MKV’s not showing up in Video Station

[talontsi_95]

Hey all I am new here. Been using my synology NAS for years and love it. Its mainly used as the storage for my HTPC for use with Kodi. Anyways on to the question.

I have finally started looking into some of the apps available for my NAS. Video Station and DS Video interests me for playing movies remotely. All of my movies are in the MKV container and they play fine at home. My issue is that I cant seem to get Video Station to see them in order to play remotely. Are MKVs a no go as far as format is concerned? Or am I missing something?

I appreciate any help and thanks for the views.

 

[Rusty]

My issue is that I cant seem to get Video Station to see them in order to play remotely

When you say in order, what does that mean exactly? Sorting order or they don't play correctly? MKV works fine with VS as it works locally as your said. So tell us a bit about your setup of the whole thing (nas, network, VS clients etc...), there are some VS users here that might give you a hand with this.

Another way, if VS will not be your cup of tea is to run an alternative platform like Jellyfin, Emby or Plex

 

[talontsi_95]

When you say in order, what does that mean exactly? Sorting order or they don't play correctly? MKV works fine with VS as it works locally as your said. So tell us a bit about your setup of the whole thing (nas, network, VS clients etc...), there are some VS users here that might give you a hand with this.

Another way, if VS will not be your cup of tea is to run an alternative platform like Jellyfin, Emby or Plex

That was a poorly worded sentence. I just meant I cant get VS to see the videos at all. So I cant play them remotely on a device. The videos are there as kodi on my HTPC handles them fine.

As far as the setup goes I am not super network savvy. I will try my best to answer questions but getting my whole setup working involved a lot of research and trial and error.

NAS is a DS918+. It is in my server rack connected to a ubiquiti switch which in turn connect to the ubiquiti DM. My HTPC is located in another area but is hardwired to the network. I have 100’s of MKV videos that I play on kodi.

VS is something I installed to play around with so I could watch videos remotely. The software is slightly confusing to me. But I think I have the jist of it.

 

[EAZ1964]

Mkv is not a format, it is a container. Depending on the format inside the container it will or will not play. The DS does not have all codecs on board. The synology knowledgebase will tell you what will play and what not.

 

[talontsi_95]

Mkv is not a format, it is a container. Depending on the format inside the container it will or will not play. The DS does not have all codecs on board. The synology knowledgebase will tell you what will play and what not.

Im aware its a container but was wondering if the VS software has problems “seeing” the mkv container file. So you are saying as long as the format in the container is supported, it should be recognized and be able to be indexed in VS? Right now I cant even see the files to select the for indexing. Also can you expand on what you mean about synology knowledgebase? This stuff does not come natural for me so i wont be offended if you dumb it down. It is also possible that I am not using VS correctly to get my movie files indexed.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[EAZ1964]

No problem:

Can my Synology NAS convert videos for my device? - Synology Knowledge Center

Synology Knowledge Center offers comprehensive support, providing answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshooting steps, software tutorials, and all the technical documentation you may need.

kb.synology.com

 

[EAZ1964]

I have to make excuses here, in my iphone DS video also does not play mkv, while it does on the macbook.
I always go to ds-file, find the mkv and click it, and it stars playing on phone and tablet. I actually skip ds video on most devices.

 

[talontsi_95]

I have to make excuses here, in my iphone DS video also does not play mkv, while it does on the macbook.
I always go to ds-file, find the mkv and click it, and it stars playing on phone and tablet. I actually skip ds video on most devices.

Interesting. I feel like we are getting to a solution now. I have seen the ds-file app on my iphone app store. I guess my next question is what is the companion app called to install on my synology NAS in order to use ds-file on my mobile devices?

And thank you very much for the help so far.

 

[EAZ1964]

There is no app needed on synology side.

 

[talontsi_95]

There is no app needed on synology side.

Great I will try that. Logging in to ds-file is my standard account login or will I have to set a new password for remote access?

 

[Telos]

Im aware its a container but was wondering if the VS software has problems “seeing” the mkv container file

VS readily handles MKV files. Be sure your folder/file permissions are correct. With incompatible codecs, MKV files should appear, however they may fail to play.

 

[EAZ1964]

Great I will try that. Logging in to ds-file is my standard account login or will I have to set a new password for remote access?

regular logon, IP, name and password

-- post merged: 7. Jan 2022 --

VS readily handles MKV files. Be sure your folder/file permissions are correct. With incompatible codecs, MKV files should appear, however they may fail to play.

it does on the DS, but also in my mobile DS Video app on Iphone, it does not even show them.

 

[Telos]

Related thread... here, MKV appeared on DS Video app... but with other issues

DS video - DS Video - buffering on 920+

My NAS is DS920+. When watching downloaded 1080p movies in mkv format (files normally between 5G to 10G) on my ipad remotely using DS video, it suffers from buffering. I had similar problem with my old 213 which does not support transcoding at all. With this high end DS920+, I would have...

www.synoforum.com

 

[EAZ1964]

Thanks Telos, I did some playing around, you are right it can work.
Managed to get MKV playing on the DS video mobile app now., I reset the video station on the nas (de-install/install), re-selected the video folder in the settings and have it redo the indexing/scanning of the video folder.
MKV does now play on the mobile app as well. Maybe a leftover in an upgrade to V7 or package? must say I hardly use the DS video app so situation may have existed for a long time.
Maybe it help the original poster @talontsi_95 as well.

