I really wish that Synology would break out their security updates from their feature updates for this reason. I have messaged them and told them this and I would encourage others to ask for the same thing. I don't use Video Station and don't care myself, but I understand why this is upsetting for people because of features getting removed whether you want them to or not just so you can have the latest security updates. This should all be separate to allow the users to pick/choose what is right for them instead of blanketing everyone with THEIR choices to remove things whether you want it or not, or run an insecure NAS because you want to retain the applications they are removing along with the security updates. It's dumb and they need to stop it! They shouldn't get to decide how or what we use on our NAS or what the lifespan is for applications all because we want security updates but are forced to lose the apps to get the security patches!
Its not the Video Station, its the undelying codecs that are being removed gimping all of the other apps. The licenses probably only 50c a year. Yet the device is 5-6x of the actual hardware cost. They should be able to break off $5 over lifetime of a 10 year old device.
@@Act1veSp1n Yeah I get that but if you are someone that needs this for whatever reason you shouldn't be forced to lose it to ensure your NAS is secure because you can't get the security updates separate from feature updates. The Alternative is to not update but then sacrifice security, or having to use an alternate firewall to stand in front of this unit to keep it secure in future.
I care that Video Station is GONE. I purchased the Synology NAS obviously for its SOFTWARE and ease of setup NOT for its mediocre hardware. They Synology from my perspective just pulled a bait a switch. Reminds me of my first CLOUD setup. Actually it was Western Digital's MYCLOUD. They abandoned it, bricked it, never trusted Western Digital cloud "solutions" again. Synology is slowly going down the WD path and WILL not be my next NAS.
lol - Same exact experience - Started with WD MYCLOUD - it broke and bad support - so i lost trust in mycloud/WD so i looked up and found synology because people i knew who used it showed me how easy it was to setup and all the applications that came with it. If not i would just have made my own NAS
I switched to Jellyfin a while ago via Docker (Container Manager). Took a while to set everything up (renaming files and building the needed directory structure - especially for music albums). But it's working much better than Video Station (and Audio Station) ever has.
I opened a Plex account back in 2013 and decided it wasn't for me and have been using DS Video ever since. However, with DS Video landing on the chopping block, I decided to give Plex another go as I didn't fancy going through Docker for Jellyfin... cowardly I know! I have to say, the transition was very easy and Plex has come a LONG way since I last used it. It honestly took me no longer than an hour or two and I was set up on all my mobile devices and Smart TV's. Now all I need is a replacement for Surveillance Station...
I'm user of Video Station and honestly, I'm starting to get pretty pissed about Synology. Their only real advantage to QNAP have always been their software and only that. Their HW is lackluster beyond belief and now, when they degraded their software multiple times (remember, when they axed all the USB drivers when going from DSM6 to DSM7) and trying to push their (super expensive) HW down our throat (Synology HDD only for XS series, only their NVMe SSDs can create storage pool, that stupid mini 10GbE NIC), I'm more and more convinced, that next time I'll be upgrading my NAS I'll end up in QNAP camp...
Synology hardware is seriously outdated, but don't forget the big advantages: They force their rebranded hardware (drives, network cards, RAM) on you (for increased pricing), they use non-standards fans that you cannot replace without getting unnecessary "fan stop" warnings that also stop the fan that never failed in the first place, and they don't give one the option to buy a NAS with an Intel CPU that supports QuickSync for efficient transcoding anymore. Now they are crippling existing devices to save $10 per device sold. What's not to like?
You, I, us and some of our customers .... if it is about CODEC prices, they should have given us the option to PAY and most will have. Stupid move. I also affect Surveillance Station.
I don't really use VS, but I have always has an issue with companies removing PAID FOR FEATURES. If you purchased your NAS with those features, companies should be prohibited from removing paid for features. Dropping support for a product is one thing, removing features that a customer paid for is another.
Obviously. It's their OS, not yours. Do you get any say in what Microsoft does with Windows? So then why do you expect this to be any different? Synology is not nerfing DSM by any means, I don't understand why we are all acting like that's the case.
@@mcglsr237 Let’s engage your imagination for a moment-don’t worry, I’ll keep it simple. Picture this: they removed a feature you use. I know, tough to comprehend, right? But let’s try. Now, let’s take it slow because I know nuance can be a challenge. Imagine you somehow manage to buy a Tesla (yes, really stretch your mind here). You’ve done what’s probably the first bit of research in your life and picked a model with 300 miles per charge. Great, right? Fast forward a year-Tesla pushes a software update. Cool features, security & bug fixes, you know, the usual tech stuff. But whoops-your shiny new car now only gets 25 miles per charge. I know this might be a bit much, but can you try to picture how you might feel in that scenario? Angry? Confused? Or would it take a while for you to even notice? Considering it's Tesla’s software, maybe you’d assume it’s perfectly reasonable. Don’t strain yourself-understanding that kind of disappointment might be outside your realm of experience.
The only reason I've stuck with Synology was because of VideoStation. My camera security setup depends on this function. My Network TV setup depends on this function. Otherwise, I would've used the competition's solutions such as Qnaps or even Ugreen who had much better hardware options. I've put off even building my own nas because of VideoStation. I've only owned their higher tier of Intel based Nas because of Videostation. My family depends on Videostation. Now I need to find alternatives that are overly complicated because of this depreciation of this simple function. Should I upgrade? Yes, but it won't be another Synology. The premium of this solution has lost it's value literally over one update. What was once the deciding feature that made me ignore the competition has now 1 less user of this company. There is no reason to even use a synology NAS since now it functions like every other NAS currently on the market but with significantly worse internals.
i finally decided to buy a synology a few months back because of its complete hazzle free software package including videostation, and now this. Thanks alot synology, looking at your future products i dont see a single reason not to not instead buy qnap or go trough the trouble of putting together a home built nas using truenas etc which i regret i didnt do now, so this was the first and last product from you i bought
Hi Will, yes I am a user of Video Station and have many home / family videos running on it, watching them via AppleTV. Synology dropping support is a real pain for me. I'd be really interested in a video on possible alternatives. Many thanks for your great work.
I think this video just saved me a lot of money. Or maybe it cost me a lot. I'm looking to get a home NAS setup and was close to buying a Synology NAS. But hearing that they can and will drop features that a significant number of users are dependent on makes me shy away from them. What's to stop them dropping some feature that I've come to depend on?
It really bothers me how Synology treats their users, like second-class citizens. I don’t use Video Station so this doesn’t affect me personally, but they’re like this with other things too. Just treat us like cattle.
Synology are primarily a hardware company so any software that isn’t directly concerned with providing NAS functionality will be seen as an overhead. If they are trying to save money it’ll be a prime candidate for the chop. I’ve seen it happen way too many times over the years. For this reason I won’t rely on any of their software add-ons.
@@JamieWhitehorn Respectfully, I disagree that Synology is primarily a hardware company. Their software is their value differentiator. I mean, their hardware is a differentiator too, but not in a good way. If that is how Synology sees itself, it would be incredibly ironic, because most users choose Synology for their software. Their hardware specs are years behind their competitors.
The big deal, and this is a huge deal, is that this update is malicious software and violates several of the cardinal rules of coding. As a coder, you should never ever ever push an update that ruins or removes functionality both software wise and hardware wise of someone else's property. This update removes functionality, ruins, gimps, the property of the NAS owner and was not part of the consideration at the time of purchase. What Synology should do is leave the existing product line alone and do these changes for future model releases that way proper consideration is given when units of those new models are purchased. So whether or not you use video station this is still a huge matter on principle alone.
