Media Connect
Installing Media Connect allows you to play media files on your phone, your PC or your connected home theater regardless of where the files are stored. It conforms to the DLNA standard supported by thousands of devices and applications in order to ensure maximum interoperability.
With Media Connect, movies music and photos that are stored on your handheld using can be played using a DLNA-capable TV, Blu-Ray Disc player, media streamer or PC. Moreover, media stored on your PC or other media server can be played on your handheld in Kinoma Play.
About DLNA
DLNA-capable devices and applications fall into one or more device classes: Media Server, Media Player, Media Renderer or Media Controller. Many devices will feature more than one of these. Here is a brief explanation of each:
Media Servers make media files available for playback on other devices. Your home PC probably has a lot of media files you might want to see on your TV, and so it would make a good media server. So does your phone; in addition to your favorite music it probably has photos and videos you’ve shot with the phone’s camera that you may want on your living room TV or stereo for your family to enjoy.
Media Players are devices that can let you browse the contents of media servers and play back media from them over the network. A DLNA-equipped TV, Blu-Ray Disc player or media streamer may allow you to do all this using its remote control.
Media Controllers are like Media Players except that they instruct other devices to play back the media from a media server on your network.
Media Renderers are devices that will receive instructions to play media from another DLNA device such as a Media Controller.
Each component in a DLNA system is called an endpoint, or simply “box”. In most cases there are two boxes, the Media Server and Media Player. When you use a Media Controller to play media from a Media Server on a Media Player, there are three endpoints; this is often called the “three box model.”
In addition there are two ways for media to go from a Media Server to the playback device. A Media Player will “pull” media from the Media Server; this is sometimes called “the two-box pull model” and it’s usually the easiest to set up and begin using. But if your DLNA-connected home theater equipment features a Media Renderer, you can use the convenient, almost magical “two-box push”, in which you play media on the renderer without even touching it; for example, displaying a photo from your phone to the living room TV using only the controls on your phone.
How Kinoma Media Connect Fits Into the DLNA World
After installing the Media Connect app, Kinoma Play can make your handheld device a Media Server, making media available to other Media Players on your network. It will also act as a Media Player that is capable of pulling media from a Media Server and playing it on your handheld, or playing media from your handheld directly to a Media Renderer. Media stored on your handheld device can be played on your DLNA-capable home theater using a DLNA Media Controller.
Put in DLNA technical terms, Kinoma Play is a DMS and a DMP that supports the two-box pull and two-box push models, and can act as the DMS in the 3-box model.
How to Use Media Connect
When Media Connect is installed, DLNA features appear in three places: The Media Connect app, the Send Dashboard, and the Dashboard.
The Media Connect App
The Media Connect app shows two panes, each showing DLNA devices that Kinoma Play has discovered on the network. Media Connect requires a Wi-Fi connection to your home network.
The left pane displays all of the Media Servers that it can discover on the network. When a new server starts running, it will be automatically appear in this pane. If there is a server running on the network that is not shown for some reason, the Refresh button in the upper right will cause Kinoma Play to search the network again.
Selecting a Media Server from this list will allow you to browse through the media that the Media Server has available. When you first select a server, a magnifying glass icon appears in the upper right corner; selecting this will allow you to enter search terms and present a list of matching media files on that server. When you choose a piece of media, it will play in the appropriate media player for the type of file you choose (Pictures, Movies, or Music).
The right pane shows all of the Media Renderers that Kinoma Play can discover on the network. When a new Media Renderer starts running, it will be automatically appear in this pane. If there is a Renderer running on the network that is not shown for some reason, the Refresh button in the upper right will cause Kinoma Play to search the network again.
When selecting a renderer from this list, you will be able to browse the media on your handheld and select a file to “push” to the renderer. When you select the renderer, you will be able to choose from the media files on your handheld device. When you select a media file, it will be sent (“pushed”) to the selected Media Renderer and will appear on the screen (or play from your DLNA stereo receiver).
The Media Server
At the bottom is a switch allowing you to make your handheld into a Media Server that other DLNA Media Players can use. You can rename of the Kinoma Play Media Server, for example, to “Julie’s Phone”; this will control how it appears in your Media Players’ or Media Controllers’ server lists. When your Media Player browses the contents, Kinoma Play sorts the available media into Movies, Music, Pictures Audiobooks and Playlists.
Filters
Some Media Players “filter” the media browsed on a Media Server. For example, when browsing media on a server using the remote control, you may need to first choose the kind of media you’re looking for (audio, video, pictures). The device will then display only the media available of that type. The folders for other types remain visible, but may appear empty if there is no matching media. For example, if you select the “Movies” filter, the “Pictures” and “Music” folders will appear to be empty. Playlists will only show matching media types.
