We configure the DLNA server using the “Home Media Server (UPnP, DLNA, HTTP)” program. View files from your computer on your TV

This article will talk about setting it up on your computer. This technology is useful because it allows you to view media content from your PC on your TV.

This is possible when connecting the TV and computer to the same network, or when connecting directly. After that, all that remains is to launch DLNA and watch the desired movie or photo. This is quite convenient, because it is much more pleasant to show a large company photos, videos, or make a presentation at big screen.

There are a lot different programs, allowing this to happen. Among them, it is often recommended "Home Media Server (UpnP, DLNA, HTTP)". And indeed this application has shown itself well in practice. Therefore, in today's article, we will show an example using this particular program.

This home media server is quite universal and is capable of running a DLNA server that is compatible with any TV (and indeed with many devices, for example, game consoles) that can work using this technology. If the TV is capable of connecting via wireless network, or it has a connector for connecting a network cable, then there is a high probability that it supports DLNA. In general, the program itself has many different settings, so standard applications, for TVs, are very much inferior to it.

Today’s article itself will be useful to owners of TVs from almost any manufacturer. After all, as already noted, a home media server is third party program, which has great functionality and wide capabilities, which allows it to work with any equipment. And it's also free.

Today we will look in detail only at ways to give TV access to the necessary folders on a computer, instructions on how to create a server and watch movies using it.

For reference, the TV used in this example is an LG 32LN575U, ASUS router RT-N13U and ASUS laptop R56CM.

Establishing a connection between the TV and computer

As you already understood, in order to be able to watch video from a computer through a TV, you need to establish a connection between these two devices. If you have them already connected to each other, then you can skip this step and proceed to the next one.

Well, if your TV is not yet connected to your PC, then you can do this through a router. Thus, without unnecessary hassles, you can connect the TV itself to your computer via Wi-Fi. Another TV can be connected using a router. The most important thing is that both devices work with the same router.

In case there is no home Wi-Fi

When you don’t have a router, and therefore don’t have a wireless network at home, you can connect your TV to your laptop using a network cable directly.

It will look like this:

This connection method is quite reliable, so there should not be any problems here. The downside is the presence of a cable that connects these two devices. Even if the TV does not see such a connection, you can still play multimedia files through the Home Media Server program.

It is quite possible that it is possible to actually connect a TV to a computer. But we have not yet begun to check this and look for ways to implement such an idea. Most likely, you can do this using your laptop as a router.

Having connected the computer to the TV, we proceed to the settings for the DLNA server.

Setting up “Home Media Server”

Of course, first of all, we need the program itself. You can download it from the official resource https://www.homemediaserver.ru/index.htm and then install it. On the developers website, click on the download button.


After this, save the archive with the program to your PC. After which, it must be unpacked. There will be a “setup” file, run it and follow the instructions to install the application. When the program is installed, a shortcut will appear on your desktop. Start Home Media Server.

Now we will specify in the settings all types of multimedia files and folders that will be available for viewing on the TV. We go into settings, at the top of the program window there is a corresponding button.

In the settings window, go to the media resources tab. Several standard folders with music, pictures and videos will already be indicated there. Here we can add our own and edit the type of files that will be displayed on the TV.


In order not to rummage through folders too much in search of the desired video or photo, it is better to open access to local drives. Check the box next to the appropriate item (or make sure it is there).

Activating this option will provide the ability to access from the TV any files that are on all local disks.


In order to add separate directories with files or, for example external HDD, on the right click on the “Add” button. Then find the folder you need, or external device and choose it.


The plate in the center displays all the folders that are accessible to the TV. This shows the type of files that can be viewed in these directories. In general, this is the main setting necessary for us, but the program has many other useful parameters that can be configured.

After you're done, you'll need to save these settings. Click on the “OK” button and agree to scan the directories.


The program will scan the selected directories for some time. After this, you can start starting the DLNA server. On top menu click on the start button. A message indicating that the server started successfully should appear.

We turn on our TV and open, on the computer, in the program, the tab with playback devices. In the right corner, click on the “Update” button. After this, the TV should appear in the list.