I understand everything you said, and I heavily disagree. Calling this update malicious and that it violates several rules of coding is...extreme. People just like getting pissed about stuff without really digging into whether it's something to be pissed about. Removing code from codebases happens All. The. Time. This is not a new practice. Some features that get released don't work well, aren't received well, aren't used, and so -- THEY GET REMOVED. Because to KEEP code means you are now paying a lot of money to maintain it, support it, test it, regression test it, pentest it, etc. It gets very expensive and contributes complexity to code when it doesn't even need to be there. Companies do this all the time. It's a good practice, and it makes sense. It's called managing your technical debt. Have you heard of Windows? Aren't you pissed that Paint 3D is removed!?! Incensed even??? I bet there were 5 people that used it!! The outrage! This update does not ruin anything, it doesn't ruin Synology, it doesn't ruin your NAS. Legitimately. I have it running on 4 NASs -- they are running along perfectly fine. People leaving/hating because Video Station isn't available -- there is this called Plex. Maybe you have heard of it. It's pretty much the defacto video organization app out there. The overwhelming majority of people interested in video station probably already have Plex. Why should a company (Synology) invest time and resources into creating an only-okay video app when a superior one already exists, already works on Synology, has a Free Tier, and most people are probably already using it? I think we all just need to calm down a little here. Go out and touch some grass. Everything is okay.
Does Synology not understand version numbering? Having 7.2.1 update 5 was already stupid, should have been 7.2.6, but then having major compatibility changes going from 7.2.1u5 to 7.2.2?
Just make the h.265 downloadable with a reasonable cost? Would this be hard to do? Some of the cheaper Amazon bought cams require h.265 to to access the higher resolution feed. It really borks Surveillance Station for consumer security. If there was a docker for Blue Iris that I can load on Synology, then I guess there would be an alternative, but there isn't one. Surveillance Station is the primary application that keeps me with Synology and I've been waiting for a 2.5Gb option before considering upgrading. Well, if I'm reading the tea leaves right, looking for another solution now (hopefully, I can find one that is Taiwan rather than a Chinese manufacturer for cyber concerns).
Didn't Synology used to sell the ExFAT driver as a $1.00 addon or something like that? I understand if they're not willing to absorb the costs of licensing a bunch of proprietary codecs, but as you said, it would be totally sensible to just either have the user pay to cover the cost of the codecs they want/use, or take the lazy route and just make Video Station a paid app or something.
As a seperate comment because I didn't want it to get buried in my other comment. This update fixed the problem where Hyper-backup would randomly fail over a Tailscale tunnel. I have multiple DS+ units backing up to an offsite unit and randomly they would fail for no reason. It would either require you to click on "Trust" or "Ignore" in the settings for the target to get it to work again and then would randomly fail again for no reason here/there. This update fixes that for anyone else encountering the problem.
DS Video is literally the only package I use. I guess I'll have to look to free alternatives, but given that it is a direct product of Synology, I assumed it was the least venerable to randomly disappearing. Extremely disappointed.
Haven‘t used it. But the removal shows a problem that I have with their business policy. If one doesn‘t use the patches, we are more and more bound to Synologie‘s hardware, e.g. drives and ssds. They are going to release a new BackUp solution that only comes with synology drives. Since they are number one in the market, they act more and more like a monopoly.
Yes! But usually this is an opportunity for users to look around and for other vendors/startups to offer something else. Last week I knew what to recommend if somebody would ask for advice about NAS. My answer was short: “Just buy a Synology NAS, I can help you to choose”. Today I do not have an answer, and I will not recommend Synology because I do not want to put my friends or colleagues trust at risk. Now I will honestly answer, “Sorry, I do not know, but be careful with Synology, it is unclear which functions they will leave in their NASes”.
It's a big deal for way more users in the Synology Universe. The number of consumer Synology users is going to be WAY MORE than that the number of Business Synology users (many of your clients?). This "update" is not going to be pleasant for MANY consumers. Hopefully you'll be doing more videos on how to set up a DIY NAS - much more powerful, capable and cheaper with a Video Station (sorta) equivalent, albeit, with a bit of a steep learning curve.
I selected a Synology for my NAS due to what i was told about their software support. What a letdown Losing Videostation and codec support in this minor update is terrible news. In addition, @Spacerex you may want to highlight that Synology ship a version of Docker which is end of life and no longer supported. So much for the much vaunted superior software support..
I think that it is a deal that I made with Synology when I bought their expensive hardware with the features that it had, that they would take care of the licencing etc. I am deeply worried this is how tech-business of the future works. You buy a product, with bells and whisthles and then after they have marketshare, they are going to take away bells and whistles. I would understand if they don't provide video for harware they sell after a specific date. Then buyers know what they get.
What I don’t like is when a company just quit applications like this. I don’t use video station myself but it’s not the only program they’ve axed. It’s not a good thing to axe applications, forcing users to constantly try to find alternatives. They could make them into something else, like going from old photos app to Synology Photos, but the old should then be carried over so users current libraries doesn’t get messed up. I am worried they will trash more apps. Like Notes. I have all my notes there and if that went away, I guess all my notes would be gone. I guess one has to be really careful before updating their systems so they don’t lose anything.
I used videostation and the reason why i have chosen Synology in the past was simply getting everything i needed out of one hand. Too many features have changed or are completely gone. The company is changing their business model to fit business customer. Definitely my last Synology hardware. Learn Docker, buy a mini PC. More headaches less costs.
I use my Synology NAS just as a file server. I have work documents, personal photos and movies that I don't ever want to lose. The ability to have snapshots, set automated replication to a second NAS and connect to it via SMB and NFS on my local network, as well as SSH over the global network, is what's important to me.
I could't care less, I just think that is funny that company that charges for 32GB of old memory more than a NAS itself, has overpriced proprietary hardware on Disks, Network Cards and good know what more, can not pay for this, I think they are starting to lose business and the decline starts exactly with small things like this.
I bought my Synology NAS for multimedia. Over the years they have steadily eroded its capabilities. First to go was Logitech media server. That had to be rescued via a newer NAS that could run docker. I worry now about the longevity of Audiostation. Now we have Video station and as I back up photos to photo station via file transfer, I will be hit by the change in how it handles HEIC. Why, oh why doesn’t Synology just offer us the ability to pay the licence and maintain the functionality?
I appreciate your concise explanations. I am a retired developer/programmer and use Synology at home, DS923+ (wish I had seen your suggestion to get a 5-bay or larger, maybe next time). I experimented with Video Station but did not keep using it. I felt it fulfilled all my needs, but was not sure about the Synology commitment so I went another way. Same with the photos app, and Surveillance Station. I did put all SSDs and 10G networking so now my Blackmagic test is better than typical USB disks.
so can i stay on 7.2.1 going forward for while? Will security updates still be available for 7.2.1? Your highlight of Synology photos after the update makes me hesitant to even update. I don't want the headache of dealing with maybe thumbs will come back or not. For me, everything should just work after an update with no maybes, ifs ands or buts.
I’m a bit of a noob here when it comes to these things, but based on what I’ve read. Doesn’t this mean that there really isn’t much point in buying the more expensive Nas devices anymore? Seeing as the nas doesn’t even do the hard work anymore? You could just effectively get a much cheaper synology Nas and the end device will do all of the work. Is there any point in a Nas for over 1000 pounds now?
7:00 It doesn't "suck", it is THEFT for them to remove features that we paid for. I use HEIC AND H265 exclusively. How Synology is avoiding a class action lawsuit is beyond me.
Oh wow, great video! Video playback and thumbnails are very important, so it seems I cannot update anymore from now on? Question, can I still see all h.265 video's on my NAS using and external player like VLC player?
Our family uses Video Station and the DS video app. My sister went to a lot of work to get everything set up... would also be interested in the best and easiest way to transfer to an alternative...
Yeah, I’m one of these video station users. All my media is in it. I have a country home, so it was nice to use it on all my Apple TVs wherever they were. I was reluctant to move to Plex since vidéo station was answering my needs. I’m curious to see the alternative I have appart Plex.
@@ennev only if your NAS is not Intel-based, you'll need something like a minipc to run it on and connect it to your video share on synology. For remote use, try tailscale
@@BoraHorzaGobuchulI tried it. Epic fail. Jellyfin doesn’t support quickconnect , and my IP does not allow open ports on router, so I’m stuck with Quickconnect.
