Some of the music servers tested also serve video and photos and fall into the media server category, which is great but I’m only testing their merits on serving audio.įirst some terminology to get your head around.

Therefore many UPnP/DLNA servers can be set to convert certain content to a format that is supported by the renderer.This review has been written by a tech enthusiast, not an audiophile, with my own personal requirements in mind, but since i went to great lengths testing every possible UPnP/DLNA Music Server i could find, i thought you might also benefit from my conclusions. Another example is my Panasonic tv that doesn’t play all video files I have. Now, I don’t believe you will use the Playstation 3 as a serious audio player, but your kids might. If you have FLAC music files and your renderer doesn't supports FLAC, like for instance the Playstation 3, you have a problem. Unfortunately things are more complex since there is no mechanism that solves file compatibility. Most modern computers have standard folders for these groups so if that would be all, you could have your nephew or handyman install it for you and you would be happy. UPnP/DLNA knows three kinds of media: music, video and photo. So when you install a UPnP/DLNA server, you tell it where to look for media. When music, a video or photo album is chosen to be played, the renderer - aka network player - is instructed to get those files from the server and render them to the stereo, av-receiver or tv. In essence it works like this: the server software, running on some kind of computer, server, NAS or dedicated device, can be requested by the controller about the contents the server holds.

There are different ‘classes’ of devices, like a controller, server and renderer and a device can contain one or more of these classes. In practice they are about the same and many devices and server software claim to be UPnP/DLNA. UPnP AV and DLNA do about the same and initially DLNA was close to UPnP AV with a digital rights management layer added. You can use advanced and adaptable software to do this or use FireStream… Many streamers are based on the UPnP or DLNA protocols, which means that you need to run a UPnP/DLNA server program on a computer, server or NAS.

Dlna media server software comparison