If this does not happen and the Home Media Server does not find anything and the connected devices are not shown on the TV itself, then you need to check the connection itself. Make sure your TV and PC are connected.

In some cases, the media server may be blocked antivirus programs and firewalls. In this case, add this application to the exceptions and try again.

If everything is successfully detected, you can start viewing media files. We'll start with photos. In the top menu, select the desired file type, in in this case this photo.

Next, in the central part of the window, you can select the desired directory and find suitable files in it. When the desired photo is selected, simply right-click on it and move the cursor to the “Play to” line and then select your TV.


This photo will instantly appear on the TV screen.


In the same way, you can launch and play videos and music. This is just one way to play files by running them from a media server. But this method is not very comfortable. In many cases it is much more convenient to search necessary files on the TV itself, and then launch them.

By the way, if the window running program close, it will be hidden in the notification panel.


But the server itself will not stop and will continue to work.

Opening files via TV

After the server is started, we return to our TV.

Typically, TVs have a special program that allows you to work with a DLNA server. In our case, this is Smart Share. But perhaps, in other examples, it could be a completely different program.

If you have a TV like in our case (LG), then you need to go to the Smart TV menu (press the blue button on the remote control) and then find and launch Smart Share. True, if, but it supports DLNA technology, then everything may be completely different. Open it and go to the “My Computer” folder, where there will be all available files and directories to which access is open.


You can open any one and run the video you need, look at a photo, or listen to music

Let's sum it up

Whatever one may say, “Home Media Server” is quite an interesting program that opens up new possibilities for your TV. And by the way, there are many more in this program, useful functions. For example, if you watch a long enough movie, the computer may go into sleep mode and the TV will stop showing it. To prevent this, there is a special parameter in the settings that can be used to prevent the PC from going into sleep mode.

Before we start talking about setting up the Home Media Server program, I would like to clarify that this program will help resolve the issue “How to watch movies, listen to music from a PC on a TV with DLNA technology”. These include Samsung's AllShare technology. Download program "Home media server" you can follow this link.

Supported HMS operating systems:

  • Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7;
  • UNIX-like systems using Wine;
  • MAC OS using WineBottler, CrossOver Mac.

Adding directories of media resources to the Home Media Server program

  • button "Settings"- chapter "Media resources"- page "Directory List" — "Add"
  • from Windows Explorer, drag (and release) the required directories with the mouse into the main form of the program (can be used with standard file search in Windows).

To access the server through a browser, you must enable the mode Web, set a permanent server port in the section Settings - Server - "Port" field(value from 1024 to 65535). Accessing the server from a browser:

http://server IP address: specified server port.

The server IP address can be found in the section Settings - Server - List of allowed network connections - Search.

Launching the Home Media Server program

Pay close attention to all messages that may appear from firewall programs when you first start the server.

Click the button "Launch" in the button bar of the main program window. If the server starts successfully, the button "Launch" will become inaccessible, but the buttons will become available "Stop" And "Restart", the message log will contain the lines
"Start the server".

What to do in case of errors when starting a home server

  • check the list of available network connections in the program settings (section Server - List of allowed network connections - Search). If the list of allowed network connections is not empty, then compare it with the list of available network connections using the button "Search".
  • check the settings of the firewall program you are using, the “Home Media Server (UPnP)” program must allow network activity, for more stringent rules, UDP port 1900 must be open for incoming and outgoing packets, the server port specified in the program settings must be accessible to incoming connections.

You can generate a list of allowed network connections from the list of available network connections, check network connection to be included in the list in the first column. If for the media server in the program settings (section "Server" - field "Port") a constant port number is specified, then the availability of the media server can be checked from the browser at http://server IP address: specified server port. If yes, the media server welcome page will open. If in the section Program settings - Device , Web mode is enabled, the top level of the media resource database will open.

Automatic start of home media server

  • Enabling automatic server startup when the program starts: Settings button - "Advanced" section - "Server autostart when the program starts."
  • Autostart of the program when the user logs in Windows system: Settings button - section "Advanced" - "Autostart the program when starting a Windows session."
  • Installing the server as Windows services: Settings button - "Advanced" section - "Install the Windows Home Media Server (UPnP) service."

