TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter introduces one of the most popular areas of UPnP device development: UPnP Audio/Video, or UPnP A/V for short. The UPnP A/V working committee has defined an architecture for distributing digital audio and video using UPnP. You ll learn the specific device types supported in UPnP A/V, what services and actions those devices are required to support, and how they work together to support UPnP technology-based media distribution in the home.
In today s home, a wide variety of disparate devices exist that support the storage, playback, and rendering of content. DVD players,VCRs, and televisions are a staple of the consumer home. Yet these devices are typically tied to a specific format type and don t present the same networkbased discovery, configuration, and control that UPnP devices can offer. The goal would be to bring the benefits of UPnP into the audio/video world, making the management of content and control of rendering that content format agnostic, while making the technology even easier to use.
It is precisely this problem that UPnP A/V can solve. This chapter introduces UPnP A/V and describes the major functional components and their interactions.
Following the standard UPnP technology model, UPnP A/V uses multiple logical devices with a single control point to coordinate activities between them. This frees the user from having to interact with...
