20.2.2014

Finally, a NAS that actually does what you want it to do.I will (try to!) be brief, but I wanted to answer some of the questions that I had prior to buying the NAS and couldn't find the answer to. This little box does everything that you'd expect a NAS to do and as other reviewers have said, does so extremely quickly and quietly. So why is it different to other NAS's?Setup: I run a smart TV, Apple TV, SSD Macbook pro, iPhones, iPads and Airplay music devices. Virgin media.Using the above setup you can simply 'mirror' data stored on the NAS to your iDevice and then on to any of the airplay devices. This is as you would expect with a traditional NAS setup,and it of course means that the data is beamed twice (once to your iDevice then from there to your Airplay device), eating up your bandwidth.What makes this NAS different is that you can use the downloadable apps on your iDevice to get the NAS drive itself to stream directly to your airplay devices without using your iDevice as an intermediary. So for example you open the DS Video app on your iPhone, set the NAS streaming to your Apple TV, then you can switch your phone off and it continues to play.What's better is that you can do the above and then open the DS Video app on say your iPad and watch a completely different film being streamed to it (say for the kids in a different room) at the same time. You could also be in the kitchen, open DS Audio to steam your music to your Airplay stereo whilst you're cooking. Again, all at the same time. It really is that versatile.The NAS's ability to transcode on the fly allows you to stream non supported media files to say to say your Apple TV. So for example I can quite happily play 1080p .mkv files on your ATV.Another question that I couldn't find the answer to before I bought the NAS was whether you can use your Smart TV to play files directly from the NAS. I understand that Samsung are working with Synology to bring the DS Video app to their Smart TV's, however I have no problem finding the NAS on my LG LA6200 Smart TV and it will play any file type that the TV can decode. For filetypes that it can't, I stream to the Apple TV and play it that way.You can also stream to multiple Airplay devices, which is great if say you are having a party and want to fill the house with music.The final upside, and to be honest, this is worth paying £270 on its own, is that none of the above involves iTunes. I don't have an active iTunes library anywhere on any of my devices. At no point in 'the circuit' is iTunes running on any device. Buy the Synology DS214Play and you never have to use iTunes again as a way of managing your media.Once the NAS is up and running it really is simple to use. That said it took me; a complete IT numpty, 8 hours or so to set it up via the 'quick setup' wizard. It is doable, but it is not straightforward. If you don't know your way round networking, nor have a clue what other reviewers are talking about when they mention Plex(?), then you will find yourself googling a lot of stuff. Synology has decided to go down the route of having a 'lifestyle' website that tells you next to nothing about the power of the NAS and equally does not provide you with the answers you need to set the thing up properly. I managed to get it working almost by accident, but now it is, it works like a dream and is very simple to use.Hope that helps.