I will never buy another Synology device ever again, even if they roll this back. They ruined the biggest reason I bought a Synology nas, and I can no longer trust them not to rip out other packages in the future. So I won't be recommending any businesses buy any Synology devices either. Since I make purchasing decisions for the company I work at, that's potentially a dozen Synology purchases over the next 2-3 years that won't happen now, pretty much no matter what.
Synology should a) never have penny-pinched about $10 per device; they charged users so much through the purchase price, they can afford a little less profit, and b) if there is really no other way to save the company than through crippling user devices, offer users the chance to pay for the licensing themselves. The real problem is not that users cannot use VS anymore, it is the attitude of the company that bullies its customers. The height of it all is the insincerity: Synology did not announce "We want to save on licensing cost. Yes, we initially sold you a device with codecs, but we are now backtracking on that." Instead they put out the lie, that the changes are about "performance". How low can you get as a company?
I DO use Video Station, yes, I'm louder than most people who don't, however, the reason I bought a NAS, is to actually use it as a media server and a personal cloud! I'm deeply disappointed by Synology and their push for a ' third party solution' , I'm not interested on a third party solution, that's why bought a NAS on the first place! I really hope their workaround involves their integrated solution back.
How long will it be before you make a video taking about Surveillance Station being ripped out? or Active Backup for Business? Or who knows what else they will kill off next? Today, it's video station, which doesn't really hurt most business use cases. Next year, it might be some core functionality that major businesses bought them for.
For someone that uses live photos, does this have any impact on Synology photos? Also any issues migrating existing photo libraries that only exist on the NAS? (i.e., can the phone generate thumbnails for images not stored on the phone)
Feels a little like Synology has changed the terms of sale after the sale was closed. If I bought Synology NAS with Videostation on board, I might be a little disappointed now. But I have never bought Synology exactly because they could do it anytime from day one
Thank for the clarification on 7.2.2. Clear, concise and to the point. Been using Plex for years, so the loss of Video Station doesn’t impact me personally. I do use Surveillance Station & Synology Photos, but can live with the changes. IMO, still better off than having my photos stored in iCloud. Have a great day!
I installed Video Station just a few months ago to watch my daughter’s ballet videos. It looks like I may have to install Plex now. Do you know if Plex will claim use of my videos like Google Photos does? (That’s why I came over to Synology Photos from Google.). Question 2. Is there a reason Video Station cant use H.264 instead of H.265?
Removing choice from existing customers is never a good idea, regardless of how many people use a particular feature. Quite simply, I feel Synology could've handled this far better by just offering the ability for users of the affected apps to purchase the required licence and have it renew as needed. Problem solved and no one who really wants or needs the video station app or thumb nails in the other apps mentioned need to stop using them.
I've always used Plex instead of video station, but Synology removing support for those codecs is plain stupid. You are telling me that when you buy a device that costs over $1200 for very sub par hardware they cannot afford to pay 20 cents for you per year? That only $2 for 10 years! And that is with normal pricing, imagine the wholesale pricing they have. This is one of the most greedy things I have seen a company do. Even though I do not use video station, I do use Synology Photos, Drive and surveillance station and I guess I am one of the very few people that regularly move TBs of HEVC videos manually there, but having my phone process years of HEVC video now is insane. I will certainly not be updating for as long as I can.
So just to offer of alternatives and possibly help, I fully understand this frustration, but to offer some alternatives, assuming you haven’t already updated to this DSM, you can always create your own way of tracking what you watched by creating folder names in the necessary folder. So let’s say for example you “found” a tv series online or maybe you ripped it from a blue ray, assuming you created a folder with the Tv series name you could create a folder inside of the folder saying “season1 is next” or whatever season you’re watching, then inside of the respective season folder, create another folder called “episode2 is next” or whatever episode you’re actually watching, last but not least if your done watching , rename your episode folder to “All episodes watched”. Next of course you have to choose a media player for a specific device, if you’re on Apple TV there infuse, VLC,Mr,c and plex. Plex might be you best solution for the loss of video station as it is similar. I’m about 99% sure the apps I mentioned except for plex process yeh videos locally on the device, so this does away with the problems that come from this update. I know that creating folders with names to what you’re watching is a bit of a chore, but this way you have a more stable way to protect your watch list, because sometimes app updates also break that watch list. Also empty folder take up for significant amount of space, maybe a few bytes of data. For those thinking of going QNAP, keep in mind it’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows over there either, they tend to have more security flaws and they tend to break their own software quite often. I bought a QNAP years ago to see if it was worth changing over and for me personally. I had realized it was not worth it. I hope these ideas help, cheers
Newer models on ARM CPU anyway don't support video encoding: Hello there, I remember about the fuzz about newer models don't have built-in video encoding no longer due to CPU change from Intel to ARM. Is this issue now becoming anyway obsolete has the encoding feature for h.265 is being removed from the DSM? Or am I mixing up two different topics here?
Thanks for your calm explanation. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been a user of the Video Station for last 10 years. If fed my Apple TV only (I guess there was no transcoding) and I liked the simplicity of it and at my age I am not looking forward to mastering another software I’m not sure it is worth my time. I wish they left the basic version in an offered additional license for costly codecs. But the world will keep spinning… it is a shame but not a tragedy.
I used Video Station occasionally. Not as a primary tool. I don't like seeing features removed. I agree they should have maintained support until DSM 8.x or whatever the next major release is. At the end of the day it's a business decision Synology made. There's many work arounds and alternatives. Real impact to me is probably near zero, but it still leaves me with a bad feeling when something is taken away.
I have just started using Video Station 🤣🤣 That is totally my luck right there!! Hey ho, not the end of the world, will try something else. Thanks so much for this video, as otherwise I wouldn't have bloody-well known!! Well done on 100k. Lee UK
Thank you for easing some of the initial major panic that was expressed by others when this update came out. Personally, I don't use video station, so it doesn't appear there are any major concerns with upgrading. I will be migrating my 4 HDDs from a 418 to a 920+ and part of that process involves downloading the latest DSM on the destination NAS.
I encountered a couple of weird issues today. I have installed 7.2.2 manually. I don’t know if it’s the update that has caused the issues but the issues are: 1. The automatic backup of system settings to my Synology account failed. It has never done that before. At least I got a message about it. I backed up manually and it worked. 2. My cleared logs in log center reappeared. Can’t understand how. Nothing else seems to have changed though.
So--- for videos that I've converted from .ISO using handbrake to "H.264 / HVEC" ... and using PLEX, is there any impact on those videos? Will Plex cause many of my movies to no longer work or they will all work and I won't notice the difference? Is my TV just handling the playing of them now? not sure I understand.
Super helpful video. We have Video Station installed but in reality, don't use it very much. Still, I think we want something like it available so we'll probably seek out an alternative if we have to upgrade to 7.2.2 someday.
I’m a synology videostation, and Photos user. When I bought the NAS it was because Synology software was the best and made up for their weak hardware, while charging premium prices for it. I hate that they are removing first party apps that people use. If we wanted to go third party with all apps then why buy Synology. I’m still pissed that I can’t use my own nvmes to create a storage pool and that we are ever being forced to use their own brand, very expensive drives. How can they charge super premium prices then Penny pinch over a bloody codec !?!? The problem is I don’t know what brand NAS I should switch to?
QNAP is a well-known competitor (faster networking is standard). QNAP software hasn't been as secure as DSM, but it is for you to decide whether that is still true or whether it is an actual concern. UGREEN just started their own NAS line. The hardware is leaps and bounds better than that of Synology. The software wasn't good in the beginning but has caught up from what I'm hearing. Also, some users are using TrueNAS on UGREEN hardware. If you have an old PC, you can run TrueNAS or some alternative on that. Won't be as energy efficient, though.
I think it was also a system resources issue and one of the reasons I don't run apps like VideoStation on my Synology NAS. Unfortunate they are eliminating the app altogether, because it appears to be sufficient for some users. Personally, I use PLEX and run it on a dedicated device and store all the media on my Synology NAS.
I download YT videos and store them on my Synology NAS in the File Station > Video share. Presumably, the 7.2.2 update will not affect that arrangement? Would appreciate a comment. I don't have any content in Video Station per se.
