Advanced Television

DLNA 4.0 publishes DLNA 4.0 guidelines

June 30, 2016

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has announced that the organisation’s latest Guidelines for streaming personal content in the home are now available for download. DLNA 4.0 enables consumer product manufacturers to deliver a more satisfying and energy-efficient connected home experience, including viewing HD TV content on the broadest possible choice of interoperable TVs, PCs and mobile devices.

Consumers have long complained that there are files on their servers that they cannot play with their mobile devices, PCs, TVs, STBs or other devices. DLNA 4.0 solves this problem by mandating transcoding on the media server.

Power efficiency is improved through low power modes that enable connected devices to work together to cut overall energy consumption in the home. Consumers also can now enjoy Ultra HD content streamed throughout the home via a media gateway or set top box because DLNA 4.0 supports the High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) video compression standard. The Guidelines also support IPv6 to ensure DLNA 4.0 Certified devices will continue to function as more networks transition to this protocol.

DLNA 4.0 Certified devices will support the broadest possible set of media formats and advanced features for optimum performance across the most extensive range of use cases. The DLNA 4.0 Certification Programme will join existing DLNA 2.0 and 3.0 Certification Programs that, together, help maximise product development options for manufacturers as they differentiate their offerings in the market. Over 4 billion devices have been certified to DLNA’s 2.0 and 3.0 Certification Programmes. Introduced in August 2015, DLNA’s 3.0 Certification Program added advanced features and capabilities for playback and response time. DLNA 4.0 further extends available features and DLNA 4.0 Certification will provide unprecedented interoperability assurance through increased mandatory requirements and more extensive conformance testing.

DLNA 4.0 Guidelines have been submitted for adoption as an international standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which has published all previous sets of DLNA Guidelines for content sharing applications and protected streaming across home networks. The IEC is the world’s leading organisation that prepares and publishes International Standards for electrical, electronic and related technologies.

Categories: Articles, Standards