I'm glad I saw this video as it's convinced me my 1520+ will be my last Synology device. I use video station daily for my kids rooms as its really easy for them to navigate their movies and general usage. This could very well be the start of the end of the Home Media User! We use audio station and photos, but I'm not going to risk upgrading the hardware and investing a lot of money for them to pull away the software eventually, I originally purchased it for!! Synology for me, was all about the software! Thanks for the update
They follow the money and Enterprise is, where the big money is. Thats the Way it works. But maybe they surprise us with a good Prosumermodel. Otherwise i will look into a Homeserver-Selfbuild with Proxmox/TrueNAS/Unraid whatsoever and be completely independent from a single Vendor.
I was about to buy 923+ as a replacement for my aging 414+. I have been using the Video Station as a simple built-in solution to stream my collection of movies to Apple TV. This video gave me a huge pause. Should I go for Flashstore instead?
I bought the Synology DS220+ for its “all inclusive” closed environment and suite of apps. DSVideo was one of the big ones, when it started dropping codec support I had to install ffmpg though community support packages. I am not a business so audio, video and backups are what I am using the device for. This has me thinking now as I was thinking of upgrading/expanding - I was sold on Synology, now i am pretty sure I am going to have to re-think my choice.
I'm a big time DS Video Station user. And I've enjoyed it immensely over the past 4 years. I'm a bit of a physical media collection-ist for Blu-ray/DVD's/VHS. And after learning about Synology through your channel 4-5 years ago. I decided to buy Synology mainly for the DS video station application. I've had fun transcribing my physical collection to digital, Still have about 4 complete western tv shows to go until I'm finished. Was a major sucker punch them completely removing DS video station for support. I have not updated my Synology. Nor will I ever since video station is gone, esp with the lose of h.264/h.265 video encoding. Looking into my options now and I'll see where I go from there. I love DS Video station because it works purely on my LAN. Great for when I lose internet. As it stands. I'm never going to buy from Synology again, and I'm looking into other companies for options.
I’m stunned. And what the actual f*** Synology! I just made my father buy 2 years ago a ds220+ to backup his iPhones, and I was planning to get one too for the same reason!
It also affects Synology Surveillance Station, if you record in h265 you can no longer use the Synology motion detection, motion has to be done by the camera.
I've been a video station user since day one (I have a DS101j - working btw). This is a blow and a blow for users who want something that works without the additional tinkering.
They are dead to me, I was about to buy an 8-bay unit from them, not anymore and I'm kind of happy they did this move, that pushes me to invest in a custom solution I'll build from scratch and won't rely anymore on any of these corporations for my storage and streaming.
I can't believe this is happening. I purchased a DS916+ which includes built-in hardware transcoding of everything Synology says it is now discontinuing. I am heavily invested in Video Station as I have hundreds of movies on my Synology with DS Video clients on my TV, Apple TV, phones, and tablets. This is a slap in the face to customers which purchase Synology. I can see them not wanting to include the hardware transcoding, but the only reason I can think of as to why they are doing this is because of licensing. As a software engineer, I know it wouldn't be that big of a deal to continue to move Video Station forward. There is something behind this move, and it is upsetting a lot of customers, including myself. I'm not sure the direction I will take. Not install 7.2.2, or invest in a move to Plex or something else. This is a big black eye on Synology in my opinion.
Got Synology a month ago among other things thanks to your videos. Complete software package was not the only but was one of the deciding factors for me. Finding out yesterday on Reddit that they are ending VideoStation and "crippling" SynologyPhotos was a low blow. But after a while I read their "switch to something else" help page, realized even my jNAS has Docker, installed Jellyfin and didn't even had to apply for my own API keys and stuff like with VideoStation... so... yeah. Though with their pricing it's still a crooked move, as a buyer expects them not to remove existing features.
@@notreallyme425 As I understood, because of the removal of the codec support, you might not be able to view some videos on photos either, unless your phone/browser/PC has a license to reproduce them, even if you recorded them yourself earlier and they got backed up by SynologyPhotos and were OK before.
@@notreallyme425 remove the support of heic and hevc , major major problems with apple users , I use that format for at least 5 years. When it’s out , synology photos will be not able to create thumbnail and viewing my stuff
What do you mean "crippilng" Photos? They just massively improved it and fixed HEVC video play-through Google Chrome on Windows, which means now my whole family can go straight to Synology Photos on any of our devices without having to use 3rd party apps.
Thanks for the review. I am a long time Synology user since 2010 and I do use Video Station to maintain my entire personal DVD, Blu-Ray , old VHS and home video collections. I have some older devices (like Ds916+, DS1515+, etc ) that I use for media (photos, audio and videos). However I also have DS720+ and DS920+ and considering upgrades. Synology had offered a great way to integrate all of these onto one platform. I also used the enterprise level rack devices with video station for hosting work related videos. I think that moving home, SMB and Enterprise users off platform for new solutions may backfire in the long run. DSM is a great NAS OS but not the only one. Synology may be going backwards here to reduce their app offerings. I my view they should retain Video Station even if they do reduce the number of codecs it supports. I have been holding off on making several NAS hardware purchases for both home and work while evaluating Synology's direction for the next 5 years. Reducing service features is not helping.
well done Synology, I believe the more 1st party apps they drop (I suspect Audio Station will be next), the more reasons you have for not paying the premium price that Synology asks for :) They also included security patches as part of the upgrade to 7.2.2, they should have been rolled out the security patches first for users that don't want the functionality removal of 7.2.2.
You're totally right on the hull leaking analogy.❤❤ I left Sony cameras for this exact same thing when they started not supporting a 2-year-old $3600 camera I bought. By the time they rolled back and did release a new update the blood had already been spilled and I now am happy with another camera brand Panasonic!! It opens the flood gates for customers to now look at competitors and say what's different from Synology out there?😮
I've had a Synology network for about 6 years now consisting of a large main server housed at my place, a main backup server located at a family members house and some small dual-drive servers at each family members house to make it fluid and easy to manage. I take care of almost the entire familys data backup and file sharing. I've used Video Station until about 1,5 years ago, and decided to switch to Jellyfin instanced in a docker container. Reason primarily being the metadata api keys. That dodo-show was a pain!
UGREEN hardware with unraid / truenas have already made me think about my next NAS. The early talk around the 45 drives 4 / 8 bay NASs are also looking very interesting, together with whatever UniFi put out there.
Well it was…😢 Ability to connect seamlessly to home bas without need to set up vpn was great. Now i’d say it’s just overpriced peace of plastic, at least for home users.
@@Nasguy-b7q You go around promoting QNAP in every Nas video online. Have never used QNAP products but seeing them promote themselves by putting down other manufacturers online (regardless how shitty they may be!) ... Yeah no thanks!!
I was just about to upgrade my 920. But glad I saw this video. I was going to buy another synology because I didn’t want to have to overhaul my directories, but if I’m going to have to do it anyways maybe I should buy a different system.
I am mostly worried about Photo Station (Incl. it's ability to play iPhone videos properly), as I am using it as my main photo/video sharing app. EDIT: And thumbnail generation.
Yeah I’m socked too. Synology Photo was the main reason for choosing them and right now I’m backing up my iPhones on my father’s Synology. I’d hate to move again!
Photos have fewer formats and simpler metadata than video, so as long as you write your metadata to tags, moving to a new platform shouldn't be the end of the world. Still, I like Photos for its simplicity and speed and I'd hate to lose it.