Options for connecting media devices to the server

With crimp options network cables you can check it out. To avoid misunderstandings, a media device also includes a television.

  1. Computer - Media Device. A crossover cable must be used for the connection.
  2. Computer - Switch - Media Device
  3. Computer – Router (router) – Media device. Straight cables must be used to connect devices.
  4. Computer - Wi-Fi router - Media device. You can find out more about the wireless connection method in the article .

The operation and settings of the media server do not depend on the connection option. When using a router, enable the mode for automatically assigning IP addresses to devices; for details about setting up the router (router), read the article. When using connection options 1 and 2, IP addresses are assigned manually, the addresses must be different in the last part of the IP address, the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, the default gateway is the IP address of the computer, if necessary, you can specify the addresses of the DNS servers. Example: computer address is 192.168.1.4, media device address is 192.168.1.5.

Finding a server in a media device

The search for a server with shared folders is performed according to the user manual of the media device. If you have any questions, please refer back to the above-mentioned articles on Allshare and Smart TV.
If the server is not found, but all connections are made correctly, then in the program settings (Server section) check that the list of allowed client devices is empty or the device’s IP address is in the list of allowed ones. When using a firewall program, check the rules for accessing the module's network hms.exe(if the server runs as a Windows service, then for the hmssvc.exe module), if possible, switch the network protection program to learning mode, restart the “Home Media Server (UPnP)” program. If other media servers are used, it is better to turn them off at the setup stage.

If the server is found, but there is no way to open it in a media device

Settings in the Home Media Server (UPnP) program that may help resolve this issue include: Device section: mode “DLNA 1.0”, “DLNA 1.5”, “Authorization Service”, “Russian names of main folders”, in the Server section set a permanent server port (from 1024 to 65535).

Navigating through files on a media device (TV, media player)

If the device supports the Russian language, then in the program settings (Device section) you can enable the “Russian names of the main folders” mode, this affects the names of the main folders of the media resource database. If the Russian language is not supported by the media device, select the Translit mode for encoding Russian names; the “Russian names of the main folders” mode is turned on/off at the user’s discretion (if disabled, the names of the main folders of media resources will be in English).
Folder names can be changed in the main form of the program by right button“mouse” – “Change name” item.
Unnecessary folders of media resources can be deleted in the main form of the program by right-clicking the “Delete Folder” item, or the “Exclude empty folders when transferring information to UPnP devices” mode can be enabled in the Device section.
Slow navigation through the media resource database may be due to the operating characteristics of the media device, the inclusion of the “Exclude empty folders when transferring information to UPnP devices” mode, the presence of slow removable media in the system, frequent changes in media resource directories and the enabled “Automatic” mode. scanning directories when they change while the server is running.” The “Exclude empty folders when transferring information to UPnP devices” mode can be turned off, the folder “ Removable media" can be deleted in all sections of media resources (Movies, Music, Photos).
Navigation through directories of media resources in the structure of their storage on disk can be done through the folder “Watch Folders” (Russian language is turned off), “Catalogues of media resources” (Russian language is turned on).
If some media resources are not visible on the media device, but are present in the main form of the program, then this may be due to the mime type transmitted by the server for this media resource. The Mime type can be changed in the program settings - Settings button - "Media resources" section - "File types" - selecting a file extension - Change button.

Watching movies from the server

The server can transfer films to a media device in their original form or through transcoding (converting a film into a format supported by the media device). The movie is automatically transcoded if the file extension is not included in the list of supported ones or if a transcoding profile is selected for the movie. Configuring movie file extensions supported by the media device: button "Settings"- chapter "Device" — "Native file support" — "Movies". The list of file extensions is generated according to the media device user manual or information on the media device manufacturer’s website. If the film is played in its original form, then selecting the audio track and subtitles included in the film file is possible only if the media device supports this choice. When you select a movie through the Transcoding folder, you can select an audio track, internal and external subtitles, audio delay, and a transcoding profile to convert the movie.

Transcoding profile is a script (macro) that generates parameters for calling a transcoding program or performs transcoding using DirectShow. Editing transcoding profiles: button "Settings"- chapter - button "Profiles".

