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Connect to a remote Synology via AppleTV

A

adamjackson

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 9, 2008
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I have content stored on a Synology DS214 Play in my basement connected to a DD-WRT Router and a Comcast 100 Megabit (down) connection. My 27" iMac has iTunes installed and the iTunes Library location is one of the shared folders on the Synology unit. I stream content from that iTunes to 2 AppleTV units in my house. It all works very well because every device in the scenario is hardwired via Gigabit ethernet. I've never had any issues with this setup.

I have a friend across town also on Comcast in a 50 megabit scenario with an AppleTV. I'm going to be staying with them for a few weeks while my place is under construction. They use the Comcast modem for routing and wireless and the AppleTV is a latest generation model

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I'd like to connect to my Synology from her house and access my movies on her AppleTV. My first thought was to enable the VPN on the Synology and connect to it from her MacBook Pro and then use Finder.app to browse for movies and use AirPlay mirroring for movies.

That shouldn't be too difficult but what if I want to turn on her AppleTV and just browse the Computers section like I do today, browse my iMac and access the movies. Does she need a router with built-in VPN support so the iMac appears to be in the same room to the AppleTV and I just login to HomeSharing with y credentials and off I go?

Any idea what sort of buffering issues I may have if I do this?

I'm looking for people to respond who have actually done this, not just speculation. Thanks in advance!
 
To answer your question; I don't know. The reason for responding is that the first thought that popped into my head is, why not just take the NAS with you and hook it up to your friends network while you are staying there? Just a thought.
 
I am also not sure of if or how well the solution you are proposing would work. But there is another option that will cost you about $5...

1) Install Plex Media Server on your iMac (free) and point it at the same files that iTunes uses
2) Install Plex on your iPhone ($5 I believe), and access your media from anywhere
3) At your friend's house, start any video and AirPlay to his/her AppleTV
 
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jdag said:
I am also not sure of if or how well the solution you are proposing would work. But there is another option that will cost you about $5...

1) Install Plex Media Server on your iMac (free) and point it at the same files that iTunes uses
2) Install Plex on your iPhone ($5 I believe), and access your media from anywhere
3) At your friend's house, start any video and AirPlay to his/her AppleTV
Click to expand...

Might be able to do something similar without Plex

1) Enable external access on the Synology
2) Turn on Video Station in Synology
2) Install DS Video app on iOS device
4) Access content from DS Video and AirPlay to Apple TV

When doing step 4 in your home network, I believe the content streams direct from the NAS to the Apple TV. Whether this happens when you're outside your home network I don't know.
 
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jdag said:
I am also not sure of if or how well the solution you are proposing would work. But there is another option that will cost you about $5...

1) Install Plex Media Server on your iMac (free) and point it at the same files that iTunes uses
2) Install Plex on your iPhone ($5 I believe), and access your media from anywhere
3) At your friend's house, start any video and AirPlay to his/her AppleTV
Click to expand...

That's smart.

ozaz said:
Might be able to do something similar without Plex

1) Enable external access on the Synology
2) Turn on Video Station in Synology
2) Install DS Video app on iOS device
4) Access content from DS Video and AirPlay to Apple TV

When doing step 4 in your home network, I believe the content streams direct from the NAS to the Apple TV. Whether this happens when you're outside your home network I don't know.
Click to expand...

I like this idea more since I already have DS Video setup on my iPad.

AFEPPL said:
You would need to take your iTunes lib and ATV with you.
Then you could create a VPN between the iMac and your NAS device.
https://help.synology.com/dsm/?section=VPNCenter&version=1.2&link=vpn_setup.html
Click to expand...

This seems like the most permanent solution and since this is going to be for 4 weeks, I'm going to give this solution a go first. But the others recommending DSVideo / Plex might be an easier solution.
 
adamjackson said:
That's smart.



I like this idea more since I already have DS Video setup on my iPad.



This seems like the most permanent solution and since this is going to be for 4 weeks, I'm going to give this solution a go first. But the others recommending DSVideo / Plex might be an easier solution.
Click to expand...

I really think that the DS Video and Plex solutions are more elegant and simple. By taking the drive and iTunes library with you to your friend's house, you will have to in effect "re-install" everything in that 2nd location. You will need your friend's computer running. You will interfere with his/her setup by putting a 2nd library on his/her computer. Etc.

DS Video and Plex...set it up at home...and forget about it! Plus, it is a "permanent" solution. You can then use your home library when you travel anywhere, even via a cellular connection when in a hotel room or in a car.
 
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One point is that the Op said he has 100 meg down but never said what his up speed is. In any of the scenarios he is considering the up speed from his house is probably the most important factor on streaming successfully. I use the Plex solution on a regular basis for remote access and find it very successful.
 
nebo1ss said:
One point is that the Op said he has 100 meg down but never said what his up speed is. In any of the scenarios he is considering the up speed from his house is probably the most important factor on streaming successfully. I use the Plex solution on a regular basis for remote access and find it very successful.
Click to expand...
Good point...but if he has 100 down, I would imagine his up speed is more than adequate.
 
adamjackson said:
I have content stored on a Synology DS214 Play in my basement connected to a DD-WRT Router and a Comcast 100 Megabit (down) connection. My 27" iMac has iTunes installed and the iTunes Library location is one of the shared folders on the Synology unit. I stream content from that iTunes to 2 AppleTV units in my house. It all works very well because every device in the scenario is hardwired via Gigabit ethernet. I've never had any issues with this setup.

