DLNA is better than AirPlay

I've never used either of them. HTH HAND!!!

Wouldn't want to comment on sound quality but airplay was less faff.  DLNA on my PS3 was pretty flakey, iPhone to ATV2 delightfully faff free.  If you want to use lots of different formats then DLNA is going to be the one for you however.

Well...I actually have used both in the same setup with some interesting results.

I was quite surprised (will reveal later).

First I'd like other peoples' experience with both...

With a good implementation DLNA is better. Easy to stream video/audio to networked tv/amps/radios etc. Apple is a non-starter for highquality video.

With DLNA & a powerful enough NAS to do video transcoding, you can play any video/audio format from the NAS to a tv/amp and control it via your phone/tablet, and its all seamless.

No extra stuff needed (no laptop being on, no appletv, airport express etc)

It you try to cut corners then you need to make sure your player is capable of playing the correct formats.

Spend the extra £200 on a powerful NAS (dual-core) - rather than a cheapo one - and you wont regret it

That said, I'd still recommend a 1080p mediaplayer. 

From an ease of use point, I think Airplay wins hands down. So much better intergration with the OS. Launch app - hit icon. DLNA is more file based, yes there are apps, but they don't support everything.  

If you're streaming lossless from Airplay, I can't imagine much of a difference in sq.

I was talking about music above.  For video DLNA is far superior.  

DLNA has a pretty big advantage of streaming straight from NAS devices. Does anyone know why apple have not got round to implementing this yet?

I use both, difficult to say one is definitively better. 

Lets have a race.

The task is to play music on your phone direct from your NAS.

I swipe left to the music widget, tap library and select my song.

Now I want to play it through my amp instead, so I tap target devices and select denon.

Need a EDITED so I'd like to listen to it the bathroom, I tap target devices and select Phillips Streamium.

My girlfriend likes that song, so I long press on the song, select share, 'Illanas phone' and she has it.

What are the lyrics for that song? - I click soundhound and up come the live lyrics.

Is there a video for it? I click youtube and up comes the video.

I like it so much I'll have it as my ringtone - so I long press the song, select share, ringtone composer.

Thats integration.

I have only ever used DNLA to stream my music...and Thanks to those on here that patiently helped me through the proccess.

Never had any dropouts.

Show off......

There's plenty of apps for idevces that take this many steps.  Swipe, select song, airplay icon. Done.

Does DLNA have support for some of the popular apps like bbc radio, or tunein radio?

Soundhound works on Iphone too, as does youtube.

Have you got your idevice playing direct off your NAS yet ?

Yes.

My earlier post were my thoughts on apple lack of implementation nas and Apple tv without the need for a pc/laptop

Really - without your laptop being on or using a jailbroken appletv? Dont think so.

Any yes I can stream anything to my tv/amp using medialink.

For audio, Yes. Without any lptop or pc.