Synology DSM 4.3

[Embattle]

Beta now available - http://www.synology.com/dsm/dsm4.3_beta.php?lang=uk

 

[dysfunction]

Can you put this on an HP Microserver?

How does it compare to FreeNas? Or is this not really the same thing?

 

[Embattle]

It is just for Synology NAS devices.

 

[smurkin]

I did see that there are some quite nice new device features on their website (mostly cosmetic), but I am guessing these are client side. Hopefully they will fix the VPN - that will make it worth a download (don't think I'll be trying the beta though).

 

[Embattle]

If you've got a Roku media streamer you can download a app for it to stream from video station.

 

[smurkin]

Thats interesting - never heard of Roku before and this is just what I wanted for the tv in the garden shed. If only it would stream sky. And if only my wifi was good enough to play ripped blue rays :|

 

[Hawkwind]

Just ordered the Synology DS213J with 2 x 2TB drives. Can't wait to play with it. Main use will be streaming MP3 & MP4's to families iPAD and Surface devices. Just need to find a suitable device to decode on main TV and Amp. Currently use USB HDD with a WD LiveTV. I can attach a USB WiFi dongle and see if that will stream directly from the drive folders. Anyone tried this?

 

[soze]

You can connect the wd tv live to a smb share on the NAS box and have it index the folder. So you get TV/Movie Information. It is a bit slow and it creates two files on your NAS for every video but it works.

 

[Embattle]

I've three WDTV Lives around the house and as Soze says they can display TV/Movie but due to two of the WDTV lives being wireless I find it strains too much so I just use them via the media server method.

Personally streaming will be fine to other devices since many also have the ability to use the various ds apps however when it comes to transferring files to a Apple devices it isn't as easy as I would like it to be.

 

[Hawkwind]

Thanks Soze and Embattle, great info.

 

[smurkin]

The NAS can present itself as a DLNA device if your TV can gel with that so that you can play NAS files to the TV wirelessly. Or at least, this certainly works to my laptop.

Just a note on playing back on iPads using DS video - the media file format needs to be decodable by the iPad - mp4s are ok (it might depend on the resolution, mind), but mkvs and avchd dont play. There are some third party apps that bring these formats into play on the iPad, although rumour has it that they dont work very well. Personally, I transcoded all my films to an iPad format using media coder in batch mode.

 

[Embattle]

4.3 has now been officially released.

 

[DaGaffer]

4.3 has now been officially released.

Is it worth the upgrade? For example is Video Station a better option than continuing to use XBMC? I'm having a few issues with XBMC at the moment (for some reason the instance on one of my PCs just flat out refuses to pick up any content scrapers - it can see the files on DiskStation, just won't add content to them). I have an RPi and an Apple TV, as well as bunch of PCs and I just can't decide if its worth switching over (I don't think there's a Video Station instance for RPi for instance but that might not matter if it works for Apple TV); apart from anything else training the missus to use another interface may result in an early divorce.

 

[soze]

Is it worth the upgrade? For example is Video Station a better option than continuing to use XBMC? I'm having a few issues with XBMC at the moment (for some reason the instance on one of my PCs just flat out refuses to pick up any content scrapers - it can see the files on DiskStation, just won't add content to them). I have an RPi and an Apple TV, as well as bunch of PCs and I just can't decide if its worth switching over (I don't think there's a Video Station instance for RPi for instance but that might not matter if it works for Apple TV); apart from anything else training the missus to use another interface may result in an early divorce.

The Video Station interface is nice but on 4.2 you needed to play it on your iPad or iPhone then send it to your Apple TV. Which was not always perfect. It only played MKV's and MP4's as well. But I read something about that changing. I am waiting for app compatibility before committing to installing 4.3 though so I have not tried it.

 

[TdC]

update was not as buttersmooth as my update to 4.2. I had some applications fail to update and had to do that by hand. also, CPU usage seems higher.

 

[DaGaffer]

update was not as buttersmooth as my update to 4.2. I had some applications fail to update and had to do that by hand. also, CPU usage seems higher.

Updated from 4.1 to 4.3 last night. No problems at all. Tried out the updated video station this morning (it took all night to index everything). Works great; I can stream straight from the NAS to the tv no bother.

 

[soze]

Updated from 4.1 to 4.3 last night. No problems at all. Tried out the updated video station this morning (it took all night to index everything). Works great; I can stream straight from the NAS to the tv no bother.

How does your tv see the media does it show the library? My Samsung connects to the NAS but only shows the folders on the current version. If it shows a Library now then I am very interested.

 

[DaGaffer]

How does your tv see the media does it show the library? My Samsung connects to the NAS but only shows the folders on the current version. If it shows a Library now then I am very interested.

You get the video station App on your phone. Scroll through to the movie or show you want, press play. In my case a little dialog comes up asking if I want to play via Apple TV or by the TV ("UE46...blah blah"), choose the TV and off we go. I've got a similar remote app for XBMC but its a bit clunkier.

The Video Station programme itself is a bit erratic at finding the right content; it listed quite a few innocuous films as their porn versions! (e.g "Back to The Future II" was listed as "Back Hole To The Future II"!!!), and it couldn't find quite a lot of poster art, but its really easy to fix. Easier than XBMC anyway.