Really good question at the end. I would have to chime in that the changes to Synology Photos and Video Station don't affect me at all. I don't own a NAS; I just recommend and manage them for my clients, and all my clients have ever done so far with their NASes is share files over their local networks.
Thanks for the video. First thing I tried when I got my NAS back in 2018 was Plex, because all of the hype back then. Because it did fulfill my needs I didn't explore Video Station anymore. Even though I am slightly concerned about the future of DSM (and while we're at it, Synology hardware in general), and I don't understand why Synology isn't more open on this.
I use the video station on time to time, it’s a very neat application on NAS, I have a collection of all kind of movies, therefore, I definitely need something like this for the best viewing experience.
Will. H264 will take almost dubble the space than H265. This is no good for using cameras in synologys surrv. station. And surr. station will not handle alert motion e.t.c anymore. The cameras has to handle all that on it's self.
What about old videos that use H264 or H265 for thumbnails? Will those videos just never have a thumbnail now? Or do you just need to open each video once on a phone to get the phone to make a thumbnail? If you have thousands of old videos that you have to do that to in order to get thumbnails, that's really a problem.
I still don't know what is actually happening with my iphone photos that are/will be stored in Synology Photos. You're saying that the iphone app will create a jpg thumbnail. OK, then does that mean you still can't view the full resolution photo through Synology Photos in a browser because it is still HEIF? Or are these original HEIF photos actually being converted to JPG? If it converts the original photo to JPG, is the original HEIF photo also kept or is it discarded? If kept, does this mean you actually have two copies of all your photos and I need to make sure both copies are maintained to avoid processing hundreds of photos again in the future? If discarded, should we really trust the conversion process to dump our original photos?
While I agree, lets be careful. Even self-built systems rely on certain futures from software providers. Open Source companies have been gobbled up by some companies. So one needs to check the alternatives very carefully.
@SpaceRex something that came up, you don't have to answer here. could be a future video suggestion. I have the synology 1621+ I have 4 1 GB connection and just installed a Dual 10GB connection. All of it worked great. Here is the question. Is it possible to Map IP' Addresses for different functions on Synology? like 1 IP for Network drive mapping, one Ip for specific Application mapping for local/remote access. or even just local. AKA surveillance station. This is all that the IP would be used for. 1 ip for in case I or someone else (mainly I ) pooch one of the other ip's like locking yourself out of say DSM Remote access because you pooched up the ip settings for that ip. and use the main 10GB connection for Web services. but have the second 10GB connection connected to a PC incase u or I (mainly I cause I keep doing it ) pooched all of you 1 GB ports. its like having a backup to a backup of a backup. I fixed all my connections. but I made a mistake of Bonding all the ips as one ip. It worked. and I went in changing the MTU and locked myself out. having to do a soft recovery. If you have Ideas on what you can use all the different ip's for maybe you can give users like me some Ideals. also explain to people the difference between Bonded and unbonded refresher course (brief recap)
This is a big problem I’m going to have to figure out a work around for. I take a lot of video for work when I’m on job sites to narrate what structural issues I’m seeing and that’s all in hevc on my iPhone. So now I can’t watch video off my nas. WTF? I use plex to stream all my movies will the transcoding function be lost now if my nas can’t read hevc stuff anymore? Because I think alot of the 4k stuff is in hevc format. Besides for work streaming media is the primary use for my nas. I’ll be pretty pissed if I can no longer stream hevc content to my devices.
I’ve just noticed an unexpected behaviour (to me anyways) with Synology Photos backup. I have the automatic backup set to backup from my phone, iOS, to my Synology using Photos Mobile app. If I shoot in DNG from my phone, it backs up the DNG. But if I then edit the DNG in Apple Photos, the JPEG rendition with those edits gets backed up to my NAS and replaces the original DNG. Even though Apple Photos still has the original DNG file. This is very unexpected for a backup solution and now wondering how far back this issue goes. Is there a quick fix to this issue you are aware of?
Excellent presentation. Thank you. DSM has really been the only strong point for going with a Synology NAS over the past few years. Looks like that strong point has just faded a good bit. Just more, upon more, reasons to buy something else. Ugh.
I *don't* use the Syno apps to get photos/videos from the i* world to the DSM world. So generating the JPG thumbnails that way doesn't work for me. (Typically I use Mac Photos Export ... direct to the DSM.) I was already using Plex; Video Station is no loss. But the HEIC/HEVC thumbnail kludges are just sad.
There's an open issue in the DSM r8152 github repository with someone claiming that the update broke it for them. So I for one am currently holding off on the update until there's some more movement on that issue ticket.
I use surveillance station with 30 8mp cameras all set up for H265+, I find the image quality to be better than H264 when running this many cameras with high resolution, the NAS is still running DSM 7.1 and cannot be accessed externally except through our tailscale VPN but it now looks like we won't be updating any time soon, to update the NAS would be a major issue for me and a step back, I'd be happy to pay a yearly fee for the HEIC codec which I think is what Synology should of considered.
So… if I wanted to buy some camera and new NAS 923+ for example… would you say I’m better off buying exclusively Synology HDDs and Cameras just to be 100% sure everything is supported and works the way it’s intended? I need to check those hdd things too as I heard WD red are not doing great and better go for gold or something like that (that’s as much as I gathered) but I don’t know about Synology HDD themselves… will dig your videos 😅
I uninstalled Video Station and then installed and set up JellyFin. However, it still says that 7.2.1 is the latest available for my NAS's configuration. I'm not asking for support. I'm just letting you know that removing Video Station is not always enough to enable the update.
I really wish that Synology would break out their security updates from their feature updates for this reason. I have messaged them and told them this and I would encourage others to ask for the same thing. I don't use Video Station and don't care myself, but I understand why this is upsetting for people because of features getting removed whether you want them to or not just so you can have the latest security updates. This should all be separate to allow the users to pick/choose what is right for them instead of blanketing everyone with THEIR choices to remove things whether you want it or not, or run an insecure NAS because you want to retain the applications they are removing along with the security updates. It's dumb and they need to stop it! They shouldn't get to decide how or what we use on our NAS or what the lifespan is for applications all because we want security updates but are forced to lose the apps to get the security patches!
Its not the Video Station, its the undelying codecs that are being removed gimping all of the other apps.
The licenses probably only 50c a year. Yet the device is 5-6x of the actual hardware cost. They should be able to break off $5 over lifetime of a 10 year old device.
That would also reduce lawsuits because they of features is needed for you to get subtitles updates
@@Act1veSp1n Yeah I get that but if you are someone that needs this for whatever reason you shouldn't be forced to lose it to ensure your NAS is secure because you can't get the security updates separate from feature updates. The Alternative is to not update but then sacrifice security, or having to use an alternate firewall to stand in front of this unit to keep it secure in future.
I care that Video Station is GONE. I purchased the Synology NAS obviously for its SOFTWARE and ease of setup NOT for its mediocre hardware. They Synology from my perspective just pulled a bait a switch. Reminds me of my first CLOUD setup. Actually it was Western Digital's MYCLOUD. They abandoned it, bricked it, never trusted Western Digital cloud "solutions" again. Synology is slowly going down the WD path and WILL not be my next NAS.
lol - Same exact experience - Started with WD MYCLOUD - it broke and bad support - so i lost trust in mycloud/WD so i looked up and found synology because people i knew who used it showed me how easy it was to setup and all the applications that came with it. If not i would just have made my own NAS
Video Station is the major reason why I use my Synology NAS.
I switched to Jellyfin a while ago via Docker (Container Manager). Took a while to set everything up (renaming files and building the needed directory structure - especially for music albums). But it's working much better than Video Station (and Audio Station) ever has.
Just use Jellyfin and ditch ancient VS
Tried to setup Jellyfin but with no luck. Is there any videos or documents for absolute beginner? Files in folder are not showing somehow
I opened a Plex account back in 2013 and decided it wasn't for me and have been using DS Video ever since. However, with DS Video landing on the chopping block, I decided to give Plex another go as I didn't fancy going through Docker for Jellyfin... cowardly I know!
