Windows Media Connect - Overview

Overview

WMC is a UPnP AV server that can make media files stored on a computer available to UPnP AV-compatible digital media receiver clients over a local area network. WMC advertises itself to the clients, so there is no need to manually configure the client to connect to the WMC server. Multiple WMC instances can run at a time, all will be accessible to a client. Any UPnP AV client can be used to access WMC shared media. The client can query WMC for the list of files shared, the result of the query is formatted using XML. Once it chooses from the list the media to be played, the media file is streamed to the client for playing. Pictures are streamed using HTTP, different protocols are used for music and video. A client supporting the UPnP Media Renderer standard will be able to render the stream.

While any UPnP AV server can act as a client, using a dedicated WMC client, like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Zune music player, WMP 11 in Windows Vista or the WMC standalone client (available as part of WMC 2.0) can give an enhanced experience. The query results for the list of media contain certain metadata about the files as well, including media type, dates, rating, keywords for artist, albums etc. It also contains shared playlists. A WMC client uses these metadata to present the media items categorically for browsing. The top-level menu in a WMC client has containers for Audio, Video, Pictures and Playlists, and sub-menus further categorize the media. Client-side playlists can be created out of these shared files as well. When the WMC 11 client is used to access a library shared by WMC 3.0 or WMC 4.0, it lists the media files as a Shared Library using the same library view it uses to organize local media files, complete with album art and thumbnails.