Synology DS423+ NAS – Should You Buy?

Last updated on 20 Mar 2023 📧 Subscribe
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1 Synology DS423+ NAS Drive – Should You Buy It?
2 5 Reasons the Synology DS423+ is a Good NAS for You
2.1 #1 – M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pool Support
2.2 #2 – Great Performance and Support of Plex, Emby and Jellyfin Media Server
2.3 #3 – Wide Hard Drive and SSD Compatibility
2.4 #4 – Great Chassis Design, Low Noise & Low Impact
2.5 #5 – Supports the Whole DSM 7 Catalogue of Applications and runs them well on 2GB Memory
3 5 Reasons the Synology DS423+ Might NOT Be the NAS for You
3.1 #1 – 1GbE by Default and No Means to Upgrade
3.2 #2 – 2GB Memory is fixed and Can Only be Scaled to 6GB
3.3 #3 – The Synology DS423+ Uses a 2019/2020 Generation Intel Celeron
3.4 #4 – The Synology DS423+ NAS cannot be Expanded
3.5 #5 – Way, WAY too Similar to the DS920+ NAS
4 What We Said About the Synology DS423+ NAS in our FULL Review in March 2023
5 Need More Help Choosing the right NAS?
6 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Synology DS423+ NAS Drive – Should You Buy It?

Should the DS423+ NAS from Synology be your next big tech purchase? With such a wide range of private server solutions on the market, it’s never been a better time to be a NAS buyer, looking to move your data away from a public cloud provider, or even to run them side-by-side as a 2-tier backup solution for your home or business needs! Synology has a tremendously diverse range of NAS solutions, but with the previous generation(s) of solutions in their portfolio now appearing on offer, as well as available at discount at 2nd hand eTailers – does the DS423+ deserve your data? We already made a massive review on the Synology DS423+ NAS HERE, but today I want to hit the Pros and Cons head-on and help you decide much quicker on whether this NAS is for you.

HARDWARE HIGHLIGHTS
CPU: Intel Celeron J4125, 4-Core, 2.0-2.7Ghz
Memory: 2-6GB DDR4 non-ECC Memory
SATA Bays: 4x SATA
M.2 NVMe Bays: 2x PCIe Gen 2 (Caching or Storage Pools_
Network Ports: 2x 1GbE
PCIe Upgrade: No
Software Platform: Synology DSM 7 (Currently Version DSM 7.1/7.2)
Warranty: 3 Years, Extendable to 5yr

5 Reasons the Synology DS423+ is a Good NAS for You

So, first up, let’s discuss the high points! Here are the five reasons why the Synology DS423+ NAS drive deserves your money and your data!

Note – if you are in a hurry, you can watch my ‘Synology DS423+ – Before You Buy’ video below:

#1 – M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pool Support

Until the end of 2022 and start of 2023, Synology was pretty rigid on how the M.2 NVMe SSD bays of their NAS could be used. Despite them being one of the first (if not THE first brand) to introduce a turnkey desktop solution with M.2 NVMe SSD bays in conjunction with traditional SATA bays at the SOHO/SMB scale, they limited their use for ONLY caching. Caching does have great benefits, with write caching improving the speed and response from uploading/sent data to the NAS and read caching improving the access and response for connected users to frequently accessed data (arguably mainly I/O and small-scale data that is high in count, but low in volume) – but when users have spent a good chunk of money on M.2 NVMe SSD storage, which is SUBSTANTIALLY faster than traditional HDDs, it’s a real pain for some when you cannot use them for traditional storage pools and volumes! So therefore, it was a welcome surprise that Synology started easing up on this policy in their 2022/2023 releases to allow these bays to be used for storage pools and I am VERY pleased to say that the DS423+ NAS supports this too! Yes, this IS a feature that is available on other NAS systems in their portfolio now AND is it s feature that brands such as QNAP, Asustor and Terramaster have offered for 2-3 years, but it is still great to see it on the DS423+ NAS.

This is particularly surprising, given that the Synology DS423+ is very much a non-enterprise and non-business-focused NAS system. Additionally, the DS423+ NAS bears huge comparison with the DS920+ released in 2020, a HUGELY popular NAS system, which has NOT had M.2 NVMe SSD storage pool services added retroactively – so many users (myself included) would have jsut ASSUMED that the DS423+ would not support this feature. It IS worth highlighting though that the DS423+ CPU uses Gen 2 lanes, only allows pools on Synology NVMe SSDs (SNV3400 / SNV3410), cannot currently use the M.2s for booting DSM and does not have any external connectivity that allows the performance benefits of M.2 NVMes to be realised externally. Still, if you are looking for higher speed storage areas for a VM, Surveillance alerts/recordings, high frequency data bases or just to run the Synology apps themselves in conjunction with data on the slower HDD array, you WILL see benefits!

#2 – Great Performance and Support of Plex, Emby and Jellyfin Media Server

Despite the Synology hardware portfolio in the last year or so slowing moving towards more ‘file server’ and ‘high transfer speed’ processors, the Synology DS423+ NAS is the first release diskstation release from the brand in almost 2 years to arrive with an Intel Integrated graphics processor! Now, WHY is that a big deal for Plex, Emby and Jellyfin media servers? Don’t all the Synology NAS systems play 1080p and 4K media? Well, yes they do! But there is a certain contingent % of users who need their multimedia servers to convert (AKA transcode / encode/decode) their multimedia collection on the fly. In brief, must users have multimedia NAS needs that fall into the following categories:

  • They have tonnes of media that they want to ONLY access locally and on powerful media devices that support ALL File formats and/or have client side hardware transcoding supported
  • They have tonnes fo media that they ONLY want to access remotely, but have strong internet connections, the client Hardware has the file format/licence support and/or client-side transcoding support (NVidia Shield, Xbox with the HEVC licence enabled)
  • They have tonnes of media they want to access locally AND remotely, but some of it needs to be accessed by low-power/resolution devices and/or are on limited internet connections
  • They have tonnes of media they want to access locally AND remotely, but the client devices do not support the media formats (e.g. HEVC, M4A, FLAC, etc) and/or do not have client-side hardware transcoding or local license supported (eg Amazon FireTV or Playstation and the hole HEVC limitation in some cases)

For those last two camps, a NAS that features a CPU with integrated graphics is going to be ENOURMOUSLY desireable – which is something I am pleased to say the Synology DS423+ NAS has!

Although the Synology DS423+ NAS is relatively new, I have had extensive experience with the hardware architecture of the DS423+ as it is highly comparable with the DS920+ , DS720+ and even DS420+ that came before it and I can confirm that it will DEFINITELY run Plex, Emby and Jellyfin very well indeed. Both Plex and Emby are available to download from the Synology app center directly (whilst Jellyfin can be installed on a Synology NAS via the unofficial App store – tutorial here) and all three will run very well for home users on the DS423+. There is a 4K test article on Plex on the DS423+ NAS here (as well as the comparison between Jellyfin and Plex + Emby and Plex below).

#3 – Wide Hard Drive and SSD Compatibility

A arguably smaller point here and one that has increased in it’s important lately! Unlike a number of higher profile (i.e more powerful and expensive) NAS systems in the Synology NAS portfolio that have much stricter supported official HDD and SSD compatibility/support, the Synology DS423+ supports pretty much everything you would expect! As long as it is SATA and 2.5/3.5″ – they will almost certainly appear on the Synology compatibility lists. There is still talk of Synology releasing a standard class range of HDDs (to accompany their existing enterprise HDDs and SSD media), but if/when they do, they will likely always allow competitor 3rd party HDDs in the WD Red and Seagate Ironwolf NAS drive series to be used on value series NAS like the DS423+. They DO only support upto 18TB at the time of writing across all supported HDD brands, likely down to Synology’s own drives currently capping at 18TB, but most buyers of the Synology Diskstation PlusNAS systems like this one were far less likely to install HDDs of this scale!

All that said, do keep in mind that the Hard Drives that you choose to use will make an impact on noise. Any NAS HDDs (WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf) of 8TB or lower capacity will be lovely and quiet (only really making noticeable noise in periods of high access frequency), but larger capacity HDDs or enterprise class/industrial built Hard Disks will make more ambient noise (vibration hum, clicks of the internal arm/actuator and spinning disk platters) and these will be easily noisier than the DS423+ noise when in operation.

#4 – Great Chassis Design, Low Noise & Low Impact

As you might expect, the DS423+ Diskstation casing is identical to that of the DS920+ and DS918+ that came before it. This is a particularly well-designed device, both in terms of aesthetic design AND it’s efficient system operation 24×7, with tonnes of ventilation throughout and very structured component distribution. Also, the chassis is a largely plastic external casing in matt black, that contains a much smaller structure on aluminium internally. The result is a NAS that is pretty low noise when in operation (unless you use HDDs larger than around 10TB and/or enterprise-grade 7200RPM disks). That said, one consistent vibe you get in the design of the DS423+ is that direct/physical interaction with the device is kept to a minimum, preferring almost entirely network/internet-based interactivity. Not a huge surprise for a ‘NAS’ of course, but there are a handful of physical attributes that are intentionally absent here. The front of the chassis lacks any kind of LCD display, instead favouring LED indicators. The bulk of the front panel is occupied by the main storage bays and these have alining of ventilation all around them to act as passive airflow.

Passive airflow is definitely a big focus on the design of this chassis, with almost every side of the case featuring ventilation of one sort of around, with the Synology logo being vented. As this system will be in operation 24×7, it is heavily reliant on the rear fans to push air effectively through the system and over the assortment of internal heatsinks as effectively as possible and this chassis does that very well indeed. The Diskstation series at the 2/4 Bay level has always done a great job of melding modern design with necessary system temperature management and the DS423+ is no exception.

#5 – Supports the Whole DSM 7 Catalogue of Applications and runs them well on 2GB Memory

At Launch, the DS423+ NAS arrives with the latest version of Synology software, DSM 7.1. However, this does not stop evolving as soon as you get your Synology NAS. DSM has been in continues to be the dominant force in the world of NAS software, providing a massive arrangement of services, applications (first and third-party supported) and a huge number of client applications for desktop, mobile, Windows, macOS and Linux (as well as a bunch of other more home-based tools). These allow management and access to the data on the DS423+ in very tailored ways, as well as the web browser-based access that has the appearance, intuitive design and responsiveness of a local operating system. The DSM interface can be accessed by hundreds of users at the same time (with each user having tailored access, rights and privileges). DSM is available with ALL Synology NAS and the depth and abilities of DSM on any NAS are dependent on the hardware architecture of the NAS itself. In the case of the Synology DS423+, it supports EVERYTHING that is offered by Synology’s platform. DSM is currently in version 7.1, but it looks like we will be seeing full release of DSM 7.2 at the end of 2022 or the start of 2023, which will be adding WORM (write Once Read Many) support, Volume scale encryption and numerous improvements to individual applications. If you want to learn about it, you can read the DSM 7 Full Review HERE.

