Synology DiskStation 2-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (DS214play)

----------------------------------------------Updating this review now with new information!----------------------------------------------I am upping this review from one star to four stars because a tech from Synology was able to give me a good work-around to the problem I was having. The work-around to the problem is as follows: Configure the Video Station app so that your videos are indexed as "Home Movies" instead of indexing them as "Movies" or "TV Shows". The indexing features for Home Movies don't attempt to perform internet searches for the metadata content, so there will be no mistakes in the video tagging.There is only one down side to this which is when you play the movies, in the player app, they appear under the "home movies" heading instead of the "movies" heading. This is not a major problem.So my primary complaint about this product is resolved. Upping review from one star to four stars. The fifth star shall remain in reserve for the day where no work-arounds are needed at all. :-)-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here is the old review, so that you can understand the nature of the problem that required the work-around:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The reason that you might want to buy a Synology DS214play in particular, is because it's the first device in the Synology NAS line which has 1080p GPU hardware transcoding built in. What this means is, if you want it to stream a video to another device (say, to a Chromecast, or to your tablet device), and the video format isn't directly supported, then you want the DS214play to convert that video to a format that your device CAN play. Doing this in high quality for high resolution videos is a tall order, but with the transcoding chip in the DS214play this becomes possible. I have tested this and it works great, I was able to Chromecast a high definition 1080p video of a concert that I had performed in. The video had been saved in a format that was not originally directly Chromecast compatible. The video played perfectly in 1080p thanks to the hardware transcoding on this box.BUT... In order for this feature to work, at the time of this writing, you needed to use Synology's own "Video Station" app for this to work. Because the popular and common third party "Plex" app can't (yet) take advantage of the hardware transcoder in the DS214play. Plex recently dropped hints on their forums that this might be in the works, but it's not here yet. I like Plex and I want to be able to use it, but without the hardware transcoding, it's academic for me at this point. So for now, you're stuck using Synology's own "Video Station" app for this instead.Although Synology's Video Station isn't strictly "built in" to the product (you have to download it like any other app), it's about as close to built-in as you can get. It's in the first page of "recommended" apps in the Synology Package Center, and it's essentially the default video sharing app on this thing. As far as I'm concerned, this, combined with the fact that it's the only app that can take advantage of the 214play's hardware transcoding, makes it a "built in" app for the purposes of this review. It's really your only choice.So what happens when you use Synology's Video Station app? For every video that you copy to the NAS's hard disk, it automatically searches for the video file's name on the internet and fills in the data for the closest match. It fills in the name of the video, fills in the video box art, the actors, directors, plot synopsis, everything. This box art and information is what you see when you are browsing the library for videos, either using the web interface or your mobile device. All of it filled in automatically.It does a terrible job at this, of course.I uploaded a test of several dozen random video files onto this thing. Among other mistakes, here are a couple of examples of the mistakes it made on my system:- A music video for Alex Lifeson's song "promise" was incorrectly tagged with the synopsis and box art of a Finnish WW2 Drama film called Promise. Never mind that the drama film was 2 hours long and the music video was only five minutes. Apparently their metadata search doesn't take length into account.- The Carl Sagan "Cosmos" episode, "The Lives of Stars", was incorrectly tagged with the synopsis and box art of a documentary about porn stars called "The Secret Lives of Adult Stars". Several other Cosmos episodes were mis-tagged, but that was the worst one.In total, out of several dozen files:- The number of bad/false metadata tags applied was approximately 10-15 files.- Out of those, the number of bad/false metadata tags that incorrectly showed innocent videos as adult, porn, or tangentially porn-related: approximately 2-3.- The number of correct metadata tags that showed up: 0.