The transcoding profile used can be selected:

  • for all films: Settings button - section "Transcoder" - "Transcoded file parameters" - Movies - "Transcoding profile"
  • for movie files of a certain type (extension) - Settings button - “Media resources” - “File types” button - selecting a file extension - Edit button - “Transcoding profile”
  • for a specific film: in the list of films of the main form of the program, using the right mouse button - “Transcoding profile” or through the navigation of a media device, if the film is selected through the Transcoding folder in the Settings folder, generated by the server for each film.

When playing movies, media devices usually stretch the video to fill the entire screen, so to maintain the proportions of the movie frame, the server generates parameters for adding color to the original frame size to the frame size specified in the settings. Setting the transcoded frame size and the color of the addition is set in the program settings - Settings button - section "Transcoder" - page "Codecs, frame" - "Frame size". Color addition is not supported by all transcoding programs, so if you select a transcoding profile different from the main ones, it may not be available.

Reasons for errors when playing movies from a home media server:

  • is selected original file a movie in which the format, video or audio encoding is not supported by the media device, Possible Solution problems - select a movie through the Transcoding folder
  • a movie is selected through the Transcoding folder, in which video or audio encoding is not supported by the transcoder program; a possible solution to the problem is to select a different transcoding profile for the movie; Problems with the audio track can also be solved by setting the number of channels in the program settings (section Transcoder - “Codecs, Frame” page) to 2
  • Media device or server is unavailable: Reboot the media device or server.

Reasons for stopping/slowing down content playback:

  • stopping viewing may occur due to insufficient disk space used to store temporary files; exceeding the file size supported by the device; exceeding the maximum size of the transcoded file specified in the program settings (section Transcoder - “Transcoded file parameters” - Maximum size).
  • The transcoding speed of the film is not sufficient for viewing, you can check this in the main form of the program: perform test transcoding using RMB in the list of films - The transcoding speed (fps parameter) must be greater than the frame rate of the film. If the “Show transcoding panel” mode is enabled in the program settings (Transcoder section), then the transcoding speed can be viewed in it after selecting a movie on the media device. You can also turn on the transcoding speed indicator (section Transcoder - “Subtitles, speed indicator”), if the transcoding speed is less than the value specified in the program settings, the current transcoding speed will be displayed on the film frame in the place specified by the user.

Solutions to the above problems:

  • select a transcoding profile with a smaller frame size and video quality for viewing
  • if the encoding of a video track is supported by a media device, but the movie file format is not supported, then you can select a transcoding profile that converts the movie file format and leaves the video track unchanged (transcoding profiles “Movies - TsMuxer” - m2ts file generation, “Movies - WMF" - generation of wmv files). For the transcoding profile “Movies - TsMuxer”, you must additionally download the TsMuxer transcoder program from home page(in setting up Transcoding profiles)
  • stop watching a movie on a media device to create a transcoded movie file large enough for viewing
  • specify a disk for storing temporary transcoding files that is different from the one used by the system to store the paging file
  • optimize the system as a whole - check disk fragmentation, the list of startup programs, etc.

Settings of the Home Media Server program using the example of my TV model SONY Bravia KDL-46XBR9

Install, launch the Home Media Server program on your PC, go to Settings by clicking on the corresponding button.

On the right is the “Add” button for disks/directories with media content. In this case, you can choose which of these files will be scanned when the program starts. Scanning is necessary if you have changed the contents of this directory and changes have occurred there. A green circle indicates that these file types are being scanned.
Now you should pay attention to the File Types button on the right panel. Some TV models cannot play PAL video files; you must add NTSC for the content to be recognized. (for example, MPEG-PS_PAL_NTSC for *avi).

For the *mkv container, select Transcoding Profile - Core AVC. In DLNA, enter the line MPEG-PS_PAL or MPEG-PS_NTSC depending on your TV.
Now let’s look at the left panel “Categories” - “Device”. Here you will need to select your TV type and resolution. DLNA1 and DLNA1.5 are old and a new version, you will learn about the supported DLNA version of your TV from the manual or on the official website. You can also configure Web access to the server here. Let's move on to the next category of the left panel of the “Server” settings section.