As mentioned, the DS423+ supports pretty much the entirety of the DSM 7.1 applications and services (DSM 7 and DSM 6.2 are still in circulation and still receive regular service and security updates, though the DS423+ will arrive with DSM 7.1 by default and cannot be rolled back). If you are an existing user of SaaS and PaaS (Software as a service and Platform as a service) from the likes of Google Workspace and Office 365, knowing that you can synchronize these systems or choose to export away from them onto the Synology services is going to be very appealing. Then there is the increasing development of their 1st party cloud platform, Synology C2, which is slowly integrating into all the applications that are available on your bare metal NAS (allowing you to add a cloud layer of backup, synchronization and access to your data storage setup). This is a subscription platform, which can only be used with your Synology NAS system (as well as connected with some 3rd party SaaS services, but for those that are moving away from Google/Microsoft/AWS for security reasons, but still want a Cloud+Metal storage network in place, C2 covers pretty much everything. Indeed, although below I have highlighted a number of the key/best applications that are included in your DS423+ Service with DSM, most of them can be immediately integrated with Synology C2  (with even more being added in 2023 with DSM 7.2). Key business and consumer applications that are included with your NAS are:

Synology Office – Create documents, spreadsheets, and slides in a multi-user environment. Real-time synchronization and saving make collaboration a breeze.

Synology Chat – Aimed at businesses, Synology Chat is an IM service that transforms the way users collaborate and communicate.

Synology Drive – Host your own private cloud behind the safety of your NAS with 100% data ownership and no subscription fees. Drive has become one of the premier applications of DSM and allows uses to create intelligent shared team folders that support versioning, file streaming+pinning, encryption, Windows AD support (soon) and native file system support with Windows and macOS.

Synology Photos – Manage your photos and videos with deep-learning algorithms that automatically group photos with similar faces, subjects, and places. Designed after the merger of Synology Photo Station and Moments, it also includes tailored folder, sharing and categorization features to help photographers manage their photos and share them with clients for feedback or business development.

Synology Calendar – Stay on track, share calendars, and schedule meetings, while ensuring sensitive information remains safely stored on company premises.

Synology Active Backup for Business (ABB) – Consolidate backup tasks for virtualized environments, physical servers, and personal computers, and rapidly restore files, entire machines, or VMs – license-free. This software also arrives as a specialised Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace platform to sync with those platforms and allow a bare metal tier to your cloud office services

Synology Hyper Backup – Backup your NAS safely and efficiently to multiple destinations with deduplication, integrity checks, compression, and versioning.

Synology Surveillance Station – Safeguard your business, home, and other valuable assets with reliable video surveillance tools. With improved AI services being accessible thanks to Synology BC500 and TC500 Cameras arriving in 2023. Additionally, you can connect this platform with Synology’s cloud platform to use ‘C2 Surveillance’ and bolster the odds of recordings being maintained in the event of accidental/malicious damage to your surveillance system.

Synology Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) – An intuitive hypervisor that supports Windows, Linux, and Virtual DSM virtual machines. Its powerful disaster recovery tools help users achieve maximum service uptime.

Synology High Availability – Synology High Availability (SHA) combines two Synology NAS servers into one active-passive high-availability cluster, alleviating service disruptions while mirroring data.

Synology Central Management System (CMS) – Synology CMS allows you to manage multiple Synology NAS servers quickly and conveniently from a single location.

Synology Video Station – Manage all your movies, TV shows, and home videos. Stream them to multiple devices or share them with friends and family.

Synology Audio Station – Manage your music collection, create personal playlists, stream them to your own devices, or share with family or friends.

Synology File Station – Manage your Synology NAS files remotely through web browsers or mobile devices. This tool allows complete file management and contains all the features and services of your own native file management platform (archiving, extracting, Copy, Cut, Paste, Sharing, native file format opening, integration with the rest of the Synology applications, property/metadata access, etc)

5 Reasons the Synology DS423+ Might NOT Be the NAS for You

Nothing is perfect, right? For all of the positives that I have highlighted above, the DS423+ is still not a perfect Synology NAS solution. Here are five reasons why you might want to give the Synology DS423+ NAS drive a miss, opt for a alternative brand or go for a lower priced predecessor.

#1 – 1GbE by Default and No Means to Upgrade

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way early doors! Those ethernet ports. The default model of the DS423+ NAS arrives with two-gigabit ethernet ports (the same as the DS920+, DS918+ and DS916+ before it), despite almost other commercial NAS brand producing solutions at this consumer-tier/scale arriving with at least 2.5GbE. Now, the adoption of greater than gigabit connectivity in client hardware (laptops, PCs, routers, switches, docking stations, etc) is by no means as ubiquitous as 1GbE (which has been around for decades at this point), BUT it is growing. ISPs are providing fiber internet connections globally that exceed gigabit speeds, along with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 routers. We are seeing more prosumer switches, routers and PCs with default 2.5Gb network ports (at the same/similar cost as 1GbE), $20 USB-to-2.5G adapters and even the affordability of 10GbE on some client devices has allowed users to gradually scale up their hardware environment. The fact the DS423+ arrives at the tail end of 2023 and does not feature greater than 1GbE ports by default is quite damning. Even if you have no plans for 2.5G right now in your setup and think it something of a fad (favouring 10GbE), in terms of future-proofing and the general standard or networking hardware right now, gigabit ethernet is a surprising weakness here. This weakness in network connectivity is further highlighted when you consider that the winter 2022/2023 released DS923+ and DS723+ both arrive with the option to upgrade them to 10GbE with the E10G22-T1-mini adapter from Synology. Not having support of this adapter on the DS423+ feels like a big step back. Maybe with the Gen 2 CPU bottlenecking the bandwidth of the Gen 3×2 adapter too much – but then that begs the question of using the Gen 2 CPU at all! If Synology would hurry up and embrace 2.5GbE or at least sanction USB-to-2.5GbE adapters (hell – release their own branded one!), this would mitigate this somewhat.

#2 – 2GB Memory is fixed and Can Only be Scaled to 6GB

This is only really going to be an issue for those that plan on ramping up their Synology use in the system’s lifespan, but the fact that the DS423+ NAS only arrives with 2GB default memory is a little underwhelming. Now, before I ‘go off on one’, I once again need to reiterate that my issue with the 2GB memory is not exactly the amount – 2GB of DDR4 memory (at 2666Mhz) will run DSM 7.1/7.2 vert well and in my full review I was able to run pretty much all the applications with this memory, thanks to the system having a very intelligent background caching/flushing system in operation. HOWEVER, the 2GB of default memory is fixed to the main internal controller board. Also in this area is the expandable memory bay. (via a SODIMM DDR4 slot – see dismantled NAS image below) Now, again, this is an area of disagreement! The CPU inside the DS423+ has an official support memory maximum of 8GB of DDR4. However, the fixed 2GB prevents this.

This means that you can only officially upgrade the DS423+ via the single SODIMM slot towards 6GB with a single extra 4GB SODIMM module in the available bay. Aside from 6GB being an odd amount, people are most certainly going to make comparisons with the DS920+ having 4GB on Day 1 and 8GB max. Synology does not allow upgrading that memory beyond 6GB in this configuration (so, you cannot work around the 6GB limit by installing a 8GB in the SODIMM slot and hitting 10GB with 8GB+2GB), stating that using the system in an unsupported fashion can lead to weakened/invalidated support by the brand when you need it (as you are using the device in a configuration they did not verify and/or cannot replicate).  This also includes using 3rd party memory, instead of their own branded modules I can partially see their point – they want to run a smooth, reliable and stable platform. Just a shame that Synology Memory modules are a noticeable degree more expensive than alternatives from Crucial and Kingston. Next, we need to discuss the CPU inside the DS423+ NAS – something of a hot point for some.

#3 – The Synology DS423+ Uses a 2019/2020 Generation Intel Celeron

There are two very distinct ways to view the Intel Celeron J4125 CPU inside the DS423+. On the positive side, its a new Synology NAS with a very competent Intel CPU inside, quad-core architecture at 2.0-2.7Ghz clock speed, integrated graphics for demanding server-side processing like multimedia conversions, VMs, thumbnail management and increasing AI ops in Synology/3rd party applications. This is the first ‘Plus’ series release by Synology (i.e Prosumer/full-featured) to feature an Intel Celeron processor since summer 2020 – with everything else since either being efficient ARM processors or Embedded Ryzens without integrated graphics. This CPU does a great job of running synology DSM and will comfortably run a large range of applications, supported users, backups and surveillance cameras at any given time. Finally, there is the fact that till now, the DS4xx+ range has always been a dual-core processor and always lived noticeably in the shadow of the DS9xx+ system in the brand’s portfolio. So, the DS423+ arriving with that quad core Intel Celeron processor is definitely good news! Much like previous Synology NAS systems, the Intel Celeron CPU is located under a single, large, passive heatsink (no active cooling fan), which also means that ambient system noise from system cooling is reduced too. So, why would there be any reason to be unhappy about the DS423+ and it’s CPU choice?

Well (and this is going to get VERY ‘inside baseball’), those that have been following Synology these last few years will know that this is not the first time the J4125 has been used on a Synology Plus series NAS. Indeed, it has appeared several times in previous NAS systems (DS920+, DS720+, DS620slim, DVA1622 and DS1520+) love the last three years. In that time, not only has Intel moved on a couple of times to new cycles of processors (the N5105, N5095, J6415) which provide better power efficiency, PCI gen support and memory caps, but also competitor NAS brands have rolled out 1-2 more generations of hardware with configurations that capitalizes on Intel’s newer Celeron models. Now, it CAN be argued that because Synology have spent so much time and research exploring the capabilities of this processor, that they can get the most out of it for DSM. Equally, Synology has always been very clear that the jewel in their crown (and indeed the main selling point for their systems) is the DSM software and not the hardware. Then there is the fact that ‘at least it’s an Intel integrated graphics CPU, when Synology has been very ‘AMD Emb.Ryzen’ heavy of late! Finally, there is the argument that when the J4125 was featured previously, it was in their fully-featured ‘SMB’ tier – so the DS423+ in their more affordable Home/Prosumer tier is actually scaled up in having this quad-core Celeron processor. There are ALOT of different ways to look at Synology putting the Intel Celeron J4125 in the DS423+ NAS. But I think it would be fair to say that users of the DSx16+ and DS18+ generation that opted to skip the DSX20+ generation to ‘wait and see’, might be a little underwhelmed.

#4 – The Synology DS423+ NAS cannot be Expanded

A small-ish complaint, but the Synology DS423+ NAS lacks the official expandability of the Synology DS923+ and DS920+ via the eSATA connected DX517 JBOD enclosure. The DS420+ NAS before it didn’t have this feature and synology have rarely included expansion support at this tier of their portfolio in both the 2-bay and 4-bay versions (adding it as an incentive towards the DS9xx+ and DS7xx+ series). Still, with data getting bigger, data retention policies/legal-commitments increasing, I think that it is long overdue for Synology to just stop this restriction and add expandability to more of its systems. Many of their competitors have allowed expandability via USB 3.2 (Gen 1 at 5Gb/s and Gen 2 at 10Gb/s) officially supported on even their value tier system, with QNAP, in particular, standing out by offering 2/4/8/16 Bay expansion systems with hardware RAID and JBOD – so the fact the DS423+ NAS cannot allow USB expansion OR add a 6Gb/s eSATA connection for their own system seems like an artificially created restriction.