 

[fredbert]

Have you added the folders that have MKV files into:

1. One of Video Station's libraries?
2. Control Panel's Indexing Service?
   • and assigned the folder to have video content?

Comments about codecs are true and can stop VS from playing/streaming but first you have to get VS to display the videos in its interface. BTW I can't get TrueHD audio to work, but does nicely in Plex. But I generally prefer to use DTS-HD Master Audio, if it's there, again using Plex and streaming to Apple TV and AVR system.

 

[talontsi_95]

Related thread... here, MKV appeared on DS Video app... but with other issues

DS video - DS Video - buffering on 920+

My NAS is DS920+. When watching downloaded 1080p movies in mkv format (files normally between 5G to 10G) on my ipad remotely using DS video, it suffers from buffering. I had similar problem with my old 213 which does not support transcoding at all. With this high end DS920+, I would have...

www.synoforum.com

I will look into that when I get home. Right now ds-file is working well but I want to see if I can get ds-video working. Thanks!

-- post merged: 7. Jan 2022 --

Have you added the folders that have MKV files into:

1. One of Video Station's libraries?
2. Control Panel's Indexing Service?
   • and assigned the folder to have video content?

Comments about codecs are true and can stop VS from playing/streaming but first you have to get VS to display the videos in its interface. BTW I can't get TrueHD audio to work, but does nicely in Plex. But I generally prefer to use DTS-HD Master Audio, if it's there, again using Plex and streaming to Apple TV and AVR system.

I will check that out thanks! At least ds-file is working and i can mirror my screen to apple tv. Do you know if appletv or roku possibly support the ds-video app or would I have to mirror the screen?

 

[Telos]

Do you know if appletv or roku possibly support the ds-video app or would I have to mirror the screen?

DS Video on Roku is abandonware and incompatible.

 

[fredbert]

Do you know if appletv or roku possibly support the ds-video app or would I have to mirror the screen?

There is DS video on Apple TVs HD/4K [v1]/4K [v2]. It hasn't been updated for a while but still works. But I find Plex to be a better system, only these points where VS has something of an edge:

1. Mobile apps:
   1. Plex mobile apps aren't free for unlimited use, either pay for them or get them with a Plex Pass (you Plex home user accounts also get access to the apps).
   2. VS mobile apps are free (but getting old).
2. Authentication:
   1. Plex apps need Internet access for initial authentication or if you switch users (if you use Plex user accounts). Once authenticated you can access your local Plex server without need of the Internet.
   2. VS uses DSM user accounts, so no reliance on other services.
3. Hardware transcoding (a. if your NAS can do it, and b. if your source files have to be converted in real-time to enable the player to play them):
   1. Plex requires subscription to Plex Pass to enable hardware transcoding.
   2. VS will do it in the NAS can do it (for free).
4. Limiting a user to set age classifications of media (both Plex and VS support this):
   1. Tagging (Plex wins this hands-down). I include this because relying on Internet resources for age data will still lead to a lot of fixing or normalising age tags:
      1. Plex is much easier to correct metadata (multiple items in a batch, unlike VS which is a slow process of doing each item).
      2. Plex assigns age classification to the TV show, whereas VS does it per episode.
   2. User accessing items outside set age classifications:
      1. Plex can't do this, you have to switch to a Plex user account that can access the items. Also managing users in Plex is a Plex Pass feature.
      2. VS allows a PIN to be assigned to access other age classified items (like Apple TV does it).

DS video

**You must own a Synology NAS to run this app, and be running the latest Video Station 2.3.0 to get the complete set of features** Use DS video to stream your video collection on your DiskStation from your iOS mobile device. Browsing is made easy as your videos are sorted in different...

apps.apple.com

 

[ivorusakhop]

I can suggest an option for the mac version: "Mirror for Roku"

Not spam, personal recommendation

 

[nebular]

Mkv is not a format, it is a container. Depending on the format inside the container it will or will not play. The DS does not have all codecs on board. The synology knowledgebase will tell you what will play and what not.

With this wrapper you will be able to play all formats.

GitHub - darknebular/Wrapper_VideoStation: Synology VideoStation and DLNA FFmpeg Wrapper with AAC, DTS, EAC3 and TrueHD support via pipes (now with GStreamer support). It enables full hardware transcoding from Synology´s FFmpeg for video and transcod

Synology VideoStation and DLNA FFmpeg Wrapper with AAC, DTS, EAC3 and TrueHD support via pipes (now with GStreamer support). It enables full hardware transcoding from Synology´s FFmpeg for video an...

github.com

Regards.