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DLNA: Supported File Formats and What You Need Know

DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is an industry-wide standard for sharing data over a home network. Depending on the DLNA-compatible devices you own, you might be able to stream films, music and photos as you want. While, to stream your media content via DLNA, you should learn the DLNA supported file formats first to avoid the incompatible issues. Here we list it as below.

DLNA Supported File Formats

Video: MPG, MPEG, M2T, M2TS, MP4, ASF, WMV
Music: WAV, MP4, WMA
Image: JPG, MPO, ARW

As you see, DLNA does not include DivX, XviD, MKV, FLAC, VOB, MOV or other popular formats in its guidelines. That means file formats can be a bit of an issue. Some DLNA devices might play MP4 video files, but the device the MP4 is being sent to may be unable to recognize this particular file type. The same goes for the popular DivX video file type that many LG TVs support.

There's usually a workaround that involves using media servers (such as TVersity) to encode content on the fly. But this can be problematic to set up for those unused to playing with such advanced settings. Here we highly recommend you Brorsoft Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate to help you solve the format issues.

With the Ultimate Blu-ray Video Converter, you can quickly convert virtually any video and audio files to all popular video/audio formats like AVI, MP4, WMV, MOV, FLV, MKV, 3GP, MPEG and more. Besides, the Ultimate program lets you easily rip DVD/Blu-ray to all popular SD and HD video formats for viewing whenever and wherever. So, with this all-in-one app you can convert any videos files or rip BD, DVD to a DLNA commonly supported format. If you are running on Mac OS X(Mavericks), iMedia Converter for Mac is the alternative.

NLNA- What You Need Know

- How does DLNA work?

There are two main types of DLNA products: DLNA servers, such as PCs or a networked storage device, and DLNA clients. You need one of each to stream content using DLNA.

The DLNA server is the device that stores and sends your movies, music and pictures. PCs running Windows have DLNA built into their operating system, and Windows Media Player can act as a media server that manages where the content is delivered and what content is accessible.

Other home media servers can be downloaded, such as Serviio, TwonkyMedia, Orb and TVersity.

A DLNA client is the device on which the content is viewed or played, and such products include most smart TVs, soundbars and digital radios. Some products, like DLNA-enabled TVs, might even come with bespoke PC software that, once installed, lets your PC talk directly to your television.

- Can DLNA and AirPlay talk to each other?

Choosing a home entertainment platform is a bit like picking sides in a battle: there are two rival standards, DLNA and AirPlay. Where DLNA works across thousands of different devices, AirPlay (and AirPrint) is more selective and only works on Apple or Apple-approved products. That's the official line, anyway, but there are ways around it: apps such as AirSync bring AirPlay streaming to Android phones, while apps such as MediaConnect offer DLNA on iOS. So, if you're a big user of Apple products, you may be better served with their proprietary systems rather than DLNA if you want to share media files.