#5 – Way, WAY too Similar to the DS920+ NAS

There is, of course, the unavoidable way that most long-term Synology users and those looking to upgrade an existing 2016/2018 Diskstation are going to look at the DS423+ – a Synology DS920+ with less memory and no expandability! For those that skipped the DSx20+ generation, the DS423+ is going to feel decidedly underwhelming at best and hugely disappointing at worst! Synology has made no bones that they prioritize their software and services, with hardware being an important but nevertheless secondary concern. The main criticism is that CPU being the same processor used in the 3 years previous generation. Intel has moved production away from the J4125 themselves several times (with most other NAS brands using the N5105 or J6412 right now) and although Synology has been known to move CPU architecture down through the generations previously, this is a particularly egregious example. If they had just scaled something up on this device, such as the network ports from 1GbE to 2.5GbE, add the option of a 10GbE upgrade or more over upgrade the base level memory from 2GB or 4GB, I think people would be less quick to make this unfortunate comparison.

What We Said About the Synology DS423+ NAS in our FULL Review in March 2023

Massive Synology DS423+ Review Article – HERE

YouTube Synology DS423+ Review – HERE

There are two ways we need to look at the Synology DS423+ NAS. In one way, the Synology DS423+ DOES support all of the features and services that users demanded in a fully-featured home/prosumer solution. It features an Intel Quad Core processor with embedded graphics, DDR4 memory, multiple gigabit ports, wide HDD/SSD compatibility and m.2 NVMe SSD support. These are all things popular and most certainly what users would want/expect in a fully featured home/prosumer solution (aka SOHO). Then, when you roll in DSM 7 and it’s enormous range of software and services, the DS423+ is an excellent NAS solution that counters a broad range of criticisms that were leveled at the DS923+ at launch. However, there is, of course, the unavoidable way that most long-term Synology users and those looking to upgrade an existing 2016/2018 Diskstation are going to look at the DS423+ – a Synology DS920+ with less memory and no expandability! For those that skipped the DSx20+ generation, the DS423+ is going to feel decidedly underwhelming at best and hugely disappointing at worst! Synology has made no bones that they prioritize their software and services, with hardware being an important but nevertheless secondary concern. The main criticism is that CPU being the same processor used in the 3 years previous generation. Intel has moved production away from the J4125 themselves several times (with most other NAS brands using the N5105 or J6412 right now) and although Synology has been known to move CPU architecture down through the generations previously, this is a particularly egregious example. If they had just scaled something up on this device, such as the network ports from 1GbE to 2.5GbE, add the option of a 10GbE upgrade or more over upgrade the base level memory from 2GB or 4GB. The Synology DS423+ IS a good NAS system and serves as a great means to enjoy the wide-ranging features of DSM privately or professionally! It just feels like more of a stop-gap system in some places and one that existing DS920+ or DS420+ owners will skip.

SOFTWARE - 10/10
HARDWARE - 7/10
PERFORMANCE - 8/10
PRICE - 7/10
VALUE - 7/10


7.8
PROS
👍🏻Synology 4-Bay NAS with a 4-Core Intel Integrated Gfx Processor - Lovely stuff!
👍🏻Runs Everything in the Synology DSM Catalogue (Active Backup, Surveillance Station, VMM, Drive, Collab Suite, etc)
👍🏻Great Plex, Emby and Jellyfin Media Server Performance
👍🏻Supports M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pools
👍🏻Broad HDD/SSD Compatibility with Synology drives AND Seagate+WD
👍🏻Low Impact chassis, low noise in operation (HDD dependant) and efficient power use
👍🏻Runs exceedingly well on just 2GB of Memory
👍🏻More affordable than the DS923+ and DS723+
👍🏻Long-running DSM Support beyond the Hardware 3yr Warranty
CONS
👎🏻No means to upgrade network connectivity and 1GbE by default
👎🏻Memory maximum cap at 6GB as original 2GB is fixed (non-upgradable)
👎🏻Too similar to the DS920+
👎🏻Non-Expandable
👎🏻2019/2020 Gen Intel CPU



DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now?

Synology DS423+ 4 Bay Desktop NAS Storage Server Amazon UK UK 12.9 OFF (WAS 494) [LINK]

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      415 thoughts on “Synology DS423+ NAS – Should You Buy?”

      1. Today, I installed Jellyfin on DS220+ and found the documentation outdated as it did not show some center, moreover, I am not able to change the cache folder which suppose to store the image, etc for the library.
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      4. My jeelyfin is running cpu usage 100% on ds920+ when transcoding and I do not see any option to setup gpu transcoding despite I have the synoclu video driver installed (and ffmpeg7).
        Any way to fix this ?
        All my videos are running 100% ok with videostation or plex, I am upset to not be able to do same with jellyfin ????
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      7. I have Emby installed prior to wanting to check out Jellyfin. Emby uses 8096 by default, so the Jellyfin install fails when it tries to set the port. There is no fallback, the installation just fails. Anyone able to tell a network noob how to change the Emby port?
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      9. Awesome video. But as of October 25, 2024, I do not see Jellyfin on the Community tab in my Package Center. I see it on the SynoCommunity website, but not in my Package Center. Oh well, I’ll keep looking for it, or maybe try a manual install. And yes my DSM is up to date (DSM 7.1.1-42962)
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      10. Who is here after learning about Synology’s ridiculous decision to remove DS Video off DSM without any thought to its users ? If yes, id be interested in knowing how Jellyfin compares? Cheers
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      11. Hey @NASCompares, do you have any recomendations from migrating away from the SynoCommunity packages of Jellyfin to Docker to run in Container Manager?

        Unless you can advise on a way to backup and restore Jellyfin installed via SynoCommunity
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      13. This is awesome video tutorial, thanks for sharing!!!
        BTW: Will the Jellyfin be still working if remove the SynoCommunity Package Sources after we installed Jellyfin? Thanks!
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      15. The problem is that the Synology NAS goes to 98% when playing and there is no way to program it so that the receiving device performs the playback or decoding process, it is a big problem
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      16. Thanks for sharing this! I’m new to using a NAS. I found your tutorial very helpful, up to the point when I’m directed to open Jellyfin. It won’t open, but I get a display message that reads “sorry, this package cannot be accessed when connected via QuickConnect.” Can you point me towards a resource that will help me figure out how to address this? Thanks in advance.
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      17. Gosh, they make their drives super complex for the customer to select the right one. Why? I am looking for storage for around 1tb of photos and work files and 5tb of music, movies and home videos. I would like to stream to Plex and ideally all run from the NAS. I have had an awesome Drobo 5N but now they have gone, I am worried about losing stuff. I was about to pull the trigger on the DS423+, but now am thinking that I may have selected the wrong NAS. Is this the best out of the three for my use case? Sorry, I watched the video and am a little confused by the future proofing and upgradeability. But maybe I shouldn’t worry about this
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      18. Installed as shown in the video. I have the DS 920+ how do enable hardware transcoding? The instructions/videos show how to do it Docker/Container. I have changed the settings in Playback and hardware acceleration to “Intel QuickSync(QSV) and enabled some options (as in other instructions) but transcoding not working. I note under QSV it says “…requires additional configuration.” but I don’t know what to so.I’m basic computer literate. Please advise.
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      28. Hmmm did this and Jellyfin no longer appears in the list of community apps anymore… Is this because 7.2.2 DSM has wiped out video station and doesn’t want migration to Jellyfin?
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      32. Now that Synology is forcing users to forever remove Video Station in their newest DSM update (7.2.2), this video is more significant than ever before. Thank you for your excellent methodical review!!!
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      33. Thanks for the video. I am so glad Docker was not involved. I don’t like it. One recommendation. Please, don’t insert yourself in the video as it is not necessary. We don’t need to see you. I have noticed a lot of creators doing this. Is is an Ego thing? Your voice and the video are more than enough.
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      38. I found a package to update this jellyfin community to 10.9.6 since then I just can’t run jellyfin… it start and then stop a few seconds later. I gave permission to sc-ffmpeg6 which is needed to run, but it just doesnt work
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      39. Would i benefit from having the integrated graphics (ds423+) if i’m streaming to my iPhone 13 over the internet? Or would I benefit from the faster file reading of the AMD cpu? (ds923+)

        Pls help! Clientside… Encode… transcode… i dont know what that is or if an iPhone can do that.
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      45. Doesnt seem to work anymore it does install ffmpeg but when you click on install for jellyfin nothing happens…when i look at the install page it says download count 0, im using a 920+, can anyone help please ?
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      47. Great video as always. Like Cameron above, I lost my Internet connection in storms recently, and was seriously under impressed that I could not access my Plex library from the TVs etc. I ended up watching stuff on a laptop direct from the media files, HDMI cable, total lash up.
        My question: is there anyway to allow non authenticated access to Plex so i access it when the Internet is down? My DS920+ is well hidden behind firwalls etc, nothing exposed to the internet. Or is the way out of our next outage to install Jellyfin as a backup path? Plex plays well on the TVs, and I have enough Roku’s to go round for the TVs without a Jellyfin app
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      51. I would HIGHLY advise anyone following this guide to stop and not go further, running via the synocommunity package has tons of drawbacks, including inability to easily backup metadata / jellyfin setup, and inability to get most recent jellyfin updates. I’m currently in a world of hurt now trying to migrate to docker, I wish I never ran it via this synocommunity package.
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      54. Thanks for this, how do we update to the latest 10.9.x build? Is there a link to manually grab the latest Community build from Steven? It’s telling me to update to latest version on my Shield to keep using it ????
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      55. Been using this for a year or so and it’s been great… now it looks like it may no longer be updated. Stuck on 10.8.13 and 10.9.4 just released two weeks ago
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      59. I was able to instal Jellyfin with the help of your video – thanks for that. It installed 10.8.13 the windows client says you need 10.9.1 or greater for it to work. Question how do we upgrade the server with this type of installation? Thanks
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      63. I’ve got and use a 918+ with 4 x4Gb drives. and its full to upgrade i can get the 5 bay expansion for £470 or a new 923+ for £570 with all the advantages that gives. The expansion is so close to the price of a new nas It’s hard to go for the expansion
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      65. Dispite the downsidde I bought the DS423+ cause of the integrated graphics for transcoding…. Mind you, Im using it to store my collection of blue ray DVDs primarily, but also to run NVME’s and a couple of virtual machines….. SYNOLOGY has been smart ( and dumb depending how you wanna view it) in making only the DS920 expandable. After all it seems that Synology make you want to decide between making the NAS expandable and giving it the ability to transcode….. DAMN YOU Synology, why cant we have the cake and eat it too (if we wanna pay the money)
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      70. They look exactly the same, you talk about them and point at them without saying the model number (After the intro) and now I need to try and guess which one is which… a small sticker on each one will have made this video much easier to understand. Other than that a very good comparison for users looking for a NAS.
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      71. Thanks for sharing, so If I understand correctly, for DS Video, the DS423+ could be a better option, specifically if I would need transcoding. I need to upgrade my aging DS 412+, the heavy lifting application running on this besides the File sharing servers, is DS Video, clients are AppleTV 1080p, Amazon Fire TV, sometimes iPads/iPhones. Everything is running fine on the DS412+ but that unit is 10 years old and should be refreshed. I think the DS423+ would be a better choice, am I correct ? Thanks !
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      73. Plex won’t recognise my media properly. It insists some media is not what it is, even with optional folder naming ID and lifetime Plex Pass.
        It crashes regularly when showing Plex ads,requiring restart every time ads are shown.
        Support, for a lifetime Plex Pass holder, is non-existent.