I was considering buying an 1821+ for our small business. However, in my test run on my personal 918+ I am experiencing regular problems with synology drive not syncing, and now this. I am going to take a look at other solutions now.
I guess we should keep an eye on QNAP to see if they EOL their Video Station. I'm one of the outliers here; I don't use VS and seldom use Plex even though I have a lifetime subscription. I consider my collection to be very well organized so I just use the DLNA server to send video to my TV and and am quite satisfied with that. It's about as simple as it gets.
The last 4 years with them has been a downhill spiral and we all landed in cow dung, paying a premium for less performance all the way down 😂 They want Dell customers and not smb... good luck with that one...
I stopped using Sinology Video Station/Media server two years ago since I switched to AppleTV as a player. It does have application that can play over samba sharing, so no need of any streaming apps on the server side. I guess Android boxes probably also have…. So now my old ds412+ can do samba sharing only and lives happy live :)
This doesn’t affect anything I do, but I understand the disappointment. As far as “why”? I’m going to guess home users are 80% of the service tickets for only 20% of the revenue. Firing your most needy and unprofitable customers may be what this is all about. Just speculation.
Damn it, one of the most important applications with Surveillance Station seems to be affected. For H.265 they proffer up the following: "Motion detection using Surveillance Station's algorithms will no longer be supported. The settings will automatically switch to using the camera's built-in algorithm if available, or be disabled." I'm so glad I only bought one extra Surveillance Station licenses a couple of years ago. Locking down all updates from here on and looking at an alternate NAS solution...might even look at Blue Iris or something. Damn Synology...was even looking for an upgrade (if they ever supported 2.5Gb)...but w/o Surveillance Station then there really isn't a compelling reason to stay besides the inconvenience of transferring my files to a new NAS ecosystem.
I've been running DS Video since 2014 and have always thought it was good enough for my purposes. Gutted they're canning it. However, I switched to Plex last night which took me no longer than an hour or so (I've of average Synology competence level) and I've been really impressed with it so far. Most of the bloat that seem to have people annoyed is easy to remove and it works really well. End of an era and a baffling strategy, but we'll all survive. Great video as always, thank you.
I picked a DS720+ some years ago and accepted paying a premium price for the Synology software ecosystem (especially Synology photos) and accepted for lower end hardware. With the removal of transcoding at the nas level "for better efficiency" (I didn't notice any issue), I feel being abandoned by Synology...what next to be removed in the comiong updates? If is is to simply have a file server there are more cost effective solution
I have 2 working Synology NAS which I have loved. However Synology has just been throwing table scraps to us for hardware and now they're cutting software functionality as well. Sadly, my next NAS will not be a Synology.
Thanks for the video. I'm a long term Video station user. It's never been stellar, however its worked well for me for years. I continue to regularly stream from VS to both Samsung TVs app as well as the firestick applications from a DS214 Play. I have no clue if Ill go Emby or Plex yet. However if Synology does decide to put out a replacement, id likely be hard pressed to do another what is surely going to be lengthy transition back.
100% agree with buyers looking elsewhere because I am in the market for a bigger machine. DS920+ 4 bay currently and looking to a 6 or 8 bay. Although I use Plex for my home media I also use video station for family members outside our home. With no built in video station then I will be looking at other manufacturers. Not looking into your comments on the video encoding change. I may have it wrong but I think you said encoding/decoding? will be down to the client devices not the NAS? What if the client device does not have the power to encode/decode the video?
I’ve been on the fence about which NAS to get, Synology or UGreen, I also want to see the UniFi NAS before I make a decision. I was hoping Synology were going to do a massive revamp of VideoStation into (as you mentioned) a single Multimedia App with AudioStation, etc. People say with Synology your paying mostly for the software, well if they carry on down this road of pushing these things to third parties then that doesn’t hold up as much and you start to ask why the NASs only come with 1GBE for the most part, integrated graphics becoming more rare, etc. I was like 90% sure I was going to get a Synology… now I’m more like 60%, that could go even lower once I see what Ubiquity come out with (if anything). This is a step backwards in my view from Synology.
The last 4 years told us everything we needed to know about Synology. Nothing will change that now, dream as we might it will continue. To me QNAP makes the most sense now a days if you want good software and hardware. Ugreen is nice but I don't trust the firmware just like terramaster.
they are slowly pushing the home consumer out of their business plan. ......my opinion at least. if their OS wasn't so FREEKIGN AWESOME, i wouldn't give two shiznits.
Just got mine like a week ago and bought it as my media box for work. Stuff like photo editing, video culling and more. I work with this stuff and now I really need to reconsider if this is what I want...
Synology should be sued. I think many people chose Synology to use this video function. They also specifically advertised it and now they are not keeping their promise. That is not acceptable, not in Europe!
I am a video station user on my phone and on the android TV. And frankly the software was a big reason for chosing (again) a synology (DS1522). Maybe not next time as the alternatives are there and I think from HW point of view they might be even better/better value. Feels a bit like Google apps, better not get acquainted too much, they might disappear at any point in time.
Fortunately this doesn't affect me. I never did use Video Station or Photo Station. Like you said, there are much better alternatives out there. Jellyfin is better than Photo Station and PhotoPrism is better than Photo Station. Either way, I won't be buying a Synology NAS in the future. It's better to just build your own and use something like TruNAS or unRAID. 😗
*Why not just replacing Synology by another NAS Manufacturer which supports basic features (like Video station) used a 99% of all homes?* Synology grew up with home customers and Synology now despises them. *The probability is very high that Synology will make similar decisions in the future and cut off home-use customers* so that they will have to look for workarounds again.
@ConradKo you do realize that QNAP took security very seriously the last 3 years and closed it down and even added bit defender to the core os? They responded to their users and it is a great platform. More than I can say about Synology.
@@EvilMmM ASUS, QNAP, Wester Digital and Unify just to names a few. Then you have new players like Zima, Jonsbo, UGREEN and maybe a possible rumored Eufy solution. There's also the option of building your own NAS. The only reason to buy a Synology was its eco app system. Their hardware has always been overpriced because of this ecosystem, now there's no reason to even consider their hardware. This is an opportunity for anyone to jump in and take away this so-called small consumer market.
Hmmmm... Starting to regret upgrading my DS415play to a DS923+. I thought I could get away without the iGPU in favour of faster data performance, but slowly being let down in so many other ways. Will definitely consider other options and possibly even an early sale of my current unit... I need to check out your other reviews and comparisons... 🤔
I use synology photos with our Apple ecosystem , I used to use Tailscale when I was on the go , uploading my iPhone during a trip was awesome. I guess I will be able to do that but everything will have a X or an error since apple use heic and hevc for many many years. Ugreen with Unraid or Truenas scale is my next project.
At this time. I don't want to update to 7.2.2 as I invested a lot of $$$ in surveillance station. This will make it more difficult for me to use ths.with their changes will cause many issues with how I use it. Will I need to request refunds on everything I paid for?
Me too, of course Plex has jumped on the removing features bandwagon in that they just announced they are removing TIDAL integration end of October 2024.
The entire purpose of Synology is keeping the security/login under one door to access your data. It doesn’t have to be a as good. They could have integrated jellyfin.
Video station is one of the main reasons i bought my Synology NAS and the fact it has (Or soon to be had) its all in one eco system so to speak. the more the change the more my interest looks else whare.
