From PC to Your TV Via DLNA: Sony Media Player and More

If you have some home videos stored on your PC and you want to watch them on your TV, one of the best ways to stream them across is to use a Sony Network Media Player. One of the reasons these are so easy is because they are DLNA compatible. But what is DLNA, and how can you set up your PC and the device to stream your home videos? Here's a quick guide.

Overview of DLNA

DLNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance, and any device that is DLNA compatible will be able to communicate with any other device that is also DLNA compatible. There are thousands of such devices available across various manufacturers, with the numbers increasing all the time. These include computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, TVs, hi-fi systems, printers, cameras and more.

Choose Your Sony Network Media Player

There are many Sony Network Media Players to choose from, and they all come with different features. They include Blu-ray players, Playstation 3 consoles and television sets among others, so your choice depends on what you will use the device for. The device that you stream to is known as the DLNA client.

Turn Your Computer into a DLNA Server

Turning your computer into a DLNA server is quite a simple process. There are various ways to do this through various applications, but for the purposes of this article we'll focus on Windows Media Player (WMP).

The way to do this is to simply find streaming options in WMP where you will see the devices that WMP recognizes, which should include your DLNA client. This will probably be blocked by default, so unblock it and then go to the sharing options. From there, simply choose which types of media you want it to share – videos, pictures, music, etc – and you're ready to go.

Set Up Your Sony Network Media Player

Whichever Sony Network Media Player you have got, you will want to set it up to allow it to receive the content streamed by your DLNA server.

To do this, go to the settings menu and find the settings for the connection server. Here you will find a list of the DLNA media servers that are currently on the network, so choose your DLNA server from the list and set it to display.

Then simply go to the different sections of media that you want to stream, such as videos, and you should find your DLNA server listed. Click on it, and the content should appear so that you can stream it.

What About Sharing Your Content with Others?

If you've got a home video that you want to share with your friends and family around the globe rather than just stream to your TV, this is quite a different process. Fortunately, there are many easy ways to share large files online these days, including cloud storage services, bittorrent clients like Vuze, and file lockers. So send your home video to your family and then explain to them how they too can stream it to their TVs.

Stream Your Content in Your Living Room

We have so much content stored on our computers, tablets and smartphones these days that it would be a shame if you could not view them on a large TV in the comfort of your living room. Sony Network Media Players make this easy to do through DLNA, so try it out yourself.

The great thing about DLNA is that it can also be used for other actions, such as sending your documents to your printer wirelessly and playing your music stored on your computer through your Hi-Fi system. So discover the wonderful world of DLNA today and enjoy your content in the way that suits you.

Lucas Weston enjoys technological innovations. He often blogs about simple ways to revolutionize the capabilities of existing systems.