        Emby is much more controllable.
        Jellyfin can’t be installed when Emby is installed without changing ports and breaking some Emby client setup

        Transcoding regularly fails in both Plex and Emby.

        Often I resort to VLC via DLNA which will play all my files with no issues at the cost of having to navigate through folders, but that works.
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      75. So I followed along and got everything installed. All I had to do was click Jellyfin in the packages and a browser popped up and failed to connect. I figured I was going to have to run this from a container. Then following another video I found I didn’t have the Container Manager package. A lengthy bit of research and I learn my DS918+ is running DMS 6.something or other and you must be running 7.2.something to get the Container Manager package. Some scary notices causing me to pause more than a few times but I did finally go through with the update to 7.2. After the server was back up and running, I figured, what the hell, I’d try to run the package I got installed following this video. And Bing! Bang! Boom! Done! It started up. I’m now patiently waiting as Jellyfin scans media. It’s going to take quite a while to scan everything and then comes days, weeks, months of fixing metadata and tweaking settings before I can really decide to abandon that downhill sliding Plex application for which I paid a lifetime membership. I have so many questions I hope to answer as I get Jellyfin doing what I want. This bitch is slow when it’s scanning, that’s for sure.
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      76. Appreciate all your work mate. For a few days now I am watching your content to educate myself to make an educated decision which NAS to buy, what to look out for etc.

        Thanks ????
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      78. So I’m looking for an upgrade for my old ds 215j, and i know now a lot more about NAS since then..
        But I forgot an important thing before buying it…
        Research and looking for what I really wanted ????…
        But today I am a bit wiser ???? and I know which choice would be better..???? then 512mb Ram and dual-core arm Processor ????
        Realizing the Meaning of Slow ????
        Anyway I forgot another important thing..
        To get a part of your channel, due to a subscription and thumbs up ???? for your good work and videos.❤
        Thx Mate and greetings from Germany
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      81. Honestly this vid is actually useless for some people. First of alle the prices in the EU are different. The DS 920+ is the worst with 1300€ + for only the case compared to 510€ for the DS 423+ and 600€ + for the DS 923+. The price for the DS 423+ is cheaper and it comes with slower cores but 4 instead of 2 and iGPU. For everyone that want to do more with the NAS like docker, VMs and Plex/Jellyfin Server the DS 923+ is a really bad option. The DS 423+ is the only current model that I really like. I know only 2 GB of RAM but you can buy a 16 GB RAM stick and you are running the DS 423+ with 18 GB of RAM. Correct me if I‘m wrong. But I still pissed that the hardware of from 2019/2020 from a 2023 model.
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      82. Great video. Followed everything you have said but unfortunately it will not install. It finishes downloading and installing and the button stays as “Install” and I can repeat it over and over. There is never any “running” or the button change to “open.” It’s too bad that programs like this stay small because they are poorly delivered. Back to Plex and Emby.
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      85. Thank you for this guide.

        I’ve been running Jellyfin on my Synology 1522+ since September…running fine.

        I followed a guide from another site to add new libraries and completely screwed up my Jellyfin install.

        I spent the last few days trying to fix it and I was worried that I may have had to ‘nuke’ everything (and lose ~ 10 TB of movies and TV shows)and start over.

        I found your guide and followed your steps and fixed it in about an hour.

        p.s. I have learned my lesson…I just ordered a 16TB HDD that I will mount in a HDD reader to back up my library.
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      91. Hi. I finally acquired a NAS, the Synology 923+ and got it up and running, installed Jellyfin according to this tutorial. Everything works great.
        But I’m wondering, This NAS doesn’t use hardware transcoding? So do I miss out on something by not using the Docker container approach?
        And I need to be able to access my NAS remotely. What approach do I need to take here?
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      92. Great content as always. I think there’s too much emphasis on “you need a plex pass to be comparable”. Lifetime plex pass for 100$ to me kind of makes any argument about a feature being behind that paywall irrelevant. At the end of the day, I think it’s would be a better review to just stick to overall capabilities. I am building by own NAS and have spent $ on hardware and potentially software (unraid or whatever). The cost of plex pass is pretty minimal in the grand scheme. Sure – it’s “one more thing” but it really shouldn’t be a determining factor. If plex doesn’t do something you need or doesn’t do it as well as jellyfin, that should be called out (or visa versa). Just my 2 cents.
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      97. On a DS418play the installer runs the FFMPEG4 installation successfully but nothing happens after that and going back to try run the Jellyfin installer a 2nd or 3rd time does nothing (says loading for a split second) even after rebooting the NAS. I think this community version is probably for ARM CPU only, not Intel. Might want to add that to the title of your video.
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      99. Why should we install the community thing instead of the official docker? You just kinda move from one to the other without explaining why. Why you’re choosing to install from the community. You talk about ‘official’ but… is that a bad thing? I’d love for an expansion of that Synology install page you pulled up. I got stuck there, the instructions seem very incomplete. Or maybe just not set up for the new Container Manager
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      100. have used Plex forever but not for a while on my kodi machines and of course it spits out an error so wont work, stuff it so put jellyfin on NAS as well and added the add-on to kodi and it seems to be a better story now. Very straight forward on my old DS411+ but a new DS923+ is on the way, may use the old one for backup. Cheers it went really easily with the latest versions on my older DSM 6.2 software.
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      101. All, just stumbled upon this video and recently purchased a 923+. I got (3) 16TB Seagate drives in RAID 5 and am considering getting a Samsung 970 Evo Plus for caching. Anyone have any input in this? I know it isn’t in the HCL, but some people said it works fine for caching? Do you need to install in pairs?? TY!
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      122. Are we going to get an M.2 NVMe compatibility test for the DS423+ given you’ve already done memory? My old DS1813+ is on it’s last legs (time to retire after a decade) and needs replacement, predominately for Plex and Surveillance.
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      123. Hello everyone, I bought a Synology 423+, installed the drive inside, but on first power up I smelled a strong plastic and burnt smell.
        The smell passed after few minutes and everything seems to work fine and in temperatures. I would like to know if this is normal.
        The smell did not return again.
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      124. Please explain, why would anyone need to transcode video? Every player, every stick or tv plays everything you throw at them, why loose quality and resources for streaming? This is for in-home use only question.
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      125. late to the party. The transcoding part is a load of UTTER rubbish. The commentary states he is comparing “Hardware” transcoding. Plex’s dropdown, as shown, is CPU only transcoding. That is “software” transcoding. Jellyfin’s dropdown is for real hardware transcoding.
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      128. I hope you can help me!
        I have sooo many files on my pc and external SSDs lying around on my desk. About 6 TB with videos, pictures and documents. Now that I’ve started a YouTube channel, there is going to be alot of video files!

        All I want is a box with 4 bays (maybe go with two 12TB to start with), to store aaall of my files. I want to connect with a USB to my pc and have a decent speed when tranferring files from my computer and I want it all to be mirrored. The networking part is not so important to me. Is this Synology DS923+ for me? And what do I look for in a suitable harddrive? Thank so much and cheers from Norway!
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      129. Oddly, I found this in the community packages and installed this myself before learning that using Docker method was the more established method for this app. This way is certainly easier, but how do we back it up? It doesn’t appear in the apps when configuring HyperBackup. I would hate to lose all of the config and metadata edits if my Synology NAS were to fail.
        The same question also prevents me from switching to the Docker version, I don’t see a simple way to export/import settings.
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      136. Plex freezes my TCL Android TV if I try to browse my movies with it.

        It is better than jellyfin in that it feels slightly more refined and for some reason jellyfin can’t look for new subtitle out maybe I don’t know how to use it but that’s an issue I’ve seen.
        jellyfin is more stable on the TCL Android TV though.
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      138. I have been out of the loop for a couple of years and notice it’s still the same with Synology. You get a nice looking box for way too much money with everything agonizingly capped. I have 3 and I am fairly pleased with them (they do the job) but them being so cheap and scarce on EVERYTHING remains hard to swallow. I would recommend anyone considering a NAS to look further. It’s just too insulting what they’re playing hardware-wise, they’re yerking the consumer around.
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      142. It would be great if in some DSM update M.2 can be used with another models, companies, not just from Synology. That is insane… just from Synology and limit of their storage. If they make some upgrade like as motherboard can use different memories…not just from synology.
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      143. Hi, I bought DS923 and just to say for info that everything is running great, very smooth. I made upgrade to 32GB ram, 2x4TB WD RED (personal files) , 1x 8TB RED (Plex), 1TB SSD (Business, VM, etc) and M.2 256GB cashe. I use Plex with OpenVPN and it runs very nice. Very different if you use it without OpenVPN… and If there are 4K movies in some cases, not that often, but there is a client that can handle it. At the end I am very satisfied with DS923+ from the business side (Backup, security, Snapshot, Virtual machine, etc.) and from a personal side (Photos, Plex, etc.). In the beginning I thought that I will have some problems but I organised everything how will be in use and now I am satisfied. ????
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      144. Why I dont recommend synology if you’re a linux user – you cant do basic things like give ssh keys for use with SCP unless you make every server_user in admin group – what idiotic snot at synology came up with that???? sure, you can use rsync and scp to their respective shares, all good – BUT – you have to run the trhings manually because some idiot decided non admin users cant ssh in – to setup keys…… or do synology think its more secure by allowing every server including remotes, to be added as an administrator!
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      145. I’ve had PLEX since there were just starting. Paid for the Lifetime membership hoping for the best. Unfortunately, there are MANY ISSUES with the service and there is NO TECH SUPPORT! PLEX’s idea of tech support is to LEAVE THEIR PROBLEMS TO OTHER USERS TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT PLEX’S PROBLEMS WITH WORK-AROUND FIXES. There is NO direct line for TECH SUPPORT, ZERO, ZIP, NADA!
        You have to post your problems to “THE COMMUNITY” and HOPE someone else has found a way to correct the same issues you are having OR EVEN READS YOUR POST. If you try to send a email to them for help you get a robotic reply with a link that does NOT WORK to submit your question to “THE COMMUNITY”. TOTALLY USELESS! I have spent, now, over 6 hrs looking for a fix for my latest problem.
        If you get PLEX, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. Don’t expect help from them at all. Buyer beware!
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      146. Great video. How would the DS918+ compare with these? I know it’s older but the reason I’m asking is that it’s become available refurbished from Synology at a very decent looking price.
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      148. Fumbling thru this as kinda newbe I have followed directions and it downloaded but won’t install anywhere that I can see. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? If I have security on my laptop would that not allow a program on my snology not to install or what did I do wrong . Thank for your info , do love your videos.
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      150. I have roughly 75 tb of music & videos combined (both are in the MP3 & MP4 formats) . I’ve been doing a lot of research over the past year or so. Do you have any recommendations on which model you’d recommend?
        I’m interested in having it set up as….
        -A RAID 5 or 6 (from my understanding, the major differences are the amount or drives that can fail at once). If my understanding is correct, then the cinfig will be RAID 6. As a better, more secure solution.
        – 6 – 8 bays (with expandability) – so one of the Plus model’s
        – Filled with 20 or 22 tb Seagate Drives
        – I will also be maxing out the M . 2 slots with the highest expandability **STRICTLY for Caching only**
        – Preferably 10 gb ports, with expandability options up to 25 or even 40 gb read speeds. Or whatever will be the fastest to stream a 1080p music video, with having the only limitations be the remote user’s connection.