It’s primarily a problem for the weaker j series devices. On our DS220j only Video Station is the only usable media server app, Jellyfin can’t even be installed properly and Plex is also becoming worse with their business model and shift away from local media playback. So glad I switched to Infuse on Apple TV, the NAS just needs to provide the files and do nothing else…
I never used transcoding, need too much bandwidth to upstream outside home, I use my DS1522+ (100TB) as smb and full bitrate stream exact copy Blu-ray/4k to Apple TV using infuse pro and Kodi
Was with synology for its first party software support and it even costs more and I justified it for the software support. Extremely frustrated about videostation removal.
Jellyfin in container station works fine if you have an intel processor NAS due to the fact it has video support if not and you have a newer Ryzen processor model your up the creek without a paddle! thanks synology for making me "not want" to upgrade my NAS
I use video station because it was the safe and tested media player that would play well with our data. I'm stunned that they would be so stupid as to get rid of it. Speechless. What will be next? Note Station, Audio Station? I use them both as well. Maybe I can't trust Synology any more. And the way they did this was just so - I don't give a sh*t about our home users. In my case the NAS is for my wife's business and also for home use, so it will be a big job to move everything over to a more reliable NAS provider.
I like the Synology NAS... I have three of them. But, I do not think you can depend on them to continue with certain apps and capabilities over the long haul. Like dropping support for dongles... now the Video Station. Accordingly I tend to keep things minimal. I am running the Unifi Controller and Plex. That is it for those kind of apps. For both I have an alternate means of running outside of the NAS. I use Blue Iris here. If they want to go all in on supporting Enterprise that is their prerogative. They cut too much out of the product for me I will cut them out of my network. There are always lots of ways to overcome the void.
I've always used my NAS as a NAS. Never used VideoStation or Surveillance Station or any of that. I believe that specialized vendor software for any of those technologies works so much better. I actually prefer my NAS to be that: a NAS rather than an NVR or a photo/video client. So i must be one of the least ones here not having a problem with this change 😄 Now, who knows what they might cut out in the future. But if you think about it, having a NAS dedicating CPU resources for transcoding stuff, I mean, this doesn't make sense for me. I prefer to squeeze my CPU for storage operations more than anything else.
Video Station presents a nice front end. I'll miss it. I have Video Station integrated through my own domain name and related SSL certificates which is only available on the LAN. It's a nice setup. But, that's through a web interface which is what I drive guests thru if they login to the guest network. In reality, I rarely use it and guests usually don't connect to my WiFi. Yes I have a large library of videos on Synology. But the computers, smartphones, and other streaming devices on other segments of the network all have the ability to organize and play the videos without use of Video Station. The coolness of Video Station is the cover photo and descriptive information including the actors. In the end, a file is a file and if your endpoint can process the file type, then you're in good shape. I'll miss it like I miss the iTunes Server.
great thing about VideoStation was QuickConnect support, but nowadays (zero-config) VPNs are common, that said, frankly DS File is more pleasant experience than DS Video, should deserve some refresh, but it works, interesting thing about HEVC end is a potential future for use of AV1 codec (which is superior, and free?) - I wonder which Synology NASes and client devices can handle that yet?
We (me, my wife and kids) use Video Station on daily base. That step from Synology Group is really sad. Do you think is there any chance to use Video Station under new 7.2.2 system? Thx
Used video station a bit but Plex is better and more customizable. Synology also doesn’t let you use video station outside your home on a Samsung tv as it requires you to be on the same network and not quickconnect. Real issue is the effects it will have on Synology Photos.
Synology is misunderstanding it's stats. People aren't using their video station or their Nas for video playback because the hardware and software for HDR 4k 5.1 is subpar compared to free ones. I run Kodi on tv app with Nas instead. Synology software in 2024 is not worth what they think it's worth and their hardware is always outdated.
exactly, 99% (i really think 100% but i take a margin) of the home lineup in not really capable of doing that, thay do it SLOWLY and badly, old hardware, old cpu, often no igpu either...so..no more bad ads about "the nas is slow and slugghish": now you cannot do it. and the phylosophy is ok, is a nas not a server. But you see the competion with VERY similar OS (if not identical), but up to date hardware and cpu and you stat thinking. I got 3 synology (2 very very old) but i think they live by her name now.. not really worth anymore.
Yeah my current Synology is my last one. Just not sure what to get next. Just need something with good video encode/decode like the Qnap i5/i7. Just wish any of the existing NAS options had a cpu that had AV1 encode but seems that is still about 2 years away. Unless I get a Qnap and add a Nvidia GPU for AV1?
Phew….. I was using VideoStation for since getting my DS218+… and on my DS920+…. But about 2 months ago, decided to go over to Plex. Feels like I got lucky…. Shame about this, and it it worrying the idea behind this. Hopefully they say a bit more what the plan is.
From what I understand, processing the HEVC (H.265), AVC (H.264), and VC-1 codecs has been removed "from the server to end devices to reduce unnecessary resource usage on the system and enhance system efficiency." I'm at a loss to see why this is a bad thing? I am assuming that viewing a thumbnail or Photo/Video on and iPhone for example would be unchanged. Correct? I tried to use Video Station on my DS920+ and didn't like it at all. It seemed half-baked and nowhere near as smooth as some other options available.
I’m glad I didn’t spend time setting up video station and went straight to plex. I hope plex keeps going. I’ve got terabytes of stuff in my plex library.
I used to be a Synology die hard. The synology way was to give you a box where you could give up 3rd party tooling. Now it seems by design that they want to reverse that. Ho hum
@@Nasguy-b7q It is honestly comical that they thing they'll be able to compete with the likes of Dell and HP in the enterprise segment. The only value that they bring is in their software and enterprise customers don't really care about that at all.
Dude, video station is not the worst. The worst part of this is Synology photos also going to crippled with the codes that iPhones use… this is such a weird, all around downgrade.
I am a QNAP user for very long time (almost 10 years). I have been years wanted to join the synology team, specially to try their acclaimed software. This year i decided to buy one Synology NAS, so i have been waiting so far for the Synology's new releases (now on September). Now I am wondering how the EOL of Video Station will be impact with the new releases models. Maybe I will end up buying a Ugreen NAS :-/
I’ve been using Synology since the J-series and still have that unit. Video Station, Audio Station have been my primary services since day one. I’ve tried Plex and it’s horrible, not only is there no integration with the Synology accounts, mobile app clients have to pay for their clients. My family uses DS video and DS audio more than they use iTunes. Synology’s business model was all focused on hosting your own content and not relying on or paying for cloud services. This will only keep people from upgrading their DSM, thus making them more and more vulnerable to attack over time. I hate this decision and can’t understand why they are really doing this.
I have two synology NAS, and based all of my home cloud on their solution. This really caught me by surprise. I'm an avid user of videostation, and though I installed Jellyfin, I'm not really keen on switching. Which means at the moment I've stalled the 7.2.2 installation and trying to consider my options. As you mentioned, the worry is not just Videostation, but overall the status of the first-party applications. How many are going to survive in the long run? Given I feel their hardware is somewhat overpriced, the whole point of still buying a synology has been, at least for me, to leverage the inhouse software. If they're going to rely more and more on third party solutions, then I'm afraid other NAS brands will become more compelling.
QNAP is the only one that makes sense if you want a turnkey solution. Their selection of QNAP and 3rd party software is very good and the hardware is very good as well.
