Synology DS418 play
Easily stream audio and video
£446.18 FROM Synology, synology.com FEATURES 4 drive bays, 2GB memory (upgradable)
The DS418play is the latest in a line of Synology network-attached storage (NAS) boxes that have been designed to stream audio and video to devices on your home network.
The DS418play is a four-bay NAS that can be configured as a RAID array for speed or protection. Unlike other Synology NAS boxes, it transcodes video and audio on the fly, so you can store files on its disks (not included) and then stream them to an app, such as Synology’s own video player or the popular VLC on your iPhone or iPad, even when iOS doesn’t support the original file format.
The operating system is easy to set up, allowing you to copy video shot on an iPhone to the NAS, then play it back on other devices on your network.
The DS418play boasts a faster processor and a fair bit more memory than its predecessors; it supports up to 40TB of storage and can transcode two channels of H.264/HEVC 4K video at the same time. The server also supports hardware encryption for file transmission, and it can be used as a destination for Time Machine backups, as well as a regular file server.
Apps available for iPhone and iPad enable you to stream audio and video and manage files. With the apps added to iOS’s Share sheet, you can share photos and videos to the NAS box, too. Support for CCTV cameras and direct downloads round out the DS418play’s comprehensive feature set.