DLNA media streaming lets you stream video and audio to a huge range of devices, from smart TVs to set-top boxes and even game consoles. For this to work, you'll need to enable or install a DLNA media streamer on your computer.

What is DLNA?

DLNA stands for "Digital Living Network Alliance" and it is used to describe a group of technology companies that worked together to establish a set of interoperability guidelines between 2003 and 2017 when the organization was dissolved. Within the context of streaming, DLNA is used to denote a commonly-agreed upon standard for local media streaming across a network.

This may also be referred to as universal plug and play (UPnP) streaming. UPnP is the networking protocol that the DLNA servers and clients use to discover one another, while DLNA certifications refer to a whole class of devices incorporating servers, players, renderers, controllers, and even printers.

This feature is also known as Play To or UPnP AV.

The important thing to note is that if a device advertises DLNA compliance, or that it is capable of streaming using DLNA or UPnP streaming, you can use it to natively play back media from a DLNA server.

What You Need to Use DLNA Streaming

Many boxes you plug into your TV, including the Roku, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and even some smart TVs themselves offer DLNA ("Digital Living Network Alliance") streaming support. They can stream video files and music over the network from your PC---as long as you set up a DLNA server on the PC first.

Using UPNP is easier than you might think, as the server software you'll need is built into Windows. There are also third-party DLNA servers with more features, and you can run them on any operating system. It's up to you which method you want to choose---we'll cover both and give you a variety of options for third-party DLNA streaming servers. Here's how to set up DLNA on your machine.