        I would like to set this up as a place where I can access the entire collection in all one place, similar to a media server like spotify or youtube, but just with my own content. I will also be purchasing a Plex pass.
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      151. jus some help, if I am only interested in running PLEX, from the presentation, the 423 sound like the better unit. Even if i am using a Samsung that the PLEX app is built into the TV. would this be correct ?
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      153. Had this on in the background over a couple of days. This is the comment you requested — I made it to the end! =D

        It’s definitely not in the budget for me yet, but I’m dreaming about a NAS in my setup in the future!
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      155. Just curious how to compare the performance of different CPUs? It seems that the new version have less cores but have higher frequency. How to tell the new one is a big jump?
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      164. BIG LIKE! I had tried Jellyfin via the community package before but missed the folder permissions part! Now I have Jellyfin up and running without issue, thank you so much!
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      165. Useful info, thanks. As a photographer with half a million image files, I’m currently using a DS920 with 40TB to store them securely. However, the move to 10Gb with the 923 will speed up the system when editing in Lightroom plus the memory expansion will help I’m sure. But I’m not sure whether your points concerning the lack of integrated graphics on the 923 is relevant in the case of Lightroom image storage and editing rather than the video streams case. Any info/suggestions on this?
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      166. I have a much older DS1019+ with 5 bays and 2 NVME slots. A couple of things are common. If you are only going to use the NVME as cache then 2x256GB NVME is big enough. I use Raid 1 on my cache. I bought 2 1TB NVME but the Synology never seems to need more than 256GB. I can have different size drives in my DS1019+ but the amount of storage is roughly equal to 4 smallest drives of the 5. In the case in the video it would be the 3 smallest drives of the 4. I like the storage pool idea that mine doesn’t have, I would probably use it because of my big 1TB NVME flashes. Being able to transcode is handy but I have a Ryzen 9 CPU and an Intel I9 with an older GTX1080. The internal AMD graphics seem to encode just a hair faster than the GTX1080. It helps to read and write to fast SSDs. I like synology software. I have their router two and the software looks and feels similar.
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      168. What sucks with plex is codec support. Dolby Vision, DTS-HD, and TrueHD. It also transcodes in x264 instead of hevc which pretty much everything supports natively now days. I do a lot of streaming in hotels (doing it now) and the image quality with hevc would be better on this limited bandwidth.
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      169. Is there a suitable ( AC power cord extension for synology ds423+ ) would a 4 Pin DIN Connector Cable, 4 Pin DIN Male to Female Extension Connector Power Supply Cable for Audio Digital Devices (1 meter) possibly work ?
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      170. Upon install it states “ port 8096 configured for this package is either in use or reserved for system. Disable or modify the conflict.” What the hell..no idea what that means.
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      171. Can you have more than one media server without conflict? Like Plex or kodi or Emby with Jellyfin or more than two? I noticed you had Plex server running as you set this up? Do you also have Synology media server running? I’m experimenting with different servers and thought I could only have one up at a time.
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      172. Dumb question nas noob here, If I Plug my nas in, in a different room so to a different ethernet socket, Will i be able to connect to it as normal? Or will its ip change and Ill have to set it all up again?
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      175. I love that this guy’s short review is still 20+ minutes. I appreciate the dedication and passion. Thanks for the the tips. I think I am finally getting a NAS this year cause all of your content.
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      180. My decision to switch from Plex would be: does it have season-specific special features for TV Shows? Does it have multiple airdates per country? (I have foreign versions of US shows that aired on a different date and want to preserve that). Does it have an aired today category/pivot on the recommended screen? Does it allow me to create my own custom channels and schedule shows so my wife can watch all her Jane Austen stuff on a channel and I can watch Star Trek on my own Star Trek channel? Does it allow movie pre-rolls dependent on various criteria (holiday, season, date, genre, series, etc.)? If Emby or Jellyfin could do that, I might switch
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      186. 423+, 920+ or stick to 918+ that’s my question? Hi all, I was one of those who desperately waited to upgrade to a 923+. Since transcoding is essential, I’asking myself which option to pick. DS920+ brand-new is 699€ in DE (the rest out of stock). DS423+ (520€) downsides are very good explained in the video. Both options technically are not what I expected. So wait for the DS925+ and stick to the DS918+?
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      188. i never had a nas. this will be my first nas. if i understand right i prefer this over the 923+ cause of the intel cpu. in only need the nas for 4k media stream on my tv. am i right? or maxbe should i wait for sth else i dont know. thanks for your help guys
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      189. Why would anyone, at this moment, buy DS423+, when DS920+ is still available, cheaper, with more RAM, and has ESATA port for further 5 HDD extension…
        DS920+ will probably get NVMe, in couple of months (when there no more to buy new), as Synology now has no “hardware explanation” (which is their main explanation that PCI-E 2.0 is problem)
        why it cannot be enabled (as same hardware 423+ has it)
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      190. ffmpeg 4.4.3 fails to install everytime with the error “invalid file format. please contact the package developer”. I never get the option to select a volume like you do.

        I have a DS920+ on DSM 7.0.1-42218 with BTRFS volumes. How do I get ffpeg working so that I can install Jellyfin?
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      194. I was able to pick up probably one of the last “new” ds920+ for $849 USD in April 2023. I probably would have went with the 423+ for over $200USD less if I had seen this first. I upgraded from a d218+ (I think) and wanted the GPU and extra drive bays for Plex.
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      195. I recently bought a DS1522+ and did not realize it had an AMD chip. Most of my 4K video also has 1080p versions. How likely is it that using devices like tablets and phones, we are going to see some lag, and should I consider looking at one of the two Celeron based units as an additional device to stream from.
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      198. Okay.. If not 920+, which one of these two? My use case is: Streaming remux mkv. to my home theater, back up, photo alnum stuff and a bit of surveillance.

        Thanks in advance
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      200. The only things Jellyfin don’t support are niche and basically irrelevant to your weird uncle.

        Jellyfin supports ISO. Plex arrogantly refuses to. End of discussion for me.
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      201. Thank you for the time you have put into these comparisons. I have had a lifetime Plex pass for over 10 years, but switched to Jellyfin two months ago. Maybe my observations will help someone, sorry if it gets a bit wordy..

        First, Plex is spending their time working on adding streaming services. For the purposes of a self hosted media streaming application, those are clutter (my opinion). Each update pushed my personal folders back off the main page, behind these ad supported streaming services, requiring me to set them up again. Second, Plex is constantly “phoning home”. Set up a Pi-Hole and just see how many connections Plex is constantly making even when the server is sitting there idle. Third, if you are in an area where you sometimes lose internet access, and someone tries to switch users.. you can’t connect to the server from that device until internet access is restored. That last one was the spark that made me decide to switch. Lines got damaged last winter and it took almost a week to get our home internet back up. By the end of that time none of our devices could access the server. Seemed kind of pointless to have a self hosted media server you can’t connect to without internet access. Jellyfin handles user authentication locally, so if you can see the server on the network you can authenticate.

        From the server side, Plex is more refined. That is to be expected from a paid app, but it is surprising how good Jellyfin is. Transcoding is easier to set up in Plex, but if you have the space you can do the transcoding in advance for the devices you intend to use and that’s no longer an issue (which is what I do). Plex is also more tolerant when setting up Metadata.. if you inadvertently name a folder “Season Two” instead of “Season 2” Plex didn’t seem to notice, but Jellyfin absolutely got lost and I had to correct a lot of those kinds of errors. I didn’t find either of the servers difficult to manage, but you definitely need to be more aware and intentional when setting up Jellyfin.

        The user experience in Jellyfin seems much less cluttered and substantially more responsive. Whether on a Roku or a tablet the Jellyfin app opens nearly instantly, whereas the Plex app takes a few seconds. This isn’t something that was troubling in Plex, it takes about the same amount of time to open the Plex app as any other streaming app.. but now I recognize that time delay is because of the offsite connection Plex makes. Jellyfin opens more quickly because everything happens on the local network. I have also noticed that Jellyfin seems to do a better job bookmarking where you are in a movie or series. In Plex I always had to remember where I was in a series because it would get stuck from time to time. Jellyfin will remember, user by user, where someone is and return to that spot.

        I don’t think either one is difficult to set up or manage. I honestly expected less from Jellyfin, being an open source project, but was very pleasantly surprised. There are a few services it doesn’t offer or do as well, such as music management and streaming, but I didn’t really take advantage of those in Plex so their loss wasn’t a big deal to me. If all you want to do is stream your personal video collection on your own network Jellyfin is the way to go in my opinion.
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      206. Cheers guys @NASCompares for your informative/experienced inputs vlogs. (I hate seagulls, too ;-)). You talk a bit fast in your presenting ‘style’ to my ear, however, if I missed what you’ve shared, I can rewind. :-). You certainly have ‘good’ energy/passion/experience! Thank you for that! You’ve helped me decide on what NAS to buy. (DS-423+) (suitably boring but exceeds my needs enough) and I will use your link to possibly buy via Amazon if price is OK next week. If I can’t share my gratitude in a small way via that route, I will send a donation. Many thanks. You also gave me a valuable ‘feel’ for which type of drive etc., to purchase and how to slowly build a NAS system without ‘overspending’/making mega mistakes., etc., ????
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      211. I love(d) my DS916+ and considered getting a newer and bigger Synology. But since being forced to buy re-labeled and ridiculous priced OEM hdd/ssd drives I am out. TrueNAS Scale and a more potent while cheaper self-build server are my way to go now. Thank you Synology for the good times so far … but I won‘t come back. Hopefully many others think the same.
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      216. I always had fomo for buying the 923 bc of “integrated graphics” but this video makes it clear that I don’t need it. I’d rather use client side transcoding (if ever needed) and faster file transfer any day.
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      217. Conclusion the models x23+ are total failed for Synology. Most of the devices at home are using 1GB network, so it gives you zero improvement and need to spend more money for additional card. USELESS! CPU has only 2 real core instead of 4 real cores on the previous model, a little bit faster on single thread but it is not a home PC, again BIG FAILED! If I need to expand I will go at the beginning with bigger model with 8 disks or so, to eSATA is USELESS too. Ni IGP, so advantage of the CPU when you use it for video decoding. Conclusion, get the old model and wait next models of Synology 426+ or 926+
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      220. I have the QNAP TS-1655 and want to know what is the most important upgrade to purchase? I run Plex from it now so I am wondering if I’d best get an add on GPU or upgrade the RAM? I was also wondering if a GPU has to be a certain kind or can this support any GPU installed? I just started following you. Great reviews! Thank you
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      222. I have a question wheter or not the 923+ is the NAS for me. I am also looking at the 423+ and QNAP TS-464. I shoot a lot of footage with my drone in MP4 format. So will the 923+ do the job for me if I play this on my PC or on my tablet?
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      224. If a drive isn’t on the compatibility list will it work with a warning or you can’t use them at all?

