FAQs

It is a DLNA application that can display/play the photos, music, and videos saved on an Android™ device with TVs or PCs, etc. on the network, and display/play content stored on network attached storage (NAS) or PCs on the network with an Android device.

NetFront Life Connect works as a DLNA digital media player (DMP), digital media controller (DMC), and digital media server (DMS).

It is unique in how easy it makes it to find content.

NetFront Life Connect only gets content title information from media servers that are shared on the network and creates a database. By doing this, NetFront Life Connect can collect and list distributed content regardless of where it is stored on the network, so you do not need to choose media servers or folders, or search for places where the content is stored yourself. Since the database is on the Android device, you can search for content even when you are in an area with an unreliable Wi-Fi network connection.

Displaying content lists is independent of the media server folder structure, so you can use the same user interface no matter which media server content is on.

It can connect to any TV, PC, or network attached storage (NAS) that supports DLNA.

It requires a Wi-Fi router with wireless access point mode. It does not support ad hoc mode connections to an Android device or PC.

Support for the feature of printing the media server content on an Android device or network from a printer is planned for the future.

Currently, there is no support for saving the media server content on a network to the SD card of an Android device.

The following setup is required.

• Connect to a Wi-Fi network using an Android device with NetFront Life Connect installed.
• Connect remote player equipment that displays/plays content to the network and set it to allow remote control (Example: Windows^® 7).
• Connect the media server on which content is stored to the network, set the content to be shared, then set it to allow access from remote player equipment for displaying/playing content (Example: Windows 7, Windows Vista^®, Windows XP, or Android device with NetFront Life Connect installed).

The descriptions in this FAQ use example settings for a PC with Microsoft^® Windows installed. For information about how to set up remote player equipment or a media server, see the manual supplied with each piece of equipment.

Enable the Wi-Fi feature, and connect to a Wi-Fi access point such as a home network, etc.

Display the Wi-Fi settings screen by tapping [Wireless & networks] > [Wi-Fi settings] on the system settings screen. Turn on [Wi-Fi] on this screen to enable the Wi-Fi feature, then tap the Wi-Fi access point to connect to under [Wi-Fi networks], and enter the password, etc. to connect to the Wi-Fi access point.

Since the Android device does not support the AOSS feature, it cannot connect to Wi-Fi access points that configure connections using the AOSS feature.

If you set up Windows 7 as shown below, you can play content on media servers on the network, such as Android devices or network attached storage (NAS), etc., with Windows Media Player 12.

• Set it to allow remote control of Windows Media Player 12.
  1. Start Windows Media Player 12.
  2. From the menu bar, select [Stream]-[Allow remote control of my Player].
  3. In the [Allow Remote Control] dialog box, select [Allow remote control on this network].

• If your security software has set up a firewall, disable it. For information about how to set this, see the security software manual.

The procedure above may be different, depending on the edition of Windows, network environment, etc. For more information, see the Microsoft Web site.

If you set up Windows 7 as shown below, you can display/play content in the Windows Media Player 12 library with remote player equipment such as Android devices (NetFront Life Connect), TVs, etc. on the network.

• Set up media streaming (media sharing) in Windows Media Player 12.
  1. Start Windows Media Player 12.
  2. Select [Stream] from the menu bar, and select [Turn on media streaming] if it is displayed. When the media streaming options screen is displayed, click the [Turn on media streaming] button, and then the [OK] button (this step can be omitted, depending on the environment in which it has been turned on, etc.
  3. From the menu bar, select [Stream]-[Automatically allow devices to play my media].
  4. In the [Allow All Media Devices] dialog box, select [Automatically allow all computers and media devices.].

• If your security software has set up a firewall, disable it. For information about how to set this, see the security software manual.

The procedure above may be different, depending on the edition of Windows, network environment, etc. For more information, see the Microsoft Web site.

In Windows Vista or Windows XP, you cannot display/play content of media servers on the network.

If you set up Windows Vista or Windows XP as shown below, you can display/play content in the Windows Media Player 11 library with remote player equipment such as Android devices (NetFront Life Connect), TVs, etc. on the network.