I still have a DS213+ under DSM6.2 to keep PhotoStation because Photo is not even reading metadatas as PhotoStation. I'll keep a NAS (Virtual or not) under DSM7.1 with ffmpeg package and VideoStation. For the next NAS, I'll look for an other brand. You said it, Synology is a all in one, if now I've to use third party apps, why spend so much money in a more or less outdated hardware.
Just started last week to setup my video station, and planned to make heavy use for it. Even started writing a tool to automate the creation of custom metadata in bulk, and planned to make that open source too so people could have a tool. (Because there is nothing finished out there) Now found out about this and i am like: Fluff my life... I hope they will provide an alternative, because all others look like they are a downgrade in comparison in a frist breef look. I am going to wait before i even consider updating... I wonder will they provide support for systems that don't want to upgrade? It is really sad!
Was just on the fence about buying a few more synology systems. Looks like synology lost a couple thousand dollars with this move, as i actually use dsvideo station, and photos. They stopped caring about customers and screwed us, and thats okay, this is how capitalism works, and if you don't buy/invest into their stuff, IE speak loudly with your money i believe this will get the point across.
Well, this is a bummer. I have all of my videos in video station. I like the clean interface. I have Plex but moved away from it for the clean interface on video station. Boo Synology!
I have the DS918+ with a DX517 that I use for Plex and have been looking to upgrade. The missing integrated graphics in the new Synology offerings have convinced me that my upgrade is going to be to a QNAP instead. Sad but they have forced me to make that choice.
I use photo and video and would use audio. Synology is essentially saying to us, don't trust us to support you. I would worry even if I was enterprise. Enterprise users are also home users. Can I consider buying the continual sold out cameras in the US? Who knows how long they will support anything. Synology is number one in the OS for security. They also made a name for themselves by creating an ecosystem that supports anyone wishing to not use various cloud services for each use case. Why are they destroying their bread and butter user base? Companies need to understand the business user is also a consumer. They are not two different animals.
Will you take a look at the AOOSTAR WTR Pro? On paper seems the device I've always wanted, 4 HDD bays, N100, M.2 slot for the OS, no proprietary OS so it's possible to run Proxmox etc on it and even 2.5Gb port. Looks like a fantastic choice to me, especially for the price.
Video Station was an important reason why I recently bought a DS224+ ... and I'm very disappointed to hear that it will be discontinued! 😠 I also feel very insecure about migrating to PLEX, as I have indeed heard that they are in financial troubles. I'm clearly disappointed with this development...
Sad to hear that. Have still ds214play and using video station. It was best in conjunction with their dyndns giving ability to watch movies on the go. With photos, video station it was a great ecosystem. Was already checking for a replacement to a newer synology. Now with an inferior ecosystem without first-party support and needing to tinker with third-party apps synology seems like a expensive paperweight. If going diy/tinkering way then best to go freenas/jellyfin way all-in, will be superior and cheaper in the end.
They probably wanted to have this version out before releasing the first 25-model (which probably will require 7.2.2 and up), so in that way it makes sense. It could also mean that the road is now paved to release either the 1625+ or 1825+ shortly.
This is just annoying and upsetting news!! Damn you synology!! I still waiting on a good upgrade from them but will never come since there hardware is always dated. May have to look into qnap now.
The problem is that we as consumesr have already bougt this nas and then they decide to kill these apps after the sale has completed. That is terrible since we also pay for the software and updates. Otherwise we could also buy a cheaper alternatives, but we bought it fot the software ecosystem which is the unique selling point of Synology. I also bought DS423+ for aproximately 1 year ago or less. This nas has multimedia capabilities and now they decide to kill that feature. I'm very sad about that.
So, am I interpreting this correct in saying that the synology update will have no impact on "Plex"? Or, is it possible that the update may have a downline impact to third party video presentation applications. It also seems that there will need to be "Plex" intervention after the Synology update. Also, if that's the case, what if there is an impact if one has the current "Plex" server update. I'll take it that with the version prior, if updated to the current Synology update can be rolled back, correct?
Just bought a DS224+ a few months ago BECAUSE of videostation etc... i will never buy a synology again, and i will avoid the upgrade. I hope synology atleast have the descensy to prove an alternative upgrade route to us that have purchased devices from them and want to keep video station
Synology has supported and helped grow personal media files and for us users who have large digital video and audio files it has been awesome, especially with the phone and tablet integration. My son and the future generations don’t use cd’s or DVD’s and in 10 years you will not find any for sale. Physical media will die and so will the need to host it. It’s going to a rental and streaming future. Synology are reacting to this trend. Sadly 😢. It will be long before Apple and android stop supporting video station.
*sigh*.. Long time user of VideoStation.. I really preferred it to Plex since it had nothing to do with an external online account.. And it was relatively simple. I was waiting for the new 1825+ to upgrade to but taking away software and overcharging for hardware, going to have to look around again. Next requirement now will be "Can I run my choice of Linux distros on it?". I don't want to have to manage everything, but constant shift of companies to "You will own nothing and be happy" and/or "Enterprise customer focus only" will likely force me to..
A sad state of affairs for Synology users.... I have been a user with DS1010 from 2010.. and now have 5 Synology NAS (3 x12Bays, 2x8Bays)... DS Video isn't great but it works and is at least Synology integrated solution. But the plan to drop DS Video isn't the first time users have been left in a lurch. When Synology decided to push their Synology enterprise hard drives made by Toshiba and stop supporting other hard drives, all my drives were either WD or Seagate with 10-12Gb capacities. All of the sudden, the $ per byte doubled or tripled while we were left with limited support. Vendors and Synology support wasn't very helpful on how existing customers should move forward. It took a while before they finally permitted more 3rd party vendor drive. How, we are faced with a multi-media app issue... Seriously, if I find a NAS that will do the job, I will move away... the writing seems to be on the wall... All the best Synology...
I'm glad I saw this video as it's convinced me my 1520+ will be my last Synology device. I use video station daily for my kids rooms as its really easy for them to navigate their movies and general usage. This could very well be the start of the end of the Home Media User! We use audio station and photos, but I'm not going to risk upgrading the hardware and investing a lot of money for them to pull away the software eventually, I originally purchased it for!! Synology for me, was all about the software! Thanks for the update
They're just shifting all the resources to Enterprise departments and support. I see less and less reason for home user to stick with Synology.
They follow the money and Enterprise is, where the big money is. Thats the Way it works. But maybe they surprise us with a good Prosumermodel. Otherwise i will look into a Homeserver-Selfbuild with Proxmox/TrueNAS/Unraid whatsoever and be completely independent from a single Vendor.
I was having a tough time deciding on my next NAS, but thanks to Synology, I have decided to buy Asustor. Thanks Synology! :)
A lot less reasons for smb as well...
At least they suck big time in ent. space. No serious business would use syno other than lab use... and even that is a crappy deal.
I was about to buy 923+ as a replacement for my aging 414+. I have been using the Video Station as a simple built-in solution to stream my collection of movies to Apple TV. This video gave me a huge pause. Should I go for Flashstore instead?
I bought the Synology DS220+ for its “all inclusive” closed environment and suite of apps. DSVideo was one of the big ones, when it started dropping codec support I had to install ffmpg though community support packages. I am not a business so audio, video and backups are what I am using the device for. This has me thinking now as I was thinking of upgrading/expanding - I was sold on Synology, now i am pretty sure I am going to have to re-think my choice.
