DS video (Android)

Version 3.4

Before enjoying videos on your Android devices with DS video, make sure you have done the following:

• Video Station is installed and running on your Synology NAS. The latest package is required to have all functions listed below. You can update the package in Package Center.
• Videos have been placed in corresponding video folders by type in Video Station. Note that video contents which are not located in those folders will not be accessible through DS video. For more information, please see DSM Help.

DS video allows you to log in to Video Station securely and effortlessly. You can protect your connection via SSL/TLS connections and verify the server certificate installed on your Synology NAS.

2-step verification is supported to provide extra security for your account. If 2-step verification is enabled, you will need to enter a one-time verification code in addition to your password when logging in.

To log in to Video Station with DS video:

1. Do either of the following:
• Enter the following information on the login page:
• Address or QuickConnect ID of Synology NAS: this can be either the internal or external IP address, DDNS hostname, or Synology QuickConnect ID. Make sure you have enabled QuickConnect at Control Panel > QuickConnect in DSM before logging in with QuickConnect ID.
• Your user account and password.
• Tap the arrow button next to the Address or QuickConnect ID field to select previous login credentials from the list of your login history or find Synology NASs in your local network. A set of credentials can be removed by tapping on the right of the chosen entry and then Delete.
2. If you want to secure your connection, do the following:
• Turn on HTTPS if you want your connection to be SSL/TLS-encrypted. Before doing so, make sure the HTTPS service is activated under the General section at Control Panel > Network > DSM Settings on your Synology NAS.
• Enable Verify certificate by going to > Login Settings to validate the SSL certificate installed on your Synology NAS. This verification works if the installed certificate is trusted (you will need to purchase from a third-party issuer).

To use one-time password:

When 2-step verification is enabled for your account or enforced by the admin on DSM (6.0 and above), you will need to log in to this Synology mobile application with your user credentials and the 6-digit code retrieved from Synology Secure SignIn or other authenticator applications for safe access.

To simplify logging in:

IP addresses (or QuickConnect ID/hostnames) and user accounts are shared between the login histories of the different Synology mobile apps. To avoid entering user credentials multiple times, tap the gear button to enable Remember IP address and account. Disable the option if you do not want to share credentials among apps.

Alternatively, you can enable Remember me on the login page to remember the password of your user account. You will always be automatically logged in until you log out of the app.

To log out of DS video:

Tap and then tap Logout.

Below is the general introduction to DS video.

1. Check your login information, manage video settings, read related documents, and send us your comments or suggestions if you have any to make.
2. Browse and play videos downloaded to your Android device for offline playback.
3. Quickly access the videos that have been added to Favorites, Watchlist, Shared videos, and your custom collections.
4. Browse and play videos that have been stored in video folders whose video type is movie, TV show, home video, within default libraries respectively. Flick left or right to browse videos by category.
5. Browse and play videos that have been recorded, manage recording tasks and live stream TV programs. Flick left or right to browse videos by category.
6. Browse and play videos that have been stored in video folders within custom libraries whose video types include movie, TV show, and others. Flick left or right to browse videos by category.
7. Enter keywords (title, director…) in the search field to search videos in the corresponding video type.
8. Flick left or right to navigate through videos under different categories in different display modes.
9. Depending on your Android device, press the menu button or tap the menu at the top-right corner to do the following. The image above is for reference only.
• Switch display mode: Change the way videos are displayed.
• Refresh: Refresh the page to view the updated video contents.

DSM admin or users belonging to the administrators group can grant users access permissions to default and custom libraries. If you are unable to browse certain libraries, it may be that access rights to the libraries are not assigned to you. Please ask the administrators for help.

To stream to AirPlay/DLNA compatible TV and video receivers (remote mode):

DS video allows you to stream your Video Station library directly to an AirPlay/DLNA compatible TV (an Apple TV for instance) and Chromecast device by tapping . DS video becomes a remote control, and you don’t need to open Video Station in a web-browser on your PC or Mac. With this “remote mode”, the video is streamed directly from the Synology NAS to the TV, avoiding any quality loss or using extra network bandwidth. If you want to manage the video currently playing on the remote player, tap > Select player.