        I use some basic desktop Seagate in my old rn31400. Will I still be able to use them in a Synology Nas (obviously re formatted).

        So I can’t buy just any nvme drives to use. I would like to put 2 nvme drives , 1 for storage and 1 for cache. I was thinking some affordable ones like whatever goes for $80 for 1tb drives.
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      225. Do drives that sit in an expansion unit perform slower than those sitting in the main unit (because of all that cabling between the units)? I.e. do expansions come with a performance hit relative to housing all your drives inside the main unit? I.e. is buying a bigger main unit up front better than counting on expanding it later (if money is not an issue)?
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      226. Good Vid as usual. Still disappointed in Synology and their going proprietary. Currently have a 416play with HDD but really want another for redundancy. Simple of fact of not being able put in affordable SSD’s is a huge issue for me. Samsung 870 Evo 2TB drives are perfect and priced right. I wish they would just open them back up again….
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      228. Great review – BUT a wish for improvement: I don’t watch whole videos actively, I often wash dishes or don’t concentrate fully on the video while watching videos (that are not purely visual). And you always point on a NAS and say ‘this is better than this’ or ‘in this case you want this’.
        Now if someone listens more to the audio – he won’t understand which one you refer to.

        Saying ‘923 is better than 920’ or ‘in that case you want the 920’ – would be a sooooo much better.

        Thanks and keep up the great work.????
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      233. I Run Jellyfin on Truenas Scale, My use case was “the internet is down” streaming. Something that is kinda hard with Plex’s must-phone-home even for local use made it less than ideal in my use case. I have no one outside my house that I will stream to, so why pay for that.
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      234. The AMD R1600 may have a clock speed advantage, but I wonder why they didn’t look at going with something like an embedded V1605B which has 4 cores and 8 threads as well as Vega 8 graphics for the video encode/decode while maintaining a TDB between 12-25W. It would be far superior to both the R1600 and J4125 in every way.
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      235. Feedback from a new person to the channel: it’s hard to listen to your video as a podcast, without visuals, because you do not always mention verbally which of 3 NAS models you are currently talking about. Like: “In terms of value for money this one is the most value, and this one comes really close”. This one — which one? 🙂 Since I mostly watch YouTube on the go during walking would appreciate if you mention the model numbers more often.
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      236. I bought the DS923+ and installed 32GB RAM and took a WD RED 1TB SSD for the system. The main data is stored in RAID1 on 2x WD RED Plus 14TB and an 18TB WD Ultrastar as a data grave.

        Photos, Plex, Docker and VMM run great and I am very satisfied.

        Thanks here for the great and informative videos. Keep up the good work.✌????
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      239. I need at least 400 mb/second for 4k video editing. Would be nice to not have to upgrade models (obviously), and I need around 30 terabytes of storage, probably more in the future. Should I go for a 4 bay or 5 bay?
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      242. I think about the ds423+
        Two questions:
        1. Is it possible to use any (kind of) nvme ssd for volumes? Or only on synology nvmes?
        2. Can you make a test about how much mem i can really install? Usually in this cases it is possible to add some extra memory like 8GB instead of 4GB. What do you think?
        Thanks. Great video like always
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      246. Good and interesting review.
        I have a DS1821+ with 32Gb RAM, 10Gb board, running DSM-7.1, and I am very satisfied.
        I may be wrong, but the problem with our review when you talk about the possibility to create a Storage Pool on NVMe drives, is that you must buy the very expensive Synology branded NVMe sticks !!
        Unless I have been told something wrong, you can’t use third party NVMe sticks, and this is a VERY bad news !
        I am not going to pay the huge extra cost just to get a synology sticker on the NVMe drives, so unless somebody finds a hack, I will look to another brand, just because of this problem artificially created by Synology… and I would prefer to stay with Synology (so hackers are welcome !)
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      247. Here’s a talking head video idea,
        Whats Sinology’s history with how long DSM support extends, and when will update support end?

        Is there a year, or an age, or level of NAS that will not be able to receive DSM 7.2, as support will have timed out?

        Personally I am running a 918+. Even though I am not worried at all about this 7.2 update or any update soon after that from being able to be updated on my NAS … when can I assume I will be unable to install an update? What’s Synology’s history here.

        And is there a difference between software update support timelines and security update timelines … like Windows, which will stop updating and supporting certain Windows versions, but will still throw security updates at us for a few years. Is Synology been operating like that?

        And finally, obviously a running personal home based file server and Plex NAS does not need the same level of ongoing critical security updates that a Windows Operating System needs to remain safe … that said, is it actually problematic to run a home NAS like this (obviously not an enterprise or security conscious business use) beyond the time of manufacturer security update death? Can I literally run this thing for years, even using occasional online file access, when we are out?

        And as an extension; do other NAS manufacturers have different approaches to this issue?
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      248. I’ve been shopping to replace my ancient DS413j. I use my NAS for home file storage and media streaming. Until now I’ve been keeping my PC on 24/7 running streaming software with my NAS just as a storage device. I’ve been wanting to run the streaming app on my NAS. I bit the bullet last month and purchased the discontinued DS920+ even though I had to pay $150 USD over MSRP for it. I think I made the right choice as it best meets my present needs. I like some of the future proofing features of the DS923+ but it is less capable for what I want to do today. NASCompares has been very helpful in my decision making.
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      249. Yeap, the 923+ is the NAS for me to upgrade to. I can use my current 8TB drives in my DS216j when I move to the 923+. Adding in 2 18TB or higher drives will give me the added storage I need before adding a NVME drive for a storage pool. I may just use one for storage and the other for writes to the hard drives. $600 to start seems fair in these turbulent times. I am saving up for this one, unless they release a 5 bay version, lol. Thanks for this!
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      253. Was so mad when I bought a DS918+ in March 2020 only for the 920+ to come out four months later. Now I’m glad I have the 918+ because I can almost justify upgrading to a 923+ now.
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      254. So can we conclude that given the fact that the value of the 920+ is really close to that of the 923+ Synology has accomplished next to nothing in three years time in terms of hardware? Are they already on the path of saying goodbye to their NAS-boxes to focus solely on future versions of DSM?
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      255. 2-core “upgrade” of the 923 is a joke, and claiming it’s “enterprise” focused is outright laughable. The benchmarks are pretty clear too, the R1600 is ≈5% faster, because of single core performance alone, which is honestly counterproductive compared to what you’d want in server/NAS environment, running multiple processes. And ofc as you’d expect it’s gets completely slaughtered by the J4125 in multi-core performance.
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      256. I got a 1522+ last month. Chose it over the 923+ because it was only $100 more and it has 8GB memory instead of 4GB and has 5 bays vs 4 bays.

        I have been very happy with it and use it for storage, backups, Plex and much more! Very happy with it.

