DLNA is a brand new feature for BlackBerry 10 users, and a welcome addition for those that want to watch videos stored on their BlackBerry Z10 on the big screen TV. DLNA allows users to connect to all sorts of smart home gadgets that are certified and using the same Wi-Fi network. The content shared spans to images and music, in addition to video. The process of setting up DLNA is really straightforward.
Swipe down from the top of the home screen, make sure Wi-Fi is on and connected, and tap the Settings icon. Scroll down to Media Sharing, and make sure Share Music, Share Pictures, and Share Videos are all turned on. From there, tap the Devices button to see which DLNA-capable devices are currently on your network. Some of them will be named and easy to identify and check off as authorized to access content. Others will only have cryptic I.P. addresses, which will require a bit of trial and error to access.
Once you're all set up, most media can be shunted to other home devices by way of the Play To option in the menu system. It will take a second or two to kick in, but once playing, you can adjust the volume, pause, and play the video from your BlackBerry.
There are a few caveats to DLNA that you'll want to keep in mind. For one, this isn't a standard for screen sharing, only certain media types. Even for the videos and music that can be shared wirelessly from the BlackBerry Z10 to external devices, you don't have full playback control beyond pause, play, stop and volume.
That said, there are still situations where you might actually prefer to be getting your content out to the big screen over HDMI-out. Many devices, including TVs and gaming consoles, will recognize the BlackBerry 10 device as a media server, so you can always peruse your media collection that way instead of using the on-device user interface if you prefer.
How to play video, music, and images from your BlackBerry 10 device on TV over DLNA
- Swipe down from the top of the home screen
- Tap Settings
- Scroll down to and tap Media Sharing
- Flip switches for Share Music, Share Pictures, and Share Videos to "On"
- Tap the Devices button at the bottom
- Check boxes or the devices you want to share to
- Open a multimedia application of your choice
- Tap the overflow menu button in the bottom-right
- Tap the Play on button
- Pick which device to play media to
So that's DLNA on BlackBerry 10. Among other things, it's a great way to share pictures you've snapped on your phone with friends through the TV. Also just as a side note, if you happen to have a Sonos home audio system, the BlackBerry 10 media player can stream music to it as well as we found out while at CrackBerry HQ in Toronto.
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