Videos can also be played from within that interface (provided the browser supports it with a Flash plugin). Media file management includes options to view information about the video files (MediaInfo in Asustor's own interface). That is handled automatically by the package installation process. Since it involves direct video output, we also have dependencies like Xorg. These include popular ones like Kodi (formerly XBMC). Since Asustor integrates a HDMI port in a majority of their models, the Media Player category includes applications that one might use on a PC. For the purpose of this coverage, we mainly look at first-party apps. There are both first-party and third-party apps available under these categories. The apps fall under three categories - Media Player, Media Server, and Multimedia. Instead, they have to be enabled by installing apps from the App Central repository. Readers interested in jumping ahead to a particular vendor can use the list below.Īsustor's ADM OS has plenty of features for multimedia enthusiasts, but, they are not part of the core OS image. Vendors are covered in alphabetical order. The multimedia features of the OS from each vendor is discussed in detail in this section. Those will be covered in a later piece in the section dealing with the mobile apps suite from each vendor. In setting the premise for this section, we must make it clear that the aspects related to the transfer of multimedia content to the NAS (such as automatic backup of photographs taken on a smartphone into a NAS folder) are not addressed. Based on the above discussion, it is clear that management of multimedia content is an area for NAS vendors to stand out of the crowd. This could provide DMRs with ready information for the user during playback. Another example would be the indexing and automatic generation of metadata for, say, a music collection. In this scenario, some sort of intelligence on the DMS side to downscale the video resolution and transcode the content from HEVC to H.264 would be nice to have. The DMR can't play back either 4K content or understand the HEVC codec. For example, consider a scenario with a 4K HEVC video stored in the NAS, and a DMR that can only play back 1080p H.264 content. One approach is to treat the DMS as a dumb file server, and leave all the intelligence to the DMR for playback purposes. These folders can be mapped on a PC or client device and the content can be accessed by various playback programs in the DMR. Throughout this section, we will use DMS and DMR to indicate the two endpoints in this usage scenario.Īny NAS unit can be used to store multimedia content in the appropriate shared folders. The consumer / client device which allows the user to experience the media content is termed as the Digital Media Renderer (DMR). The device on which the multimedia content is stored is termed as the Digital Media Server (DMS). In order to facilitate easier discussion of the latter aspect, it is useful to recognize two widely used terms in this market segment for the server and the client. Consumers using NAS units in a home environment tend to operate them usually as backup destinations and/or multimedia repositories.
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