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When screen sharing is enabled on your Mac, your Mac desktop can be viewed from another Mac on your network. While your screen is being shared, the user of the other Mac sees what’s on your screen and can open, move, and close files and windows, open apps, and even restart your Mac.

Connected TV might still be a gamble, but it's hard to purchase anything these days that doesn't have the ability to connect to the Internet. Refrigerators can tweet for goodness sake! We live in a connected world — in theory, anyway.

One of the most frustrating aspects of living in a world full of connected devices — computers, smartphones, iPads, set-top boxes, game consoles — is getting those devices to talk to one another.

Microsoft and Apple have both improved the overall home networking experience on Macs and Windows computers — making it easier to share content on a local network — but increasingly, users want to access that content via other devices.

Fortunately, a growing number of companies are developing software and services to make sharing content across devices easier and less stressful. We've put some of these services through the paces and have outlined what they do, how much they cost and what audiences they serve.

DLNA: A Primer

Before getting into the services themselves, I want to give a little bit of background as to how various media sharing technologies currently work.

Believe it or not, most video game consoles, Blu-ray players and a growing number of set-top boxes and connected television sets support have the ability to talk to one another over a network.

In 2003, a group of consumer electronics companies established the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) with the stated goal of 'using standards-based technology to make it easier for consumers to use, share and enjoy their digital photos, music and videos.'

More than 250 companies are members of the DLNA and thousands of 'DLNA Certified' products have been produced. These devices are given various classes that can do different things with media based on their specifications. Using a set of networking protocols called Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), these devices can talk to one another. Most major consumer electronics companies are members of the DLNA, a notable exception being Apple (which has its own DAAP protocol in place of UPnP).

The problem with DLNA isn't so much that devices don't support the protocol — a growing list of consumer electronics devices do. The problem is actually getting the devices to talk to one another. Different device classes can do different things and this can limit how content can be shared.

As an example, the DLNA's 'How it Works' page describes the process of getting photos from a DLNA Certified camera onto a DLNA Certified TV:

'You have photos stored on your digital camera, a certified digital media controller (DMC). You want to look at them on your TV. With a DLNA Certified camera, you can send the photos to your DLNA Certified TV, which, if certified as a digital media renderer (DMR), can use those capabilities to display the photos.'

If you found that confusing, you're not alone. Life is too short to worry about what devices are certified as what class — let's look at some software that can help make sharing files across devices more clear.

1. TwonkyServer (Mac, Windows, Linux)

How it Works: TwonkyServer is a DLNA/UPnP compatible media server that will let you send content from your PC to other connected devices in your home. You set up the software on your Mac, Windows or Linux box and can then choose what media to stream to devices around your house.

Price: $19.95

Why We Like It: TwonkyServer is a powerful way to access media on your Xbox 360, PS3, connected TV or Blu-ray player. The software, especially on Windows, is easy to use and it works well with networked audio systems and other AV equipment.

Who It's For: TwonkyServer is for the more sophisticated user who needs a server that works on Mac, Windows or Linux. Once set up, TwonkyServer is easy to use. Its general configuration process isn't very complex, but there are a lot of options, so be sure to take your time. Android owners can take advantage of the free TwonkyServer Mobile app. This app lets you share music, photos and video from your phone to your connected TV or Blu-ray player.

For iPhone users, Twonky recently released Twonky Mobile [iTunes link] for iOS. This app is $2.99 and acts as a remote control for various DLNA devices in the home.

2. Playback (Mac OS X)

How it Works: Playback is designed to help Mac users share media with a PS3, Xbox 360 and other UPnP devices. It works with iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture, and Adobe Lightroom.

Price: $15

Why We Like It: Playback is one of the only Mac-optimized DLNA/UPnP servers around. It's easy to set up and configure and it works with lots of popular Mac media programs. We love that it can automatically convert MKV files into a format playable on the Xbox and PS3, no transcoding required.

Who It's For: Playback is for Mac OS X owners who want a way to interface with an Xbox 360, PS3 or other UPnP device, without having to mess with a lot of settings.

3. MediaRover (Mac and Windows)

How it Works: MediaRover is an extremely simple way to share iTunes libraries across a home network. Once installed on a Mac or PC, you tell MediaRover where you want it to store your music (works great with an NAS). Install MediaRover on your other computers, and it will keep the two libraries in sync, meaning that a new playlist created on a PC can be accessed in iTunes from a Mac. Likewise, new song purchases are automatically transferred across computers.

MediaRover also works with connected devices like Sonos, Boxee, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and many other UPnP devices.