 

[TdC]

it listed quite a few innocuous films as their porn versions!

uh-huh. so...how was Back Hole? I hear Michaela J Fucks really nails it?

 

[DaGaffer]

uh-huh. so...how was Back Hole? I hear Michaela J Fucks really nails it?

Don't joke; the missus saw one of the porn titles that came up as I was showing her how the new program works. She was convinced I had a porn stash on the server so I had to press play to show it wasn't. She doesn't understand the whole content scraping/metadata thing.

Who the hell has a actual porn downloaded these days?

 

[TdC]

really old people I suppose. Like Deebs...and you ;-)



/flee!

 

[Embattle]

Is it worth the upgrade? For example is Video Station a better option than continuing to use XBMC? I'm having a few issues with XBMC at the moment (for some reason the instance on one of my PCs just flat out refuses to pick up any content scrapers - it can see the files on DiskStation, just won't add content to them). I have an RPi and an Apple TV, as well as bunch of PCs and I just can't decide if its worth switching over (I don't think there's a Video Station instance for RPi for instance but that might not matter if it works for Apple TV); apart from anything else training the missus to use another interface may result in an early divorce.

I can't really comment on XBMC or Apple Tv since I've got neither but personally I've found video station fine through various phones and tablets. I also found that I no longer had a problem with browser streaming via video station, pre 4.3 it always wanted to transcode the video on the NAS rather than just use the computer but this now seems to of been resolved, the way I view videos on various TVs is via WDTV and I'm currently using DLNA and get no issues either.

As for scraping via Video Station it is best to make sure the name of the file matches http://www.themoviedb.org/ and http://thetvdb.com/ since these are the two main ones it uses, although you can search via Video Station to find the correct title or sometimes if the poster image doesn't appear.

 

[Embattle]

Oh I often have trouble updating the packages, I tend to download the spk packs from the website directly and use the manual update function to update them.

 

[Hawkwind]

Just last night set up my DS213J NAS from Synolgy. AWESOME!! Absolutely love it. Easy to setup and even the wife and son were massively impressed when I installed DS Video on their iPads and they were able to stream hi def video anywhere in the house. I just wish there was a Windows Tablet app version of DS Video. Unless the Windows phone one will work on a surface, anyone know??

 

[DaGaffer]

Just last night set up my DS213J NAS from Synolgy. AWESOME!! Absolutely love it. Easy to setup and even the wife and son were massively impressed when I installed DS Video on their iPads and they were able to stream hi def video anywhere in the house. I just wish there was a Windows Tablet app version of DS Video. Unless the Windows phone one will work on a surface, anyone know??

Why don't you just use the VideoStation application?

 

[Hawkwind]

Why don't you just use the VideoStation application?

Installed on the server and media loaded to it. It's the client end I'm having issues with. The DS Video app is for iOS and Android and Windows Phones works well on iPAD and iPhone just not sure if the Win Phone will work on Surface or other Windows 8 tablet. No App listed in the MS Win 8 App Shop.

http://www.synology.com/dsm/home_mobile_support_ds_video.php?lang=us

So right now on PC, Laptop or Surface I'm just using the file manager and which launches the stream in VLC. On iPad etc I had the DS Video App installed which provides a nice interface and autiomatically inserts the IMDB Media Metadata. Its great, just want the same for Surface and laptops.

Will XMBC do this for me? and work with the Synology Video Server?

 

[DaGaffer]

Installed on the server and media loaded to it. It's the client end I'm having issues with. The DS Video app is for iOS and Android and Windows Phones works well on iPAD and iPhone just not sure if the Win Phone will work on Surface or other Windows 8 tablet. No App listed in the MS Win 8 App Shop.

http://www.synology.com/dsm/home_mobile_support_ds_video.php?lang=us

So right now on PC, Laptop or Surface I'm just using the file manager and which launches the stream in VLC. On iPad etc I had the DS Video App installed which provides a nice interface and autiomatically inserts the IMDB Media Metadata. Its great, just want the same for Surface and laptops.

Will XMBC do this for me? and work with the Synology Video Server?

There's a VideoStation app inside DSM. That's what I use on PC (its also where I edit content and poster art etc.)

 

[Hawkwind]

There's a VideoStation app inside DSM. That's what I use on PC (its also where I edit content and poster art etc.)

So what are you using on the client side for Windows devices? Is it browser based? Video Station App is working and setup on the DS213J Diskstation. Everything works well on ios and android just windows devices I cant get a nice graphical interface. If you have this then I must have missed something in the Video Station app setup.

 

[Hawkwind]

Just found this on the product spec for Synology Video Server:

• Play video with a browser for Windows PC or Mac

So guess I need to find the address details for the video server.

 

[DaGaffer]

So what are you using on the client side for Windows devices? Is it browser based? Video Station App is working and setup on the DS213J Diskstation. Everything works well on ios and android just windows devices I cant get a nice graphical interface. If you have this then I must have missed something in the Video Station app setup.

Yes you have. If you click on the little box in the top left of DSM (the one with four squares with one tipped at an angle), VideoStation should be in there if you've installed it.