ISO/IEC 29341-20-12:20 17规定了名为ContentDirectory，版本4的UPnP联网服务的特征。该服务定义符合UPnP设备架构1.0[14]。 家庭网络内的许多设备包含其他设备想要访问的各种类型的内容(例如，音乐、视频、静止图像等)。作为示例，媒体服务器设备可能包含房主的音频、视频和静止图像库的重要部分。为了使房主欣赏该内容，房主需要能够浏览存储在媒体服务器上的对象，选择特定对象，并使其在适当的渲染设备上播放(例如，用于音乐对象的音频播放器、用于视频内容的电视、用于静止图像的电子画框)。图像等）。 为了最大的便利，非常希望让房主从各种UI设备启动这些操作。在大多数情况下，这些UI设备要么是内置于渲染设备中的UI，要么是独立的UI设备，例如无线PDA或平板电脑。在任何情况下，房主都不太可能直接与包含内容的设备交互（即:房主不必走到服务器设备前）。为了启用该能力，服务器设备需要为UI设备提供统一的机制以浏览服务器上的内容并获得关于各个内容对象的详细信息。这就是ContentDirectory服务的目的。 ContentDirectory服务另外提供查找/存储服务，该查找/存储服务使客户端(例如，UI设备)能够定位（并且可能存储）（服务器）设备能够存储的各个对象(例如，歌曲、电影、图片等)提供。例如，该服务可用于列举存储在MP3播放器上的歌曲列表、包括各种幻灯片的静止图像列表、存储在DVD点唱机中的电影列表、当前正在广播的TV节目列表(也称为EPG)、存储在CD点唱机中的歌曲列表、存储在PVR(个人录像机)设备上的节目列表等。几乎任何类型的内容都可以通过这个ContentDirectory服务枚举。对于包含多种类型内容（例如，MP3、MPEG2、JPEG等）的设备，ContentDirectory服务的单个实例可用于枚举所有对象，而不管它们的类型如何。

ISO/IEC 29341-20-12:2017 specifies the characteristics of the UPnP networked service named ContentDirectory, version 4. This service definition is compliant with UPnP Device Architecture 1.0 [14].
Many devices within the home network contain various types of content that other devices would like to access (for example, music, videos, still images, etc). As an example, a MediaServer device might contain a significant portion of the homeowner's audio, video, and still-image library. In order for the homeowner to enjoy this content, the homeowner needs to be able to browse the objects stored on the MediaServer, select a specific one, and cause it to be played on an appropriate rendering device (for example, an audio player for music objects, a TV for video content, an Electronic Picture Frame for still-images, etc).
For maximum convenience, it is highly desirable to let the homeowner to initiate these operations from a variety of UI devices. In most cases, these UI devices will either be a UI built into the rendering device, or it will be a stand-alone UI device such as a wireless PDA or tablet. In any case, it is unlikely that the homeowner will interact directly with the device containing the content (that is: the homeowner won't have to walk over to the server device). In order to enable this capability, the server device needs to provide a uniform mechanism for UI devices to browse the content on the server and to obtain detailed information about individual content objects. This is the purpose of the ContentDirectory service.
The ContentDirectory service additionally provides a lookup/storage service that enables clients (for example, UI devices) to locate (and possibly store) individual objects (for example, songs, movies, pictures, etc) that the (server) device is capable of providing. For example, this service can be used to enumerate a list of songs stored on an MP3 player, a list of still-images comprising various slide-shows, a list of movies stored in a DVD-Jukebox, a list of TV shows currently being broadcast (a.k.a an EPG), a list of songs stored in a CD-Jukebox, a list of programs stored on a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) device, etc. Nearly any type of content can be enumerated via this ContentDirectory service. For devices that contain multiple types of content (for example, MP3, MPEG2, JPEG, etc.), a single instance of the ContentDirectory service can be used to enumerate all objects, regardless of their type.