Nokia gets streaming-serious with Play On Windows Phone app

Nokia has launched a new beta app for media placeshifting, baking DLNA streaming into Windows Phone and eventually helping the platform to play nicely with the Xbox 360 and PS3. Nokia Play To for Windows Phone is a free Beta Labs download for Lumia users, with a pared down sharing interface that allows photos and videos to be easily displayed on TVs, laptops, other smartphones, tablets and, eventually, consoles, over a wireless connection.

Under the hood is DLNA, which has been around for years but is generally too fiddly and complex for everyday users to be bothered with. What Nokia has sensibly done – and, admittedly, others have tried before it – is dress DLNA up with a more straightforward UI.

Since this is an early beta, there are still some rough edges to be polished away. Currently Sony BRAVIA internet-connected TVs aren’t working properly with the app, for video at least, and right now there’s no Media Server support which means your Xbox 360 and PS3 won’t actually be able to see the device. Videos at higher resolutions are also supposedly causing problems.

Nokia says it’s working on the console issue for a future release, and it’ll likely take that before the app gains significant traction. Still, with Microsoft not yet entirely putting its money where its mouth is in terms of the interconnected Windows phone/PC/console ecosystem, Nokia has obviously decided to step up with a solution of its own.