DLNA

Products supporting DLNA

DLNA-certified devices

Some of the earlier devices with DLNA included the PlayStation 3, the Nokia N95 and the Pioneer BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player. By 2014 over 25,000 DLNA-certified products were available, up from 9,000 in 2011. This includes TVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, games consoles, digital media players, photo frames, cameras, NAS devices, PCs, mobile handsets, and more. According to a 2013 study from Parks Associates, nearly 3 billion products were expected to be on the market in 2014, increasing to over 7 billion by 2018. DLNA certification of devices can be determined by a DLNA logo on the device, or by verifying certification through the DLNA Product Search.

DLNA-certified software

TwonkyMedia server, Serviio and BubbleUPnP are known examples of DLNA server software. All versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 7 have native DLNA server and client support through Windows Media Player (it is named "media streaming").

In many cases DLNA protocols are in use by services or software without openly stating the name: examples include Nokia's Home Network functionality in Symbian OS, Samsung's All Share, the Play To functionality in Windows 8.1, and applications such as VLC media player or Roku Media Player.

History and member companies

Intel established the Digital Living Network Alliance along with Sony and Microsoft in June 2003 as the Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), changing its name 12 months later, when the first set of guidelines for DLNA was published. Its board members as of 2007 were: HP, Intel, Matsushita, Microsoft, Nokia, Philips, Samsung, and Sony.

Home Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines v1.5 was published in March 2006 and expanded in October of the same year; the changes included the addition of two new product categories — printers, and mobile devices — as well as an "increase of DLNA Device Classes from two to twelve" and an increase in supported user scenarios related to the new product categories.

DLNA worked with cable, satellite, and telecom service providers to provide link protection on each end of the data transfer. The extra layer of digital rights management (DRM) security allows broadcast operators to communicate digital media to certain devices (e.g. to those of their customers) in such a manner that further, unauthorized, communication of the media is difficult.

In 2005, DLNA began a software certification program in order to make it easier for consumers to share their digital media across a broader range of products. DLNA is certifying software that is sold directly to consumers through retailers, websites and mobile application stores. With DLNA certified software, consumers can upgrade products from within their home networks that may not be DLNA certified and bring them into their personal DLNA ecosystems. This helps in bringing content such as videos, photos and music stored on DLNA certified devices to a larger selection of consumer electronics, mobile and PC products.

In March 2014, DLNA publicly released the VidiPath Guidelines, originally called "DLNA CVP-2 Guidelines." VidiPath enables consumers to view subscription TV content on a wide variety of devices including televisions, tablets, phones, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes (STBs), personal computers (PCs) and game consoles without any additional intermediate devices from the service provider.

In November 2015 there were 13 promoter members and 171 contributor members. The promoter members were:

Arris, AwoX, Broadcom, CableLabs, Comcast, Dolby Laboratories, Intel, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Sony Electronics, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon.

The board of directors oversaw the activity of the four following committees:

• Ecosystem Committee, planning the future development of DLNA guidelines
• Compliance & Test Committee, overseeing the certification program and its evolutions
• Marketing Communication Advisory Council, actively promoting DLNA worldwide
• Technical Committee, writing the DLNA guidelines

On January 5, 2017, the DLNA organization announced, "The organization has fulfilled its mission and will dissolve as a non-profit trade association." Its certification program continues to be conducted by SpireSpark International of Portland, Oregon.

DLNA technology components

As the past president of DLNA pointed out to the Register in March 2009:

The vendors of software are allowed to claim that their software is a DLNA Technology Component if the software has gone through certification testing on a device and the device has been granted DLNA Certification. DLNA Technology Components are not marketed to the consumer but only to industry.

DLNA Interoperability Guidelines allow manufacturers to participate in the growing marketplace of networked devices and are separated into the following sections of key technology components:

• Network and Connectivity
• Device and Service Discovery and Control
• Media Format and Transport Model
• Media Management, Distribution and Control
• Digital Rights Management and Content Protection
• Manageability
• Efficient Power Management