To select subtitles and audio tracks:

Select the corresponding language or file from the menu which appears after video playback. Or search for subtitles online if no subtitle files are available in DS video.

If you want to disable searching subtitles online, go to > Subtitle Settings to toggle the button next to Enable subtitles.

To look for videos:

Go to any video tab, tap and enter keywords to search for videos. After doing an initial search, you can refine your search results by tapping .

To sort videos:

Go to the target category (e.g., Movies), and tap > Sort Settings to sort your video collections. Note that this feature is available only for videos under All.

Users with the DTV Control privilege (at Settings > Privileges in Video Station) can watch digital TV programs broadcast live with the streaming service via DS video. Tap the menu at the top-left corner of the screen and tap TV Recordings. Tap to stream TV programs broadcast live.

You can manage your own video collections by adding videos to system's default collections-Favorites, Watchlist, Shared Videos, as well as the user-defined collections named by yourself for quick access.

To add videos to or remove them from collections:

When you are on the overview page of a video, tap , , or to add the video to or remove it from a collection.

To delete videos forever:

Find the target video and go to its overview page. Tap , and Delete to delete the video forever.

To create smart playlists:

A smart playlist is a special collection that automatically groups videos that meet specific criteria together. To create smart playlists, go to any video tab, tap and search for videos by entering keywords or applying filter criteria. Once you see the videos you are looking for, tap Save to save the results as a new smart playlist.

You can share an individual video or a collection of videos by tapping in its movie info page and by enabling Public sharing. This will generate a sharing link which you can paste into emails, instant messages and web pages to make the video or collection available to anyone. If necessary, you can specify a validity period. This limits how long the link remains active. Tap Shared Videos to view and manage the videos you have shared with the public one by one.

Tap in the slide menu to enter the settings page, which allows you to configure the following settings:

To adjust video settings:

• Video Transcoding: Enable this option to transcode videos to formats compatible with your mobile devices. The quality will be based on the Playback Quality you have selected. If you disable this option, DS video will only stream the original videos.
• Playback Quality: You can choose to give preference to image quality (High (Quality first)) or speed when playing movie (Low (Speed first)) by tapping Playback Quality. Auto will offer the best compromise depending on the network capabilities. Please note that when playing high-bitrate videos, a lag may occur if the network bandwidth is insufficient.
• AC3 Passthrough: If you enable this option, DS video will leave the 5.1 channel AC3 soundtrack in your videos untouched for playback.

To overview the progress of watched status:

• Show Watched Ratio: Choose whether to display the watched status when browsing libraries. This will display a ratio of watched progress on posters of videos you have not finished.
• Mark Unwatched Videos: You can tap > Mark as unwatched on the target video, and you will see a beside the video title.

To configure where the downloaded videos are saved:

• Download path: Select the directory where downloaded videos are to be stored.

DS video allows you to perform offline transcoding to convert your video into .mp4 format, which is the most compatible video format on mobile devices. Once the offline transcoding is launched, Video Station will start transcoding the video for offline use. Upon the completion of offline transcoding, DS video will automatically download the transcoded video for you to play. You can enjoy your favorite transcoded videos on your local device anytime anywhere. This feature may not be available for you. Please ask the administrator for help.

To perform offline transcoding for your videos:

Tap in any video's detailed info, and select the video quality for the transcoding profile according to your preference.
Note: If there are video files which can be played properly on your mobile device, you can tap the lower section in the floating panel.

To monitor your offline transcoding status:

Tap Downloaded videos and go to Transcoding Tasks tab to manage your offline transcoding queue by Time remained and percentage. You can also Stop/Restart your offline transcoding tasks here.
Note: If you stop a transcoding task, you will have to restart it all over again.