I have to say, the transition was very easy and Plex has come a LONG way since I last used it. It honestly took me no longer than an hour or two and I was set up on all my mobile devices and Smart TV's.
Now all I need is a replacement for Surveillance Station...
@@stephentong8898lots?
I'm user of Video Station and honestly, I'm starting to get pretty pissed about Synology. Their only real advantage to QNAP have always been their software and only that. Their HW is lackluster beyond belief and now, when they degraded their software multiple times (remember, when they axed all the USB drivers when going from DSM6 to DSM7) and trying to push their (super expensive) HW down our throat (Synology HDD only for XS series, only their NVMe SSDs can create storage pool, that stupid mini 10GbE NIC), I'm more and more convinced, that next time I'll be upgrading my NAS I'll end up in QNAP camp...
Join the DIY/TrueNAS team, mate! 😊
I am fully with you. I am starting to ignore the Synology Software and take the docker solutions instead.
Synology hardware is seriously outdated, but don't forget the big advantages: They force their rebranded hardware (drives, network cards, RAM) on you (for increased pricing), they use non-standards fans that you cannot replace without getting unnecessary "fan stop" warnings that also stop the fan that never failed in the first place, and they don't give one the option to buy a NAS with an Intel CPU that supports QuickSync for efficient transcoding anymore. Now they are crippling existing devices to save $10 per device sold. What's not to like?
Yep, same thoughts here. Just not thinking Qnap, but my own DIY... 😉
You, I, us and some of our customers .... if it is about CODEC prices, they should have given us the option to PAY and most will have. Stupid move. I also affect Surveillance Station.
I don't really use VS, but I have always has an issue with companies removing PAID FOR FEATURES. If you purchased your NAS with those features, companies should be prohibited from removing paid for features. Dropping support for a product is one thing, removing features that a customer paid for is another.
Let's not pretend that this will be the end. Synology will delete other apps when they want. Think twice before buying a Synology NAS, guys!
Obviously. It's their OS, not yours. Do you get any say in what Microsoft does with Windows? So then why do you expect this to be any different? Synology is not nerfing DSM by any means, I don't understand why we are all acting like that's the case.
@@mcglsr237 Let’s engage your imagination for a moment-don’t worry, I’ll keep it simple. Picture this: they removed a feature you use. I know, tough to comprehend, right? But let’s try. Now, let’s take it slow because I know nuance can be a challenge. Imagine you somehow manage to buy a Tesla (yes, really stretch your mind here). You’ve done what’s probably the first bit of research in your life and picked a model with 300 miles per charge. Great, right?
Fast forward a year-Tesla pushes a software update. Cool features, security & bug fixes, you know, the usual tech stuff. But whoops-your shiny new car now only gets 25 miles per charge. I know this might be a bit much, but can you try to picture how you might feel in that scenario? Angry? Confused? Or would it take a while for you to even notice? Considering it's Tesla’s software, maybe you’d assume it’s perfectly reasonable.
Don’t strain yourself-understanding that kind of disappointment might be outside your realm of experience.
@@mcglsr237that feature was part of their selling points, stop shilling.
The only reason I've stuck with Synology was because of VideoStation. My camera security setup depends on this function. My Network TV setup depends on this function. Otherwise, I would've used the competition's solutions such as Qnaps or even Ugreen who had much better hardware options. I've put off even building my own nas because of VideoStation. I've only owned their higher tier of Intel based Nas because of Videostation. My family depends on Videostation. Now I need to find alternatives that are overly complicated because of this depreciation of this simple function. Should I upgrade? Yes, but it won't be another Synology. The premium of this solution has lost it's value literally over one update. What was once the deciding feature that made me ignore the competition has now 1 less user of this company. There is no reason to even use a synology NAS since now it functions like every other NAS currently on the market but with significantly worse internals.
h.265 on surveillance station is 50% less storage space versus h.264, a big deal for my 10 cameras. Not a mention of this Space Rex :-(
i finally decided to buy a synology a few months back because of its complete hazzle free software package including videostation, and now this. Thanks alot synology, looking at your future products i dont see a single reason not to not instead buy qnap or go trough the trouble of putting together a home built nas using truenas etc which i regret i didnt do now, so this was the first and last product from you i bought
I, for one, is really pissed that they remove video station - and I hope they read comments on this channel!
Hi Will, yes I am a user of Video Station and have many home / family videos running on it, watching them via AppleTV. Synology dropping support is a real pain for me. I'd be really interested in a video on possible alternatives. Many thanks for your great work.
The big impact may be for 3rd party cams where motion detection on cam doesn’t integrate with surveillance station and h265 is implemented.
I didn’t use video station, but I’m always sad to see features taken away.
I think this video just saved me a lot of money. Or maybe it cost me a lot. I'm looking to get a home NAS setup and was close to buying a Synology NAS. But hearing that they can and will drop features that a significant number of users are dependent on makes me shy away from them. What's to stop them dropping some feature that I've come to depend on?
It really bothers me how Synology treats their users, like second-class citizens. I don’t use Video Station so this doesn’t affect me personally, but they’re like this with other things too. Just treat us like cattle.
Synology are primarily a hardware company so any software that isn’t directly concerned with providing NAS functionality will be seen as an overhead. If they are trying to save money it’ll be a prime candidate for the chop. I’ve seen it happen way too many times over the years. For this reason I won’t rely on any of their software add-ons.
@@JamieWhitehorn Respectfully, I disagree that Synology is primarily a hardware company. Their software is their value differentiator. I mean, their hardware is a differentiator too, but not in a good way. If that is how Synology sees itself, it would be incredibly ironic, because most users choose Synology for their software. Their hardware specs are years behind their competitors.
@@ryanw8664 Totally agree. if not the soft I would by QNAP.
The big deal, and this is a huge deal, is that this update is malicious software and violates several of the cardinal rules of coding. As a coder, you should never ever ever push an update that ruins or removes functionality both software wise and hardware wise of someone else's property. This update removes functionality, ruins, gimps, the property of the NAS owner and was not part of the consideration at the time of purchase. What Synology should do is leave the existing product line alone and do these changes for future model releases that way proper consideration is given when units of those new models are purchased. So whether or not you use video station this is still a huge matter on principle alone.
It smells of when Sony killed 3rd party Linux OS from their playstation consoles, which ruined the entire value of that device for many, many people.
💯
Synology has become a bully and, sadly, SpaceRex is "Honestly" not sure whether that's a problem or not.
I understand everything you said, and I heavily disagree.
Calling this update malicious and that it violates several rules of coding is...extreme. People just like getting pissed about stuff without really digging into whether it's something to be pissed about.
Removing code from codebases happens All. The. Time. This is not a new practice. Some features that get released don't work well, aren't received well, aren't used, and so -- THEY GET REMOVED. Because to KEEP code means you are now paying a lot of money to maintain it, support it, test it, regression test it, pentest it, etc. It gets very expensive and contributes complexity to code when it doesn't even need to be there. Companies do this all the time. It's a good practice, and it makes sense. It's called managing your technical debt.
Have you heard of Windows? Aren't you pissed that Paint 3D is removed!?! Incensed even??? I bet there were 5 people that used it!! The outrage!
This update does not ruin anything, it doesn't ruin Synology, it doesn't ruin your NAS. Legitimately. I have it running on 4 NASs -- they are running along perfectly fine.
People leaving/hating because Video Station isn't available -- there is this called Plex. Maybe you have heard of it. It's pretty much the defacto video organization app out there. The overwhelming majority of people interested in video station probably already have Plex. Why should a company (Synology) invest time and resources into creating an only-okay video app when a superior one already exists, already works on Synology, has a Free Tier, and most people are probably already using it?
I think we all just need to calm down a little here. Go out and touch some grass. Everything is okay.
Removing h265 is a big deal 😢
Does Synology not understand version numbering? Having 7.2.1 update 5 was already stupid, should have been 7.2.6, but then having major compatibility changes going from 7.2.1u5 to 7.2.2?