Price: Free

Why We Like It: MediaRover is one of the best ways to manage and merge multiple iTunes libraries. When used with an NAS, it's also a great way to keep a backup of all of your music files across a home network.

Who It's For: Families with multiple computers and iTunes accounts will find MediaRover useful. Even if you just have one iTunes account, MediaRover is a great way to keep music synced across machines.

4. XBMC (Mac, Windows, Linux, Apple TV)

How it Works: XBMC is an excellent open source digital media center for your Mac, PC or Linux machine. The team recently announced support for the new Apple TV 2 and jailbroken iPad and iPhone 4 devices. XBMC has a customizable interface that can be accessed from a TV or computer and it also supports DLNA and UPnP streaming (meaning you can send content from an XBMC-powered computer to a DLNA or UPnP device in another room).

Price: Free

Why We Like It: XBMC got its start as a media player mod for the original Xbox. Over the last 8 years, the project has continued to evolve and add features, as well as support for new platforms. The popular Boxee media center software is based on XBMC. XBMC is powerful, customizable and once set up, relatively easy to use.

Who It's For: Once configured, XBMC can be safely used by people of all technical stripes. The initial configuration process, though, might be daunting and overwhelming for someone who isn't well-versed in the minutia of HTPC setup and with the nature of setting up shared folders over a network. To get the most out of XBMC, users really need to spend time playing with the options (there are tons of them) and settings. Still, the out of the box experience is a nice compliment to a computer or laptop hooked up to an HDTV.

5. PlayOn (Windows)

How it Works: PlayOn is software that runs on Windows that lets users pump Internet content and stream other media to the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, Roku, Google TV and a slew of other devices.

Price: $39.99 for the first year, $19.99/year thereafter or a one-time payment of $79.99

Why We Like It: PlayOn is very easy to use and set up. It is one of the most complete DLNA/UPnP solutions and a great choice for users that want to get Flash or Silverlight content to devices like a PS3, Wii or Xbox 360.

Who It's For: PlayOn is for Windows users (Mac OS X is not supported) who want an easy way to set up a DLNA/UPnP media server, without necessarily knowing what those acronyms mean.

6. Roksbox for Roku (Mac, Windows, Linux and Roku)

How it Works: Roksbox is a private Roku channel that lets you access content from your Mac, Windows or Linux PC. Using this channel, you can browse folders and shares on your network for playback on Roku.

Price: $15 (registration required) Quicktime 7.2 download for windows.

Why We Like It: The Roku is already a great way to stream video from services like Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and Hulu Plus. Roksbox adds the ability to stream local content from your Mac or PC into the mix. This is a great way to turn the Roku into a bona fide iTunes streaming server.

Who It's For: Roksbox is for Roku owners who want to add a bit more power to their digital streaming box, but understand that performance and video quality aren't going to compare with the official Roku offerings.

7. Libox (Mac and Windows)

How it Works:Libox is a social media manager that works on the Mac, PC, web and on iOS. Using Libox, you can access and stream content from other devices on your network or download files from your other computers without having to worry about configuring a bunch of settings. You can also share files and folders with friends using the web interface.

Price: Free

Why We Like It: Libox is very easy to set up and use and is a great way to keep your content accessible across devices. It is a great way to solve the 'what computer is that video/photo/song on?' dilemma. The latest editions to the iPhone app make sharing and accessing media from a mobile device even easier.

Who It's For: Libox is for users who primarily access content from a computer or a mobile device. Although TV apps are in the works, Libox is a computer/laptop/iPhone/iPad device for now.

Bonus: Unifi (Mac and Windows, Coming Soon)

How it Works: Unifi is a new media management service from RealNetworks. It's designed as a way to keep photos, videos and music accessible across lots of different devices in a seamless way. It works a lot like Libox, except Unifi also has a cloud storage component, making data accessible from the web even if your computers are turned off.

Price: TBA. RealNetworks told us at CES that they are looking at offering free plans and various paid cloud storage plans.

Why We Like It: Unifi was one of the real surprises for us at CES 2011. The software was built to work with the applications users already use to manage photos, videos and music and the interface is clean and easy to use. We also really loved that Unifi has built-in utilities to clean up album meta data and create full music albums from tracks scattered across folders and machines.

Unifi is taking a very consumer-oriented approach to media management and the company is putting a lot of effort into usability and consistency.

Who It's For: Users that want a way to access photos, videos and music from whatever computer or smartphone they happen to be using, without having to configure any settings.

Your Picks

There are dozens of good media servers and software solutions on the market. What software do you use to manage media across your home network? Let us know in the comments.

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