Synology DSM-5.1

I just updated the new DSM and it has some great new features. A great NAS!

I think a lot of people will find the Security advisor very useful. There are a lot of unsecured NAS devices out there.

Is anyone using minimserver Who has upgraded their NAS. have you had any issues with minimserver

Graeme

I wonder why you would use Minimserver on a Synology when it has the packaged Media Server ??  I have yet to be convinced about the benefits of any other server over the Synology package.  

With Minimserver you have a bunch of faffing around installing Java & whatever other issues; Media Server is a simple one touch Open & its all set to do everything.  

I use Minimserver. What do you recommend/

The answer is my response .....why not use the Synology Media Server

Or maybe I should ask what does Minimserver do so well against Media Server. 

Your very question answered.

http://forum.minimserver.com/s...compared+to+synology

Hi Fokkelman

Was minimserver fine after the DSM update.

Graeme

I can give you two reasons.

1. I can get minimserver to order my albums correctly which i never managed on media server, although to be ive not used it for a while so maybe it can now.

2. Minimserver converts 16bit to 24bit on the fly. It does this by padding with zeros, to be fair ive no idea how that works but i do prefer the way it sounds.

On my DS414, installing java and minimserver was easy, no faffing around at all. 

Graeme

Thanks Alan, will go ahead with the update tonight then. I have to say minimserver has worked flawlessly for me, and yes the wav24 is only a slight improvement, but its free. 

Graeme

Thanks for the education on Minimserver folks,  its nice to know to know whats what from experience of others,  so thanks. 

However as I have never had a problem managing files or any other issues that I can attribute to a short coming with the media server & as I have no transcoding issues as I'm all .wav anyhow,  I won't be making the change.

I have a 213j running dsm 5.1-5004. I have tried both minimserver and synology media server. I heard a difference in sound quality between the two. It was very slight and I had to switch back and fourth a couple of times, but I found the synology media server gave a slightly more open sound.

It is interesting that Synology have included MinimServer with the 5.1 update. I wonder why they did. I haven't tried it out on the basis that MediaServer works well for me, and if it ain't broke...

Also, I use DS Audio on my iDevices a lot, and I'm not sure if that would still connect if I were using MinimServer. Having said that, I suppose that MediaServer would still be installed so there should be no issue.

Minim has been available for a while. It's not new with 5.1.

I just find the way that Minim works with Java too much hassle and not worth the effort.

Bananahead originally posted:

"Minim has been available for a while. It's not new with 5.1.

I just find the way that Minim works with Java too much hassle and not worth the effort."

Same here.

I don't hear any difference between FLAC and WAV files presented to either of my streaming devices/DACS (Klimax Renew or ND5XS/Hugo), and have had very few other issues with the Synology media server, so I don't feel the need to try out MinimServer.

Interestingly, a number of posters in the link provided by Jota seem to suggest that files presented by MinimServer sound 'better' than the same files presented by the Synology Media Server.

Now - that I find difficult to believe!    

Which new features do you all find most interesting?  I just returned home from a week holiday and have to catch up on all of my software updates.  I updated the nas, and definitely like the look of 5.1 but I've not dug into the features yet.

Yes, I'm using DSM 5.1 latest with Minimserver, and it works fine. Just the same.

For me, DSM Media Server is good, simple, no hassle and does transcoding. However, it also adds .flac as a suffix to every transcoded track, which is annoying. Also gapless is an issue, although that might have been solved.

Minimserver is a right pain to install, but once it's there it's seamless. It works in a very similar way to DSM, with slightly different hierarchy and operation, but neither better nor worse. And it does gapless perfectly.

I have both now so I can do an absolute like-for-like SQ test. Just set up a queue of tracks including both Minimserver and DSM - even the same track of course, for a direct comparison - and see which you prefer. It wasn't huge in favour of Minimserver, but it was consistent. So given all other things being equal, I generally use Minimserver transcoding to WAV24.

+1 & also transcoding 24 bit HD downloads from flac was a no go too....

So, are HD tracks irrevocably lost after upgrading from DSM3.2 to 5.1? Mine no longer appear using the Naim app.

No, they play fine. As I type I'm playing the new Led Zeppelin HD album quite happily and the Naim app says they're at 96kHz 4608kb/s. It was the on-the-fly transcoding that presented the slight, but annoying, glitch.

The resulting playback sound from Minimserver and Synology Media Server is different, and I prefer that of Minimserver. It's that matter most.

I don't like that Minimserver needs to be told to re-scan when new music is added because I always forget to force it.

Hmmmm

I just used Mediamonkey to look at what both Media Server and Minimserver are serving from flac.

MM gives details in the Filename and Bitrate

Media Server gives this

Normal 16/44   id=40819.wav?format=WAV&downsample=false     176

Hires    24/96   id=40825.wav?format=WAV&downsample=false      384

Mixed   24/44   id=106744.wav?format=WAV&downsample=false    176

Minimserver gives this

Normal  16/44 $!transcode-24.wav    264

Hires     24/96 $!transcode,wav         576

Mixed   24/44  $!transcode.wav         264

I know that the bitrate is low but they do indicate what is going on. Media Server keeps the sample rate but serves 16 bit.