Just make the h.265 downloadable with a reasonable cost? Would this be hard to do?
Some of the cheaper Amazon bought cams require h.265 to to access the higher resolution feed. It really borks Surveillance Station for consumer security. If there was a docker for Blue Iris that I can load on Synology, then I guess there would be an alternative, but there isn't one. Surveillance Station is the primary application that keeps me with Synology and I've been waiting for a 2.5Gb option before considering upgrading. Well, if I'm reading the tea leaves right, looking for another solution now (hopefully, I can find one that is Taiwan rather than a Chinese manufacturer for cyber concerns).
Thats what QNAP did. Costs $12(on sale)/$20 USD.
Didn't Synology used to sell the ExFAT driver as a $1.00 addon or something like that? I understand if they're not willing to absorb the costs of licensing a bunch of proprietary codecs, but as you said, it would be totally sensible to just either have the user pay to cover the cost of the codecs they want/use, or take the lazy route and just make Video Station a paid app or something.
As a seperate comment because I didn't want it to get buried in my other comment. This update fixed the problem where Hyper-backup would randomly fail over a Tailscale tunnel. I have multiple DS+ units backing up to an offsite unit and randomly they would fail for no reason. It would either require you to click on "Trust" or "Ignore" in the settings for the target to get it to work again and then would randomly fail again for no reason here/there. This update fixes that for anyone else encountering the problem.
Thats good to know! I never ran into that, but still good to know!
DS Video is literally the only package I use. I guess I'll have to look to free alternatives, but given that it is a direct product of Synology, I assumed it was the least venerable to randomly disappearing. Extremely disappointed.
Haven‘t used it. But the removal shows a problem that I have with their business policy. If one doesn‘t use the patches, we are more and more bound to Synologie‘s hardware, e.g. drives and ssds. They are going to release a new BackUp solution that only comes with synology drives. Since they are number one in the market, they act more and more like a monopoly.
Yes! But usually this is an opportunity for users to look around and for other vendors/startups to offer something else.
Last week I knew what to recommend if somebody would ask for advice about NAS. My answer was short: “Just buy a Synology NAS, I can help you to choose”. Today I do not have an answer, and I will not recommend Synology because I do not want to put my friends or colleagues trust at risk. Now I will honestly answer, “Sorry, I do not know, but be careful with Synology, it is unclear which functions they will leave in their NASes”.
@@deacbeugene Totally agree.
@@deacbeugene yes, but it is pity that I will need to waste time on the investigation and resetup =(
It's a big deal for way more users in the Synology Universe. The number of consumer Synology users is going to be WAY MORE than that the number of Business Synology users (many of your clients?). This "update" is not going to be pleasant for MANY consumers. Hopefully you'll be doing more videos on how to set up a DIY NAS - much more powerful, capable and cheaper with a Video Station (sorta) equivalent, albeit, with a bit of a steep learning curve.
I selected a Synology for my NAS due to what i was told about their software support. What a letdown
Losing Videostation and codec support in this minor update is terrible news.
In addition, @Spacerex you may want to highlight that Synology ship a version of Docker which is end of life and no longer supported.
So much for the much vaunted superior software support..
I think that it is a deal that I made with Synology when I bought their expensive hardware with the features that it had, that they would take care of the licencing etc.
I am deeply worried this is how tech-business of the future works.
You buy a product, with bells and whisthles and then after they have marketshare, they are going to take away bells and whistles.
I would understand if they don't provide video for harware they sell after a specific date. Then buyers know what they get.
What I don’t like is when a company just quit applications like this. I don’t use video station myself but it’s not the only program they’ve axed.
It’s not a good thing to axe applications, forcing users to constantly try to find alternatives. They could make them into something else, like going from old photos app to Synology Photos, but the old should then be carried over so users current libraries doesn’t get messed up.
I am worried they will trash more apps. Like Notes. I have all my notes there and if that went away, I guess all my notes would be gone.
I guess one has to be really careful before updating their systems so they don’t lose anything.
I used videostation and the reason why i have chosen Synology in the past was simply getting everything i needed out of one hand. Too many features have changed or are completely gone. The company is changing their business model to fit business customer.
Definitely my last Synology hardware. Learn Docker, buy a mini PC. More headaches less costs.
I use my Synology NAS just as a file server. I have work documents, personal photos and movies that I don't ever want to lose. The ability to have snapshots, set automated replication to a second NAS and connect to it via SMB and NFS on my local network, as well as SSH over the global network, is what's important to me.
I could't care less, I just think that is funny that company that charges for 32GB of old memory more than a NAS itself, has overpriced proprietary hardware on Disks, Network Cards and good know what more, can not pay for this, I think they are starting to lose business and the decline starts exactly with small things like this.
I bought my Synology NAS for multimedia. Over the years they have steadily eroded its capabilities. First to go was Logitech media server. That had to be rescued via a newer NAS that could run docker. I worry now about the longevity of Audiostation. Now we have Video station and as I back up photos to photo station via file transfer, I will be hit by the change in how it handles HEIC. Why, oh why doesn’t Synology just offer us the ability to pay the licence and maintain the functionality?
Thank you for the clear and concise video on the 7.2.2 update. Never used video station.
I used both Plex and VS….just wrong when a company takes features away when your purchased it with them, shouldn’t be allowed
One important point that is often overlooked is that Videostation does not require internet access to work while Plex does..
Thank you for this video!! Please do a video for alternatives to video station !!!
agree
I appreciate your concise explanations. I am a retired developer/programmer and use Synology at home, DS923+ (wish I had seen your suggestion to get a 5-bay or larger, maybe next time). I experimented with Video Station but did not keep using it. I felt it fulfilled all my needs, but was not sure about the Synology commitment so I went another way. Same with the photos app, and Surveillance Station. I did put all SSDs and 10G networking so now my Blackmagic test is better than typical USB disks.
so can i stay on 7.2.1 going forward for while? Will security updates still be available for 7.2.1? Your highlight of Synology photos after the update makes me hesitant to even update. I don't want the headache of dealing with maybe thumbs will come back or not. For me, everything should just work after an update with no maybes, ifs ands or buts.
I’m a bit of a noob here when it comes to these things, but based on what I’ve read. Doesn’t this mean that there really isn’t much point in buying the more expensive Nas devices anymore? Seeing as the nas doesn’t even do the hard work anymore? You could just effectively get a much cheaper synology Nas and the end device will do all of the work. Is there any point in a Nas for over 1000 pounds now?
7:00 It doesn't "suck", it is THEFT for them to remove features that we paid for. I use HEIC AND H265 exclusively. How Synology is avoiding a class action lawsuit is beyond me.
Oh wow, great video! Video playback and thumbnails are very important, so it seems I cannot update anymore from now on? Question, can I still see all h.265 video's on my NAS using and external player like VLC player?
Our family uses Video Station and the DS video app. My sister went to a lot of work to get everything set up... would also be interested in the best and easiest way to transfer to an alternative...
I have a question. what shirt do u use during your vacation? a formal working shirt?
Yeah, I’m one of these video station users. All my media is in it. I have a country home, so it was nice to use it on all my Apple TVs wherever they were. I was reluctant to move to Plex since vidéo station was answering my needs. I’m curious to see the alternative I have appart Plex.
Jellyfin
@@BoraHorzaGobuchul thanks. I’ll have a look.
@@ennev only if your NAS is not Intel-based, you'll need something like a minipc to run it on and connect it to your video share on synology. For remote use, try tailscale
@@BoraHorzaGobuchulI tried it. Epic fail. Jellyfin doesn’t support quickconnect , and my IP does not allow open ports on router, so I’m stuck with Quickconnect.
@@BoraHorzaGobuchul yes it’s intel based. So for the hardware acceleration I opted for Plex after all. So I just got a lifetime licence.
I will never buy another Synology device ever again, even if they roll this back. They ruined the biggest reason I bought a Synology nas, and I can no longer trust them not to rip out other packages in the future. So I won't be recommending any businesses buy any Synology devices either. Since I make purchasing decisions for the company I work at, that's potentially a dozen Synology purchases over the next 2-3 years that won't happen now, pretty much no matter what.