Add your TV to the client devices (look in the menu, TV network settings for static IP). When you click on the icon lifebuoy, the program will automatically detect the name of your computer and add it to the Server - Name line. To identify devices on the network connected by DLNA technology, use the “Search” button. Make sure your TV is turned on and connected to a wired or wireless network. After scanning the network, the program will add the found network clients (PC and TV). Click on TV and go to client settings.

By clicking on the Settings button, you will be taken to the individual device settings. Set the settings we talked about above.

When you click the “File Types” button, you will be taken to the file registration settings, where you can make the necessary changes.

Return to the main settings window and go from the left panel to the “Transcoder” category.

Set the settings according to the image and go to the bottom tab “Codecs, Frame”.

I draw your attention to the parameter section “Sound - Original audio track if compression is the same”. Unchecking this box will help avoid losing the Russian track when playing a video. Remember that before transcoding, each file can be viewed and changed if necessary.
The next tab we'll look at is Subtitles.

In this window, you will configure the subtitle display style to your taste and other parameters necessary for their correct display. Let's consider last category left panel "Advanced".

Place a tick in the checkbox “Installing the Windows Home Media Server (UPnP) service”. Thus, the program will automatically load when you turn on the computer as a service, I wrote about this in the section Automatic start server.

Home media server (UPnP)- a universal program that provides access to content hard drive your computer electronic devices, such as TVs, players, game consoles. Data is transmitted via the UPnP (DLNA) protocol. This program works with TVs, game consoles, stereo systems, mobile phones and smartphones.

Today, human life in modern realities is very difficult to imagine without high technology. Each of us is surrounded by laptops, computers, televisions, and stereo systems. It often happens when you really want to watch your favorite movie on big TV or play computer game via the console. A multifunctional device is designed to solve such problems. software package home media server for Windows. With its help, you can organize full access to all media contents of your computer’s hard drive.

Download Home Media Server for free

The Home Media Server program is small in size. You can install a home media server in just a few minutes. Its main capabilities include transcoding video and audio into a form that is supported by a TV or tape recorder. You can also customize subtitles, select the desired picture size for any screen, and select audio tracks yourself. The user has the opportunity to send Internet radio or television directly to the TV or player.

If you don't see your life without digital television, you can also download a home media server. It supports all modern digital formats (C, S, T), works perfectly with the VLC Media Player program and can, using the Digital Media Renderer function, transmit a digital signal to other electronic devices.

The home media server in Russian has wide functionality. It is possible to save transcoding profiles. Their use greatly simplifies setup when connecting new devices. Downloading a free home media server (DLNA) is recommended for owners of Philips, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Toshiba, Samsung TVs and players. Each of them has all the necessary connectors for interaction via the UPnP protocol with personal computer. Thus, with the help of this program you can significantly expand the capabilities of these TVs.

All novice users are advised to take a look at the official website of this application. There is a wonderful forum where the solutions of the most common problems. You can also learn how to effectively connect a particular device.

You can download the home media server without registration and SMS on the SoftAttaka website. We always provide the latest and most relevant updates.

Today you will learn how to properly connect a TV to a computer and all the possibilities of such a connection, as well as how to organize viewing of your media library on Smart TV and other devices that support a home DLNA server.

What is DLNA?

The Integrated Digital Network Consortium (DLNA) is a group of companies that have come together to create a common, open standard for connecting devices so that all DLNA-enabled customers can automatic mode, being on the same network, receive from each other the opportunity to view media content.

What devices support DLNA?

DLNA technology is compatible with any devices:

  • smart TVs;
  • smartphones and tablets;
  • PCs and laptops;
  • media players and Blu-ray players;
  • game consoles;
  • home media servers (NAS);
  • wireless printers;
  • photo and video cameras;
  • audio systems.

All DLNA-enabled devices have a corresponding logo or sticker indicating the type of digital content supported (for example, audio, video, photos), as well as the purpose: server, printer, player, etc. Most devices from major manufacturers such as Intel, HP, Motorola, HTC, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, LG, Panasonic, etc. support DLNA. Apple has developed its own standard - AirPlay. If you have an Apple device, then using it in your media network, consisting of clients from other manufacturers, is not possible.

