 There is a lot of equipment that uses DNA for streaming. How does it work and what is the best way to stream high quality music? DNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance which is a trade group initiated by Sony. Almost all larger consumer electronics brands some member, including those that do consumer computers. The reason behind this alliance is that at the beginning of this millennium digital video and photo cameras started to store their media onto computers. The only way to watch them was to use the same computer rather than the TV in the living. Remember this was the time prior to the smart TVs, smartphones and tablets. The Apple iPod was already introduced while people started sharing MP3s. DNALA proposed a way of playing media stored on a computer on a TV in the living room using a DNA media player, something we would nowadays call a video streamer or network player. DNA is based on Universal Plug and Play protocols, UPnP, since many DNA members also own their content company and had a desire to discourage the use of pirated films and music, DNA did not support or rather block file formats that were used for pirating, like MP3 for Audio and MKV for Video. Upcoming Asian brands found a way around it by using UPnP-AV extensions. Nowadays DNA supports all popular formats so there is no functional difference between DNA and UPnP-AV. The only difference is that the DNA certified equipment is guaranteed to work with other DNA equipment, but UPnP-AV equipment in practice works just as good. It all starts with a computer or NAS that stores media, like films, photos and music, each category in its own folder. It has to run a DNA server program, which consumer Windows computers might already have installed. Linux computers might not and Apple computers definitely don't. Not a problem, there are many DNA server programs available for free and as by-wear. The computer has to be connected to your router. It is most likely already since you need to be connected to the internet nowadays. The same goes for modern smart TVs and setup boxes. Most of them will be DNA or UPnP-AV compatible players, meaning that they have an app installed that sees the DNA server program on the computer that lets you choose a video, photos or music to play. Alternatively you can use a smartphone or tablet with a DNA controller app installed to choose what to play. To play music, the TV sound is not the best solution. And even if you have an AV receiver connected to your TV, you don't want the TV to be on all the time. It not only consumes energy, it also wears out the TV unnecessarily. For music you use a DNA network player connected to an amplifier and speakers. Again, a tablet or smartphone can be used to select the music but some DNA network players have that functionality integrated. There are several acronyms for devices within the DNA standard, like DMS, DMC, DnP and DMR, standing for Digital Media Server, Digital Media Controller, Digital Media Player and Digital Media Renderer. The Digital Media Server is the combination of the computer or NAS and the DNA server program running on it. The server program indexes the media in three maps, photo, video and music. Most computers and NASs have these maps by default. Depending on the server program, the indices can hold basic or extensive metadata. The DNA server programs don't need a lot of computational power. Even the cheapest NAS will work satisfactory, if not as speedy as a large NAS or computer. As a reference for a basic NAS, I used a Synology DS 119J single drive NAS that costed €109, excluding the hard drive. That works satisfactory with the Minim Server, a DNA server program for music only that supports over 100 fields of metadata. It is available for all computer OSs and most NASs. There is a free version that of course is somewhat limited and a paid version that costs €28. But Windows Media Player can also function as a DNA server and there are many others. Just google for a DNA server. Most smartphones and tablets came to market. You could buy remote controls for the DNA server program. They had a small display and some used an iPod inspired rotary encoder for selecting the music. Others used arrow keys. After the introduction of the iPod Touch smartphones and tablets it was more economical to buy one of those and run a DNA control app on it. Some brands offer dedicated controllers for their hardware that often also work with other equipment. But there are also many universal DNA controller apps, both free eBands and paid ones. I used Glider on iOS. This is the DNA equivalent of a network bridge. Its only function is to receive digital media from the server program and play it out. For video and photos the Smart TV, Blu-ray player or setup box fulfills this function. So dedicated media players for videos and photos have become obsolete. For audiophile music the situation is partly different. It can be a box like a Raspberry Pi running Rupee XL or the SOtM-SMS200 set to DNA on one side or integrated in an amplifier or AV receiver on the other. DNA brands like Arkham, Cambridge Audio, Denon, Lin, Moranze, Sony, Onkyo, Panasonic and many others offer DNA certified amps and receivers. It is good to mention that in the beginning DNA players were not able to play albums capitals. This means that for instance Sargent Peppers by The Beatles, most Pink Floyd albums, live albums and many classical albums had short mutes in between tracks. Nowadays most DNA players can play gapless but it doesn't hurt to check before buying. According to the DNA lingo the digital media renderer is the combination of the server, controller and player in one apparatus. This is a rather obsolete concept, in general because play functions have been integrated in amps and receivers and storage in a computer or NAS is cheaper. In a number of years, due boxes like J-River Media Center, Audirvana, Amara and others use the DNA protocol to center output over the network to DMPs. It is simply selecting the DNA renderer as the output in that program. The computer can stay in the study while the music is played out in the living. A tablet or smartphone using the matching remote app lets you choose the music from your listening position. Let me show you with Audirvana. Let's select 20th century blues by Marion Faitful. It now plays over my computer display. Unfortunately I can't let you hear for copyright reasons. When I select settings and select the Aversolo DMP-A6 as output, it now plays the music. It is possible to have more than one DLNA server program running in your network. For instance on your computer and on your NAS. Is it even possible to run more than one DLNA server program simultaneously on your computer or NAS? Let me show you. On my small Synology DS119J with 8TB storage I have the Synology Media Server running, which is the DLNA server, but also Minimum Server, which is the DLNA server that does audio exclusively. Synology Media Server is used for video and Minimum Server for audio when I have to review DLNA equipment. I don't use DLNA for photos since I prefer Apple Photo. But if I had photos on the NAS, I would have used the Synology Media Server. When I open Glider, the control app on my phone, I see Media Server on the SynAT in a network sources list. The same goes for Minimum Server on SynAT, although it is not currently indexed in Glider. On my big Synology NAS, also both DLNA servers are running, but this time the Synology Media Server is not indexed by Glider, while the Minimum Server is. And as you can see, there even is a second small Synology DS119J, this time with 3TB storage and only running Minimum Server. You can do the same with multiple computers, for instance your desktop, computer and your laptop. DLNA is lossless and supports high-res files up to 192 kHz, perhaps even more, but I don't have the hardware to test that. By the way, not all DNA hardware does 192 kHz, which means that the files need to be downconverted. Some DLNA server programs can do this, others don't. Do realize that the DLNA server program defines the features of the system. If you want to be able to search on Director, the server program has to index the Director field in the metadata. If you want to see lyrics, the DLNA server has to facilitate this. And the speed of the hardware where the DLNA server runs on defines a large part of the speed you can browse your music with. Hardware demands are not high, but there is a clear difference in speed between a cheap NAS and a big NAS or computer. Once the music plays, there is no difference since the demands for music file transport are low, even for the cheap NAS. The advantages of DLNA are its low price and the extremely high number of brands offering products. Also the fact that it is a relatively open standard is a pro. Which brings me to the end of this video. As usual, there will be a new video next Friday at 5 p.m. central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to my channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video on the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you next Friday. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.