DLNA Sees Surge in Certified Blu-ray™ Players

As Mix of Broadband Media Devices in the Digital Living Room Evolves, Number of DLNA Certified® Blu-ray Players Nearly Doubles

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) today announced that the number of DLNA Certified® Blu-ray™ players has nearly doubled in 2010, bringing the total to 105. DLNA member companies, including: JVC, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony have all received certification for their Blu-ray players, continuing their commitment to help consumers easily manage, share and enjoy their digital content throughout their lives.

The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), an industry-funded, non-profit corporation that compiles quarterly sales data on home entertainment, has been tracking the increasing popularity of Blu-ray players in the home. According to DEG, overall household penetration of Blu-ray compatible devices has now reached more than 18 million homes in the U.S. A recent Digitimes Research study found that global sales volume of Blu-ray players will increase to 40 million units in 2011 and further to 52 million units in 2012.

“DLNA Certified® Blu-ray players are helping to bring new forms of entertainment to the home screen,” said Donna Moore, executive director of DLNA. “As the role of the TV in the digital home evolves, consumers’ expectations are changing along with it. Fifty-one Blu-ray players have become DLNA Certified® since the beginning of the year, offering a level of interoperability and ability to share photos, movies and music between devices.”

Devices such as Blu-ray players are helping to redefine the digital living room. They are no longer just devices for viewing optical media, but are becoming broadband media devices that are integrated with a number of video-on-demand services.

“At Philips Consumer Lifestyle, we believe that freedom in sharing and accessing multimedia content in the home is very important. However, we also believe this only works when various products can easily communicate and connect to each other,” said Jeroen Steenblik, senior marketing manager at Philips Consumer Lifestyle. “The DLNA certification program is highly important because it enables interoperability between the various products in the DLNA eco-system, delivering a hassle free experience to the users of our products and therefore ensuring our products fit our Sense & Simplicity brand promise. To demonstrate our commitment to making DLNA a success, we are adding DLNA support to the majority of our Blu-ray Players and Blu-ray Home Theater Systems launching this year.”

DLNA Certified® Blu-ray players adhere to DLNA Interoperability Guidelines and have met rigorous interoperability tests. They join the more than 7,500 DLNA Certified® products in an extensive range of device categories including: personal computers, mobile devices, televisions, digital cameras, network attached storage devices and printers. Consumers buying DLNA Certified® devices can be confident that they are purchasing solutions that work together and can be networked, regardless of manufacturer.

“Consumers have high expectations for interconnectivity between devices to watch movies, listen to music and even share photos,” said John Revie, SVP of Home Entertainment Marketing, Samsung Electronics America. “Samsung’s Blu-ray players with AllShare™ and multimedia sharing across DLNA Certified® devices are meeting the consumers’ demands for an easy, seamless experience and access to their media from one place.”