Streaming Movies & Series from Synology to AppleTV

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Synology has several ways for video streaming from it's hard drives. The one I use the most is sending via DLNA to the Playstation3, which means that it appears on the PS3 menu.Adding an AppleTV to the home network I wanted a way to stream to the it as well, not just to have 2 ways of doing the same thing, but sometimes with my DVD backups (I prefer to have all movies on 1 hard drive and choose then opening DVD boxes and swapping discs) I get the Cinavia protection error on the PS3.Unfortunately AppleTV doesn´t have DLNA, however synology has thought of a solution.

Synology has an app for IOS devices called Video Station. I normally use it to stream video to my IOS device out of home. So when I'm at the airport or train, I can see videos directly from my Synology which is at home over the internet, only requirement being a 3G or wifi connection. If you are in your home network, as of the latest update you can choose to send to AppleTV.

How to use:1) Download & Install the Video Station package on the Synology2) Download the DS Video app from iTunes on your iPhone or iPad3) Ensure you have the correct ports open for your home network.

Video Station

5000 (HTTP), 5001 (HTTPS), 9025-9040, 5002, 5004, 65001 (for using the HDHomeRun network tuner)

TCP

DS video

5000 (HTTP), 5001 (HTTPS)

TCP

For more ports see the following link:https://www.synology.com/en-global/support/faq/299

4) On the Synology you just need to make sure that the Media Server has within the directories it has indexed the one with your media files. The Video Station will see the files and automatically search the internet for the information needed to show on it´s page, including IMDB link.

5) Open the app and login

6) Press the play button

7) Press the icon on the bottom right and choose AppleTV

 

8) Wait 1 minmute while it sets up and done it's on the TV!

I've only seen two limitation, first is that you must keep the app open for the duration of the movie, even multitasking is not allowed and second it takes a while to start playing the movie for the first time (1 - 2 minutes)

 

AppleTV issue: Unable to login to iCloud as I can´t pass the iCloud Terms of Use

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For my birthday my friends got me an Apple TV. Today I was making a new trailer for my youtube channel:

and I saw an interesting new function that comes with iMovie and the AppleTV update - the iMovie theater. When you finish editing your video, you can share to iCloud and it will automatically appear under this icon in AppleTV. You don't need to have a computer or iPad to see it, just press the icon and it streams automatically!

However, when logging on to iCloud on the AppleTV, after entering the login and password for the service, the terms of use screen would appear but as much as I would press accept it would repeat the screen.
The solution is simple:
1) Go to settings

2) Go to General


3) Go to Region format

4) Change from United States to your iCloud region

5) Try again to login into iCloud and accept the terms & conditions

Should work now!

Scared of losing years of Photos? Here is the perfect backup solution

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Two things can easily happen to your computer: HDD failure or get stolen. Of course, you can always put in a new HDD or buy a new computer and install the OS and all the programs you use. It's time consuming but not the end of the world. But then the thought comes - when was the last time I backed up???

Oh no, THE foto and video collection. The one you have been archiving since your first digital camera or your friends' first digital camera. Probably older files are on some external drive, but you haven't updated it in the last 9 or 12 months, almost a year of memories lost.

This already happened to me once, and ever since I've been looking for a solution. Enter the Synology NAS server - it sounds and looks geeky, but WOW, it solved my backup problem in several ways and added tons of extra functionalities like torrent managing, media server, internet server for pictures / streaming video and home camera surveillance.
What is a NAS server? Basically a hard disk plugged into your home network - a shared drive that any device on your home WIFI can access. Synology took the concept one step further and included RAID and a processor that can do things with the information on the hard disk such as uploading them to online storage or creating an online webpage for your pictures that you can access anywhere in the world. I'll talk about this in an upcoming post, for now backup.
I wanted something that could:
- Take care of automatic backups from my Mac / PC
- protect itself from failure of it's own HDD
- upload pictures / videos to the cheapest online backup. Reason being that if someone steals my house and my computer and the synology, the backups on it are not very useful....
The device I found that ticked all these boxes and was "cheap" is the Synology DS212j. Nowadays they've launched an upgraded version - the DS214 which adds more internal RAM memory and an improved processor. Functionalities are the same. Besides the device, you need to buy separately the HDDs to put inside. To have RAID ( explained in a second ) you should have two same sizes HDDs, I got 2 x Western Digital's Red 3TB HDDs. The Red family are made to work on NAS servers, prioritizing longetivity and low heat generation over speed - which you don't need as much Ina. NAS server vs a computer. These disks are designed to be on 24/7, just like your synology.

Why the Synology?
- Take care of automatic backups from my Mac / PC:
For Mac it has time machine functionality, a software included in the Mac by Apple that backs up all your computer content automatically to a time machine device. It also can handle automatically complete restore of your information in case of issues with the Mac.
For windows it has software that can automate backups, although if haven't used it yet (only use macs for now...)
- protect itself from failure of it's own HDD
With 2 hard disks installed, it mirrors all information automatically in between them. Meaning that if one HDD fails, all info is stored on the other one. Synology handles this without any involvement from you - you only see one shared drive and once the info.
- upload pictures / videos to the cheapest online backup. Reason being that if someone steals my house and my computer and the synology, the backups on it are not very useful. Synology can upload to several online storage sites p, but for me the mist interesting is Amazon glacier. It's real cheap, I think I have approx 300Gbs put there and I pay approx 4USD per month. With Dropbox a 200Gb plan is 19.99USD and 500Gb a whopping 49.99USD. I save 400 to 500$ per year. The catch? It isn't like Dropbox that you always have access to your files. With glacier you request a file and it is only available 4 hours later.
To be honest, none of these files I need in a rush - they are always local on my Synology. Amazon glacier is online backup just in case the Synology is stolen.... And probably I can wait a little while to download them when my house has been burglarized - they are not priority #1. Amazon even has a service where you can send an external HDD and they record all files there.
Set-up posts coming up!