- The remainder all just had their original file names with no metadata.Then I looked at how to remove this bad metadata. There is no way to globally remove it, and, even if you go into each file one at a time, it is a difficult multi-step hard-to-find process (I couldn't find the option to edit the metadata on my own without google searching for how to do it), and, worse, you can't remove the box art without supplying it with an alternate box art yourself. (The box art only gives you the choice to supply a file, not to remove the box art altogether.) Strike one.Then I went looking for a way to turn this automatic internet-metadata-searching off. Though I might be able to edit 10-15 files now, once I actually fill this thing up with all my files (and the files of the other members of my household), I don't want to have to hand-edit hundreds of files to get rid of bad metadata. Guess what? There isn't a way to do it. I googled and FAQ'ed. There is no answer. I searched the Synology user forums. Other people on the forums have been complaining about this same thing for a long time, and there is no solution there. The others who encountered the problem, who were posting on the Synology forums, were a lot more embarrassed by the porn thing than I was, because they had kids, and it was Kid's videos that were getting mistagged as porn. Especially when they tried to show their wife how the new NAS worked. WHOOPS. Strike two.On the Synology forums, there are no repsonses from Synology employees to the people encountering the issue. There are no entries in the Synology knowledge base covering this topic. No one, anywhere, is saying that Synology is working on a solution. Every query is met with silence. Strike three.I opened a support ticket on this, using their web based support system, but it was on a Friday, and I guess they don't have weekend support. I'm not optimistic that they'll have an official solution, because I'm not the first person to complain about this, and everyone else on the Synology forums is getting the silent treatment. I see nothing to indicate that I'm going to be any different in this regard.In contrast: Using Plex is dream compared to this. Plex makes far fewer mistakes when searching for metadata. Plex got a few accurate correct metadata tags in my sample set of files, which, although not many, was still several times more correct than Video Station got. And when Plex mis-tags a file, it is a one-click operation to remove that bad data. Finally, Plex does have a configuration option which allows it to skip the automatic internet metadata searching altogether (though it's not clearly named). So yay, Plex is great, but... I can't use it on this thing because it won't take advantage of the hardware transcoding (yet).So, since I seem to be stuck with Video Station, I took it upon myself to find a solution.After two solid days of investigation and experimentation, and enlisting help from friends who are Linux experts, I have finally figured out a way to hack around this by editing files on the Synology hard disk. I literally had to locate and modify the scripts that search for the metadata, and deliberately mangle the internet addresses that the scripts used for the searching. I also had to flag the metadata-searching daemon as non-executable. I also had to fully deinstall and reinstall the Video Station app and start over from scratch before doing any of those modifications, because if I didn't, it would simply have kept the bad metadata in its database. Finally, the solution I implemented is such that, if the Video Station app gets updated, I can't take the update unless I'm willing to do the hacking all over again a second time. So I had to turn off auto-updating on Video Station.I've posted the detailed steps of my solution in the Synology Forums. Search for "Metadata Porn" there and you'll find it. I'm proud of the solution that my friends and I came up with, and it makes the NAS usable for me. But the fact that I had to spend two days investigating and tinkering with the thing to work at a basic baseline "no false porn tags" level, gives it Strike Four.I'm reviewing this product as one star, because out of the box IT. IS. NOT. USABLE.- By default, out of the box, it tags your innocent documentary and kid's video files as porn. In no one's book does this count as making it a usable product.- Synology does not have a fix for this problem at the time of this writing.- Synology didn't even test it well enough to figure out that they needed an off switch for the auto-metadata-searching. YOU CAN'T TURN OFF THE FALSE PORN TAGGING.- Synology has not repsonded to anyone on their user forums who were complaining about this problem.- To fix the problem, I had to spend two days investigating and hacking, and at the time of this writing I think I'm the only person on the planet who has solved this problem. Hopefully, soon others will be able to successfully implement my fix, but my point is they shouldn't have to fix it, it should just work OK out of the box.Synology, if you're reading this review:FIXTHISPROBLEMNOWPLEASE.If you do, I will change this review to four stars.(If you guys care about that sort of thing.) If you go the extra mile, and help Plex get hardware transcoding working, so that I can start using their excellent app instead, I will increase the review to five stars.If you're someone else reading this review, and you know how useful and powerful Synology's products can be, and you're willing to perform the hacking that I did, then by all means, ignore the 1-star review and get this thing. It's a quiet, fast, powerful NAS, the first of its kind with hardware transcoding, with a lot of great features and an amazing array of installable apps.

