Latest Synology DSM update and Minimserver

I think Minimserver disappeared with DSM-6 when it was first introduced 23 March.   DSM 6.0.1 was made available today & is mostly bug fixes.  But whatever,  you have it sorted

It was removed from the standard 3rd party app list with 6.0 but the fact that it needs re-installing after installing DSM updates was a surprise. 

.......     now I understand (sorry)   Yes a real PITA.   Have you logged it as a defect on the Synology support system.  

I dropped Minimserver when DSM-6 was launched & now use only the native Media Server ,  I was only using it so as to join in the Minimserver forum posts.  I'm all WAV (& DSD) so am not affected by the gapless transcoding defect in the Synology software   

Both of my Synology boxes updated without issues. Including Minimserver.

............   hmm ??   I was wondering why the usual Synology users were so quiet;  you might have another issue with yours QuickBen 

Nothing on the Synology forum, but on the Minimserver forum someone else has had same problem and Simon has commented that he seems to be getting something of a torrid time from Synology when he submits upgrades for the official package list, so he suspects they are forcing the deletion of the app during the upgrade process. At least the manual update process is not that difficult if you know that you have to do it. More of an issue for him, though given that Synology still cannot deliver gapless with FLAC except with Minimserver, if it did become an issue I would be seriously thinking about moving to QNAP and just using the Synology for file backups.

quickben posted:

Nothing on the Synology forum, but on the Minimserver forum someone else has had same problem and Simon has commented that he seems to be getting something of a torrid time from Synology when he submits upgrades for the official package list, so he suspects they are forcing the deletion of the app during the upgrade process. At least the manual update process is not that difficult if you know that you have to do it. More of an issue for him, though given that Synology still cannot deliver gapless with FLAC except with Minimserver, if it did become an issue I would be seriously thinking about moving to QNAP and just using the Synology for file backups.

That is what I do now.  I have both a Synology and QNAP nas, and have gravitated to QNAP/Asset as a server, Synology to back up the QNAP and for extra storage.

Sounds like a plan - how simple was the transfer from Synology to QNAP?

I have changed from Synology to Qnap, and it was simply a case of copying the files across. Setting up Asset is a breeze. You will also find that it reindexes automatically as well as showing recently added albums. 

............   just a comment on Synology & transcoding gapless .flac.   The new DSM-6 back in March did include new transcoding software, it was advertised as specific to video but it did change the audio gapless playback.   When I first tried it with my few .flac test files it played gapless perfectly & I reported it as such on the forum.  Then someone came back to say its still bad & when I tried mine again it was indeed bad.  I demo'd it to someone last week & found it was playing correctly & just tried it again with the latest update & it still plays correctly,  but moved to another album & its bad.     Whatever, its all a bit not right,  but as I'm all .wav & have no need to transcode,  I have no need or wish to go fight that battle.    

HH,  a question.  Does the QNAP auto reindex if you change something thats already installed.  Synology auto-index shows all new uploads straight away & they have a list by month of recently added, but its needs a manual reindex when you change something thats already loaded.  

Yes, if you change metadata it automatically indexes. The downside is that it then shows as a new album. 

ahh !!!!  tricky

Just updated my two 'identical' 4TB Synology DS414slims - different disk brands in each - to latest DSM.

No problem with MinimServer 8.4 but one disk station required a reinstall of Java 8 in order to get MinimServer started again.....

KR, J

Updated my main Synology NAS (DS214Play) and alll went well. It did report that minimserver required reloading but when I looked at the packages tab it showed minim as being stopped. I just restarted it and all worked OK - no need to re-install.

As an aside I do wonder if Synology are getting a bit "applesque" in their support to other 3rd party packages in that if its not inside the Synology "garden" then they are reluctant to play nicely.....

A bit  "applesque" ...........  no they are a lot "microsoftesque".    The two guys who started the company are ex-MS.   But yes your observations are not so far out,  its a shame as they seem to have missed a chunk of audio market by making if difficult for the 3rd party DLNA/UPnP media servers.  It may well be the security, multiple business applications & all the other stuff they have perfected with their own software make the audio market a small drop in the ocean.   

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for the additional info re original members - I think I had seen that mentioned somewhere before but it slipped my mind until you reminded me. As you say I was just trying to highlight how the DSM6 product doesn't seem to play with 3rd party apps as well as I remember earlier versions doing.

I do use my NAS for other purposes than music so I am gaining some benefit from its other capabilities.

I use both minim and the inbuilt Synology UPnP server and also transcode to WAV. I suppose at some point I may have to bite the bullet as it were and convert all my music to WAV - I don't need gapless that often to satisfy my listening style so its not a big issue just now. Synology may produce a solution themselves at some point, but I'm not willing to bet when.

Reading these threads makes me appreciate my Unitiserve even more ... 

John Willmott posted:

Reading these threads makes me appreciate my Unitiserve even more ... 

Until the PSU fails or the single HDD crashes   .........    These NAS grumbles are but minor passing irritations

Mike-B posted:

John Willmott posted:

Reading these threads makes me appreciate my Unitiserve even more ... 

Until the PSU fails or the single HDD crashes   .........    These NAS grumbles are but minor passing irritations

That's what contingency plans are for Mike .. in the interim it just keeps on clicking and ticking

Mike-B posted:

............   just a comment on Synology & transcoding gapless .flac.   The new DSM-6 back in March did include new transcoding software, it was advertised as specific to video but it did change the audio gapless playback.   When I first tried it with my few .flac test files it played gapless perfectly & I reported it as such on the forum.  Then someone came back to say its still bad & when I tried mine again it was indeed bad.  I demo'd it to someone last week & found it was playing correctly & just tried it again with the latest update & it still plays correctly,  but moved to another album & its bad.     Whatever, its all a bit not right,  but as I'm all .wav & have no need to transcode,  I have no need or wish to go fight that battle.   

On this latest version of DSM, gapless playback works fine for me. 

I have all files on the NAS stored as Apple Lossless or DSF.  I run MInimserevr side by side with Synology media server. Minimserver transcodes to WAV and Synology media server serves the files in their native format.

In both cases, gapless playback (through a Uniti with latest firmware) is faultless on 16/44 through to 24/192 res files.

I'm not for a minute suggesting you change from WAV, just mentioning so that others can decide and test before committing to one rip format and hours of fun.

Just to clarify Calumm (we might be saying the same thing) ,  With the latest DSM-6,  Synology's Media Server plays gapless linked tracks with WAV faultlessly,  it also has no problems playing gapless with all the other formats natively.   It transcodes OK on all formats  providing they are not gapless.  The problem is it's unreliable when transcoding gapless.  Minimserver plays it all - gapless transcode etc.

And no way would I move from WAV (& DSD - .dsf)