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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Chloiber - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Exactly.I don't own a NAS yet, but plan to buy a Synology 4b NAS (probably DS414). I'm a very tech savvy person and have built my own PCs since years - but I just want a NAS that works, that I have to setup once in a matter of minutes and never (or rarely) worry again. I don't want to waste any more free time on these things
awktane - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I have a much larger version. Reasons I chose a NAS device rather than building my own:-8 disks in pretty much the same space as it would take to store 8 hdds side by side on their own
-My time is worth more than the cost difference. I can turn features on with a click rather than installing and configuring packages.
-In the event of a failure I don't want to have to set it all up again. I don't want to cause a failure accidentally or some update to screw things up. I can't afford downtime.
-Fewer possible points of failure. The hardware is much simpler and streamlined.
cjs150 - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I have had a NAS for 2-3 years. (QNAP).I would never bother with a 2 bay NAS, I want redundancy, as HDs do fail. I know that technically ZFS is a better solution than RAID 5 but for a home media store, RAID 5/6 is fine.
Yes I could build a cheap Mini-ITX build to do the same job, but a good NAS takes 5 mins to set up (then about 10 hours to build a 6TB RAID 5 array!) and should simply work.
Perfect for people like me who do not have the time to spend fiddling with it for optimum set up and have a family wanting access to the film library now!
Beany2013 - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I think when my DS214+ needs replacing (or when I find £500 down the back of the couch, etc) one of the chunkier, VMware/citrix/HyperV certified units will be next - I can then justify building another VM server and using that as a small SAN type thingy.I can use the DS214 as an iSCSI host, but it's not really quick enough over a single GbE link, and I don't have trunking/aggregating capable switch to boost performance...
In time...oh yes, in time....
bznotins - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Thanks for the discussion, it's really helped me to understand the benefit of a unit like this (mostly time/simplicity). Which are perfectly good reasons to go that route.What I was concerned about was that I was missing some other benefit of a NAS other than time/ease. It doesn't appear to be the case.
As someone who needs four drives + optical (ripping) + SSD (OS), I have always just leaned toward rolling my own. I love the ability to use TeamViewer to remote into my PC and manage things. Plex runs great. I keep AirSync native on it to sync my music collection to my Android devices over WiFi. In order to manage my media, it's great to be able to run Media Companion on it.
I guess for all my needs, if I got one of these NAS boxes I would still need a full-time PC to manage my media and streaming needs. Thus, it makes sense to take the time and effort to build my own.
Appreciate the discussion.
Major_Kusanagi - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I got an incredible deal on a Dell T20 Server: $199 with a Haswell processor and 4GB of RAM to start. The expansion abilities are nice, to include up to 6 drives (13TB total space). Granted, I could have built my own, but getting an actual server with a modern processor for $199 can't be beat.GTaudiophile - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I must be the idiot then. About 3 years ago I build a small tower using a AMD Athlon X2 quad-core CPU, 16GB ECC RAM, and 4x 1TB drives running FreeNAS7 in a ZFS2 configuration. Performance through SAMBA was simply abysmal. Earlier this year I bought the DS214play and it just works the way I want it to. I run 2x 4TB drives in RAID1 using the old 4x 1TB drives as a backup to the NAS. I love that it's a small, silent box that sits on an IKEA Expedit shelf. it hides behind a photograph. Performance through SAMBA is much better than what I experienced before. Setup and Web access is indeed idiot proof. And most of all I feel I have great support (and apps) behind the product. I frankly got tired of doing the "nerd" solution. I just wanted something small, silent, supported, and highly functional. The DS214play does this for me.Major_Kusanagi - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I don't think you're an idiot GTaudiophile, sometimes I don't want to deal with the whole 'geek out' thing either, and I'm a Systems Administrator. :-pbsd228 - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Poor samba performance 3 years ago points to problems around the SMB1->2 migration, particularly when we're talking about freenas7. MS made it a moving target. Eventually solved. But you're cheating a bit by comparing it to 3 years later technology. If you have rebuilt with a more recent freenas release, or gone to solaris, you'd have also seen better samba performance.chaos215bar2 - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I know this is somewhat tangential to the main review, but since you mention Photo Station, one important thing to note is that it does not properly support photos in non-sRGB color spaces (including AdobeRGB which is very common in mid-to-high end cameras). These photos all end up looking muddy and washed out in Photo Station, since the color space is discarded during processing.