9.1.2015

Right! This is my first NAS experience and I have a good couple of weeks now playing with it and I just love it! There were few things that weren't straightforward and took some time for me to figure out but hopefully it will be helpful for others.If you like to stream HD movies, view high resolution images on multiple devices like (PC/iPhone/Android /iPad/Tablet/DLNA TV etc), then go for this “play” model as it has built in media files transcoding functionality which enables the devices to play media files even if the file formats are unsupported while keeping the CPU usage to be normal. So for e.g. you can stream .mkv or .avi (which are unsupported iPhone file formats)video files “on the fly” to your iPhone via DS Video app or to your chrome/IE browser on your PC package (with suitable VLC plug to be installed if required) via Video Station application. For watching media content on DLNA TV, the application that i use is synology’s own “media server”, I have discovered that this has some transcoding limitations compared to Video station/DS Video app. For e.g. My sony bravia TV doesn’t support .mkv format, and while there is an option in NAS settings under media server application to enable transcoding for unsupported formats on DMA devices (in this case DLNA sony TV), I noticed there was no audio/sound for the video played. The audio codec in the .mkv was AC3 5.1. To resolve this, I downloaded free xmedia recode software, and converted the file from .mkv to .mp4 keeping the video mode to “copy” and audio mode to “convert” from AC3 to AAC, and this new file is then playable by my Sony TV. Also note if you don’t see any folders/movies on your TV that are definitely present on your NAS, then you’ll have to “Re-index” under the media server application and they shall then appear.Also a word of advice on uploading photos on to the NAS, if you have thousands of photos to be uploaded, DONOT just copy the files on to your NAS as this will trigger the NAS to start converting the photos and generating thumbnails and will cause the CPU usage to reach 100% and the process can take weeks (not days) depending upon how big your library is, Instead, install the Photo Station uploader application from Synology’s website and ALWAYS upload the photos to NAS through the photo station uploader as this will use your computer’s processing capabilities to generate the thumbnails. It took me still couple of days to upload 30,000+ Megapixel images on an i5 processor, 8 GB RAM PC, but with direct copy to NAS it would perhaps have taken over a week.One more note, if you are struggling with the transfer speed, make sure that you have Gigabit router (1000 Mbps) as well as gigabit port on your PC/Laptop. If you are using wireless, the speeds will be limited to your wireless network card capability. Also note that transferring several files together won’t give you the highest speeds, try a big 2GB-4GB video file back and forth from you NAS to PC to get a better estimation of the speeds that you are getting. If you have data on your USB 3.0 external drive, you can plug it in your NAS (it will appear as a usb share) and can transfer data from USB 3.0 to your NAS directly without involving LAN.Overall, a very nice product, that have loads of features that you’ll really enjoy.

26.2.2014

A quality product and no documentation except a single sheet quick start leaflet of how to connect the mains and insert the disks.Ensure that disks you have or are about to buy are on the compatibility list on the synology.com web site.Once putting in the link on the leaflet into your internet browser it starts as a setup wizard that anyone can follow. I opted for the Synology Hybrid Raid on 2 WD 1TB Green HDD which gives 1 TB storage.It all seemed so easy and trouble free as it configured itself in 10 minutes and then did some data scrubbing and parity checking in the background allowing the NAS to be used. Remember the password,the IP and the quick connect ID as you are going to be inputting this at every other click for the remaining set up.I was then at a total loss at what to do and I used to work in IT. Even then things to do with Servers were left to people like Richmond in the IT Crowd.. Nothing seems to show as an application to start using it and every thing I opened in the Control panel asked me to set up something else first with abbreviations I had never heard of.Nothing showed up in Windows Explorer except DiskStation which just jumped back to where I had been and requesting passwords again.Once I realised after the initial setup you need to go back to the Synology site and input your model number and download the Mac, Linux or Windows applications to have at least something on the PC desktop like Synology Cloud Station and Folders you can see in Explorer I was on the way but it took a long frustrating way of finding out.If you find that the power on/off settings which are set in Control Panel Hardware don't seem to work at the right time like mine you need to go to a different icon for regional settings and set it to GMTI wish it had been easier as the product itself seems to be in a completely different league to the simple WD MyBookLive I had been using which became bricked like many others.Update 7/3/2014. It took a good couple of days getting it configured and a note of caution to anyone wanting to hand over control of their iTunes Library to the Synology Software App called iTunes Server.I wasn't exactly sure what was happening when I installed it but after getting it to go ahead and configure after a long period doing something it just greyed out and locked up.I decided to abandon this and deleted all the music it had tried to copy across before locking up. I normally run Windows for my work stuff and leave the iMac for my Media. A couple of days later I switched on the Mac and my Library was empty of all 35 GB of CD's I had done over the winter put in the library and then given away to the Charity Shop. In a panic I went into Time Machine on the Mac and back a week and my iTunes library was there but after selecting restore a few times it didn't come back.After hours of fiddling around I found that the music was there all the time but the Synology iTunes Server App had shifted the location in Finder from "Music" to a sub heading in "User" and my Mac Library had lost the location. Dragging the Music folder back to the Root and instantly the Library appeared again and panic over. Hope this info is a help to someone who has the same thing.

