Editing Universal Plug and Play (section)

===Media server<span class="anchor" id="MEDIA-SERVER"></span>===
A '''{{visible anchor|UPnP AV media server}}''' is the UPnP-server ("master" device) that provides media library information and streams media-data (like audio/video/picture/files) to UPnP clients on the network. It is a computer system or a similar digital appliance that stores digital media, such as photographs, movies, or music and shares these with other devices.

UPnP AV media servers provide a service to UPnP AV client devices, so-called ''control points'', for browsing the media content of the server and request the media server to deliver a file to the control point for playback.

UPnP media servers are available for most [[operating system]]s and many hardware platforms. UPnP AV media servers can either be categorized as [[software]]-based or hardware-based. Software-based UPnP AV media servers can be run on a [[Personal computer|PC]]. Hardware-based UPnP AV media servers may run on any [[network-attached storage|NAS]] devices or any specific hardware for delivering media, such as a [[digital video recorder|DVR]]. As of May 2008, there were more software-based UPnP AV media servers than there were hardware-based servers.