DLNA – A Digital Home Necessity

One of the most important elements of the modern digital home is DLNA connectivity. DLNA is the technology that allows information to run freely within a digital home network. With DLNA, there is no longer any need to connect devices with cables, burn DVD’s to play on your home television or save MP3’s to a flash drive. DLNA certified devices connect with each other automatically saving you a whole lot of time and effort. But, keep in mind that many popular network storage and file sharing devices do not support DLNA and are not DLNA certified and therefore cannot easily connect with and stream content to home entertainment systems.

What is DLNA and how does it work? The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a group of almost 250 well-known and trusted electronics brands that are working together to create products that are compatible with each other within a local network. Together these products help to create a home entertainment environment where DLNA compatible devices can automatically detect and connect with each other to effortlessly share and stream files. The alliance was set up to provide consumer devices with the ability to easily transfer files between them regardless of their brand.

Files can be stored on a DLNA certified device such as the inXtron MyCloud Personal Cloud Server and shared with other DLNA certified devices. Photos, videos and music stored on a DLNA certified server device can be accessed and played directly on DLNA certified big screen televisions, stereos and digital picture frames rather than just playing them back on a laptop or desktop computer. All of this takes place either through a home’s wired or wireless local network. There is no longer any need to copy files onto DVD’s or flash drives to share them between different devices on the network.

Other DLNA certified devices act as go-betweens. For example, the inXtron MyCloud can automatically connect with other DLNA certified devices such as a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. When the PS3 or Xbox 360 is connected to a home television that is not DLNA certified, those devices act as go-betweens between the MyCloud and the television to allow the non-DLNA television to playback content stored on the DLNA server. Stored content can also be streamed to any other DLNA compatible devices on the local network such as digital picture frames.

What this really means is that there is no need to set anything up. DLNA certified products automatically find each other. So, if you want to easily share and stream stored photos, music, videos and other files between several different devices within your home network, then make sure your devices are DLNA certified.

For more information about our product, please visit inXtron's MyCloud Personal Cloud Server.

For more information on the Digital Living Network Alliance ( DLNA), please visit www.dlna.org.