I'm a big time DS Video Station user. And I've enjoyed it immensely over the past 4 years. I'm a bit of a physical media collection-ist for Blu-ray/DVD's/VHS. And after learning about Synology through your channel 4-5 years ago. I decided to buy Synology mainly for the DS video station application. I've had fun transcribing my physical collection to digital, Still have about 4 complete western tv shows to go until I'm finished. Was a major sucker punch them completely removing DS video station for support. I have not updated my Synology. Nor will I ever since video station is gone, esp with the lose of h.264/h.265 video encoding. Looking into my options now and I'll see where I go from there. I love DS Video station because it works purely on my LAN. Great for when I lose internet. As it stands. I'm never going to buy from Synology again, and I'm looking into other companies for options.
did you find anything else?
I was considering a Synology but given the compatibility push to use their own storage drives and memory, I’ve reconsidered.
I gave up on them years ago for the drive move. #FSYN
I’m stunned. And what the actual f*** Synology! I just made my father buy 2 years ago a ds220+ to backup his iPhones, and I was planning to get one too for the same reason!
It also affects Synology Surveillance Station, if you record in h265 you can no longer use the Synology motion detection, motion has to be done by the camera.
I've been a video station user since day one (I have a DS101j - working btw). This is a blow and a blow for users who want something that works without the additional tinkering.
They are dead to me, I was about to buy an 8-bay unit from them, not anymore and I'm kind of happy they did this move, that pushes me to invest in a custom solution I'll build from scratch and won't rely anymore on any of these corporations for my storage and streaming.
I can't believe this is happening. I purchased a DS916+ which includes built-in hardware transcoding of everything Synology says it is now discontinuing. I am heavily invested in Video Station as I have hundreds of movies on my Synology with DS Video clients on my TV, Apple TV, phones, and tablets. This is a slap in the face to customers which purchase Synology. I can see them not wanting to include the hardware transcoding, but the only reason I can think of as to why they are doing this is because of licensing. As a software engineer, I know it wouldn't be that big of a deal to continue to move Video Station forward. There is something behind this move, and it is upsetting a lot of customers, including myself. I'm not sure the direction I will take. Not install 7.2.2, or invest in a move to Plex or something else. This is a big black eye on Synology in my opinion.
Got Synology a month ago among other things thanks to your videos. Complete software package was not the only but was one of the deciding factors for me. Finding out yesterday on Reddit that they are ending VideoStation and "crippling" SynologyPhotos was a low blow. But after a while I read their "switch to something else" help page, realized even my jNAS has Docker, installed Jellyfin and didn't even had to apply for my own API keys and stuff like with VideoStation... so... yeah. Though with their pricing it's still a crooked move, as a buyer expects them not to remove existing features.
How are they crippling Photos? Can you share the link?
@@notreallyme425 As I understood, because of the removal of the codec support, you might not be able to view some videos on photos either, unless your phone/browser/PC has a license to reproduce them, even if you recorded them yourself earlier and they got backed up by SynologyPhotos and were OK before.
@@notreallyme425 remove the support of heic and hevc , major major problems with apple users , I use that format for at least 5 years. When it’s out , synology photos will be not able to create thumbnail and viewing my stuff
I literally bought synology two weeks ago because of the software packages(mainly photo and video) and now this 💔
What do you mean "crippilng" Photos? They just massively improved it and fixed HEVC video play-through Google Chrome on Windows, which means now my whole family can go straight to Synology Photos on any of our devices without having to use 3rd party apps.
Thanks for the review. I am a long time Synology user since 2010 and I do use Video Station to maintain my entire personal DVD, Blu-Ray , old VHS and home video collections. I have some older devices (like Ds916+, DS1515+, etc ) that I use for media (photos, audio and videos). However I also have DS720+ and DS920+ and considering upgrades.
Synology had offered a great way to integrate all of these onto one platform. I also used the enterprise level rack devices with video station for hosting work related videos.
I think that moving home, SMB and Enterprise users off platform for new solutions may backfire in the long run.
DSM is a great NAS OS but not the only one.
Synology may be going backwards here to reduce their app offerings. I my view they should retain Video Station even if they do reduce the number of codecs it supports.
I have been holding off on making several NAS hardware purchases for both home and work while evaluating Synology's direction for the next 5 years.
Reducing service features is not helping.
well done Synology, I believe the more 1st party apps they drop (I suspect Audio Station will be next), the more reasons you have for not paying the premium price that Synology asks for :) They also included security patches as part of the upgrade to 7.2.2, they should have been rolled out the security patches first for users that don't want the functionality removal of 7.2.2.
You're totally right on the hull leaking analogy.❤❤ I left Sony cameras for this exact same thing when they started not supporting a 2-year-old $3600 camera I bought. By the time they rolled back and did release a new update the blood had already been spilled and I now am happy with another camera brand Panasonic!!
It opens the flood gates for customers to now look at competitors and say what's different from Synology out there?😮
This is only the beginning, but it opens up the market for the other players.
I've had a Synology network for about 6 years now consisting of a large main server housed at my place, a main backup server located at a family members house and some small dual-drive servers at each family members house to make it fluid and easy to manage. I take care of almost the entire familys data backup and file sharing. I've used Video Station until about 1,5 years ago, and decided to switch to Jellyfin instanced in a docker container. Reason primarily being the metadata api keys. That dodo-show was a pain!
UGREEN hardware with unraid / truenas have already made me think about my next NAS. The early talk around the 45 drives 4 / 8 bay NASs are also looking very interesting, together with whatever UniFi put out there.
Remind me again, the reason to buy Synology over other brands is the software,……right?!?
Well it was…😢 Ability to connect seamlessly to home bas without need to set up vpn was great. Now i’d say it’s just overpriced peace of plastic, at least for home users.
The software is getting a tad stale and if I have go 3rd party QNAP is the best choice with the amount of options available.
No wonder, if you don't know what it's about it's about money, apparently greedfaltion got Synology now, shame on you Synology executives!!!
@@Nasguy-b7q You go around promoting QNAP in every Nas video online. Have never used QNAP products but seeing them promote themselves by putting down other manufacturers online (regardless how shitty they may be!) ... Yeah no thanks!!
I have DS918+ and I guess I'm glad this won't be pushed to mine.
Also 918+ here. But i always used Plex, VS never.
Interesting stuff, I wonder if Surveillance Station or the Photo management one is for the chop next?
I was just about to upgrade my 920. But glad I saw this video. I was going to buy another synology because I didn’t want to have to overhaul my directories, but if I’m going to have to do it anyways maybe I should buy a different system.
I am mostly worried about Photo Station (Incl. it's ability to play iPhone videos properly), as I am using it as my main photo/video sharing app. EDIT: And thumbnail generation.
Agreed, it went from a dumpster fire of an app to a smouldering pile in recent years but I would hate to lose it
Yeah I’m socked too. Synology Photo was the main reason for choosing them and right now I’m backing up my iPhones on my father’s Synology. I’d hate to move again!
Move to immich
Photos have fewer formats and simpler metadata than video, so as long as you write your metadata to tags, moving to a new platform shouldn't be the end of the world. Still, I like Photos for its simplicity and speed and I'd hate to lose it.
I was considering buying an 1821+ for our small business. However, in my test run on my personal 918+ I am experiencing regular problems with synology drive not syncing, and now this. I am going to take a look at other solutions now.
I guess we should keep an eye on QNAP to see if they EOL their Video Station.