The Send Dashboard
When you are playing a media file from your phone, you can choose to Send the file to another person, a social website, cloud storage and more. When Media Connect is installed, any Media Renderers in your network will appear as available options in the Send Dashboard. This makes sending files from your phone to the renderer easy. (Note: Renderers only appear in the Send Dashboard when sending media stored on your handheld device.)
The Dashboard
In the Play Dashboard, DLNA Media Renderers and Media Servers will appear, making them easy to find. In the Search dashboard, search results will include any matches from the Media Servers in your network. You can find media and play it without even knowing where it’s stored!
Using DLNA Devices with Kinoma Play Media Connect
You may need to enable the Media Renderer function on your DLNA TV, Blu-Ray Disc player, receiver, PC or media streamer. This function is usually found in a Network Setup menu, and may be called “Renderer,” “DMR,” or “Allow Remote Control of This Device.” Occasionally there will be a manufacturer-specific brand name for its implementation of DLNA, like Samsung’s AllShare, Sony’s HomeShare or LG’s SmartShare.
Potential Problems
As with any standard, many manufacturers implement DLNA a little differently, which can cause problems ranging from media files not playing correctly (or at all) to problems even connecting with different devices. In addition, different devices have different capabilities, such as the ability to play only certain kinds of media files. If your media is in a different format, it may not play. Finally, different devices use different terminology for DLNA components, which only adds to the potential for confusion.
Furthermore, media formats themselves have variations, not all of which are supported by all DLNA devices. As a result, some media files will not play correctly even if all of the devices involved claim to support that media file format.
Device Compatibility
There are thousands of DLNA-capable devices; we couldn’t possibly test with all of them. However, we have tested with a broad range of popular devices in order to maximize compatibility.
Game Consoles
| Sony | PlayStation 3 | Media Player | Compatible* |
| Microsoft | Xbox 360 | Media Player | Compatible* |
*Filtered (see “Filters” above)
TVs
| LG | Infinia LW5600 series with SmartShare | Media Player | Compatible* | |
| Media Renderer | Compatible | Renderer must be turned on in the menus | ||
| Sony | Bravia EX720 series | Media Player | Compatible | |
| Media Renderer | Compatible | |||
| Samsung | D550 series | Media Player | Compatible* | |
| Media Renderer | Compatible | |||
| B650 Series | Media Player | Incompatible | ||
| Media Renderer | Two-box push, Photos only | |||
| Panasonic | Viera TC-L X30 Series | Media Player | Compatible | |
| Toshiba | TL515U Series | Media Player | Compatible* | If Kinoma Play is the only available Media Server, there will be no server list after choosing your filter. |
*Filtered (see “Filters” above)
Blu-Ray Disc Players
| LG | BD670 | Media Player | Compatible* |
| Media Renderer | Compatible | Does not correctly play back MP3s at sample rates other than 44.1kHz | |
| LG | BD690 | Media Player | Compatible* |
| Media Renderer | Compatible | Does not correctly play back MP3s at sample rates other than 44.1kHz | |
| Media Server | Compatible | ||
| Sony | BDP-S580 | Media Player | .MP4 and .M4V videos only |
| Media Renderer | JPEGs (optimized, not progressive), 3GPP and 3GPP2. | When encountering a format it cannot play, plays the last known good one. | |
| Samsung | BD-C5900 | Media Player | Compatible* |
| Media Renderer | Compatible | ||
| BD-C6900 | Media Player | Compatible (Audio: MP3 only. Video: No AMR audio Photos: Compatible) | |
| Panasonic | DMP-BD210 | Media Player | MP3 Audio and JPEG pictures only |
| Media Renderer | MP3 Audio and JPEG pictures only | ||
| Oppo | BDP-93 | Media Player |
*Filtered (see “Filters” above)
Media Streamers
| Sony | SMP-N200 | Media Player | Compatible* |
| Western Digital | WD TV Live | Media Player | Compatible |
| Media Renderer | Photos and audio only | ||
| WD TV Live Hub | Media Player | Not all WMA files play. No AMR audio playback. | |
| Media Renderer | Compatible | ||
| Media Server | Compatible |
*Filtered (see “Filters” above)
Other Devices
| Onkyo | TX-NR709 AV Receiver | Media Player | Audio Only | Latest firmware required |
| Media Renderer | Audio Only | Renderer appears available, but will only play audio after selecting the NET input and then selecting the DLNA mode. | ||
| Sony | SA-NS300 Network Speaker | Media Renderer | Seeking does not work. | |
| Netgear | WNDR3700 Wireless Gateway | Media Server | Incompatible | |
| Cisco/Linksys | E4200 | Media Server | Compatible |
Software
| MediaTomb | Linux (Drobo NAS) | Media Server | Compatible |
| Packet Video | TwonkyMedia | Media Server | Compatible |
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