OK this will not be a technical review there are currently enough out here for this particular product. My review is more for the lay person who is trying to figure which route to take.OK do not let the price scare you away compared to other NAS drives out there, in my honest opinion this is the standard to which all other NAS drive should strive to be like. Yes the price point is higher over other NAS drives but the scale and flexibility cannot be matched by almost any low end NAS drive on the market today. Yes I said low end.Now I will say this once you buy this bad boy do not I repeat do not go cheap on the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) you put in here, you will only get out of it what you put in. If you want the reliability that Synology boast on there site then you will need to put in high quality HDD's that are designed for constant 24/7 use, meaning their life span will not shorten due to the constant use. I highly recommend Western Digital (WD) Red drives, 15 years ago hands down it would have been Seagate Barracuda but either Seagate decided not to care anymore or they thought no one would pass them by and factor in I keep hearing that their products fail more sooner than other HDD's out there I have to go with WD here. They have come a long way since the WD BigFoot (go ahead and look it up) from the 90's (yes I have been in Information Technology that long).Also buy a UPS surge protector that supports some form of smart connect (VIA USB), you can configure the NAS drive to receive info on the fly from the UPS thus allowing it to issue a shutdown command not only to itself but other Synology products that is connected to the UPS.Now the brass tax mainly why am I spending so much on this NAS drive when obviously there are so many out there for half the price that CLAIM to do the same thing? Well they are half the price and no they cannot match the scope of what Synology product line can offer. Now mind you to a certain extent most of the loaded tools and features can be navigated and configured by the common end user but you will and I repeat you will need to follow the instructions to the letter and also do not I repeat do not touch your Router's (the thing that is providing you access to the outside world) configuration to accomplish some of external cloud based configurations. Luckily Synology has a wizard that has a decent amount of presets for various brands makes and models but it is short compared to how many are on the market and they are adding more from what I understand. If they do not have yours on the list then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND contacting the Manufacturer for support then your Internet Service Provider (ISP) if you are using their router but do it in that order Manufacturer then the ISP even if your ISP gave it to you. Once you get this bad boy setup and ready to role you have a bevy of 3rd party apps to choose from but do not get off into that and start installing like there is no tomorrow. Don't be me, I am IT and I like to see how things work and I get wide eyed and I have this natural need to break things, because when you break it in the IT world unless you put a hammer to it you only found its threshold so start from scratch and figure out what you want to do with your new toy. I recommend plan out what you want to use that particular NAS for and try to limit it to that but play with it and if you take it to the point of no return just wipe complete and act like you never did it with respect to remember what you did so you know not to do it again.Last but definitely not least on this list is bandwidth, this goes back to you only get out of it what you put into it when I spoke about HDD's. Scenario: You just received your synology NAS and the HDD's to go with it along with the UPS/Surge protector with Smart connect what else could I possibly need, ummmm lets see the data read write speed that you read up on and drooled over does not happen by magic. OH NO you will need a RJ-45 Network cable that can handle that kind of speed and hopefully your router has ports that supports atleast Gigabyte transfer rates. If you are like me with two Synology NAS drives then I recommned plugging them both into a switch to free up those precious ports on your router. Now my suggestion is this switch since you do not have to manage it (trust me if you do not know routers then plug this in and let it work). I use it at home simply because I do not feel like going in there and looking at anything but that will change soon so I have to replace this device: TP-LINK TL-SG1005D 10/100/1000Mbps 5-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch, 10Gbps Capacity, this guy paired up with a pair of CAT6a RJ-45 network cables (one plugged from the NAS to the switch and one from the switch to the Router) and you will have maximum 10GB data speeds at your fingertips. OH only buy the length you need for the CAT6a cable I always recommend the distance you need to cover plus a foot maximum for slack.In conclusion the DS214play is pricey overall meaning there is alot to buy to get the maximum usage out of this product but if you are reading this then you are willing to commit the time and effort that is needed to make sure your cloud technology experience is the best on the market today. I did not speak to the Hardware encoding for the video play streaming and such because it speaks for itself, right now no one else does this to my knowledge. Nothing needs to be said about what they are advertising, I wanted to post to let people know about the unknown and when you speak about Network Attached Storage it is still in the realm of Network/Security Administrator data center realm of the world. 10 years ago I was told this (Home NAS) was coming and I said no way couldn't and wouldn't happen its cost prohibitive but just like the very first VOIP call I heard from one computer to another with its crackling and static back in 1996 it has evolved, grown and demanded technology catch up. Which it did.

nice unit with multiple functions. diskstation OS packages still needs additional features to make it more functional. Support is there but wish they were more involved/public with bug reports/feature requests. By allowing others to vote on features/bug reports, it will help them fix it faster.

全ての設定をwebGuiで行えます。取っつき易く多機能です。Asterisk を導入しip電話サーバとして活躍しています。

I love it! I have the DS112J, but the ds214play is much better, I am really enjoying it.

HDDは「WD30EFRX」を使用していますが、読込み・書込みスピード共、仕様通りのスピードが出ました。（リンク速度：1Gbps、ジャンボフレーム設定：7000）初めてでも使い易く、設定も簡単でした。ただ、所持していたオムロン製UPS（BX-35F）をUSB接続しても、認識しませんでした。ネットワーク経由で連携する方法しかないようです。なので以前使用していたBuffaloのNAS（LS-VL）にUPSを接続して、そこから連携するように設定してテストしたところ、正常にシャットダウンできたので、この状態で運用しています。UPSの部分が少し残念ですが、性能・機能共にとてもいいNASサーバです。

super i love the machine