How does the DLNA network work?

As you already understand, DLNA devices are designed for mutual connection: creating a multimedia network between themselves. Each device is assigned its own type depending on its purpose. For example, any storage device: smartphone, media player, TV or PC can belong to both the Digital Media Server and Digital Media Player types, because they are capable of both receiving and playing digital content from another DLNA device.

How to create a DLNA network?

Wireless router (or wi-fi router) is the central element in a network and is used to connect devices to each other in a shared home wireless network.

Equipment for building a home network with DLNA

You will need:

  • TV with DLNA support;
  • DLNA digital media server (eg file server, PC, laptop or media player with HDD);
  • wi-fi router.

I will talk about building a DLNA network not only with a wireless connection, you can also use a wired method of connecting devices, instead of a wi-fi router, use a regular router (switch) to connect the file source (home server - DLNA server) with a display device (DLNA client). You can also use (to distribute the Internet via the power grid), in addition, you will need Ethernet cables to connect devices to your network.

How to set up a DLNA home media server?

1 Connect a DLNA-enabled TV to a wi-fi router (for example, Samsung with Smart TV).

Option 1 - wired connection . Connect using an Ethernet cable to the router. It is enough to connect one end of the cable to the LAN port of the TV, and the other to a free port of the router (or switch, depending on the structure of your network).

Option 2 – wireless connection . If you are using a wi-fi router ( wireless router), then just connect the TV to an existing wireless network via built-in or external (USB) wifi adapter, directly to the router. If the TV is very far from the router, then you can install a wireless bridge (use the router in Bridge mode or buy one) to connect the TV to the router. I also recommend reading the article about. The wireless bridge connects to the TV via the LAN port, and to the router via wi-fi point access.

Option 3 – connection using Powerline adapters. This type connection uses the power grid without laying Ethernet cables. This method will help you set up a home network using existing electrical wiring and cables for connecting DLNA clients will no longer be required. Powerline adapters are produced by almost all network equipment manufacturers: TP-Link, Netgear, D-Link, etc. They are called Powerline devices. Next, you simply connect the plug of your router, TV and other devices to the power outlet as usual, but now all your devices will form a DLNA network.

2 Add other DLNA compatible devices to your home network

Now you can connect DLNA servers (devices from which you want to play files on your smart TV) to the router - PC, laptop, phone or media player. All servers will be displayed on the smart TV since they are on the same network and you can play the content that is stored on their media. Exist various ways settings for various types of devices on the DLNA network.

PCs and laptops on a DLNA network

Connect your computer or laptop to your router or router using any of the above options. Most important point in setting up DLNA on a PC or laptop: the need to install the appropriate program - media center (media shell). The most popular of them (each program has a link with information about it and settings):

  • Serviio

It is possible not to install media center applications to create a DLNA server, but use Windows Media Player 11 or 12. To use them as a DLNA server, you must allow access to files on your laptop or PC: open Windows Media Player, go to Options menu, then open the tab public access To Windows files Media and enable media sharing.


Kodi Media Center Interface Window

You can select a media shell to use as a DLNA server from the list above. After installing the program you like to create a media center (DLNA server), you should configure it and select files (photos, videos, music files) to transfer to a TV or other display device.

Mobile devices on the DLNA network

3 Setting up DLNA on your TV

Once you have connected all DLNA devices, turn on your TV and go to home screen your Smart TV (for example Samsung TV). Find and launch the AllShare app, which lets you find music, photos, and videos stored on DLNA devices on your network.

If you have a Sony TV (model before 2015), then you need to turn it on, press the “Home” button and turn on “Media Player”. Once you select the content type: music, photos or videos, you will be able to see the DLNA servers in your home network.

4 Using DLNA on Android OS


To watch videos from a computer on smartphones and tablets with operating Android system you need to install special application. There are quite a few such applications; I can recommend MediaHouse or Bubble UPnP, which can be downloaded for free on Google Play.

After you install the application, you need to take a few simple steps:

  • select the source - your computer or other device with DLNA support and installed, from which you will watch the video;
  • select the receiver, that is, your Android OS device;
  • select a video from the list of available files.