I'm one of the outliers here; I don't use VS and seldom use Plex even though I have a lifetime subscription. I consider my collection to be very well organized so I just use the DLNA server to send video to my TV and and am quite satisfied with that. It's about as simple as it gets.
this is such a blow on me being a video station power user
title of the video should just be EOL of Synology ...
The last 4 years with them has been a downhill spiral and we all landed in cow dung, paying a premium for less performance all the way down 😂 They want Dell customers and not smb... good luck with that one...
I stopped using Sinology Video Station/Media server two years ago since I switched to AppleTV as a player. It does have application that can play over samba sharing, so no need of any streaming apps on the server side. I guess Android boxes probably also have…. So now my old ds412+ can do samba sharing only and lives happy live :)
This doesn’t affect anything I do, but I understand the disappointment.
As far as “why”? I’m going to guess home users are 80% of the service tickets for only 20% of the revenue. Firing your most needy and unprofitable customers may be what this is all about. Just speculation.
Damn it, one of the most important applications with Surveillance Station seems to be affected. For H.265 they proffer up the following: "Motion detection using Surveillance Station's algorithms will no longer be supported. The settings will automatically switch to using the camera's built-in algorithm if available, or be disabled."
I'm so glad I only bought one extra Surveillance Station licenses a couple of years ago. Locking down all updates from here on and looking at an alternate NAS solution...might even look at Blue Iris or something. Damn Synology...was even looking for an upgrade (if they ever supported 2.5Gb)...but w/o Surveillance Station then there really isn't a compelling reason to stay besides the inconvenience of transferring my files to a new NAS ecosystem.
I've been running DS Video since 2014 and have always thought it was good enough for my purposes. Gutted they're canning it.
However, I switched to Plex last night which took me no longer than an hour or so (I've of average Synology competence level) and I've been really impressed with it so far. Most of the bloat that seem to have people annoyed is easy to remove and it works really well.
End of an era and a baffling strategy, but we'll all survive.
Great video as always, thank you.
I picked a DS720+ some years ago and accepted paying a premium price for the Synology software ecosystem (especially Synology photos) and accepted for lower end hardware. With the removal of transcoding at the nas level "for better efficiency" (I didn't notice any issue), I feel being abandoned by Synology...what next to be removed in the comiong updates? If is is to simply have a file server there are more cost effective solution
Just dont understand their direction they are trying to go. They still havent changed my mind on wanting to stay on DSM 6.
I have 2 working Synology NAS which I have loved. However Synology has just been throwing table scraps to us for hardware and now they're cutting software functionality as well. Sadly, my next NAS will not be a Synology.
Thanks for the video. I'm a long term Video station user. It's never been stellar, however its worked well for me for years. I continue to regularly stream from VS to both Samsung TVs app as well as the firestick applications from a DS214 Play. I have no clue if Ill go Emby or Plex yet. However if Synology does decide to put out a replacement, id likely be hard pressed to do another what is surely going to be lengthy transition back.
100% agree with buyers looking elsewhere because I am in the market for a bigger machine. DS920+ 4 bay currently and looking to a 6 or 8 bay. Although I use Plex for my home media I also use video station for family members outside our home. With no built in video station then I will be looking at other manufacturers.
Not looking into your comments on the video encoding change. I may have it wrong but I think you said encoding/decoding? will be down to the client devices not the NAS? What if the client device does not have the power to encode/decode the video?
I’ve been on the fence about which NAS to get, Synology or UGreen, I also want to see the UniFi NAS before I make a decision. I was hoping Synology were going to do a massive revamp of VideoStation into (as you mentioned) a single Multimedia App with AudioStation, etc. People say with Synology your paying mostly for the software, well if they carry on down this road of pushing these things to third parties then that doesn’t hold up as much and you start to ask why the NASs only come with 1GBE for the most part, integrated graphics becoming more rare, etc. I was like 90% sure I was going to get a Synology… now I’m more like 60%, that could go even lower once I see what Ubiquity come out with (if anything). This is a step backwards in my view from Synology.
How many drive bays do you need?
The last 4 years told us everything we needed to know about Synology. Nothing will change that now, dream as we might it will continue. To me QNAP makes the most sense now a days if you want good software and hardware. Ugreen is nice but I don't trust the firmware just like terramaster.
Try the Asustor NAS.
they are slowly pushing the home consumer out of their business plan. ......my opinion at least. if their OS wasn't so FREEKIGN AWESOME, i wouldn't give two shiznits.
Just got mine like a week ago and bought it as my media box for work. Stuff like photo editing, video culling and more. I work with this stuff and now I really need to reconsider if this is what I want...
Synology should be sued. I think many people chose Synology to use this video function. They also specifically advertised it and now they are not keeping their promise. That is not acceptable, not in Europe!
I am a video station user on my phone and on the android TV. And frankly the software was a big reason for chosing (again) a synology (DS1522). Maybe not next time as the alternatives are there and I think from HW point of view they might be even better/better value. Feels a bit like Google apps, better not get acquainted too much, they might disappear at any point in time.
Good analogy, except that most of Google is free.
Fortunately this doesn't affect me. I never did use Video Station or Photo Station. Like you said, there are much better alternatives out there. Jellyfin is better than Photo Station and PhotoPrism is better than Photo Station.
Either way, I won't be buying a Synology NAS in the future. It's better to just build your own and use something like TruNAS or unRAID. 😗
I do use audiostation, I hope they don't get rid of it, there's considerable less overhead for streaming music smb or transcode upward from Flac
*Why not just replacing Synology by another NAS Manufacturer which supports basic features (like Video station) used a 99% of all homes?* Synology grew up with home customers and Synology now despises them. *The probability is very high that Synology will make similar decisions in the future and cut off home-use customers* so that they will have to look for workarounds again.
like wich one?
@@EvilMmMqransom
@ConradKo you do realize that QNAP took security very seriously the last 3 years and closed it down and even added bit defender to the core os? They responded to their users and it is a great platform. More than I can say about Synology.
@@EvilMmM ASUS, QNAP, Wester Digital and Unify just to names a few. Then you have new players like Zima, Jonsbo, UGREEN and maybe a possible rumored Eufy solution. There's also the option of building your own NAS. The only reason to buy a Synology was its eco app system. Their hardware has always been overpriced because of this ecosystem, now there's no reason to even consider their hardware. This is an opportunity for anyone to jump in and take away this so-called small consumer market.
Hmmmm... Starting to regret upgrading my DS415play to a DS923+. I thought I could get away without the iGPU in favour of faster data performance, but slowly being let down in so many other ways. Will definitely consider other options and possibly even an early sale of my current unit... I need to check out your other reviews and comparisons... 🤔
I use synology photos with our Apple ecosystem , I used to use Tailscale when I was on the go , uploading my iPhone during a trip was awesome. I guess I will be able to do that but everything will have a X or an error since apple use heic and hevc for many many years. Ugreen with Unraid or Truenas scale is my next project.
At this time. I don't want to update to 7.2.2 as I invested a lot of $$$ in surveillance station. This will make it more difficult for me to use ths.with their changes will cause many issues with how I use it. Will I need to request refunds on everything I paid for?
What is the next service they shut down?
Scary thought!
I tried Video Station several years ago... ended up sticking getting a Plex Lifetime pass server years ago (back when it was around 75 US).
It's normally $119 and have the occasional discount of $95. It hit $89 in 2023.
Me too, of course Plex has jumped on the removing features bandwagon in that they just announced they are removing TIDAL integration end of October 2024.
