A media playing method is provided. The method includes separately sending a connection preparation message to a media server and at least one media renderer that supports multicast, so as to instruct the media server and each media renderer to configure a multicast protocol address according to the connection preparation message; and sending a media transport identifier and a play message to the media server, so as to instruct the media server to transmit, on the multicast protocol address according to the play message, a media stream of a to-be-played media file identified by the media transport identifier, so that each media renderer receives the media stream on the multicast protocol address and plays the to-be-played media file locally.