Video Playback

Video Station comes with an embedded player which allows you to play videos once the package is installed on your Synology NAS.

In addition to playing videos on your local computer, you can also stream multimedia contents to DLNA/UPnP-compliant DMAs or AirPlay compatible devices for video playback. Before you start, please make sure you have been granted the AirPlay/DLNA Renderer privilege.

Play Videos

1. Select any video clip you want to play and click the play icon at the bottom-right corner of the video image.
2. At the bottom of Video Player, do the following to control video playback:
   • Click Play/Pause to play or pause the video.
   • Click Next or Previous to play the next or previous video episode (if available).
   • Click Stop to stop playback.
   • Use the Progress bar to skip to any point you want.
   • Click the Fast Forward or Back Forward icon to skip 10 seconds.
   • Click the Playback Rate icon to change the playing speed of the video.
   • Click the Repeat icon to repeat all videos or currently playing video in your collection.
   • Use the Volume bar to adjust the volume.
   • Click Settings to select a video playback quality and audio track.
     • Playback Quality:
       • Original: Available only when you are using streaming mode and your device supports the original file without conversion.
       • High/Medium/Low: Depending on the individual model and conversion capabilities of your Synology NAS, the actual playback quality may slightly vary. Generally, the higher the quality is, the more system resources are occupied and the more bandwidth is taken up when video files are being converted. In this case, if you are not located in the local area network, it is suggested you choose medium or low quality for faster file transmission and conversion. However, you may select high quality if you want to enjoy high-definition video.
       • High Bitrate FHD: This option is only available on Synology NAS models supporting 4K conversion. When you play 4K videos via browsers within your local network, this will be the default setting to ensure that you have a higher quality video viewing experience than ever before.

         Note:

         • Not all quality options are available for selection because of different conversion capabilities of your Synology NAS. If none is available, Video Player can play videos still.
     • Audio Track: Available audio tracks for the video will be displayed on the menu. Select your preferred language to play. If the video has no audio tracks, no options will appear.
   • Click Player to select a device to stream videos to.

     Note:

     • HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) support is required if you want to stream videos to Apple TV for playback.
   • Click Fullscreen to play videos in the full-screen mode.
3. You can use keyboard hotkeys for basic video playback operations:
   • Press the space key to play or pause a video.
   • Press “s“ to take a screenshot of the video at the current time. The screenshot will then be saved to a folder named “screenshot“, which is located in the same folder of the video.
   • Press the up or down arrow key to adjust video volume:

     	Arrow only	Ctrl + Arrow	Shift + Arrow
     Up	+10%	+25%	+50%
     Down	-10%	-25%	-50%

   • Press the left or right arrow key to forward or backward a video:

     	Arrow only	Ctrl + Arrow	Shift + Arrow
     Right	+10 seconds	+30 seconds	+60 seconds
     Left	-10 seconds	-30 seconds	-60 seconds

Manage Subtitles

To manage video subtitles for playback:

When playing a video, you can change subtitle settings for better watching experience.

1. During video playback, click the cogwheel icon on the playback bar.
2. Click Subtitles on the menu.
3. Use the options below for subtitle management:
   • External subtitles (optional): Select from external subtitles for playback. Subtitle files for a video (e.g., StarWars.avi) should meet the conditions below:
     • Supported subtitle file extensions: .ass, .sami, .smi, .srt, .ssa
     • When there are multiple subtitle files, their names should be filename.extension or filename.[valid characters].extension.
       E.g.,
       • StarWars.srt
       • StarWars.zh-yue.srt
     • Subtitle files and the video should be placed in the same folder.
   • No subtitles: Select to stop showing subtitles.
   • Auto Download Subtitles: This item shows auto-downloaded subtitles are applied to a video without subtitles. To have auto-downloaded subtitles for use, make sure the admin has configured relevant settings and Enable auto subtitle download (at Settings > Options) is selected.
   • Search for subtitles: Select to automatically find subtitles from online sources. When the system finds any subtitle files, you can select one for download. Make sure the admin has selected a subtitle source (e.g., OpenSubtitles.org) and configured relevant settings at Settings (the top-right cogwheel icon) > Advanced > Subtitle Auto Search.
   • Browse subtitles: Select to find subtitle files stored on your Synology NAS.
   • Sync subtitles: Select to sync subtitles with the video. Click + or - to change subtitle timing with the default or custom value.
   • Subtitle Preferences: Select to change subtitle text style, such as Font and Text color.
4. Click OK to save the settings.

To auto-download subtitles:

First, the admin should do the following to allow auto-download:

1. Go to Settings (the top-right cogwheel icon) > Advanced > Subtitle Auto Search, and select subtitle sources (e.g., OpenSubtitles.org) and set the relevant settings.
2. Click Set Auto-download Order to check or reorder the sources for download.

Then, each user can enable auto-download by selecting Enable auto subtitle download at Settings (the top-right cogwheel icon) > Options > Subtitles. When users have videos without subtitles, the system will automatically search and download matched subtitles for playback.

Conversion Settings

While playing videos, file conversion capability is a must when the video format is not supported by the client device. Most Synology products are equipped with the capability in software, able to detect whether file conversion is required or not and perform conversion for playback if necessary. To learn more about video conversion, please visit Synology website.

To enable hardware acceleration:

In addition to software decoding, hardware acceleration (only applicable to specific models), the use of system hardware to perform some functions with more efficiency, leads to higher performance in conversion. For models which support hardware-accelerated conversion, this option is enabled by default to allow for faster conversion. If you want to disable the setting, go to Settings > Advanced to untick the checkbox.

To enable AC3 passthrough on Apple TV:

While playing videos on your Apple TV, you can enable this option at Settings > Advanced to enjoy better audio quality. Once the option is enabled, Video Station will leave the 5.1 channel AC3 soundtrack within your videos untouched for playback and will not downsample it to 2-channel audio. With this support, the audios will be output with high quality when the videos are streamed to Apple TV. Please make sure your TV connected to the Apple TV supports AC3 with 5.1 channels.

Offline Conversion before Playback

With offline conversion, you can convert videos to .mp4 format (supported by most mobile devices) in advance with setting up those videos’ profile. Once the conversion is completed, you can download the converted videos to your mobile device and play them without limitations of network connectivity.

To start an offline conversion:

1. Hover your pointer over the video that you wish to convert, and click the Offline Conversion button at its lower right corner.
2. Select the video files, video profile, and audio track that you wish to become the profile of the newly converted video.
3. Click OK to start converting.

To check the offline conversion status:

1. Click Offline Conversion button at the upper right corner of your Video Station.
2. You can view, stop, or clear the conversion tasks in the Offline Conversion tab.

Parental Control

With the feature of Parental Control, you can set up a 4-digit PIN per user account to restrict video playback according to video classifications and protect the privacy of specific videos. This feature can be especially helpful if you share a user account with your family, since there might be some videos, such as R-rated movies, that you would like to keep away from your kids.

To set up a parental control rule:

1. Go to Settings > Parental Control and click + to create a parental control rule.
2. Select a user account that you want to apply parental control to.
3. Create a whitelist by video classification for each video category. Videos belonging to the specified classifications in the whitelist can be viewed by anyone using this account without restriction.
4. Set up a 4-digit PIN. Whenever someone using this account wants to play videos that are not included in the whitelist, they will need to enter this PIN, whether in Video Station or DS video.
5. Click OK.