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Is there a standard discovery / casting protocol for audio (and possibly video) via WiFi / LAN that Windows supports natively? Natively in the sense as AirPlay is natively supported for audio output on Apple Macs, Tablets and Phones or as bluetooth speakers are discovered and provisioned as audio output devices natively under windows.

If so what protocols are supported / used?

Xaser
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For casting video or audio, Windows 10 supports casting to DLNA compatible devices from the Cast To menu.

There are purportedly hundreds of devices that allow streaming via DLNA compatibility, such as Playstation 4, and some Sonos audio devices.

You can follow steps to do that from this website, as an example.

edit removed Bluetooth option as it is not a WiFi standard.

Ari
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  • This doesn't answer the actual question. Please read the question again and clarify your answer. – Xaser Jan 11 '18 at 10:49
  • Your comment does not address the answer. Please rephrase the question and I might clarify my answer. – Ari Jan 11 '18 at 23:05
  • Shortly: You talk about bluetooth, but I explicitily asked for Wi-Fi. I even wrote that I was aware of the bluetooth option and that I look for an equivalent using Wi-Fi technology. DLNA video casting is a feature of the app, not windows, thus not "native" – Xaser Jan 11 '18 at 23:15
  • Thanks for clarifying. DLNA casting **is** native to Windows, and uses WiFi. If you Google DLNA streaming, you will find many video and audio devices that support the standard within a private network. I won't bore you by sending you a link to a long winded article, but if you click [this link on a Microsoft forum](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade/dlna-in-windows-10/793e633a-659e-40d3-bea8-26544297f90b?auth=1), you can see with a right click you can 'Cast To' devices on the network! – Ari Jan 11 '18 at 23:31
  • Thanks for the edit. While I won't argue about it, I would still say that DLNA is not native to windows as the "cast to" option merely opens up windows media player but that's just details. I have removed the downvote. – Xaser Jan 11 '18 at 23:36
  • @Xaser - and I've added an upvote. Someone took the time to answer your question, which if you search for DLNA streaming appears quite near the top of search results. – Matt Whitfield Nov 27 '18 at 20:15
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This seems to be a question that gets asked a lot

AFAIK, there is no "native" (from system settings) way to set up a wi-fi speaker to stream all system audio. There are myriad music-specific applications that can stream music-on-you-computer - see all of those other linked posts for answers around that: but most people want to use a browser-based service (like Spotify, Youtube Music, or Pandora). To do this, you need to run a program that caputures audio and turns it into a data stream. The best application for this used to be Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil for Windows. Unfortunately, support for Airfoil for windows was discontinued.

There are two other programs that will do this. Both use DLNA casting and can capture all audio - your choice of either one application (e.g. Chrome/Firefox/Edge), or all system audio (including alerts). I still own a copy of Airfoil - which still works for the time being. There are two other programs which do the same thing (I have used neither, so can't vouch for either, but have heard good things about both). They are: SWYH and Play-Fi.

Hope that helps you all!

Petra
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