I have a friend across town also on Comcast in a 50 megabit scenario with an AppleTV. I'm going to be staying with them for a few weeks while my place is under construction. They use the Comcast modem for routing and wireless and the AppleTV is a latest generation model

------

I'd like to connect to my Synology from her house and access my movies on her AppleTV. My first thought was to enable the VPN on the Synology and connect to it from her MacBook Pro and then use Finder.app to browse for movies and use AirPlay mirroring for movies.

That shouldn't be too difficult but what if I want to turn on her AppleTV and just browse the Computers section like I do today, browse my iMac and access the movies. Does she need a router with built-in VPN support so the iMac appears to be in the same room to the AppleTV and I just login to HomeSharing with y credentials and off I go?

Any idea what sort of buffering issues I may have if I do this?

I'm looking for people to respond who have actually done this, not just speculation. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

You will need to VPN into your network and have iTunes on you Mac access the storage on your Synology. Then you will need to ensure those movies are in your iTunes library on the Mac and share with the ATV.

If you can figure out the VPN piece (it's easy) you will have no problem getting the ATV to see your movies.

The biggest problem will be bandwidth. The ATV will buffer but it will take a VERY long time.

EDIT: for what it's worth... If you are going to be gone for a few weeks I would bring your Synology with you. Much much easier.

And this thread is so old it probably doesn't matter. Lol
 
Last edited:
Express VPN would be a nice one. You could also check other VPN's available for your device.
 
AirVideo HD =) Try it out. You install the server software on your Mac and the client on any iOS device. Then you just play the video (works also via internet, not only locally) and AirPlay it to the Apple TV. Works perfectly for me.
 
But thats a real lame solution, extra software ties up a device, iOS in the middle and Airplay.
 
Just use iTunes and ATV - i don't need any of the other bits in the middle..
Airplay is a nightmare, the picture and sound get out of sync and even on the best wifi its hit and miss.

But if it works for you and you're happy..
 
AFEPPL said:
Just use iTunes and ATV - i don't need any of the other bits in the middle..
Airplay is a nightmare, the picture and sound get out of sync and even on the best wifi its hit and miss.

But if it works for you and you're happy..
Click to expand...

It actually does work for me. With iTunes I would have to convert all those files first which would take ages.
 
Fabian90 said:
With iTunes I would have to convert all those files first which would take ages.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. Many movies these days are already in right format (AVC), but may be in wrong container (MKV). Repacking from MKV into MP4 does not take ages. Even if you need to convert audio from DTS into AAC+AC3 in the process.
 
priitv8 said:
Not necessarily. Many movies these days are already in right format (AVC), but may be in wrong container (MKV). Repacking from MKV into MP4 does not take ages. Even if you need to convert audio from DTS into AAC+AC3 in the process.
Click to expand...

Well I tried that once but iTunes did not work flawlessly at all. The movies are in really high bitrate and it felt like iTunes had some problems with it. Forwarding on the Apple TV took ages and buffering aswell, with AirVideo HD it does not.
 
Fabian90 said:
Well I tried that once but iTunes did not work flawlessly at all. The movies are in really high bitrate and it felt like iTunes had some problems with it. Forwarding on the Apple TV took ages and buffering aswell, with AirVideo HD it does not.
Click to expand...
It looks like AirVideo HD is transcoding on the fly. Even when they don't go into details, they must be transcoding AVC movies as well to lesser bitrates, so that aTV does not need to buffer that long. That means - you are not watching the picture quality, you are sending in ;)
Bit Cave Ltd said:
Don’t worry about video formats, codecs and bitrates, let Air Video HD handle the dirty details for you. If needed, Air Video HD will transparently transcode the video (“on fly”) so that it plays on all supported iOS devices, including Apple TV
Click to expand...
 
priitv8 said:
It looks like AirVideo HD is transcoding on the fly. Even when they don't go into details, they must be transcoding AVC movies as well to lesser bitrates, so that aTV does not need to buffer that long. That means - you are not watching the picture quality, you are sending in ;)
Click to expand...

Well, I've set it to pass through the video when possible and just encode DTS to ac3. Maybe the processor of the Apple TV is just too old. I guess we will see in September ;)
 
I rip all my BRs to MP4 and just drop them into iTunes. other than the random lost of art it works.
itunes is the worst program I've had the misfortune to use i will add.
 
For those interested in getting videos into iTunes, and grabbing artwork/metadata, check out iVI and iFlicks. Both programs work well.
 
anything work well for making iTunes work?
Getting videos and art work in is easy... keeping iTunes running is a full time job..
 
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