Can I use a Synology to stream music to my Apple TV and keep iTunes?

[Wildgift]

I’m new to NAS. Thinking of a Synology DS218+. Here’s what I need to do. Is it Possible?

1. I have about 21,000 songs on an external HD that is my iTunes library. I'm tired of schlepping it around so I want to put all my music on the NAS.
   
   
2. I want to be able to stream these songs to my Apple tv 4k. I also need to keep iTunes because I use CarPlay in my Audi for navigation, pocket casts etc. and there seems to be no alternative that I can see.
   
   
3. How can I transfer all my songs to the NAS so I can stream using my iPhone running dsaudio, AND keep iTunes on my iPhone? I’m so confused as to whether this can be done and if so, can someone give me step by step instructions? I’m not married to dsaudio. I know plexus exists. Can that coexist with my iTunes library? I’m less married to a methodology and just want to stream music at home and use my iPhone in my car.
   

Thanks!

 

[HDFan]

I'm not familiar with Synology, but I love my QNAP 453bt3 which has the same but slower processor as the DS218+.

I want to be able to stream these songs to my Apple tv 4k.

QNAP has an Apple TV app that allows you to stream your media. But see next response.

I also need to keep iTunes

A lot depends on your iTunes media. Do you have your own media, or are you using iTunes music, iTunes match?

How can I transfer all my songs to the NAS so I can stream using my iPhone running dsaudio, AND keep iTunes on my iPhone?

DSaudio is the synology app, right? Then it's likely just like QMusic, which is NAS specific app for playing media.

Mac iTunes is more flexible than the IOS app as it allows you to select an iTunes library on your NAS. I do not know if there is a way to switch libraries in IOS or in the Apple TV apple apps.

A simple way to avoid having to use all of the different apps is to set up a media server, such as plex, so that you have just one app that can be used on all devices for all media.

Or you could copy all of your music to the NAS and use the NAS vendors apps. iTunes will then work as normal since you haven't touched it.

 

[steve62388]

I’m new to NAS. Thinking of a Synology DS218+. Here’s what I need to do. Is it Possible?

1. I have about 21,000 songs on an external HD that is my iTunes library. I'm tired of schlepping it around so I want to put all my music on the NAS.
   
   
2. I want to be able to stream these songs to my Apple tv 4k. I also need to keep iTunes because I use CarPlay in my Audi for navigation, pocket casts etc. and there seems to be no alternative that I can see.
   
   
3. How can I transfer all my songs to the NAS so I can stream using my iPhone running dsaudio, AND keep iTunes on my iPhone? I’m so confused as to whether this can be done and if so, can someone give me step by step instructions? I’m not married to dsaudio. I know plexus exists. Can that coexist with my iTunes library? I’m less married to a methodology and just want to stream music at home and use my iPhone in my car.

Thanks!

You’re wanting to keep iTunes. So what about setting up iTunes Server on the NAS, Home Sharing from the Mac to the Apple TV (I think this will work, but you can’t go direct from your Diskstation to the Apple TV) and then you can either just keep iTunes on it’s own or run it alongside DSaudio?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Another consideration is doing what I do and the next time that you upgrade your iPhone, go for the 256GB or 512GB option (there will be a 1TB option soon). This would allow you to keep all of your music on your iPhone and then simply AirPlay it to your Apple TV 4K (as I do) or connect to CarPlay (as I do)

OR... Have you tried the free three month Apple Music or Spotify as a work around?
Apple Music is available direct on ATV 4K and via your iPhone with CarPlay My flatmates use it with CarPlay on their 2 - 3 hour daily commute and say that it's exceptional!

NAS is a route that I've never wanted to go down - I like to keep downloaded material on my MacBook and then sync to my iPhone & iPad Pro AND then for film, I buy from iTunes & Vimeo and stream The whole process is flawless and worry free and very now

 

[Wildgift]

Another consideration is doing what I do and the next time that you upgrade your iPhone, go for the 256GB or 512GB option (there will be a 1TB option soon). This would allow you to keep all of your music on your iPhone and then simply AirPlay it to your Apple TV 4K (as I do) or connect to CarPlay (as I do)

OR... Have you tried the free three month Apple Music or Spotify as a work around?
Apple Music is available direct on ATV 4K and via your iPhone with CarPlay My flatmates use it with CarPlay on their 2 - 3 hour daily commute and say that it's exceptional!

NAS is a route that I've never wanted to go down - I like to keep downloaded material on my MacBook and then sync to my iPhone & iPad Pro AND then for film, I buy from iTunes & Vimeo and stream The whole process is flawless and worry free and very now

[doublepost=1561561073][/doublepost]Thanks for all the responses. The music is ALAC format painstakingly ripped over many years. I'm not interested in Apple music at this point.

