DLNA Certified Products

You’ll find the DLNA Certified logo on all kinds of digital devices for your home and on the go — TVs, PCs, mobile phones, you name it. But they aren’t the same TVs, PCs and mobile phones you’re used to.

Built to DLNA certification standards, this new generation of devices offers expanded capabilities that enable these products to play not one but multiple roles in your digital network.

DLNA Certified devices are certified in a number of different DLNA Device Classes. It is this embedded DLNA Device Class certification that allows the product to do more things. To play and render content in some cases. To find and upload content in others. Here’s a rundown of the digital products that you may already be familiar with. See what each device can do if they are also a DLNA Certified device:

 

 

 

 

Televisions (TVs)

DLNA Certified TVs will be able to work as either a Digital Media Player (DMP) or Digital Media Renderer (DMR), enabling you to enjoy more than just what’s broadcast over the air or fiber optic networks or in your DVD collection.

As a DMP, it can browse digital content on other DLNA Certified devices – such as Digital Media Servers (DMS) – on your network, and play them. As a DMR, the TV can be controlled by a Digital Media Controller (DMC) to play the digital content you send from your Digital Media Server (DMS).

Digital Video Recorders (DVRs)

Unlike regular digital video recorders, DLNA Certified DVRs will have built-in networking capabilities to allow them to interact with the other DLNA Certified devices in your digital home. A DLNA Certified DVR will be able to function as a Digital Media Player (DMP), Digital Media Server (DMS) or both.

As a DMP, the DVR will be able to find photos and videos from other DLNA Certified devices and play them on your TV. As a DMS, it can send the videos recorded on its hard drive to other DLNA Certified devices in your home.

Mobile Phones

DLNA Certified mobile phones will be very powerful, having not only cellular capabilities, but also a built-in Wi-Fi® capability to allow them to connect to your home network.

The phone can serve as a Mobile Digital Media Server (M-DMS), sending photos, music and videos from its memory to other DLNA Certified devices. Or, it could function as a Mobile Digital Media Player (M-DMP) to play digital content from other DLNA Certified devices.

Most interesting of all will be its capability as a Mobile Digital Media Controller (M-DMC).This will enable you to use your phone to control digital content from one DLNA Certified device to another.

Network Attached Servers (NAS)

You know your NAS as the place where you store all your digital content. But a DLNA Certified NAS can also serve as a Digital Media Server (DMS). A DMS is able to expose and “serve up” the photos, videos and music stored on it to other DLNA Certified devices in your digital home. No more AV cables, mini-DV cassettes or DVD burning necessary.

Audio-video (AV) Systems and Hi-Fi Stereos

With DLNA Certified audio-video (AV) systems and stereos, you won’t be limited to the CDs and DVDs lining your bookshelf. You’ll have your entire music and video collections at your fingertips. This is thanks to the fact that DLNA Certified AV systems and stereos can act as either a Digital Media Player (DMP) or a Digital Media Renderer (DMR).

As a DMP, the system or stereo will browse digital content on other DLNA Certified devices, such as Digital Media Servers (DMS), on your network, and play it. As a DMR, they can be controlled by a digital media controller (DMC) to play the digital content you send using your DMC.

Personal Computers (PCs)

Anyone who has a PC knows that they have powerful networking capabilities built into them. So, their DLNA Certified potential is determined solely by the type of software installed on them.

DLNA Certified PCs are able to act as a Digital Media Server (DMS), Digital Media Player (DMP), Digital Media Controller (DMC) or Digital Media Renderer (DMR). Most of the PCs available today start by being certified as a DMS, since a lot of us keep the bulk of our digital content on our PCs.

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

These days, PDAs and smart phones are almost like mini-PCs. One important distinction is that a DLNA Certified PDA must also have built-in networking capabilities, such as Wi-Fi®, to join your digital home.

Just as with a PC, a PDA’s DLNA Certified capabilities are determined by the type of software installed on it. But unlike a PC, which will most likely be certified as a Digital Media Server (DMS), a PDA is most likely to be certified as a Mobile Digital Media Controller (M-DMC).

Printers

A DLNA Certified printer, also known as a Digital Media Printer (DMPr), provides printing services to other DLNA Certified devices on the network. Any DLNA Certified device with a DLNA Certified print controller will be able to print to a DMPr.

Digital Media Adapters (DMA)

In many ways, the digital media adapter (DMA) is the “original” digital living device. From the get-go, they had built-in networking capabilities and could browse digital content from other devices like PCs and NASs.

But there was a problem: Regular DMAs only allowed you to work with other PCs that had the DMA’s proprietary software.

Not so with DLNA Certified DMAs. They will be able to work with other DLNA Certified devices. No special software necessary. In general, DMAs are certified as Digital Media Players (DMP). But increasingly, they’re certified as Digital Media Renderers (DMR) as well.