Synology DS214play: Intel Evansport Almost Done Right
by Ganesh T S on May 20, 2014 3:00 PM ESTDSM 5.0: Miscellaneous Multimedia Aspects
We took a detailed look at the video aspects of DSM 5.0 in relation to the DS214play in the previous section. Pure audio support and organization of photo collections round up the multimedia experience. In this section, we take a look at what Synology's DSM 5.0 has to offer in these areas.
Audio
Synology supplies the Audio Station package that needs to be installed on the NAS. This creates a 'music' folder in the root of the volume. Audio station picks up that folder by default, but also enables addition of other folders on the NAS by enabling media indexing. Audio Station can be launched directly from the DSM interface in the browser. It appears as one of the 'multi-tasking' windows within the DSM desktop interface. Playlists can be created and other DLNA digital media servers as well as online radio sources such as Shoutcast can also be integrated. The package enables audio to be played back on the local computer and also allows playback to DLNA DMRs (digital media renderers) as well as USB speakers. Both WAV and MP3 transcoding are supported. Each of Audio Station's features can be enabled or disabled on a per-user basis.
The DS audio mobile app presents almost all the capabilities of the Audio Station's browser interface on a mobile device. We took the Android version out for a spin, and one of the interesting differences compared to the browser interface is the ability to cast to Chromecast. The browser interface lists only the local computer and DLNA DMRs on the network. We tested out this feature and it worked without a hitch.
Chromecast owners have to jump through various hoops to get the ability to play music from a shared folder on the network on Chromecast. For Synology NAS owners with the device, this app gets the job done without any hassles. DS audio is definitely one of the must-have mobile apps for Synology NAS owners in possession of a Chromecast in their media setup.
Photos
Synology supplies the Photo Station package that needs to be installed on the NAS. This creates a 'photo' folder in the root of the volume. The Photo Station package presents a wealth of configuration options, where user accounts can be managed and permissions set up for view, upload and management. These user accounts can be configured to be the same as those used for access to the DSM or ones specific to Photo Station only. Albums (sub-folders within the photo folder) can be set up for 'public' viewing (accessible through http://<NAS-IP_or_QuickConnectID.quickconnect.to>/photo).
We took out the DS photo+ Android app for a spin. The app presents a very user-friendly interface to the albums, but the best feature is the ability to automatically upload photos and videos taken on the mobile device to a photo folder on the NAS.
Mobile users typically use the photo backup feature of Google, Microsoft (OneDrive) or Dropbox on their device. For those loath to rely on the public cloud for backup, DS photo+'s auto-upload feature is a 'private-cloud' alternative. Even for users who backup to the public cloud, this provides a local backup opportunity. Yet another scenario would be a family with multiple smartphones who wish to have all photos taken on any of their mobile devices made accessible from a central location.
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ganeshts - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
As I mentioned in the review's Video Transcode section and also in the concluding remarks, Plex has never cared about hardware acceleration. So, yes, you are right - no HW transcode with Plex on any Evansport platform ; Only bet for hw transcode amongst NAS vendors is Synology's DSM -- just wish it was more stable :)Aikouka - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Ah, apologies because I hadn't gotten to those sections yet when I made my comment. I don't know if it's necessarily an issue of PLEX not caring, but I assume that migrating to a new version of FFMPEG isn't a simple task (I read a post from an employee saying that they use a custom version). So, if I had to guess (note: I have no affiliation with PLEX; I just read the forums sometimes), I assume that they want to wait until there's a more pressing reason to upgrade the codec.Although, I hope they upgrade it soon, because I've found some annoying crash-to-desktop issues with stylized subtitles in the Windows version of PLEX Home Theater. In one instance, not even Media Player Classic: Home Cinema could handle it, but in the other, it played fine.
imaheadcase - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
"Network throughput can't be it (I get 900Mbps over my home network moving files between PCs)."Right..I ditched my WHS and never looked back. Nothing it offered can't really be done with these. Unless you got some weird custom software you like to run.
imaheadcase - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
"Network throughput can't be it (I get 900Mbps over my home network moving files between PCs)."That means nothing when you are limited to hardrive speed fyi. You can have a Fiber link between PCs and still limited to slow HD on server.
wicketr - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
You spent time building your rig, right? How much do you value your time? $50/hr? $100/hr? I'm guessing between assembling your rig and configuring it the way you want, you probably spent 5+ hrs. If your time is worth anything of significance, then the cost of your set up far exceeds the cost of a NAS.Additionally, all the features of the mobile app ecosystem are non-existent for a home setup.
A NAS is simply for people that want a easy data storage device that requires little/no time to setup, and offers a multitude of features for access to that data. It's NOT meant as a full blown server. It's a NAS. Even medium/large companies use them for those benefits of simplicity.
bsd228 - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
bzontins - people are paying for a smaller, lower power, turn key solution. You can get close to the size with the HP Microserver, though until the Gen 8 the cpu performance was not much better than the athlons but with much higher power draws. Until sandy bridge, general purpose cpus were too power hungry. The use of HW acceleration for transcoding is a pretty nice feature of this model, and if that continues, could turn the tide.turn key is worth a lot to many people, either because they don't know how to do it themselves, or because they don't want to. As the number of apps increased for these boxes, the need for running solaris or linux is somewhat diminished.
easp - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - link
I hear ya. I like the theory of trading money to save myself time, except for stuff like this, I always end up doing it myself. I've even purchased cheap two drive NASs (ZyXel NSA 320) and then gone to the trouble of running debian on them.I just bought a mini-ITX Kabini board to build a new, faster NAS. I wish their were better options on compact 2 & 4 drive cases and low power PSUs. I prefer having two devices in different parts of the house, with one backing up the other, and I don't want to stuff a big video card in it, so the bigger cases are overkill.
richricard - Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - link
I'm a bit late to the party here but I'll stick my nose in anyway. I've spent many years building countless machines of all shapes and sizes, I'm a programmer by trade, and I'd even go so far as to say I enjoy working with complex networks. But you couldn't pay me the world to change my Synology for any other NAS. Certainly the open source stuff I've looked at pales in comparison to the DSM.If the hardware specs are all you're weighing up then you're missing the point. Fully 50% of what your spending your money on when you buy a Synology is the OS and the apps that come with it. It's just incredible. You really just have to sit down and use one to see how simple, fully featured, and stable they are.
I guess the bottom line for me though (and this may sound a little simplistic), is that they just work. The last thing I want to do when I get home at night is start messing around with a server, and I've never had a single issue in the 6~7 years I've been using Synology's products.
I've also convinced quite a lot of friends and colleagues of their virtues and not one has been the least bit disappointed about buying one.
I'm currently on my 2nd Synology and am considering moving to the 214Play, solely because I want x86 to run some bits on, but my 212+ is a shiner as well!
imaheadcase - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
These are made not for idiot proofing, they are made to just work. I've had mine sitting in a spare room for 2 years and has never needed to even go look at it. (4 unit 12TB) data for media.It streams to My TV from XBMC/Couchpotato/SABnsbd anything I throw at it, stores movies/music/etc without a hickup.
Many businesses also have these for ease of use.
The only difference a custom one offers is just to say you made it, it can't do anymore really than these units can. Or if it can, its just something that caters to YOU and not really other people. You don't need tons of ram for these system to get jobs done (I had a WHS original with only 512megs did all what this can do), and CPU can handle it just fine.
imaheadcase - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Can't figure out how to edit, but you can also run TONS of apps with these, even ones not listed you can install on the linux side of these. you can run plex server/website/mumble server/etc.