This standard’s strength is still its wide ecosystem of supported devices. And, even if you want to manage your own local media library, a solution like Plex is more full-featured and better. Modern solutions are usually focused on streaming media from the cloud. DLNA is fundamentally focused on playing back media files you have downloaded on your PC (video files, music files, and image files) on other devices.

Macs and Linux PCs don’t have this feature built-in, so third-party media programs like these are the only option.ĭLNA seems to be on its way out, which is one reason why it’s so hidden on Windows 10. It boasts a large number of features, and you can install and configure it on Windows as well as macOS and Linux. You might also be interested in the completely free Universal Media Server, which is based on the now-discontinued PS3 Media Server. This allows you to access your Plex library on devices that don’t have a Plex client or web browser, but do offer DLNA support. Plex’s own media player offers more features, but your Plex library can also be accessed from any media player that supports DLNA. Many different media servers support DLNA, including the immensely popular Plex media server-so you can set up the Plex media server on your computer and use DLNA on another device to access your media, if you want. RELATED: How to Set Up Plex (and Watch Your Movies on Any Device) If you try to play an unsupported file, they’ll transcode it on-the-fly, streaming the video in a supported format to your DLNA device. Other DLNA servers improve this by offering real-time transcoding. If you have other types of media, it just won’t work. Due to the way DLNA works, you can only stream certain types of media codecs, for example. The Windows DLNA server is the easiest and fastest one to set up, but it’s not necessarily the best option. Option Two: Install Plex or Universal Media Server Or use the DLNA media-streaming features to share media between your PCs. In addition to browsing your shared media library from the device, you can use the Play To feature to find media on your computer and start playing it directly on the networked device. DLNA servers on your local network will appear in the list, so you can select your computer and stream media files from it. For example, on a Roku, you must first install the Roku Media Player channel and open it.

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