My Iphone Xs is 256 gb, not nearly big enough to simply stream it all to my ATV. So, I'm looking for a way to stream all the music i have to my ATV.

I see that QNAP has an ATV app, and that is attractive!! Seems like I could use that for my music. But there seems to be a much more active Synology communitu, FWIW.

With either one, am I correct that I can upload my massive Itunes library, and point the software from the NAS to it for the NAS' apps?

 

[2010mini]

You can also consider iTunes Match

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146

 

[HDFan]

Out of curiosity I compared the 2 systems, DS218+ and the QNAP TS-453t3 as I may consider a Synology at some point. The DS is way less expensive, lowest price being $249 without disk. The QNAP is almost 4 times as much at $918.38. When CamelCamel notified me of the 1 day price drop to $698 I grabbed one.

DS218+ cpu is slightly faster (1.5/2.3 GHz base, burst vs 2.0/2.5)
DS218+ has less memory (2 GB installed, 6 GB optional max vs 8 GB installed)
DS218+ has 2 bays vs 4
QNAP has 2 M.2 SATA SSD slots for cache acceleration (not an easy installation though)
Both support expansion chassis
DS218+ has 1 gigabit ethernet port, QNAP 2
DS218+ has 3 USB 3.0 ports, QNAP 5
QNAP has 1 10 Gb ethernet port
QNAP has 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
QNAP has 2 thunderbolt ports which are on the front, unfortunately
QNAP has 2 HDMI ports
QNAP has an IR remote
QNAP supports RAID so you can lose a disk without data loss
QNAP has an LCD with system status (rebooting, shutting down, etc.)

I have seen complaints about older QNAP software but I found it great. Excellent graphics of system status. Walks you through just about everything. The iTunes server (for Apple's iTunes desktop app) is a 3rd party product (Firefly) which has a rather primitive interface but seems to work fine. The music server (for the NAS music app) is from QNAP. The firmware is updated almost weekly which is a very good sign.

It has audio available for system alerts. "Your thunderbolt device has been disconnected" was useful when I was having BridgeOS errors so I knew my iMac had rebooted when elsewhere in the room.

I have worked with QNAP support and they are excellent.

The only problem I have is when I enable their Media services for video. Pretty much crashed the system (I have a lot of 4K movies) as the indexing program filled up the 8 GB of memory. Since Plex is my media server this really wasn't a problem.

 

[steve62388]

Out of curiosity I compared the 2 systems, DS218+ and the QNAP TS-453t3 as I may consider a Synology at some point. The DS is way less expensive, lowest price being $249 without disk. The QNAP is almost 4 times as much at $918.38. When CamelCamel notified me of the 1 day price drop to $698 I grabbed one.

DS218+ cpu is slightly faster (1.5/2.3 GHz base, burst vs 2.0/2.5)
DS218+ has less memory (2 GB installed, 6 GB optional max vs 8 GB installed)
DS218+ has 2 bays vs 4
QNAP has 2 M.2 SATA SSD slots for cache acceleration (not an easy installation though)
Both support expansion chassis
DS218+ has 1 gigabit ethernet port, QNAP 2
DS218+ has 3 USB 3.0 ports, QNAP 5
QNAP has 1 10 Gb ethernet port
QNAP has 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
QNAP has 2 thunderbolt ports which are on the front, unfortunately
QNAP has 2 HDMI ports
QNAP has an IR remote
QNAP supports RAID so you can lose a disk without data loss
QNAP has an LCD with system status (rebooting, shutting down, etc.)

I have seen complaints about older QNAP software but I found it great. Excellent graphics of system status. Walks you through just about everything. The iTunes server (for Apple's iTunes desktop app) is a 3rd party product (Firefly) which has a rather primitive interface but seems to work fine. The music server (for the NAS music app) is from QNAP. The firmware is updated almost weekly which is a very good sign.

It has audio available for system alerts. "Your thunderbolt device has been disconnected" was useful when I was having BridgeOS errors so I knew my iMac had rebooted when elsewhere in the room.

I have worked with QNAP support and they are excellent.

The only problem I have is when I enable their Media services for video. Pretty much crashed the system (I have a lot of 4K movies) as the indexing program filled up the 8 GB of memory. Since Plex is my media server this really wasn't a problem.

How odd to compare two products that fit an entirely different position in Synology and QNAP’s range.

 

[HDFan]

How odd to compare two products that fit an entirely different position in Synology and QNAP’s range.

Not at all odd if by "range" you mean price range. Both are promoted as 4K multimedia servers. I assume (you can correct me) that the software is going to be pretty much the same for that manufacturer. What features will a more expensive unit offer (besides additional drive bays)?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

[doublepost=1561561073][/doublepost]Thanks for all the responses. The music is ALAC format painstakingly ripped over many years. I'm not interested in Apple music at this point.