• Set up media sharing in Windows Media Player 11.
  1. Start Windows Media Player 11.
  2. From the menu bar, select [Library]-[More Options].
  3. On the [Library] tab of the [Options] dialog box, click the [Configure Sharing] button.
  4. Turn on [Share my media to] in the [Media Sharing] dialog box, then click the [OK] button.
  5. Click the [Settings] button that is displayed in the [Media Sharing] dialog box.
  6. Select the types of content to be shared on the network under [Media types] in the [Media Sharing - Default Settings] dialog box, then click the [OK] button.
  7. If there is remote player equipment on the network, it will be displayed in the [Media Sharing] dialog box list. Select the equipment to allow to display/play the content, then click the [Allow] button.

• If your security software has set up a firewall, disable it. For information about how to set this, see the security software manual.

The procedure above may be different, depending on the edition of Windows, network environment, etc. For more information, see the Microsoft Web site.

Press the menu key on the content list screen and tap [Settings], the settings screen is displayed. When you turn on [Share on the network] on this screen, all of the photos, music, and videos on the SD card will be shared on the network.

If you share content stored on the SD card of an Android device on the network, you cannot set the range of individual files or folders that are shared. All files on the SD card will be shared.

Check that the encryption mode (WEP, WPA/WPA2 PSK, 802.1x EAP), encryption key (key or password), etc., specified in the Android device's Wi-Fi settings, match the settings of the Wi-Fi access point you are trying to connect to.

If you are trying to connect to a Wi-Fi access point that configures connections using the AOSS feature, then your Android device will not be able to connect because it does not support the AOSS feature.

When NetFront Life Connect starts, the content list is displayed first. To find the content you want, tap [Network] or [SD card], depending on where the content is saved, then tap (Photos), (Music), or (Videos), depending on the type of content. Tapping content in the content list will display/play it with the selected remote player equipment.

For the list of content on a media server on the network, you can tap [Sort by] on the title bar, and sort the list to make it easier to find the content you want.

For a photo list, you can toggle the list display between thumbnail format and list format by pressing the menu key and tapping [Thumbnails] or [List].

Press the menu key on the content list screen, then tap [Search] to display the search screen. You can search for the content of all the media servers on the network by specifying one of the following conditions, depending on the type of content.

• Photos: By file name, media server name, or date
• Music: By file name, album name, artist name, media server name, or date
• Videos: By file name, media server name, or date

To search by date, enter the date, in YYYY-MM-DD format, separating the year, month, and day in order, using hyphens ("-").

When you specify a name such as a file name, entering part of the name allows you to search for content matching the partial name you specify.

If the photo list shows , it is probably because the thumbnails could not be obtained from the media server due to being unexpectedly disconnected from the network, etc.

You can display the thumbnails using one of the following methods to get the content information.

• Press the menu key, then tap [Refresh].
• Press the menu key, tap [List] to display it in list format, then re-display it in thumbnail format.
• Change the sort method for the list of photos on a media server on the network.

Drag the status bar downward to display the notification panel, then tap [NetFront Life Connect] to display the list of media servers connected to the network.

The display icons indicate the status when updating the database with content information. The database information is used for displaying or searching the content list, etc.

• : Finished updating database.
• : Updating database.
• : Waiting to update database.
• : Some data could not be obtained while updating database.

The content information database might be old. Press the menu key on the content list screen, and tap [Refresh]. This will get the content information for all the media servers on the network, and update the database.

When you first run NetFront Life Connect after installation, it will get the content information from all the media servers that are on the network, and create the database. The content itself is not stored in the database, and it is obtained every time you display/play it.

The database is updated at the following times while NetFront Life Connect is running.

• When a new media server is discovered on the network.
• When the content of a media server is updated.
• When a media server is stopped.
• When you press the menu key on the NetFront Life Connect content list screen, and tap [Refresh].

Changes that occur on media servers when NetFront Life Connect is not running are not applied to the database, because the database is not updated every time NetFront Life Connect is run. Press the menu key on the content list screen, and tap [Refresh] to manually update the database if you think the content of a media server may have been updated.

Check the following.

• The Wi-Fi feature of the Android device is enabled, and it is connected to a Wi-Fi access point on the same network as the media server.
• The media server is connected to the Wi-Fi access point.
• The media server has been set to share content.