2.11.2015

I love tech. I'm an apple person. My units are apple TV (the latest one, not the one just came out), iphone 6s and mid 2009 macbook pro. Not to the point that I understand port forwarding, TCP etc etc. This is my first NAS. My options were QNAP, WD my cloud or Synology. The QNAP was not available. WD my cloud don't play well with apple TV. This 214play seems to fit me most. I don't need 4K transcoding, so I don't need the 216play.Installing the 2x WD Red 3TB was a breeze. The unit immediately went to work on the drive. My priorities are : Time machine backup, able to copy all my photos and my video and possible my music to it, so I can save space in my mac,able to save data to it and access it anywhere.Downloaded the DSM software. Things became a bit unclear afterwards. I went through all the set up as instructed. I understand server name alright. Then there's quick connect username and password. Afterwards, all other set up is a matter of trial and error. They give guidance in the web browser where the synology is accessed from, but still not clear.I figured out that I can register new user, I have to give them rights to access shared folders. Create folders and give them rights for any user to access. Manage to set up time machine and worked well. Also, advisable to do the first time machine backup with another LAN cable connected to your router as it is quicker than wi-fi. That sort of thing, I found out myself. Then i downloaded the synology apps on my phone. I have uploaded some photos from my phone to it. I couldn't find (yet) of how to create folder from the phone. I have to go back into the browser to create folder, then rearrange the photo...Those sort of thing is a little bit annoying. I haven't dealt with videos or transcoding to apple tv yet.My point is that this is an excellent, quiet unit and I like the synology hybrid drive concept that protects 1 drive fail but yet utilises all the available hard drive capacities. The DSM is good in general. Hence multiple awards. I personally think Synology need to do more to make it more intuitive for newbie like me. And the way the NAS market is going, it is likely that you'll see more people like me buying it. More automated guided process at the setup page to register known user for example, then tell the person that we are going to setup some shared folder and guide them through it, then get the customer to download app and guide them step by step on how to use it. I think a video set-up on your website for macs and pc is the best way to go. When or if apple start to make NAS, it would be more simple than this, and that is a challenge for synology to get better.I will continue to use this NAS and explore as I go along. I will report further after using this for a few months.

28.10.2014

I bought this as the heart of a new hi-fi set up, to hold an extensive music collection in FLAC format, with enough space for pictures as well (a 24 MP camera produces huge files, especially if you shoot RAW).Set up was straightforward, no problems at all.I would recommend downloading the manual from the Synology site and familiarizing yourself before you start the set up, though.For the technically minded, I have it connected to an Asus RT-AC66U router by gigabit ethernet. There is a Pioneer N50K music streamer (also on ethernet) which then points to sound to a Marantz amplifier (coax) and pictures to an LG smart TV (HDMI).

11.2.2015

The disk station is absolutely excellent once up and running.There are a host of problems with it though - some very serious and others just details. The most serious problem is how noisy the unit is when running: there is no way we could also work in the study with it clanking away in the background, and I do mean "clanking". Perhaps my unit is faulty but I have no way of comparing with others. The uploading of photos is rather slow and although I am very good with gadgets and computers in general (owning and using a Mac, a Windows 8.1 and a Linux box), it is not at all obvious how to go about even easy tasks such as adding an album from Mac's iPhoto while retaining its original name.

29.11.2014

I added a couple of 3TB hard drives to this and it's now got more space than I can possibly use. But after the work I've put into setting it up and populating it, we're more likely to just use Netflix on the Chromecast. Synology have their own versions of *so many* applications to use their NAS and its authentication and management tools. Music, videos, photos, note-taking, cloud storage and sharing across devices, and all of the various SOHO applications like email, fileserving, website authoring... It's incredibly impressive that the applications are as good as they are, but they're competing with Spotify, Netflix, Instagram, Evernote, Dropbox, and dozens of other applications simultaneously,

26.2.2015

Bought the DS214Play to create my own personal cloud so I didn't have to give my personal stuff for some company to use and abuse. This Solution worked pretty much to perfection. Plugged it into my VM superhub, logged into it from Chrome, followed the startup wizard, chose the smart Synology raid option, and bang it was available to everything connected to the network. Dragged and dropped everything from all my machines into the appropriate folder on the DiskStation took a couple of hours for 300 GB of data. Next to open access so I could get at it from the rest of the world. This took three days of research cos I didnt want to have to go through Synology,

