you don't have an actual app on your device) to stream via the local browser.

I'd say DLNA servers is much easier to work with than getting all these platform specific apps (i.e. Airplay or Streamer on Ipad) . There are however pretty good DLNA client apps (on the ipad) that also reads Windows Media Libraries directly if you really don't want to use something like Tversity.
 
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Mezzmo is the best DLNA server IMO.
I have used TVersity Prof, PS3 Media Server, Twonky, etc... Mezzmo slaughters them.
 
Roger.Wilco said:
Well, transcoding is enabled, not sure when it uses it and when it doesn't
Click to expand...
I doubt any transcoding is happening. Those HP micro server's are quite a bit weaker than the box I used and like I said even that didn't work. Unless the HP is offloading it to the GFX, which I suppose is possible.

Doesn't really matter though....thankfully the Bravia TVs can read pretty much everything off an external.
 
ok so if your TV doesnt support DLNA then you pretty much screwed, like me. So I have a WDTV Live and this will have to do me fine.

Sucks that I cant get the WDTV to read more data on the files, Im just stuck with a thumbnail and name... nothing esle. This Plex sounds interesting but I cant use that with WDTV I assume :(
 
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