If "Loading..." is displayed in the content list screen without changing, there may be a large amount of content saved on the media server so displaying the list will take a long time. If you reduce the amount of content displayed in the list by reducing the number of media servers on the network, or reducing the amount of content covered by the shared settings on the media server, etc., you can shorten the time it takes to display.

Although this also depends on the type of content or network, it takes 2 to 3 minutes to display a content list of about 500 items.

Check our Product Official site.

There some file formats you cannot display/play, depending on the type of Android device. If you select content of a file format you cannot display/play, an error message will be displayed.

They differ depending on the DLNA rendering functions of the remote player equipment. Depending on the remote player equipment, it may not be able to play a file format even if you transfer the content information from NetFront Life Connect. An error message will be displayed in such cases.

Follow the procedure below.

1. Connect remote player equipment such as a TV, etc. to the network, and set it to allow remote control. For information about how to set this, see the manual supplied with the equipment.
2. Press the menu key on the NetFront Life Connect content list screen and tap [Settings], then the settings screen will be displayed.
3. Turn on [Select when playing] to select the player equipment every time it starts displaying/playing content. If you always display/play content with the same player equipment, tap [Default player], then select a device from the list of usable player equipment.
4. Tap the content you want to display/play on the content list screen.
5. If you turn on [Select when playing] on the settings screen, the list of remote player equipment on the network will be displayed, so tap the equipment you want to display/play.
6. The content will be displayed/played on the selected player equipment.

To display/play content with NetFront Life Connect, select [My phone] from the list of player equipment.

Check our Product Official site.

Check the following if remote player equipment on the network is not displayed in the equipment list when player equipment is selected with [Default player] on the settings screen, or when player equipment is selected to start when displaying/playing content.

• The Wi-Fi feature of the Android device is enabled, and it is connected to a Wi-Fi access point on the same network as the remote player equipment.
• The remote player equipment is connected to the Wi-Fi access point.
• The remote player equipment has been set to allow remote control.
• If the remote player equipment is a PC (Windows), then Windows Media Player is running.

In order to display/play content, the DLNA compliant media server on which the content is saved must be on the same network (same segment) as the Wi-Fi access point.

Check the following.

• Media server: The media server to be searched must be a DLNA standard product. Confirm that the media server is a DLNA standard product. Also, check that the media server is running, that a shared folder has been set on the media server, and that access from this device is allowed in the media server settings.
• Wi-Fi access point: Even if this device is connected to a Wi-Fi network, the Wi-Fi access point it is connected to may be on a different network than the media server where the content is saved. Check that the Wi-Fi access point, with "Connected" status displayed in [Wi-Fi networks] on the system's Wi-Fi settings screen, has the same name as the Wi-Fi access point the media server is connected to.

There is no content of the selected type (photos, music, videos) on the media server on the network. Check that a shared folder has been set on the media server, and that access from this device is allowed in the media server settings.

Either, the Wi-Fi feature of this device is not enabled, or the device is not connected to a Wi-Fi access point. Enable the Wi-Fi feature on the system Wi-Fi settings screen, and select a Wi-Fi access point. After selecting it, make sure the status changes to "Connected".

Either, the media server is not connected to a Wi-Fi access point, or the Wi-Fi signal may be weak.

Check the following.

• The media server is connected to the same Wi-Fi access point as this device.
• The distance between the Wi-Fi access point and this device is not too far.

The remote player equipment on the network cannot be found.

Check the following.

• The power of the remote player equipment is on.
• The remote player equipment is connected to the same Wi-Fi access point as this device.

Either, it is not connected to the media server, or there may be an inconsistency with the internal database since the content on the media server has been deleted. To sync it with the internal database, press the menu key on the content list screen, then tap [Refresh]. The database will be updated, resolving the inconsistency.

The selected player does not support the file format of the content you are trying to play. The supported file formats differ, depending on the player. For information about the supported file formats, check our Product Official site.

Even if the file format is supported by the player, this error message will be displayed if a network connection error occurs.

This error message will be displayed when you try to display/play the content of other Android devices on the network from your Android device, etc., since video content cannot be obtained if both the player and media server are connected to the Wi-Fi access point.

Either, the file format is not supported, or the image file may have become corrupted. For information about the supported file formats, check our Product Official site. Check on the media server for the content of the image file.

Check our Product Official site.

There are no functional limitations, however it shows ads when displaying the content list.