The entire purpose of Synology is keeping the security/login under one door to access your data. It doesn’t have to be a as good. They could have integrated jellyfin.
You can say goodbye to HW transcoding in the future.
Video station is one of the main reasons i bought my Synology NAS and the fact it has (Or soon to be had) its all in one eco system so to speak. the more the change the more my interest looks else whare.
It’s primarily a problem for the weaker j series devices. On our DS220j only Video Station is the only usable media server app, Jellyfin can’t even be installed properly and Plex is also becoming worse with their business model and shift away from local media playback. So glad I switched to Infuse on Apple TV, the NAS just needs to provide the files and do nothing else…
I can't afford to loose Video Station. I won't update DSM ever. I'm happy as it is.
Until a security flaw is found then it will be update now or risk losing your data? Not rushing to update my DS920+
I never used transcoding, need too much bandwidth to upstream outside home, I use my DS1522+ (100TB) as smb and full bitrate stream exact copy Blu-ray/4k to Apple TV using infuse pro and Kodi
Was with synology for its first party software support and it even costs more and I justified it for the software support. Extremely frustrated about videostation removal.
Jellyfin in container station works fine if you have an intel processor NAS due to the fact it has video support if not and you have a newer Ryzen processor model your up the creek without a paddle! thanks synology for making me "not want" to upgrade my NAS
I use video station because it was the safe and tested media player that would play well with our data. I'm stunned that they would be so stupid as to get rid of it. Speechless. What will be next? Note Station, Audio Station? I use them both as well. Maybe I can't trust Synology any more. And the way they did this was just so - I don't give a sh*t about our home users. In my case the NAS is for my wife's business and also for home use, so it will be a big job to move everything over to a more reliable NAS provider.
I like the Synology NAS... I have three of them. But, I do not think you can depend on them to continue with certain apps and capabilities over the long haul. Like dropping support for dongles... now the Video Station. Accordingly I tend to keep things minimal. I am running the Unifi Controller and Plex. That is it for those kind of apps. For both I have an alternate means of running outside of the NAS. I use Blue Iris here. If they want to go all in on supporting Enterprise that is their prerogative. They cut too much out of the product for me I will cut them out of my network. There are always lots of ways to overcome the void.
I've always used my NAS as a NAS. Never used VideoStation or Surveillance Station or any of that. I believe that specialized vendor software for any of those technologies works so much better. I actually prefer my NAS to be that: a NAS rather than an NVR or a photo/video client. So i must be one of the least ones here not having a problem with this change 😄 Now, who knows what they might cut out in the future. But if you think about it, having a NAS dedicating CPU resources for transcoding stuff, I mean, this doesn't make sense for me. I prefer to squeeze my CPU for storage operations more than anything else.
Video Station presents a nice front end. I'll miss it. I have Video Station integrated through my own domain name and related SSL certificates which is only available on the LAN. It's a nice setup. But, that's through a web interface which is what I drive guests thru if they login to the guest network. In reality, I rarely use it and guests usually don't connect to my WiFi. Yes I have a large library of videos on Synology. But the computers, smartphones, and other streaming devices on other segments of the network all have the ability to organize and play the videos without use of Video Station. The coolness of Video Station is the cover photo and descriptive information including the actors. In the end, a file is a file and if your endpoint can process the file type, then you're in good shape. I'll miss it like I miss the iTunes Server.
great thing about VideoStation was QuickConnect support, but nowadays (zero-config) VPNs are common,
that said, frankly DS File is more pleasant experience than DS Video, should deserve some refresh, but it works,
interesting thing about HEVC end is a potential future for use of AV1 codec (which is superior, and free?) - I wonder which Synology NASes and client devices can handle that yet?
We (me, my wife and kids) use Video Station on daily base. That step from Synology Group is really sad. Do you think is there any chance to use Video Station under new 7.2.2 system? Thx
Good timing i'm between Synology and Terramaster, this made it easy
Used video station a bit but Plex is better and more customizable. Synology also doesn’t let you use video station outside your home on a Samsung tv as it requires you to be on the same network and not quickconnect. Real issue is the effects it will have on Synology Photos.
Synology is misunderstanding it's stats. People aren't using their video station or their Nas for video playback because the hardware and software for HDR 4k 5.1 is subpar compared to free ones.
I run Kodi on tv app with Nas instead.
Synology software in 2024 is not worth what they think it's worth and their hardware is always outdated.
exactly, 99% (i really think 100% but i take a margin) of the home lineup in not really capable of doing that, thay do it SLOWLY and badly, old hardware, old cpu, often no igpu either...so..no more bad ads about "the nas is slow and slugghish": now you cannot do it. and the phylosophy is ok, is a nas not a server. But you see the competion with VERY similar OS (if not identical), but up to date hardware and cpu and you stat thinking. I got 3 synology (2 very very old) but i think they live by her name now.. not really worth anymore.
Yeah my current Synology is my last one. Just not sure what to get next. Just need something with good video encode/decode like the Qnap i5/i7. Just wish any of the existing NAS options had a cpu that had AV1 encode but seems that is still about 2 years away. Unless I get a Qnap and add a Nvidia GPU for AV1?
Phew….. I was using VideoStation for since getting my DS218+… and on my DS920+…. But about 2 months ago, decided to go over to Plex. Feels like I got lucky…. Shame about this, and it it worrying the idea behind this. Hopefully they say a bit more what the plan is.
From what I understand, processing the HEVC (H.265), AVC (H.264), and VC-1 codecs has been removed "from the server to end devices to reduce unnecessary resource usage on the system and enhance system efficiency." I'm at a loss to see why this is a bad thing?
I am assuming that viewing a thumbnail or Photo/Video on and iPhone for example would be unchanged. Correct?
I tried to use Video Station on my DS920+ and didn't like it at all. It seemed half-baked and nowhere near as smooth as some other options available.
Does this cause any issues if I use a external player like the zidoo?
I’m glad I didn’t spend time setting up video station and went straight to plex. I hope plex keeps going. I’ve got terabytes of stuff in my plex library.
I used to be a Synology die hard.
The synology way was to give you a box where you could give up 3rd party tooling. Now it seems by design that they want to reverse that. Ho hum
They ignored their core users to chase a market they won't be successful in. Terrible, just terrible.
@@Nasguy-b7q It is honestly comical that they thing they'll be able to compete with the likes of Dell and HP in the enterprise segment.
The only value that they bring is in their software and enterprise customers don't really care about that at all.
Dude, video station is not the worst. The worst part of this is Synology photos also going to crippled with the codes that iPhones use… this is such a weird, all around downgrade.
What's happening to Synology photos? Can you explain more, I haven't heard anything about this
I am a QNAP user for very long time (almost 10 years). I have been years wanted to join the synology team, specially to try their acclaimed software. This year i decided to buy one Synology NAS, so i have been waiting so far for the Synology's new releases (now on September). Now I am wondering how the EOL of Video Station will be impact with the new releases models. Maybe I will end up buying a Ugreen NAS :-/
Why not the 453E or 464, they are a nice value... Been happy with QNAP as of the last 3 years. Great improvements and heading in a good direction.
This made me think not only about „third party apps“ but „third party NAS“
I’ve been using Synology since the J-series and still have that unit. Video Station, Audio Station have been my primary services since day one. I’ve tried Plex and it’s horrible, not only is there no integration with the Synology accounts, mobile app clients have to pay for their clients. My family uses DS video and DS audio more than they use iTunes. Synology’s business model was all focused on hosting your own content and not relying on or paying for cloud services. This will only keep people from upgrading their DSM, thus making them more and more vulnerable to attack over time. I hate this decision and can’t understand why they are really doing this.