        I use all 4 1gbe connections in LAG setup. Another plus, compared to the 2 connections on the 923+
        Don’t have to worry about multiple computer file transfers and Plex clients slowing transfers down when they are all happening at the same time.
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      257. In the light of synology`s poor hardware “upgrades” for 2023 variants, then I have kept my good old 1520+ to serve the needed apps as cloud and survaillance station etc. It has been left to mind its own business in a corner… -And then I build an UNRAID server with an intel 12700 on a board with a 2.5 Gbit nic…. thats gives much better options as a combo than upgrading to a newer synology!
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      258. I’m so glad I got a 920+ while they were available and a reasonable price still. I don’t think the 923 is much of an improvement really and the 423 is IMHO way over priced.
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      260. Hi, love your work. Can you do a video doing an extension to add 5 more disks. I wish i could find that prices. I’m from Portugal and the lowest price i found was 600€. Any advice were to buy cheap? thanks for you job. Best regards.
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      263. You are too kind. The move from Intel for the 923+ means it is still borne for me. The 920+ is simply fantastic and great value for money. The 423+ is a bet meh as well. And for more money than the 920+. Fortunately I am not likely in the market for another NAS for a good while. I hope Synology sales reflect this and they realise the consumer market should be given a decent option without having to buy into am enterprise level system.
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      265. Ive’ been on the fence with adding a Synology to my collection.
        I guess I never new about the trans-coding with integrated video for streaming directly from the NAS and that helped a lot.
        Thanks for the in depth review. I’ve been a very long time fan of the channel and appreciate your efforts.
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      266. Accessing your own hardware (hw acceleration) is a bit of a moot point (around 26min mark). Every application uses your hardware in some way, so whenever you pay for an application, you’re in a way paying to access your hardware (in some custom, specific way). In case of plex and hw accelleration, you’re not really paying to access your hardware (it’s not like they’re actively blocking that on free tier) but for (as you have said) dev time to integrate that hardware capability into plex. It is strong leverage to get people to get the license though. Great and informative video, thnx!
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      270. Thanks for another useful video. Have you considered doing any pieces on longevity or technical issues over time? I’ve been running a QNAP TVS-472XT since 2019 without issue but yesterday it bricked itself during a firmware update restart – I now believe due to a bad motherboard just waiting for the next restart before it would refuse to power up again. A quick search reveals a 58 page thread on the QNAP forum about this issue which seems to affect lots of TVS-x72XT units, 4, 6 and 8 bay versions. I also believe QNAP have recognised the issue in some regions, extending the warranties, and replacing units. I’m just starting the official process, but like many in this position are wondering about long-term reliability and also how easy it will be to pop the drives into another enclosure to regain access to the array. I could try an identical unit, but it’s an expensive replacement and I no longer trust that model. It would be interesting to see how widespread this issue is for this model, as it was well reviewed by many, including myself at the time. As an aside, the TB connectivity which I chose it for also stopped working on my Mac after either an Apple or QNAP update a while ago, so that feature is moot too. Shame as it was a really nice unit when I first started using it.
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      273. Ready to buy a NAS but I am torn between synology and asustor. From watching your videos, I guess in a nutshell it is a choice between superior software vs superior hardware for the money, respectively. As an Apple hw user (I use others including windows and Linux since I’m in enterprise “IT”) I’m a bit fed up with price gouging with proprietary hw when spending my own money. Is the software worth the expensive and proprietary hw both initial and future upgrades on the synology side?
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      276. As soon as I bought my NAS I adopted Plex but quickly abandoned it. It couldn’t find my non-English content well and it rarely recognized my subtitle files. In addition to the constant connection problems. I migrated to Emby, which was lighter, found the correct data and recognized my subtitles. But it still presented a problem: some clients were horrible. The Android TV client, in addition to being paid for, did not work properly and the plugin for Kodi was deficient. I recently decided to try Jellyfin and, so far, more joy than sadness. There are still some problems. Notifications, which worked perfectly well on Emby, require a little more effort to work properly. Overall I’m happier using it than I was using the others.
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      278. NOPE… I’m trying to upgrade from an ancient second-hand Synology that admirably still works but is not compatible with the latest DSM software. I’m not going to pay top dollar for a repurposed model from 2020 with a cpu from 2019! I was waiting for the ds423+ to come out but I’ll wait for a sale on the ds923+ instead. I don’t know what Synology is thinking, but the ds423+ is dead to me.
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      282. I’m still using a DS414 at home mainly just for file/multimedia storage and CCTV surveillance station. Looking at this 423+, I can’t see a good reason to upgrade and I certainly don’t know why people with the last 1 or 2 generation models would even think of upgrading. For me, like many others have said, a lack of 2.5Gb LAN is a deal breaker. I want my NAS to last well over 5 years (coming up to 9 years on my 414 now) so it needs to be up to date / future proof and 1Gb LAN is not. Especially when you think a bare unit is like £500.
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      283. The 423+ is compared to the 920+ in this review, but even having only the 918+ myself I see no reason to upgrade. I wonder what Synology will have in store for us when the x25+ series are released in two years time. If it comes with a better Intel Celeron CPU and 2,5Gb ethernet on board I might consider the upgrade at that time. But I am leaning towards a 5-bay NAS in the future (now using SHR-2 with 4-bays which is a bit of a waste), so let’s see what the next Synology models will bring.
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      292. Synology hopeless tentative response to the angry Plex clients over the last releases, just obsolete hardware, stay away from this, chose any other brand with 2.5GB network and a NEW intel CPU with integrated graphics.
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      299. Essentially I use my 720+ for Plex and very little else. One drive as redundancy is fine and I use 2 x 8TB Red. Considering going 4 bay more for the extra redundancy of RAID 5 despite the extra drive cost. I send movie files through my Apple TV 4K so I understand that I dont actually need integrated graphics to handle 4k and different formats. But still, It feels strange not having integrated graphics…just in case
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      301. @NASCompares Wondering when QNAP might get some love? I have been seeing emails over the last month or two so that I would have thought would have caught your interest? The Security Bounty alone I thought I was going to see one of your quick deliver videos… Even the updates for the OS in the last 8 months or so have been interesting.
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      306. The CPU is fine because it’s a 423 series… The bigger CPU will roll out hopefully for the upcoming generations. This is the clearly the base model with base model hardware.
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      308. I tried to resist watching this, but as always I couldn’t hold out. I am afraid that you’ll sell me on buying this NAS too. I’ve already got two on my list. Still deciding on which ones to buy.
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      311. I want to have a NAS as a Media server, saving movies and Pictures. I’m still not sure what I need…lol. Money is not realy an issue, but don’t want to get something I don’t need. It will be in my Living Room, so it need to be quiet, hence I’m planning to use SSD’s only. I’m not sure if 4 Bay or 2 Bay due to back up (I know a NAS is not a back up system). So far I’m looking at the 4 Bay Qnap, (they look like something I put in my living Room).
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      312. Very level headed points, thanks. Absolutely shocking that the 920+ doesn’t support M.2 storage, though I’m not sure the 423 would have many selling points if it did!
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      314. The fact that its 1 gig is enough for me to pass, that’s just sad Synology. Practically E-Waste. Its so cheap to have 2.5 or even 1 10g. Really was looking forward to getting a smaller Synology NAS soon for redudant backups and camera server use at a different site but can’t justify the cost with the lack of the expansion
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      316. Installed Jellyfin on Synology DS118, and it’s extremely laggy even on the library, unusable really. Any ideas why? Resource monitor shows RAM available by at least 60%. Logs are filled with Emby.Dlna.Main.DlnaEntryPoint: Error sending socket message
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      318. Very easy to install on my Synology NAS. Thank you!
        The only thing I need now is how to copy all my metadata from my old jellyfin server (windows) to my NAS. Where does this jellyfin-installation store it`s library.db?
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      319. Tried it but cannot open the server on port 8096. It says access denied. Do I need to port forward something on the router? Then it becomes complicated after all … what do I need to do to get in Jellyfin?
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      321. I have a Qnap nas mainly for backup and media streaming with Plex.
        I have a lot of dvd’s that i want to backup to my Qnap.
        The problem is that converting them from a dvd to mp4 takes a lot of time.
        Is there a way to play a copy of the VIDEO_TS folder of a dvd on my Qnap nas?
        Can i copy the VIDEO_TS folder to my Qnap nas and convert it on my nas to mp4, just like “Transcoding” in “Multimedia Console”?
        This way i don’t have to use my computer for transcoding and let my nas do the work.

        Thank you
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      322. I’ve just purchased the Synology DS920+ but have been using Jellyfin on my laptop which I set up as a Media Server, whats the best way to copy all the files including libraries etc from the current Media Server to my Synology NAS Jellyfin folders. Any help appreciated
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      326. Great video! In my opinion, to each their own. Each of these platforms are targeted to different user group. You have the group that love to ticker and put in the extra work and do customization and smile when things work. Then you have the group the just wants to install something, do a simple user friendly setup and things just work regardless of the fee. I am a Plex user for the past 6 years. I use my 8-bay Synology as the file server and I have a PC with a P2000 Quadro for transcoding. Most of the users a share library with are of the older age group that’s not tech savvy. So sending and invite and just walking through the setup on the phone is simple. When I go on vacation, I can just connect to Plex on a smart tv and just start watching, I can log out when am done. I am not bashing Jellyfin or Emby, they are good, but it’s not suitable for me.
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      327. Thank you for your truly excellent video. For me, not being 100% free is a dealbreaker, so I would go with Jellyfin over Plex in a heartbeat. I am actually using Synology Video Station right now, and I am quite happy with it, as I really don’t feel the need any additional bells and whistles. Perhaps I will consider switching to Jellyfin at some future time.
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      328. Plex have been very good for some years, but lately they move further and further away from a “home” Media server to a Streaming service, and hiding to many things behind their Plex Pass. (I have been using Plex for many years, but would not recommend Plex as a frist choice. Mainly for the insane slow to implement “new” standards (codex, file formats, Tags etc)and also unwillingness to listen to their users.
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      330. Great summary. I think one thing missing for me in the comparison blog though is the audio player. I’m trying to move from Plex to Jellyfin, but I’m stuck on there not being a viable equivalent of PlexAmp. This is important to me because I mainly listen to music in the car, so there needs to be a client that works with Android Auto. PlexAmp is pretty slick, and gives you your own private Spotify type experience. Also, are you able to do a guide of adding Live TV (TV tuner cards) support to a Synology NAS Jellyfin server sometime? And maybe how to tell if your NAS is capable of hardware transcoding. Thanks!
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      331. As far as I know, neither of these are fully supported in DSM 7.1.1 – Plex is a Beta and Jellyfin is a community app, that comes with a bunch of warnings/waivers.
        I’m a bit risk averse and will wait for DSM 7.2 and see what is supported before I potentially risk all my data just to stream a DVD that I can put in a machine.
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      334. I use Emby running in Docker on a DS920+. I was wondering if there’s anyway to make use of the 2 lans and have Emby only running on lan 2, whilst everything else runs on lan 1? Can this be done? Video idea maybe??
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      335. I used plex for the better part of a year without complaint. My experience with it was finally soured when I got a nice OLED 4k tv, and I played a 4k movie via plex. I tried to turn on subtitles, and plex said I needed to pay to enable hardware transcoding if I wanted subs. Imagine you have a service running on your own hardware – you’re paying for the silicon and the power – but you need to pay someone to unlock a feature that you yourself are going to serve on your own server. That’s like ordering a pizza, but then it shows up and you have to put it together and cook it yourself. I’ll do that, I’ll cook it myself, but I don’t want to pay someone for the right.
        I also ran into a situation where I had no internet, but plex required an internet connection before I could start the server. I switched to Jellyfin later that week. If you like plex, and you paid for it, and you’re happy with it, then there’s no reason to leave. However if you value running a service that’s actually yours (one of the main reasons many of us got into home networking) with no asterisks, then its Jellyfin; every day.
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      337. i use plex now but have issues with the scrobbler as it will skip ffw 10min only. no back. which makes not spoiling movies suck if you want to pause. it also goes fwd 10 even if you hit back. Don’t know if it’s my remote but it’s annoying. i now have plex and like the visuals but usually actually watch longer movies i might have to pause on the shield tv vlc app. Tried emby for music it was great till it broke. It’s a major pain to configure the music libraries and it doesn’t read mp3 metadata remotely correctly and since that’s how it organizes it screws up albums splitting them. Also when you navigate on the phone app by genre it goes genre, then songs, then gives a massive list of songs. Nobody with a music collection visualizes music like that. It should go genre, artist, album, song. And there’s no option to force navigating like that and despite requests i’ve read they won’t do it. Apples native app switched to doing that which is why i used a 3rd party one. But it’s a major pain to pick like hip-hop as a genre and then just get a list 18k songs. Hell i don’t even know the names of plenty of songs. I just know when i bought the album what album it’s on. But it is useful if you have tons of music as basically a free spotify. Especially if you’re like me and have lots of out of print or local music spotify doesn’t have.

        I do like that once you figure out plex it pretty much just works. Wish i could just use vlc as the default video player cause vlc is rock solid and rarely fails me in terms of competent playback. I researched Jellyfin but won’t get to try it until i buy a NAS.
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      340. I see from one comment that Plex has a relay server. ( I’m pretty new to Plex.) But, I don’t want to open port or activate UPnP on my router. Can you Tailscale directly into your home Plex server ?
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      345. I like the look of Jellyfin but that is a hard pass when it comes to the need to install docker to run it.
        Like VMware…Docker is a waste of time and effort if all you plan on doing is running the one thing… Both Docker and VMware are only worthwhile for a very small number of use cases.
        It is like Buying a flatbed truck and then hauling around your sports car with it.
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      346. Having gone from plex premium -> emby premium -> jellyfin, if possible you really should run a 3 side by side to get an idea of what each is like day to day. Once you have one setup it’s not difficult to tack them onto each other. They all have “gotchas”

        I’ve long abandoned plex, I don’t think I’ve use it in a few years.

        I’ve found surprisingly the Roku app for jellyfin has FINALLY solved the h265 (my Rokus are old and need hw transcoding) bug that has was in all of them, it made playback unusable, really. The Roku and android TV apps both have been flawless lately.

        I’m hopeful for jellyfin for the first time in awhile, the development seems to be back on track. The Roku app is still getting consistent new features added, they are also implementing new features like playlists and other stupid things that emby has ignored. I do wish jellyfin had a backup app, EmbyBackup was one of my favorite features, I’m surprised there isn’t even a plugin (that I’ve been able to find anyways).

        Once I figured out there was an intro skip plugin available I’ve been on jellyfin exclusively.

