Samsung Link: Sharing Multimedia Content

May 08, 2013

Samsung Link is a Samsung infrastructure based on file sharing and media streaming using the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) standard. The Samsung Link app is a system app included with the Samsung Galaxy S4 superphone and replaces the AllShare Play app on earlier Samsung phones such as the S3. This article discusses: Although this article will discuss using the Samsung Link app for playback and streaming of multimedia, it is possible to also use the Music player app and Gallery app to similarly play and stream media. However these apps don't allow for direct UPLOADING of content on the S4 to the registed PC. However they do support Playlists (not supported currently with Samsung Link). The Music player and Gallery apps will automatically recognize remote registered PCs ("Nearby devices") shared with Samsung Link. In fact since Win7+ supports DLNA and media sharing using Windows Media Player, shared libraries using WMP will be visible to the S4 separately from those enabled for sharing with Samsung Link which might cause some confusion initially. Folder views are somewhat different when using Samsung Link on the S4 compared to the corresponding views in Music player and Gallery. Your personal taste will determine which apps you use.

Install and Configure Samsung Link on the PC

Follow the instructions on the Samsung Link page. To use Samsung Link, you must register with a Samsung user account. After downloading and installation of Samsung Link, the PC must be explicitly registered from the installation page to enable a Samsung-Link compatible smartphone to "see" the multimedia content on the PC. The installation pages describes where the default PC shared content folders are (for example C:\Users\<userid>\My Pictures for the pictures), and how to change the shared folders using the configuration options in the PC system tray for Samsung Link. I have only tested Samsung Link on a Windows 7 laptop computer.

Samsung Link and the Galaxy S4 Superphone

Starting the Samsung Link app on the S4 shows two sections: Recent content viewed (left pane) and the Devices & Storage pane to the right. The lower section shows the Registered devices. In this example, the S4 Galaxy phone itself and a single registered PC (Carol-Laptop) are available. To access and play local content on the S4 phone, select S4. To access and play content originating on a registered PC, click the PC icon.

The Registered storage upper section enables streaming from cloud-storage services (Dropbox etc.) which is not discussed here.



The screens shown next display the content view when (a) the local S4 phone is selected or (b) when the registered Wi-Fi connected PC is selected in Samsung Link. Tabs at the top of each page organize the content into pictures, music, videos and folders (for arbitrary file access). Note that the first selection option at the bottom of the two screens is different. For the local S4 phone, the horizontal arrow enables uploading any content stored in the S4 smartphone memory to the PC's default shared folder. For the registered PC, the first selection is correspondingly a download option from the PC to the S4 phone. The second option is to play or show the content on the S4 phone. The third option is DLNA (or Samsung's "AllShare") streaming to any networked devices supporting DLNA (smart TVs, Blu-ray players, WD TV Live boxes etc.). Selecting any of these first three options provides a checkbox beside each media file in the category chosen. Check the boxes of the media files to play or stream and then click Done to start the playback of the files in the manner chosen.




Examples

The example below shows the Samsung Link music playback screen with content streamed from the registered PC and playing back on the S4 phone. If the upper left streaming button is clicked, the same content, sourced from the registered PC will be directed to an available DLNA "Renderer" device. This button toggles playback between the S4 phone and DLNA streaming to an alternate device. If more than one such DLNA device is available (e.g. a smart TV and a WD TV Live box), a selection dialog will allow choice of the desired streaming target.



The photo below shows the display of a Samsung 51" PN6500 AllShare TV with DLNA streaming of music from an S4 phone. DLNA streaming of pictures and video is similar. Supported video and audio formats depends on the particular DLNA Renderer device. For example, this TV only supports playback of MP3 tracks (not uncompressed Wav) and the audio quality of the built-in TV speakers is certainly not "Hi-Fi" quality:



However the S4 can playback locally and stream uncompressed audio wav files up to 24bit/48kHz. Playback of CD high quality 16bit/44.1 kHz uncompressed ripped audio tracks wirelessly to a good quality sound system is possible in different ways. A simple and inexpensive solution that I use, and which is compatible with any integrated amplifier or receiver uses the inexpensive Western Digital TV Live box which is certified as a DLNA Renderer (can be controlled by a DLNA controller like an S4 smartphone) and supports uncompressed wav audio file playback up to 24bit/48kHz as well as many video formats. The WD TV Live box contains stereo analog line-outs and a digital audio optical (S/PDIF) output to connect to any integrated amplifier or receiver for high-quality audio playback. Using this setup, I can playback libraries of music (or videos) stored on a Samsung Link registered computer, or locally on my S4 phone via my Wi-Fi network and stream that content wirelessly using my Samsung S4 phone to control the playback. In this configuration, no TV monitor is required since the S4 phone provides the track navigation selection and control. The diagram below shows a typical configuration:

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