Synology should a) never have penny-pinched about $10 per device; they charged users so much through the purchase price, they can afford a little less profit, and b) if there is really no other way to save the company than through crippling user devices, offer users the chance to pay for the licensing themselves. The real problem is not that users cannot use VS anymore, it is the attitude of the company that bullies its customers. The height of it all is the insincerity: Synology did not announce "We want to save on licensing cost. Yes, we initially sold you a device with codecs, but we are now backtracking on that." Instead they put out the lie, that the changes are about "performance". How low can you get as a company?
I DO use Video Station, yes, I'm louder than most people who don't, however, the reason I bought a NAS, is to actually use it as a media server and a personal cloud! I'm deeply disappointed by Synology and their push for a ' third party solution' , I'm not interested on a third party solution, that's why bought a NAS on the first place! I really hope their workaround involves their integrated solution back.
How long will it be before you make a video taking about Surveillance Station being ripped out? or Active Backup for Business? Or who knows what else they will kill off next? Today, it's video station, which doesn't really hurt most business use cases. Next year, it might be some core functionality that major businesses bought them for.
Synology also updated all the EULA and Data Collection info. Check it out.
For someone that uses live photos, does this have any impact on Synology photos?
Also any issues migrating existing photo libraries that only exist on the NAS? (i.e., can the phone generate thumbnails for images not stored on the phone)
This was my thought as well. Will this change anything about viewing or sending iPhone live photos from synology photos on iphone?
Feels a little like Synology has changed the terms of sale after the sale was closed. If I bought Synology NAS with Videostation on board, I might be a little disappointed now. But I have never bought Synology exactly because they could do it anytime from day one
Thank for the clarification on 7.2.2. Clear, concise and to the point. Been using Plex for years, so the loss of Video Station doesn’t impact me personally. I do use Surveillance Station & Synology Photos, but can live with the changes. IMO, still better off than having my photos stored in iCloud. Have a great day!
Yes, I have used it for my entire video collection.
Thanks sooooo much for the concise rundown. Love your channel.
I installed Video Station just a few months ago to watch my daughter’s ballet videos. It looks like I may have to install Plex now. Do you know if Plex will claim use of my videos like Google Photos does? (That’s why I came over to Synology Photos from Google.). Question 2. Is there a reason Video Station cant use H.264 instead of H.265?
So honestly video station has always been a really buggy app. I think they just took this chance to EOL it.
Removing choice from existing customers is never a good idea, regardless of how many people use a particular feature. Quite simply, I feel Synology could've handled this far better by just offering the ability for users of the affected apps to purchase the required licence and have it renew as needed. Problem solved and no one who really wants or needs the video station app or thumb nails in the other apps mentioned need to stop using them.
I've always used Plex instead of video station, but Synology removing support for those codecs is plain stupid. You are telling me that when you buy a device that costs over $1200 for very sub par hardware they cannot afford to pay 20 cents for you per year? That only $2 for 10 years! And that is with normal pricing, imagine the wholesale pricing they have. This is one of the most greedy things I have seen a company do. Even though I do not use video station, I do use Synology Photos, Drive and surveillance station and I guess I am one of the very few people that regularly move TBs of HEVC videos manually there, but having my phone process years of HEVC video now is insane. I will certainly not be updating for as long as I can.
So just to offer of alternatives and possibly help, I fully understand this frustration, but to offer some alternatives, assuming you haven’t already updated to this DSM, you can always create your own way of tracking what you watched by creating folder names in the necessary folder. So let’s say for example you “found” a tv series online or maybe you ripped it from a blue ray, assuming you created a folder with the Tv series name you could create a folder inside of the folder saying “season1 is next” or whatever season you’re watching, then inside of the respective season folder, create another folder called “episode2 is next” or whatever episode you’re actually watching, last but not least if your done watching , rename your episode folder to “All episodes watched”. Next of course you have to choose a media player for a specific device, if you’re on Apple TV there infuse, VLC,Mr,c and plex. Plex might be you best solution for the loss of video station as it is similar. I’m about 99% sure the apps I mentioned except for plex process yeh videos locally on the device, so this does away with the problems that come from this update. I know that creating folders with names to what you’re watching is a bit of a chore, but this way you have a more stable way to protect your watch list, because sometimes app updates also break that watch list. Also empty folder take up for significant amount of space, maybe a few bytes of data.
For those thinking of going QNAP, keep in mind it’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows over there either, they tend to have more security flaws and they tend to break their own software quite often. I bought a QNAP years ago to see if it was worth changing over and for me personally. I had realized it was not worth it. I hope these ideas help, cheers
Newer models on ARM CPU anyway don't support video encoding: Hello there, I remember about the fuzz about newer models don't have built-in video encoding no longer due to CPU change from Intel to ARM. Is this issue now becoming anyway obsolete has the encoding feature for h.265 is being removed from the DSM? Or am I mixing up two different topics here?
Thanks for your calm explanation. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been a user of the Video Station for last 10 years. If fed my Apple TV only (I guess there was no transcoding) and I liked the simplicity of it and at my age I am not looking forward to mastering another software I’m not sure it is worth my time. I wish they left the basic version in an offered additional license for costly codecs. But the world will keep spinning… it is a shame but not a tragedy.
That sucks! I'm using Video Station. Thanks for the video.
Is there another option that works on AppleTV?
Plex is going to be the most common alternate
I don’t know Videostation, but if Plex is an alternative, I recommend to go with Jellyfin!
Plex or Jellyfin are the usual alternatives. I use Plex, personally
I used Video Station occasionally. Not as a primary tool. I don't like seeing features removed. I agree they should have maintained support until DSM 8.x or whatever the next major release is. At the end of the day it's a business decision Synology made. There's many work arounds and alternatives. Real impact to me is probably near zero, but it still leaves me with a bad feeling when something is taken away.
Thanks for the video. What will replace the DS Video app and how the connection to the NAS will be?
I have just started using Video Station 🤣🤣 That is totally my luck right there!! Hey ho, not the end of the world, will try something else. Thanks so much for this video, as otherwise I wouldn't have bloody-well known!! Well done on 100k. Lee UK
I’ve now watched two videos on 7.2.2 and it is still not clear to me if/how removing the HEVC codec affects Plex users who watch h.265 videos.
It does not
@@SpaceRexWill Thank you for the clarification, Will.
Thank you for easing some of the initial major panic that was expressed by others when this update came out. Personally, I don't use video station, so it doesn't appear there are any major concerns with upgrading. I will be migrating my 4 HDDs from a 418 to a 920+ and part of that process involves downloading the latest DSM on the destination NAS.
I encountered a couple of weird issues today. I have installed 7.2.2 manually. I don’t know if it’s the update that has caused the issues but the issues are:
1. The automatic backup of system settings to my Synology account failed. It has never done that before. At least I got a message about it. I backed up manually and it worked.
2. My cleared logs in log center reappeared. Can’t understand how.
Nothing else seems to have changed though.
YES i care and use it and is one of the reason why I got this NAS from synology
So--- for videos that I've converted from .ISO using handbrake to "H.264 / HVEC" ... and using PLEX, is there any impact on those videos? Will Plex cause many of my movies to no longer work or they will all work and I won't notice the difference? Is my TV just handling the playing of them now? not sure I understand.
Super helpful video. We have Video Station installed but in reality, don't use it very much. Still, I think we want something like it available so we'll probably seek out an alternative if we have to upgrade to 7.2.2 someday.
"Its not that big of a deal". It really IS, Bud
I’m a synology videostation, and Photos user. When I bought the NAS it was because Synology software was the best and made up for their weak hardware, while charging premium prices for it. I hate that they are removing first party apps that people use. If we wanted to go third party with all apps then why buy Synology. I’m still pissed that I can’t use my own nvmes to create a storage pool and that we are ever being forced to use their own brand, very expensive drives. How can they charge super premium prices then Penny pinch over a bloody codec !?!? The problem is I don’t know what brand NAS I should switch to?