7.6.2014

I Umm'd and Ahh'd over the 214Play or another Qnap for quite a while, but in the end decided on the Synology. The Processor seems more than up to the job with it's dual core and I'm sure the 1gb of ram doesn't hurt either.Setting it up was a breeze as it's mostly wizard driven. New users might find some of the set up confusing and that could do with a little work, but there's plenty of help on the internet.It's used mostly to stream music and photos to devices around the house and also for document storage and sharing, I don't use video streaming so can't comment on that. It's set up as a single Volume using Raid-1 to provide protection in case of HDD failure, not that I expect the WD-Reds (2x2tb)

14.2.2014

I took a bit of a punt on this (spent ages considering it - but don't know any one who has one yet) as there were questions raised on forums etc as to how this integrates with Apple TV. However - it plays every video format I've tried flawlessly - through an app on your phone in which you can browse your whole collection. Build quality is excellent - as is the software suite. There is a lot to learn with this - but good info on forums and websites. The potentially tricky stuff (set up of router port forwarding etc.) is automated and works well.One of my main reasons for buying this was for photo management/ backup. I was worried about the switch from iPhoto - but it works as I had hoped.

3.12.2013

Before purchassing the DS214Play, I had a DS209. I definitely see an improvment in managing the library or generating thumbnails for my movies is way faster with this new device.Device is advertised as 1080p Full HD Video Transcoding on the Fly and even if they don't mention anything about Plex, I would appreciate to see this feature coming. If this work has to be done by Plex, I would appreciate to be notified. More information can be found here: [...]I rate this device 3/5 for now and I will change this once I either receive confirmation from Synology that 1080p Full HD Video Transcoding on the Fly will come to Plex on this device in a near future or a confirmation that this work need to be

24.12.2014

I used to have a Linux computer as a File server, but this only take approximately €15-€30 per year to run, this is 10% of the PC I was using so I basically save the investment in 1 year.the Linux implementation is not a straight forward as I am used to, so I have basically left it alone to its standard configuration.I am using NFS and SAMBA since I have both Linux and windows commuters on my network, all work perfect.I did have a problem setting up the home drive function, and it took a while to figure out how to set permissions to allow people access to only their own home drives while at the same time preventing them from seeing any one elses home drive.Synology is using a system where you define access rights in the Synology GUI,

22.2.2014

This is certainly a nice piece of kit, and I expect that together with Synology Tech Support one day I will get it to do everything I know it can do, but whilst Synology have done everything they can to make life easy it desperately needs a 'DS214play for Dummies' to make life even easier.I expected, naively, that I could simply plug it in, select exactly what I wanted it to do from a menu, then get on with it. Well, it's not quite that easy.Synology provide a whole raft of 'apps' that you can down-load and use, each one effectively adding functionality to the NAS. You have to wend your way through them to decide which one you want/need, and then once downloaded and installed, configure it.This,

21.7.2015

Excellent, at everything really, you may buy it for one purpose but quickly find it can do 10 other things you didn't know you needed to do, but then cannot do without. An example: we have multiple staff and users all with independent Dropboxe's, the problem was to corporately bring them all together at HQ, the way Dropbox works this is not easy without investing in their business product, one Synology App, however, can link to any number of Dropbox's, Google Drives, etc, and back them all to it's self, additionally, their content is then available for corporate use. This can be a two way sync, or perfect for us a one way download sync therefore,

12.4.2014

I tried a Buffalo NAS before this and found it to be too much 'designed to a price', too slow, too much tinkering required etc.This was a contrast, up and running in no time, quick, fully featured and a joy. Despite one of my WD 3Tb red drives being faulty, this kept going and when the replacement drive arrived from WD, it did what it should, mirrored the drive on insertion.It's hot-swappable, works well with Macs and being a photographer, I love the fact that I can shoot jpegs on my SD card (RAW on my CF) and when I get home, simply put the card in the drive, press the copy button and this copies the images into a dated sub-directory, makes great thumbnails which can then be viewed anywhere in the world,

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