“If you buy a “smart” TV or DVR these days, the odds are that it
will support UPnP for hassle-free media sharing. Thus devices like
TiVos can locate each other and share recordings across the LAN,
and a lot of Linux music and video players support connecting to
UPnP shares as well. Give it a moment’s thought, however, and
you’ll probably ask yourself “does it need a specialized device, or
can I turn my existing Linux box into a full-blown UPnP server for
my existing content?” Well, good news: not only can you, but it is
pretty painless to do.