I have two synology NAS, and based all of my home cloud on their solution. This really caught me by surprise. I'm an avid user of videostation, and though I installed Jellyfin, I'm not really keen on switching. Which means at the moment I've stalled the 7.2.2 installation and trying to consider my options. As you mentioned, the worry is not just Videostation, but overall the status of the first-party applications. How many are going to survive in the long run? Given I feel their hardware is somewhat overpriced, the whole point of still buying a synology has been, at least for me, to leverage the inhouse software. If they're going to rely more and more on third party solutions, then I'm afraid other NAS brands will become more compelling.
When DTS support was discontinued a few years ago, the Video Station became uninteresting.
So if we assume Synology won't be the home users choice in the future. Who should we consider switching too ?
QNAP is the only one that makes sense if you want a turnkey solution. Their selection of QNAP and 3rd party software is very good and the hardware is very good as well.
I still have a DS213+ under DSM6.2 to keep PhotoStation because Photo is not even reading metadatas as PhotoStation.
I'll keep a NAS (Virtual or not) under DSM7.1 with ffmpeg package and VideoStation.
For the next NAS, I'll look for an other brand. You said it, Synology is a all in one, if now I've to use third party apps, why spend so much money in a more or less outdated hardware.
Just started last week to setup my video station, and planned to make heavy use for it.
Even started writing a tool to automate the creation of custom metadata in bulk, and planned to make that open source too so people could have a tool.
(Because there is nothing finished out there)
Now found out about this and i am like: Fluff my life...
I hope they will provide an alternative, because all others look like they are a downgrade in comparison in a frist breef look. I am going to wait before i even consider updating...
I wonder will they provide support for systems that don't want to upgrade?
It is really sad!
I just fully configured my Video Station on my DS1522+ last week, and they're already planning to discontinue it???
I really need a successor to Synology!
Was just on the fence about buying a few more synology systems. Looks like synology lost a couple thousand dollars with this move, as i actually use dsvideo station, and photos. They stopped caring about customers and screwed us, and thats okay, this is how capitalism works, and if you don't buy/invest into their stuff, IE speak loudly with your money i believe this will get the point across.
Well, this is a bummer. I have all of my videos in video station. I like the clean interface. I have Plex but moved away from it for the clean interface on video station. Boo Synology!
I have the DS918+ with a DX517 that I use for Plex and have been looking to upgrade. The missing integrated graphics in the new Synology offerings have convinced me that my upgrade is going to be to a QNAP instead. Sad but they have forced me to make that choice.
I use photo and video and would use audio. Synology is essentially saying to us, don't trust us to support you. I would worry even if I was enterprise. Enterprise users are also home users.
Can I consider buying the continual sold out cameras in the US? Who knows how long they will support anything.
Synology is number one in the OS for security. They also made a name for themselves by creating an ecosystem that supports anyone wishing to not use various cloud services for each use case.
Why are they destroying their bread and butter user base? Companies need to understand the business user is also a consumer. They are not two different animals.
Will you take a look at the AOOSTAR WTR Pro? On paper seems the device I've always wanted, 4 HDD bays, N100, M.2 slot for the OS, no proprietary OS so it's possible to run Proxmox etc on it and even 2.5Gb port.
Looks like a fantastic choice to me, especially for the price.
Video Station was an important reason why I recently bought a DS224+ ... and I'm very disappointed to hear that it will be discontinued! 😠 I also feel very insecure about migrating to PLEX, as I have indeed heard that they are in financial troubles.
I'm clearly disappointed with this development...
Perhaps try Jellyfin instead? On a 224+ you can install it in a docker or via the SynoCommunity repo.
Sad to hear that. Have still ds214play and using video station. It was best in conjunction with their dyndns giving ability to watch movies on the go. With photos, video station it was a great ecosystem.
Was already checking for a replacement to a newer synology. Now with an inferior ecosystem without first-party support and needing to tinker with third-party apps synology seems like a expensive paperweight. If going diy/tinkering way then best to go freenas/jellyfin way all-in, will be superior and cheaper in the end.
They probably wanted to have this version out before releasing the first 25-model (which probably will require 7.2.2 and up), so in that way it makes sense. It could also mean that the road is now paved to release either the 1625+ or 1825+ shortly.
I suspect my next NAS is going to be an old Mac Mini with attached raid storage.
This is just annoying and upsetting news!! Damn you synology!! I still waiting on a good upgrade from them but will never come since there hardware is always dated. May have to look into qnap now.
The problem is that we as consumesr have already bougt this nas and then they decide to kill these apps after the sale has completed. That is terrible since we also pay for the software and updates. Otherwise we could also buy a cheaper alternatives, but we bought it fot the software ecosystem which is the unique selling point of Synology.
I also bought DS423+ for aproximately 1 year ago or less. This nas has multimedia capabilities and now they decide to kill that feature. I'm very sad about that.
So, am I interpreting this correct in saying that the synology update will have no impact on "Plex"? Or, is it possible that the update may have a downline impact to third party video presentation applications.
It also seems that there will need to be "Plex" intervention after the Synology update. Also, if that's the case, what if there is an impact if one has the current "Plex" server update.
I'll take it that with the version prior, if updated to the current Synology update can be rolled back, correct?
Just bought a DS224+ a few months ago BECAUSE of videostation etc... i will never buy a synology again, and i will avoid the upgrade. I hope synology atleast have the descensy to prove an alternative upgrade route to us that have purchased devices from them and want to keep video station
Synology has supported and helped grow personal media files and for us users who have large digital video and audio files it has been awesome, especially with the phone and tablet integration. My son and the future generations don’t use cd’s or DVD’s and in 10 years you will not find any for sale. Physical media will die and so will the need to host it. It’s going to a rental and streaming future. Synology are reacting to this trend. Sadly 😢. It will be long before Apple and android stop supporting video station.
they should open source video station and let the people choose
*sigh*.. Long time user of VideoStation.. I really preferred it to Plex since it had nothing to do with an external online account.. And it was relatively simple. I was waiting for the new 1825+ to upgrade to but taking away software and overcharging for hardware, going to have to look around again. Next requirement now will be "Can I run my choice of Linux distros on it?". I don't want to have to manage everything, but constant shift of companies to "You will own nothing and be happy" and/or "Enterprise customer focus only" will likely force me to..
I bought Synology precisely because of its apps like Videostation, I just hope they release a new app to replace it.
A sad state of affairs for Synology users.... I have been a user with DS1010 from 2010.. and now have 5 Synology NAS (3 x12Bays, 2x8Bays)...
DS Video isn't great but it works and is at least Synology integrated solution. But the plan to drop DS Video isn't the first time users have been left in a lurch.
When Synology decided to push their Synology enterprise hard drives made by Toshiba and stop supporting other hard drives, all my drives were either WD or Seagate with 10-12Gb capacities. All of the sudden, the $ per byte doubled or tripled while we were left with limited support. Vendors and Synology support wasn't very helpful on how existing customers should move forward. It took a while before they finally permitted more 3rd party vendor drive.
How, we are faced with a multi-media app issue... Seriously, if I find a NAS that will do the job, I will move away... the writing seems to be on the wall...
All the best Synology...