In addition to universal applications, manufacturers mobile devices offer their own software with DLNA support. Samsung has AllShare, LG has SmartShare, etc.

Using DLNA-enabled apps on Android devices requires no setup. Just run a DLNA server (for example, Kodi on your computer), and it will immediately appear in the list available connections in the application on your smartphone or tablet. Select your computer from the list, click “Browse” and specify the required folder. Don't forget that your smartphone can also act as a DLNA server.

In this article we will look at how to install your DLNA server on Windows using the Home Media Server (HMS) program as an example.

Nowadays, it is increasingly necessary to have a DLNA server on your home network, since most modern TVs does not support data transfer protocols such as SMB or NFS, but only works via DLNA.

What is DLNA?

DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a set of standards that allow compatible devices to transmit and receive various media content (images, music, videos) over a home network, as well as display it in real time. That is, a technology for connecting home computers, mobile phones, laptops and consumer electronics into a single digital network. Devices that support the DLNA specification can be configured and networked automatically at the user's request. (Source - Wikipedia)

Installing DLNA Home Media Server (HMS)

Installing HMS is very simple, but we will still explain in detail how it happens.

First you need to download the installer. At the time of writing, the official website was not working. And it didn’t work a month before, so below I’ll provide a link to download from our server latest version HMS:

(47.2 MB)

Let's get started with the installation.

Launch the installer:

Here we are asked to select the directory into which the installation files will be unpacked. Select a directory and press the button Execute". After unpacking, the installation will start automatically.

Attention: Unpacked files are not automatically deleted after installing the program, I advise you to delete them manually after installation is complete

After unpacking, the installation of the program automatically starts:

There are not very many settings here. In this window, select the directory in which the Home Media Server (HMS) program will be installed and “Program Group” - the name of the folder in the Start menu.

After selecting the installation folder and folder name in the “Start” menu, all that remains is to check the box “create a shortcut to run the program on the desktop”, if necessary, and click the “ Install«.

At the end of the installation, which takes less than a minute ( depends on your equipment), we are offered to immediately launch the Home Media Server (HMS) program.

This completes the installation of the program.

Initial setup of DLNA Home Media Server (HMS)

So, we have a freshly installed DLNA server, let's launch it and see what it first offers us to configure, and also make a couple of useful settings. Let's get started.

After the first launch of the program we see a window initial settings.

In this window we are asked to select the device to which the media content will be broadcast. There are many templates in the list.

If you haven’t found your device or one similar to yours, you can leave standard DLNA Device, as practice has shown, this does not have much effect. After choosing, move on.

And then a choice of folders from which we will take media content appears before our eyes. You can select folders with your media content now, or you can add them later. We'll look at how to do this below. After selecting the folders, click the " Ready«.

After the initial settings, we are asked to do backup copy settings, image cache, database, set up an automatic backup schedule. Let’s not dwell on this in detail now and move on. To do this, press the button “ Close«.

After this, the main program window appears in front of us. Let's move on to several “important” settings at once.

On the left are the types of settings, on the right are specific settings.

Let's go straight to additional settings and configure the DLNA server to autoload and turn on the PC.

To do this, select points 2 and 3.

Now let's go to the " Server"and write down the name of our DLNA server. How will we see it online?

After changing the name, you need to add folders with media content (if you have not done this in “ initial setup or decided to add more folders. Everything is simple here. Press the button " Add"(2) and select the folder you want to add. After this it is necessary " Scan"(3) so that files from the folder/folders get to the server.

If you did everything correctly, then your files should appear on the right side (as highlighted in yellow in the screenshot).

If you have your files there, then we have just a little bit left. Launch and use. Everything is very simple here - press the button " Launch«.

If you have " Windows Firewall", then the system will ask you whether to allow it access to the network. Select which ones to allow access to and click “ Allow access«.

Conclusion

We installed the Home Media Server (HMS) program, or to put it simply, we configured the DLNA server to operating system Windows.

All that remains is to start the playback device (TV, media set-top box, mobile phone etc.) and check whether our device is on the network and whether it contains the files we need.

We hope this article helped you. If something doesn’t work out for you or you have questions, write a comment and we’ll try to help.