A NAS is a critical component to support all my devices at home.
At its most basic form it’s just another simple computer on your network that you leave
on 24/7.
I use it to automatically backup important files, save large video projects, use it as
a centralized location to store and stream my media files over Plex to my TVs, and to
run server applications that operate continuously throughout the day.
For years I’ve used a NAS that I built with some spare computer parts that I had laying
around but this DIY route can be a little advanced for some users and is a bit larger
and more power hungry than I would like.
So instead I’m going to try a prebuilt NAS, the Synology DS418play.
Going the Synology route is definitely a smaller and simpler build to put together, the diskstation
user interface is really easy to get everything configured and running, and there are a variety
of easy to install applications to add additional support for cloud syncing, email servers or
even video surveillance storage.
While it will also work as a Plex Media Server if you’re direct playing videos, software
transcoding is limited with the slow Intel Celeron CPU, but alternatively you could just
use Synology’s DS Video player and take advantage of its hardware transcoding.
Hi I’m David and here are my thoughts on the Synology DS418play.
Full disclaimer this hardware was provided to me for testing.
First let’s quickly take a look at the hardware of the Synology DS418play.
This NAS has 4 drive bays but I’m currently only populating it with three 10tb Seagate
Ironwolf drives.
One of the best features with Synology NASes is their Synology Hybrid RAID that provides
both data protection and flexible expansion when upgrading in the future.
In this configuration I have access to 20tb of storage, with one drive used as redundancy.
So if one of the drives happens to fail, I’ll be protected and still have access to all
my files.
Also since I still have an extra drive bay available, in the future if I need to add
more storage I can populate it will another 10tb or larger drive and the Synology Hybrid
RAID will automatically expand and protect all the drives from a single disk failure.
Looking at the rest of the hardware on the NAS, inside you’ll find an Intel Celeron
J3355 CPU, 2 GB of system memory that can be expanded up to 6 GB with another memory
module.
On the front you have basics such as a power button, USB 3.0 port, drive access indicators,
and locking mechanisms on all the drive bays to keep from accidentally pulling them out.
On the back is another USB 3.0, Kensington Lock, two network ports for either link aggregation
or failover support.
But in my testing I just used one of the gigabit lan ports and saw consistent read and write
transfer speeds with my large video files that pretty much saturate the gigabit network
line.
And finally on the back are the two fans that keep everything cool.
Noise from the fans was pretty quiet during my typical use but hard drive noise is noticeable
through the case with these faster spinning, larger multi platter drives.
So be sure to consider where you’re placing the device to avoid sound sensitive areas
with this setup.
The next best thing about this Synology NAS is the super easy to use DiskStation Manager
OS.
It has a very similar feel to using an operating system kind of like Windows 10 but you access
it over your web browser.
The first time you boot up, it automatically installs and updates, with a basic wizard
guiding you through the initial configurations and shortly after your NAS is ready to be
used as network storage device.
Configuring basic things in DiskStation Manager is super simple as well.
Add shared folders to organize all your files, or even encrypt folders.
Add and manage user accounts with permissions to specific folders.
Configure the QuickConnect feature so you can connect to your NAS from anywhere with
internet connection Setup notification services to receive alerts
on the status of your NAS.
Schedule Tasks And there’s a lot more that can be configured
but the Synology Knowledge database does a pretty good job on describing all their features
and how to set them up.
The Package Center is pretty much the app store for Synology.
From here there is variety of different applications you can easily install to add additional features
to the NAS.
Applications for automatic backups to the cloud or other NASes, utilities for a mail
server or IP camera storage, but the main applications I use on this NAS are Plex, DS
VideoStation, and Docker.
DS VideoStation is Synology’s own application for streaming media files from the NAS to
your various devices locally or over the internet.
Very similar to Plex, it allows you to access Movies, TV Shows, and any other videos, automatically
organized with episode metadata and thumbnails.
VideoStation can also take advantage of the hardware transcoding capability of the CPU
to transcode 4K H264 or H265 media files to devices up to 1080p max.
For the most part DS VideoStation works well as a media server the only main limitations
I noticed are it doesn’t support transcoding the odd audio sources such as DTS or Dolby
True HD, and any H265 10-bit files can’t be hardware transcoded either.
But if you stick to direct playing without transcoding or only transcode H264 or H265
files you should be fine.
Alternatively Plex is the other popular application for organizing and streaming your media files
that can be manually installed on the NAS.
And I personally prefer to use it over DS VideoStation since it does a better with generating
the right metadata and thumbnails for movies automatically.
And the user interface does a better job displaying TV shows episodes you’re currently watching,
or newly added media upfront with the On Deck home screen.
The one downside is though is currently with the free public version of Plex Media Server
it doesn’t support hardware transcoding.
And the CPU on this NAS is too slow for most transcoding tasks.
It’s fast enough for Audio transcoding to support those DTS or Dolby audio files.
But it’s just barely fast enough for 1080p H264 or H265 video files.
So anything beyond that is pretty much out of the question.
But if you’re just direct playing all your media files to devices that natively support
your files everything will work perfectly fine.
Docker is that last application that I use but just a warning it isn’t actually officially
supported on this model.
I was able to manually install and it seems to work perfectly fine so far for my basic
containers but no guarantees without official support.
Overall the Synology DS418play is a solid NAS solution.
Easy to use, small footprint, power efficient, and lots of easy to install apps to add various
server functionality.
Perfect for anyone who wants a simple drop in solution for centralizing files at home
or as part of a backup strategy.
It does also work as a media server with transcoding support if you use the DS VideoStation application,
or Plex also works too but it’s best to stick to compatible files so everything plays
directly.
And while the DIY route is still a good option if you need to build a more powerful NAS,
already have some parts laying around, and don’t mind spending more time tinkering
to get everything up and running.
For those people who just want a NAS and get up running as quickly as possible, the Synology
DS418play is probably the better recommendation.
But hope you guys enjoyed this one.
You know what to do.
And I’ll see you in the next video.