We have been waiting for full on DLNA support on BlackBerry for awhile now since BlackBerry first joined the DLNA group. We saw parts of it creep up in BlackBerry 7.1 but it truly starts shining on BlackBerry 10. In the video, pictures, and music app on BlackBerry 10 you now have the option to “Play On.” This allows you to play the video, picture, or music over HDMI or also stream and control it on any DLNA compatible player. Both my Samsung DVD player and Samsung TV are DLNA compatible players so I could easily stream and control the video playing from my BlackBerry Z10 to my 46” TV wirelessly.
On top of that you do have the option in the settings to share you pictures, video, and movies to other DLNA compliant players so you can totally control it from your TV. I was just surprised at how seamlessly it works. When I try to do this with a Samsung Galaxy S3 I had nothing but trouble and clearing caches. This worked the first time out the gate!
Here is what the pictures app looks like:
MobileM ( View Profile) - Posts: 2
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 9:29 AM EST
That is so coool. I need to find out if panasonic viera tv is DLNA compatible. if not, what other options do i have, other than getting a new TV?
CJ Not Registered
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 10:14 AM EST
You can use you DVD/Blu-ray player or consoles like X-Box also.
MobileM ( View Profile) - Posts: 2
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 10:52 AM EST
So connect my BB10 to the blu-ray player through wifi? and stream through it? hmm don’t know how i can do that
haricharan ( View Profile) - Posts: 11
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 11:50 AM EST
they just have to be on the same wifi and DLNA would work automatically as long as both the devices are DLNA compatible. One device should be able to detect the other.
Jay Harker ( View Profile) - Posts: 1371
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 1:30 PM EST from my BlackBerry Z10 | OS 10.0.9.2372
Yes. Not all devices are dlna compatible. Some blu-ray players are. I know the ps3 is. If you’re not sure just google the model number to find specs
Greg Not Registered
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 5:45 PM EST
You can find out is your TV or other appliance/device is DNLA certified here….
http://www.dlna.org/consumer-home/look-for-dlna/product-search
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1184
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 6:23 PM EST
A shame BB10 still doesn’t know how to be a DLNA player. Let me know if you’ve successfully used an Android app to play content from a media server.
Marc Paradise ( View Profile) - Posts: 539
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 7:21 PM EST
Agreed – I seldom store content on my phone that I’ll want to see on my TV, but I have my full video library on my network available over DLNA. I’d love to be able to watch it on my BB device.
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3408
Posted: February 6, 2013 at 7:41 PM EST
Let me tell you about a little Android app available in BlackBerry World called Ghost Commander. (thanks to one of our readers for pointing it out) It lets you mount a network share with credentials and if you click on a video it opens it up just fine in the video player. Sadly it does not work so well with FTP sites but I am working on finding a way!
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1184
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 2:04 PM EST
I know that reader
. The advantage of using the DLNA protocol with something like Serviio is that the server can transcode on the fly any content which the client can’t play.
Doods Not Registered
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 9:53 AM EST
Have you been able to use the BB10 as the player from something like serviio media server. I really want to do that with my Playbook but so far no success.
Greg Not Registered
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 10:02 AM EST
Check out Plex. I have streamed to Playbook (wifi) using server package on both Windows 7 PC and Netgear NAS. They have a $4.99 app available in App World for Playbook. Works great and does a lot of things to clean up your media library. I share library with friends on Ruku and/or some Blu-Ray/HDTV with ability to run Plex. http://www.plexapp.com/
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3408
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 10:02 AM EST
You don’t need to use DLNA. You can just use a network share. Any reason you would want to use DLNA over a file share?
Doods Not Registered
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 10:29 AM EST
I will try with a simple share , maybe that the best solution to date i have used serviio with other devices, LG dvd, PS3 …in the house and it organizes the library very nicely., tags,etc. has worked great.
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1184
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 2:02 PM EST
The main reason to have a DLNA client is so that you can launch your music player and have access to your music collection.
It’s more user-friendly than browsing network shares in my opinion.
The server can organise your collection in a way that helps you find content and you just navigate through the virtual interface.
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3408
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 2:04 PM EST
Good point. I have not seen a DLNA client yet but it is definitely possible.
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1184
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 2:07 PM EST
I’m sure we’ll have an Android client at some point, but it needs to be made compatible with BB10 and let us choose a video player which knows what to do with the file.
That sounds like a weekend project
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3408
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 2:14 PM EST
The best part is that the Z10 does not need transcoding on the fly. It has played everything bittorrent has been able to throw at it. As I mentioned android apps already have the ability to play videos using the built in video player in BlackBerry 10 that can play everything.
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1184
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 5:58 PM EST
Does it play .mov files? It didn’t work last time I checked, but I was loading videos through the browser because the dev alpha was missing apps.
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3408
Posted: February 7, 2013 at 6:59 PM EST
Checking here I see MOV is on the supported list:
https://developer.blackberry.com/devzone/develop/supported_media/bb_media_support_at_a_glance.html#kba1328730952678
BlackBerry really wiped the floor with the competition on media format compatibility
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1184
Posted: February 8, 2013 at 3:47 AM EST
Yeah, I’ve just tried and .mov files work. DIVX files don’t though.
The competition still wins when you take into consideration 3rd party video apps. All codecs are supported on Android and you get more features like on-screen volume control, etc.
I’m hoping some of the devs will try to port their apps to BB10.
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3408
Posted: February 8, 2013 at 7:46 AM EST
True the video players from 3rd parties on Android are impressive. I am hoping we see a few port their engines over.