My Iphone Xs is 256 gb, not nearly big enough to simply stream it all to my ATV. So, I'm looking for a way to stream all the music i have to my ATV.

I see that QNAP has an ATV app, and that is attractive!! Seems like I could use that for my music. But there seems to be a much more active Synology communitu, FWIW.

With either one, am I correct that I can upload my massive Itunes library, and point the software from the NAS to it for the NAS' apps?

Damn! I have the 256GB iPhone too and it's been great. You have golden ears - i've worked in radio & production and my ears cannot detect any difference between ALAC and 320AAC - in your car you won't hear the difference I only have around 3000 songs on my iTunes but i'll be honest, I play probably less than 40 tunes - I'm an old skool hip hop break dance fan so I tend to play the same stuff

Best of luck with whatever that you decide on. Have lots of fun
[doublepost=1561582266][/doublepost]

You can also consider iTunes Match

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146

Damn good idea!!!

 

[techwarrior]

I’m new to NAS. Thinking of a Synology DS218+. Here’s what I need to do. Is it Possible?

1. I have about 21,000 songs on an external HD that is my iTunes library. I'm tired of schlepping it around so I want to put all my music on the NAS.
   
   
2. I want to be able to stream these songs to my Apple tv 4k. I also need to keep iTunes because I use CarPlay in my Audi for navigation, pocket casts etc. and there seems to be no alternative that I can see.
   
   
3. How can I transfer all my songs to the NAS so I can stream using my iPhone running dsaudio, AND keep iTunes on my iPhone? I’m so confused as to whether this can be done and if so, can someone give me step by step instructions? I’m not married to dsaudio. I know plexus exists. Can that coexist with my iTunes library? I’m less married to a methodology and just want to stream music at home and use my iPhone in my car.

Thanks!

There are apps for ATV4 and 4K that can stream SMB shared audio and video files directly to the ATV. Plex requires a Plex media server (QNAP and synology probably have apps for this), also Infuse.

If your Mac is running, ATV can stream from the Mac, regardless of where media is stored. In iTunes, you can change the location of the media folder to the NAS and move everything off the Mac to the NAS and it will still sync music to the iPhone, stream to ATV etc.

 

[interstella]

There shouldn't be a problem streaming to an iPhone so far as I can see. I just transferred my iTunes Library to a folder named music on my Synology NAS (I have a DS215j) and I can then stream it using DS Audio. The Apple TV may be more of a problem as Synology haven't made a DS Audio app for the Apple TV but you can still use iTunes for this. The two can coexist quite happily. It's also possible to stream from a Synology NAS to an Amazon Echo but it's not easy and I've never succeeded in getting it to work.

 

[Michelasso]

You’re wanting to keep iTunes. So what about setting up iTunes Server on the NAS, Home Sharing from the Mac to the Apple TV (I think this will work, but you can’t go direct from your Diskstation to the Apple TV) and then you can either just keep iTunes on it’s own or run it alongside DSaudio?

This one above is the solution I used. Just copy the iTunes folder from the HDD to the NAS and then in iTunes preferences change the path of your Media Library, to point from iTunes in the HDD to iTunes in the NAS. Then enable "At Home" in iTunes and with the app named "Computer" on ATV you'll get the media library as you see it in iTunes, with playlists and all. From iTunes you can still sync in your iPhone the playlists/songs you like, as you are doing using an HDD instead.

The only downside is that via NAS sometimes it messed up my artworks when the NAS wasn't reachable for a reason or another. But I have a MacBook Pro and that could happen coming back from work, the reconnection sometime failed and it went banana.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Wow! Just reading all of this goes truly away from the Apple ethos of 'Keep it simple' and 'it just works'. This truly shows why music streaming services are so incredibly popular!

 

[red41]

I've been using the Time Capsule in this capacity for years. However, about a year ago the Time Capsule started losing connection to my Mac every once in a while. I now have to go and click on the time capsule and put in my network password every few days. I've been looking at either QNAP or Synology as an alternative for Plex and Itunes. Are those options overkill for just streaming tv and music? I have around 2 terabytes of media on my Time Capsule.

 

[steve62388]

I've been using the Time Capsule in this capacity for years. However, about a year ago the Time Capsule started losing connection to my Mac every once in a while. I now have to go and click on the time capsule and put in my network password every few days. I've been looking at either QNAP or Synology as an alternative for Plex and Itunes. Are those options overkill for just streaming tv and music? I have around 2 terabytes of media on my Time Capsule.

Try Infuse instead of Plex.