Network Support in Windows 7

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a union of more than 200 companies which are interested in specifying technologies for exchanging media in home networks. The DLNA specifies transport protocols which are based on HTTP and RTP and sets of media formats. Also DLNA architecture is based on the UPnP specification.

DLNA defines roles for the devices like servers, players, renderers and it also defines the protocols that these devices use to discover each other and communicate with each other. Windows 7 applies the DLNA protocols required for communications and media exchange and it also applies several of the DLNA device roles. Your Windows 7 PC will be able to interoperate with a extensive variety of DLNA certified devices like stereo systems, cell phones, DVRs, TVs, game consoles, etc.

There are different ways in which you could choose to use a Windows 7 PC at home because Windows 7 implements several device roles.

Scenario 1:
If you store all your pictures, music and videos on a Windows 7 PC and you have recently acquired a TV with a DLNA logo then you can browse the media library available on the Windows 7 PC using the TV. You can also use the TV to listen to music, watch the video and pictures stored on the PC. This scenario is already available in Windows XP and Windows Vista using Windows Media Player 11.

Scenario 2:
If you have a Network Attached Storage i.e NAS device on which you store your videos, music and pictures then you can use the NAS device as a DMS. You can find the NAS device using Windows Media Player when you open Windows Media Player on a Windows 7 PC and you can also browse the media library available on the NAS device. You can also use NAS device to listen to music, watch the video and pictures stored on it.

Scenario 3:
If you have a cell phone that is capable of taking pictures and can push the pictures to a Windows 7 PC then you can show the pictures to your friends using the large-screen display of the PC without transferring the files to the PC with a USB thumb drive.

Scenario 4:
If you have a stereo system with the DLNA logo then you can play the songs stored on your computer by using Play To feature. If you have a extensive collection of music which has thousands of songs. Because your collection is big and you prefer to search, organize and select songs using the rich capabilities of the Windows Media Player then you can select the songs by simply pushing them to your stereo system using Play To.

If you also have a NAS device containing an additional collection of music and video then you can use the Windows 7 PC to browse the content on the NAS device and push it to the stereo system.