        My library is ~40tb
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      351. Plex has the Trump card in all comparisons. They are the only 1 with a relay server option. I’d pay for something like jellyfin to supply a relay service for remote playback outside the home.
        That’s the main reason I still use plex over the alternatives.
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      353. I’ve used plex for years, went to Emby and then Jellyfin, now back on plex, it just works.
        Jellyfin is my second favorite but apps are garbage.
        I wish Plex had more customization like Jellyfin though. We need need a Plexifin lol
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      357. To me plex is still ahead of jellyfin, simply because it has the share screen feature, while on jellyfin, despite having the icon, it just doesn’t work. Besides, plex has the subtitle seeker built in, while the other is done though an extension. The movies and tv show covers are also very accurate, and if you don’t find it, it’s fairly simple to seach for it. On Jellyfin you have to go to imdb to search for the right cover, and that’s kind of a handful.
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      358. In my case I use the docker image from linuxservers for Jellyfin in my ds920+, no major problems during months. An it has already the option to use HW transcoding by VAAPI or Intel QuickSync
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      362. Thks Robbie/Eddie for all the NAS edu-ma-cation;
        *Figuring-out what a NAS is & how the hell to make it work are pretty-damn-hard (especially before I buy it & try it out). Nevertheles I’ve learned/learning a lots from yous. After I buys one, hopefully all the up-front effort will reduce the frustration/profanity/throwing-things/etc ;).
        *Anywhos, I justs-wants a NAS mainly for fun/family/friends/etc & I guesses it’s something like the !DS223+ or Bust! for me now.
        *Oh it seems the easiest way for Synology to get folks to dump their older NAS models for new/improve/pricey/etc ones is to spoon-fed-us the features we all want/gots-to-have on them (ex: 2.5Gbe ethernet, NVMe storage pools, thunderbolt/USB4, etc, etc). More-or-less, all well-established companies do this sort-of-thing though. Sooooooooo if I likes the DS223+ &all, then I’ll gets a DS1824+ mainly justs to have bragging-rights over all my geek buddies ;).
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      363. Wow! Out of the blue I tried to install this (again) last week and was struggling. PLEX was sooo easy but wanted to try something new. Thank you for making this so straight forward
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      364. Hi @nascompares thank you for your channel! Speaking of Jellyfin, what’s up with Jellyfish? They advertise a ton on your channel, yet I never see a review by you. Can you please either review, or explain why you don’t review? Thanks!
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      365. Small suggestion for future videos:

        Plex Vs. Jellyfin
        From Zero to Hero Install Guide Jellyfin on QNAP…

        Anyway, kudos for the channel and the commitment and passion that always shines through. ????
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      367. Can you also do a tutorial on how to allow Jellyfin to use hardware acceleration on a Synology NAS (for example QSV) even if it is a lot more complicated? I wouldn’t mind a more complicated setup if that means I can benefit from hardware acceleration afterwards!
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      369. I actually did this last week and got Jellyfin installed. However, 3 days later and it still had not scanned all my media and this was a deal breaker for me so I ditched it and went back to Plex. Such a shame that the scanning of the media is shockingly slow.
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      373. How this doesn’t have more likes is unjust. He covers so much and shows great examples. He also has time marks for reference. Great resource! Keep up the good work, would give you more likes if I could.
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      374. One thing I wish sonology would do especially further backup program is allow you to back up to a networked windows pool drive aka the NAS sync with networked multipooled Windows drive giving you to a form of backup even if you cannot see the data on the Windows pool that be fine if it was just an encrypted image or better yet allow the damn system to read Windows pool drives…. You’re plugging a USB hub with all your USB drives the nas makes its own virtual pool out of those drives and then it backs up just in case there’s nobody has a single 60 terabyte drive …. The fact that most people are coming from multiple hard drives externally to Nas and can’t use those multiple drives as a single pool backup is annoying especially when there’s hard drive crashes or or anything like that at least you’d have a personal backup I didn’t even pay 10-15 dollars per drive one time fee to make a pool for image backup

        I literally had to Jerry rig using always-sync to back up the entire NAS drive on a 9 hard drive pool on the Windows side
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      375. Insert the biggest thing I hate about Synology outside of their “hard drive requirements” (if the damn hard drive says Nas supported then it should just work you shouldn’t need a specific hard drive) is them telling you where to put your media or files for specific programs they own you should be able to tell the programs just like in Plex where the files are where you wanting to put the files and have one way think as an option with no deletion
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      376. I personally find it difficult still for a novice user especially for making user accounts … Aka having public and private folders for individuals in a group setting (you can’t have both) we’re in the group setting everyone has the rules AKA right and no delete for public folder and the ability for only individual users in that group to only see their private folder and not everyone else’s

        Aka private “Jon” public “all” private “Sarah”

        John can still see Sarah’s folder
        Because I haven’t nested in an outside folder public and an outside folder private where all their names are in the private folder so it’s nice and organized

        But everyone can still see everyone’s folder I’d love to have it so that you can easily isolate nested folders
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      378. The one and only thing I don’t like about Synology multimedia apps or drive apps…. Is they TELL you where to put your media AND GENERALLY HAVE TWO-WAY SINK AS DEFAULT

        Most users are going to have a plexa library that they’ve probably customized and should customize in one bulk “media folder” and then break it down within…. If you do stuff like that for all your multimedia they’re native apps don’t work you have to have it where they want it…. Same with sync you have to have it where they want it and it’s only sync … Me personally I want one-way sink data goes on the NAS … You can delete it off the phone or computer and that won’t transfer over…. They have improved the drive application but I still have to improve video photo and the other ones to be one way and for us to control the locations multiple or single nested location I don’t want to be told or you got to have it in the ” home /user /names/ photo/ to have the photo application work

        NO I want to have it in plex media / photos/ cell phone 01/
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      379. why do I need raid 1 on the ssd cache? It doesn’t matter if the data is gone on the cache if one ssd fails. The data is stored on the HDD after a Data is altered in the read/write cache. or is written again from the HDD when a new SSD is added. So that makes no sense. Raid 0 would be better in this case.
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      382. That really is an in-depth and thorough review. I’ve had the DS1621+ for about a year and you’ve helped explain what some of the apps actually do. Thank you.

        As a photographer using Lightroom to manage my my photos, I still cannot understand why I need Synology Photos or S Video to manage them?
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      383. Long time Emby user. Use it mostly for OTA tv recording, plus seving movies, etc on my own server, with the media on a nas that does nothing but samba. I only use it on my local network, and do not transcode anything I let the client deal with it. Tried Plex, and for me it was much more complicated.
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      384. Thank you for the detailed review. I am interestedin buying a new Synology Nas (920+) and i own an old XP 32 bit PC do you think there will be any issues about compatibility from Win XP 32 bit to the DSM 7.1 Synology NAs, in that case does any workaround exist?
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      385. I’m the one who watched the whole thing! And some bits twice. Very helpful in trying to decide between a Synology DS923+ and Qnap TS464. Synology seems to have the upper hand software-wise which I suspect carries more weight for a home user than the superior hardware of the Qnap? Thank you for providing this extensive review!
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      386. Awsome information. Now please a similar video on Qnap. I cant make up my mind as I need both photo management and video surveillance. It seems like Qnap and Synology takes 1 point each.
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      387. Jellyfin?!!! Most channels that review media server software, either only deep-dive their preferred offering, or only give an overview compression of the field. If someone like you, who can give the same enthusiasm creating two videos deep-diving two NASs that only differ by a drive bay, puts that into a spin-off series on a topic that is close to a large chunk of your demographic, that would be a real treat.
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      388. Thks & I just watched it again & most excellent;
        I’m a retired physicist & have no real problem understanding the infinite details.
        However my problem is how to keep it simple & stupid (ex: high tier levels of simplicity, brevity, encapsulation, etc).
        Oh with my goal is to sociably knit-together all my family, relatives, friends, etc on my synology NAS.
        Unfortunately I’m going to be Mr Tech support for them. Sooooo I gots-tos keep-it-simple is an understatement & I will be abused (I says anything for family/friends though ;).
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      390. You’re a DSM PhD;
        I never hear so dense of a presentation of great DSM info & my head is still spinning, thks.
        Next-time, you think about having something good to drink every-once in a-while.
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      396. Thanks for a great video. Really explains what everything is. Recently got my NAS and been already updating hard drives in it. It will mainly be used as a PLEX Server but already considering what i will do when i start upgrading the smaller drives in it. May consider another NAS and use it as strict data back up and maybe a synology Drive / synology Calendar and Email setup. Move my calendar off Google’s stuff. We will see If i do that at some point. Great job again
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      398. My English man!!! What a video! Greetings from Greece! I really appreciate your hard work and that content. I have a DS 1520 + and I am not regretting getting it although the new 1522 is out. You have my admiration. Keep up the professional and good work.
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      404. *Note* – Regarding picture quality, this is a BIG video (so many features to cover in a single video) and YouTue can sometimes be a little slow to process HD and 4K uploads, so if this video is in low-quality for you, maybe come back in an hour or so, as YouTube should have finished processing it and have the 4K, 1080p and 720p versions done. Thanks for watching and hope you enjoy the review of Synology DSM 7.1, featuring the DS923+ NAS.
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      405. I would 100% disagree with the statement that emby is better at metadata. Emby is crap for music metadata. It has real problem simply reading my meticulously done mp3s. My mp3s have just the basics but they are all filled in and emby shows weird genres that aren’t in the tags.
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      406. love plex but the actual video player is utter crap at least on nvidia shield. Hopefully i’ll get it on a synology. Emby is useful for free streaming of music to my phone. It’s like having a better spotify (assuming you have lots of music not on spotify like i do).
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      410. Started out using Plex but became very frustrated with how it worked and requiring a paid service just to use it. Switched to Emby several years ago and never looked back. Emby is SO much better. There’s not contest. I have it running on what is the crappiest single core cpu ever made, with 1GB RAM and 20TB of movies and home videos. I have it running over wifi. Have never had a problem except when trying to play 2 HD movies at a time over WAN. BTW, thanks for the extensive comparison. I appreciate the time you put into this.
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      412. I know I am not crazy but am I the only one that realize that Emby playback quality is alot better than plex. I am not talking about transcode. This is direct play. Its seems like Plex is a little cloudy compared to Emby. It could be the exoplayer that emby uses as well. I also realize the fast forward and rewind is alot faster on emby. I been with Plex for yearssss. i just moved to emby
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      413. Just clicked on The Matrix here (Plex pass running on a DS220+) And mine has the poster, pictures of actors, and 3 trailer pics, along with “Tracks from The Matrix” (Music). Plus lots of related movies at the bottom. I think yours either just hasn’t finished populating the data, or you just need to match it up manually.
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      414. Test is unfair, however Emby even on software transcoding outpassed Plex.

        My Plex suddently refuses to work remotely for absolutely no reason, router ports wasn’t modified or such
        Plex Arcade is shit, I can’t reliably play any game without stutters or very bad compression (300mbits internet, no excuses).
        Plex constantly connects you to their auth server so they know what you have, emby doesn”t.
        If Plex auth servers are down good luck even trying to use it locally, that means if Plex closes it’s door or gets some cyberattacks you’re basically fucked.
        Plex have Skip Intro functionnality which emby lacks but they’re working on it
        Plex have PlexAmp but that’s useless since the Plex app does music as well …

        Never had any problem using Emby for years. Plex on the other end …
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