Droid X: The Missing Manual

Playing Music and Media on Other Devices

The Droid X lets you share, view, and play music, videos, and photos using a standard called DLNA, short for Digital Living Network Alliance. The Droid X is DLNA compliant, which means that it can share media with other DLNA devices, such as TVs, computers, and mobile devices. When you buy a device, look in the documentation to see if it’s also DLNA compliant. You can also look for this logo on packaging or documentation: .

Note

If you’re not sure whether you have a device that’s DLNA compliant, go to www.dlna.org. In addition to finding out more information about DLNA, you can do a search for your device and see if it’s a DLNA one.

Here’s just some of what you can do with your Droid X and other DLNA devices:

• Stream your music, videos, and photos from your Droid X to a DLNA device, such as a TV, PC, Xbox, or Playstation 3.

• Transfer music files from your phone to your PC.

• Transfer pictures from your Droid X to your PC.

• Stream videos from the Droid X to your TV.

• Browse any videos you have stored on your PC using the Droid X, and then stream the video to your TV using an HDMI cable (see HDMI for details about HDMI).

There are more possibilities and permutations with your Droid X and DLNA; this section can’t cover them all. Set up your Droid X as described in this section, and then follow the information that appears onscreen.

To do any DLNA magic, your Droid X needs to be connected to a network or a DLNA device—which means a Wi-Fi connection or a USB cable connection. In fact, when you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot, or connect your Droid X to a computer, you may see this icon in the Notification bar. Pull it down, and you’ll see that there’s a DLNA device somewhere near you.

You set up DLNA and then share media with DLNA using the Media Share app. Launch it by tapping the notification, or by tapping the Media Share app in the Application Tray. You’ll come to the initial setup screen.

To begin setup, tap Start. If you don’t want to get notifications in the future when you connect to a Wi-Fi network or a computer, then turn off the checkbox next to “Connection notification”.

From the screen that appears, select the kind of device you want to connect to your phone, including a computer, a network drive for accessing files such as a home media server, a phone, a TV, or a video game console.

Once you select a device, you then choose how you want to share files. If you choose a computer, for example, you can share, sync, or copy files to the Droid, or play the Droid’s videos and music on the computer. If you choose a TV, you can play or share music, videos, or photos on its nice big screen.

Depending on what you’re sharing, and the type and model of device, the next set of screens will vary. Generally, though, you should choose the content you want to share from your Droid X, and then copy it to the device with which you want to share it, or go to the device, and play the media from your Droid X over the network.

Note

There’s another app you can use on your Droid X to play media from another DLNA device on your Droid X—the DLNA app. It serves much the same purpose as the Media Share app. To get started, tap the DLNA icon in the Application Tray, and then follow the instructions. You’ll likely find Media Share simpler to use, but you may want to give the DLNA app a try to see how you like it.