QNAP is a well-known competitor (faster networking is standard). QNAP software hasn't been as secure as DSM, but it is for you to decide whether that is still true or whether it is an actual concern. UGREEN just started their own NAS line. The hardware is leaps and bounds better than that of Synology. The software wasn't good in the beginning but has caught up from what I'm hearing. Also, some users are using TrueNAS on UGREEN hardware. If you have an old PC, you can run TrueNAS or some alternative on that. Won't be as energy efficient, though.
I think it was also a system resources issue and one of the reasons I don't run apps like VideoStation on my Synology NAS. Unfortunate they are eliminating the app altogether, because it appears to be sufficient for some users. Personally, I use PLEX and run it on a dedicated device and store all the media on my Synology NAS.
I download YT videos and store them on my Synology NAS in the File Station > Video share. Presumably, the 7.2.2 update will not affect that arrangement? Would appreciate a comment. I don't have any content in Video Station per se.
That will still work (tested)
@@SpaceRexWill ah, thanks for that Will. Very reassuring. Saves having to consider a different solution.
Really good question at the end. I would have to chime in that the changes to Synology Photos and Video Station don't affect me at all. I don't own a NAS; I just recommend and manage them for my clients, and all my clients have ever done so far with their NASes is share files over their local networks.
Thanks for the video. First thing I tried when I got my NAS back in 2018 was Plex, because all of the hype back then. Because it did fulfill my needs I didn't explore Video Station anymore. Even though I am slightly concerned about the future of DSM (and while we're at it, Synology hardware in general), and I don't understand why Synology isn't more open on this.
Any insite about Active Backup for business? Will they make it subscription in the future?
does synology photo support live photos in this new update?
I use the video station on time to time, it’s a very neat application on NAS, I have a collection of all kind of movies, therefore, I definitely need something like this for the best viewing experience.
Will. H264 will take almost dubble the space than H265. This is no good for using cameras in synologys surrv. station. And surr. station will not handle alert motion e.t.c anymore. The cameras has to handle all that on it's self.
What about old videos that use H264 or H265 for thumbnails? Will those videos just never have a thumbnail now? Or do you just need to open each video once on a phone to get the phone to make a thumbnail? If you have thousands of old videos that you have to do that to in order to get thumbnails, that's really a problem.
I still don't know what is actually happening with my iphone photos that are/will be stored in Synology Photos. You're saying that the iphone app will create a jpg thumbnail. OK, then does that mean you still can't view the full resolution photo through Synology Photos in a browser because it is still HEIF? Or are these original HEIF photos actually being converted to JPG? If it converts the original photo to JPG, is the original HEIF photo also kept or is it discarded? If kept, does this mean you actually have two copies of all your photos and I need to make sure both copies are maintained to avoid processing hundreds of photos again in the future? If discarded, should we really trust the conversion process to dump our original photos?
How about thumbnails and Synology photos when you copy a lot of photos by SMB or direct NAS 2 NAS connection ?
So you will get all thumbnails, except if the images are from HEIC photos
Congrats on 100,000!
Said it long ago:
Not in your CONTROL?
Not YOUR system!
I predicted exactly this and thats why I dont use ANY "commercial" system.
While I agree, lets be careful. Even self-built systems rely on certain futures from software providers. Open Source companies have been gobbled up by some companies. So one needs to check the alternatives very carefully.
@@MrHerbalite ah, so now do tell us:
If it IS an open source system:
What exactly would stop you from COMPILING IT YOURSELF!?
@SpaceRex something that came up, you don't have to answer here. could be a future video suggestion. I have the synology 1621+ I have 4 1 GB connection and just installed a Dual 10GB connection. All of it worked great. Here is the question. Is it possible to Map IP' Addresses for different functions on Synology? like 1 IP for Network drive mapping, one Ip for specific Application mapping for local/remote access. or even just local. AKA surveillance station. This is all that the IP would be used for. 1 ip for in case I or someone else (mainly I ) pooch one of the other ip's like locking yourself out of say DSM Remote access because you pooched up the ip settings for that ip. and use the main 10GB connection for Web services. but have the second 10GB connection connected to a PC incase u or I (mainly I cause I keep doing it ) pooched all of you 1 GB ports. its like having a backup to a backup of a backup. I fixed all my connections. but I made a mistake of Bonding all the ips as one ip. It worked. and I went in changing the MTU and locked myself out. having to do a soft recovery. If you have Ideas on what you can use all the different ip's for maybe you can give users like me some Ideals. also explain to people the difference between Bonded and unbonded refresher course (brief recap)
So this is not an issue on the DS923? I don't see any new nas on the list
This is a big problem I’m going to have to figure out a work around for. I take a lot of video for work when I’m on job sites to narrate what structural issues I’m seeing and that’s all in hevc on my iPhone. So now I can’t watch video off my nas. WTF? I use plex to stream all my movies will the transcoding function be lost now if my nas can’t read hevc stuff anymore? Because I think alot of the 4k stuff is in hevc format. Besides for work streaming media is the primary use for my nas. I’ll be pretty pissed if I can no longer stream hevc content to my devices.
I’ve just noticed an unexpected behaviour (to me anyways) with Synology Photos backup. I have the automatic backup set to backup from my phone, iOS, to my Synology using Photos Mobile app. If I shoot in DNG from my phone, it backs up the DNG. But if I then edit the DNG in Apple Photos, the JPEG rendition with those edits gets backed up to my NAS and replaces the original DNG. Even though Apple Photos still has the original DNG file. This is very unexpected for a backup solution and now wondering how far back this issue goes. Is there a quick fix to this issue you are aware of?
I find it odd that they didn't go the route they had for exFAT support (now free) of charging for the extension.
Is watching fullscreen HEIC and HEVC on older Windows devices affected as well?
Cuz I‘Cave got some shared photo collections that I worry about…
Excellent presentation. Thank you. DSM has really been the only strong point for going with a Synology NAS over the past few years. Looks like that strong point has just faded a good bit. Just more, upon more, reasons to buy something else. Ugh.
This sucks. I use them. Not even a replacement?
You can not view H265 in most browsers? How far behind is Crapple in that support?
Also Will, we can't order the shirts in Canada... :(
I *don't* use the Syno apps to get photos/videos from the i* world to the DSM world. So generating the JPG thumbnails that way doesn't work for me. (Typically I use Mac Photos Export ... direct to the DSM.) I was already using Plex; Video Station is no loss. But the HEIC/HEVC thumbnail kludges are just sad.
Will it kill my realtek RTL8152 ?
There's an open issue in the DSM r8152 github repository with someone claiming that the update broke it for them. So I for one am currently holding off on the update until there's some more movement on that issue ticket.
I'm pretty upset on this update. I find it disrespectful for a company to ditch an app Videostatio that many of us loved the integration it had
I use surveillance station with 30 8mp cameras all set up for H265+, I find the image quality to be better than H264 when running this many cameras with high resolution, the NAS is still running DSM 7.1 and cannot be accessed externally except through our tailscale VPN but it now looks like we won't be updating any time soon, to update the NAS would be a major issue for me and a step back, I'd be happy to pay a yearly fee for the HEIC codec which I think is what Synology should of considered.
Now alienated by Synology, I actively used Video Station. Without it would rather use TrueNAS.
So… if I wanted to buy some camera and new NAS 923+ for example… would you say I’m better off buying exclusively Synology HDDs and Cameras just to be 100% sure everything is supported and works the way it’s intended? I need to check those hdd things too as I heard WD red are not doing great and better go for gold or something like that (that’s as much as I gathered) but I don’t know about Synology HDD themselves… will dig your videos 😅
What is the alternative to VS and how to set it up?
I uninstalled Video Station and then installed and set up JellyFin. However, it still says that 7.2.1 is the latest available for my NAS's configuration. I'm not asking for support. I'm just letting you know that removing Video Station is not always enough to enable the update.
I disabled auto update on all the Synology NAS boxes under my admin.🥵