Cross-Platform DLNA Streaming with Windows 10 and 7 Players

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DLNA Screen Mirroring Windows PC, Is It Possible?

Written by Kaylee Wood | Last update: April 28, 2020

Can i screen mirroring Windows 10/7 PC to smart TV via DLNA? What is DLNA designed for? How to use dlna screen mirroring?

DLNA, a streaming media technology often compared to Apple’s AirPlay utility, will reveal itself to us all today on the fact of DLNA screen mirroring. From the ability of media streaming to screen mirroring, we none-Apple users thought we’ve got a 100% copy of Apple’s streaming solution using DLNA, but the fact is otherwise correct.

What is DLNA designed for?

DLNA, to an extent, is an early born as a part under the concept of internet of things(IoT), yet focusing on local media sharing only. With media devices supporting this protocol, their contents/storage are connected wirelessly - computer, smart tv, phones, tablets, printers, storage server. These devices can be bestowed with functions of a media server, a media data receiver, a sender, a fetcher, to wirelessly fetch content on one device and play it on another, while remaining the current storage status. No physical storage migration is needed.

For instance, it enables your smart TV to play music, photos and videos including .MP3, .JPG or .MP4 from devices like your Windows computer and Smartphone.

To simply put, DLNA is local media-based protocol for wireless fetch and display. If you are watching an online video from YouTube, DLNA can’t let you stream the content to TV.

Can DLNA Screen Mirroring Windows 10/7 PC to TV?

DLNA actually can’t realize screen mirroring since it mainly adopts UPnP protocol which does not support mirroring.

Before we talk about DLNA screen mirroring, lets talk about the mechanism of screen mirroring. No matter for AirPlay mirroring or Miracast mirroring, what they do here is to record the screen in like H.264, and push the recorded video stream to the target display. Therefore, some developers believe that obtaining several screenshots per second and directly stream them via DLNA can achieve DLNA screen mirroring. But the trouble is, without encoding, those great amount of original screenshots will cause too high a level of traffic to stream via WIFI. Also, VNC-like screen mirroring methods requires root permissions to fetch framebuffer for streaming, so that there will be no sound and totally unefficient.

Miracast vs AirPlay vs DLNA Screen Mirroring Windows 7/10

DLNA technology mainly relies on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP, network protocol) and UPnP AV (UPnP-based audio and video protocols) for media streaming, not screen mirroring.
Miracast employs the peer-to-peer Wi-Fi Direct standard for screen mirroring.
AirPlay uses Apple proprietary technologies: iOS Bonjour communication (network protocol), Remote Audio Output Protocol (RAOP) and Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP), to achieve both streaming and mirroring.

No matter for media streaming or screen mirroring, AirPlay technology is fo cused on Apple ecosystem only. For more universal usage, one might as well select Miracast for mirroring and DLNA for streaming.

DLNA Can’t Mirror PC Screen to TV, But 5KPlayer Can

At present, the screen mirroring utility of 5KPlayer is acheived via AirPlay tech only.

Step 1: Get 5KPlayer and launch it for your PC/Mac

Make sure that your devices are connected the same WIFI network.

Step 2: Click to activate AirPlay on the up-right corner of the interface. Choose your AirPlay enabled TV. And that might narrow down the choices to Apple TV.

Step 3: Once activated, your screen of the computer will be beamed onto the TV through Airplay Mirroring.

Note: 5KPlayer also has support for streaming desktop to tv via DLNA, making your computer a DLNA controller, a DLNA receiver and even a DLNA server for any DLNA supported devices to access.

5KPlayer can be the most reliable media player to offer AirPlay screen mirroring solution for Apple users. But for those outside of Apple ecosystem who wish for screen mirroring utility, DLNA is not your answer, but Miracast.

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