Recently we had an opportunity to review one of the newest Network Attached Storage devices by Synology, DS418j. The DS 418j is a very well designed NAS and has plenty of options and features. But, one of the things that it couldn’t do with ease is streaming. More and more users seek streaming ability from their home storage devices. Ability to stream video has been around for a while now however with newest formats such as 1080p and 4k it is pretty challenging to find the right device that will support all of your devices at home. A few months ago Synology introduced their newest solution gearing towards streaming media, DS418play. The new DS418play is a 4 bay NAS devices that is specifically designed to deliver multiple of streams of high definition video along with all of the multiple features which Synology is famous for. This new model of ‘play’ series is equipped with Dual-Core CPU which bursts up to 2.5GHz and offers 4k Ultra HD video trans-coding. DS418play comes stock with 2Gb of DDR3L RAM and could be easily upgraded to 6Gb of DDR3L RAM to boosts overall performance. In our review we will be concentrating on overall performance of DS418play and its streaming capabilities and limitations.
Review Sample Provided by: Synology
Product Name: DS418play
Price at time of review: $ 461.66 USD MSRP
Product was given in exchange for work done to produce this review.
Packaging
Just like every product designed by Synology, DS418play comes in an environmentally friendly cardboard box. The box does has some weight to it as it contains the NAS itself and the power supply brick which adds up to about 6 Lb or 3Kg. There is not much artwork on the box. Just a few stickers describing the contents of the package.
Some of the features of DS418play are listed on the back of the shipping box. This is extremely helpful when looking for the right device for your storage needs. Do you need more than 2 bays? How about dual network card for redundancy? Questions like these come in handy while shopping for SOHO NAS devices.
Internal packaging of DS418play is very must standard. Besides a strong cardboard design, the actual device is wrapped in the white bag (to protect against accidental scratches) and packaged in between two plastic foam cutouts.
DS418play packaging includes Power brick, two cat 5e Ethernet cables, a bad of screws, power cord and a pair of hard drive sled keys. A Quick Installation Guide and Synology marketing of RT1900ac and RT2600ac is also included.
Specifications
| Hardware Specifications | |
| CPU | |
| CPU Model | Intel Celeron J3355 |
| CPU Architecture | 64-bit |
| CPU Frequency | Dual Core 2.0 burst up to 2.5 GHz |
| Hardware Encryption Engine (AES-NI) | Yes |
| Hardware Transcoding Engine | H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-2 and VC-1; maximum resolution: 4K (4096 x 2160); maximum frame rate per second (FPS): 30 |
| Memory | |
| System Memory | 2 GB DDR3L |
| Memory Module Pre-installed | 2GB (1 x 2GB) |
| Total Memory Slots | 2 |
| Memory Expandable up to | 6 GB (2 GB + 4 GB) |
| Storage | |
| Drive Bays | 4 |
| Compatible Drive Type* (See all supported drives) |
|
| Maximum Internal Raw Capacity | 48 TB (12 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) |
| Maximum Single Volume Size | 108 TB |
| Hot Swappable Drive | Yes |
| Notes |
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| External Ports | |
| RJ-45 1GbE LAN Port | 2 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support) |
| USB 3.0 Port | 2 |
| File System | |
| Internal Drives |
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| External Drives |
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| Notes | exFAT Access is purchased separately in Package Center. |
| Appearance | |
| Size (Height x Width x Depth) | 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm |
| Weight | 2.23 kg |
| Others | |
| System Fan | 92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs |
| Fan Speed Mode |
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| Brightness adjustable front LED indicators | Yes |
| Power Recovery | Yes |
| Noise Level* | 20.5 dB(A) |
| Scheduled Power On/Off | Yes |
| Wake on LAN/WAN | Yes |
| Power Supply Unit / Adapter | 90W |
| AC Input Power Voltage | 100V to 240V AC |
| Power Frequency | 50/60 Hz, Single Phase |
| Power Consumption* | 29.01 W (Access) 5.57 W (HDD Hibernation) |
| British Thermal Unit | 98.98 BTU/hr (Access) 19.01 BTU/hr (HDD Hibernation) |
| Environment Temperature | |
| Operating Temperature | 5°C to 40°C (40°F to 104°F) |
| Storage Temperature | -20°C to 60°C (-5°F to 140°F) |
| Relative Humidity | 5% to 95% RH |
| Certification |
|
| Warranty | 2 Years |
| Notes | Power consumption is measured when fully loaded with Western Digital 1TB WD10JFCX hard drive(s). |
| DSM Specifications ( See more ) | |
| Storage Management | |
| Maximum Internal Volume Number | 256 |
| Maximum iSCSI Target Number | 32 |
| Maximum iSCSI LUN | 256 |
| iSCSI LUN Clone/Snapshot, Windows ODX | Yes |
| SSD TRIM | Yes |
| Supported RAID Type |
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| RAID Migration |
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| Volume Expansion with Larger HDDs |
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| Volume Expansion by Adding a HDD |
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| Global Hot Spare Supported RAID Type |
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| File Sharing Capacity | |
| Maximum Local User Accounts | 2048 |
| Maximum Local Groups | 256 |
| Maximum Shared Folder | 256 |
| Maximum Shared Folder Sync Tasks | 4 |
| Maximum Concurrent CIFS/AFP/FTP Connections | 200 |
| Windows Access Control List (ACL) Integration | Yes |
| NFS Kerberos Authentication | Yes |
| Log Center | Yes |
| Syslog Events per Second | 400 |
| Add-on Packages (learn more about the complete add-on package list) | |
| Antivirus by McAfee (Trial) | Yes |
| Chat | Yes |
| Maximum Users | 1000 |
| Notes |
|
| Cloud Station Server | Yes |
| Maximum Number of Concurrently Connected Devices | 200 |
| Maximum Number of Concurrently Connected Devices (with RAM expansion) | 300 |
| Maximum Number of Synced Files (btrfs) | 1,000,000 / single file reaction time 834 ms |
| Maximum Number of Synced Files (ext4) | 1,000,000 / single file reaction time 484 ms |
| Notes |
|
| Download Station | Yes |
| Maximum Concurrent Download Tasks | 80 |
| exFAT Access (optional) | Yes |
| MailPlus / MailPlus Server | Yes |
| Free Email Accounts | 5 (Licenses required for additional accounts) |
| Recommended MailPlus Client Number | Up to 45 (Btrfs) / 45 (ext4) |
| Maximum Server Performance | 181,000 (Btrfs) / 194,000 (ext4) emails per day, approx. 5.5 GB (Btrfs) / 5.9 GB (ext4) |
| Notes |
|
| Media Server | Yes |
| DLNA Compliance | Yes |
| Office | Yes |
| Maximum Users | 200 |
| Maximum Simultaneous Editing Users | 60 |
| Notes |
|
| Snapshot Replication | Yes |
| Maximum Snapshots per Shared Folder | 1024 |
| Maximum Snapshots of all Shared Folder | 65536 |
| Surveillance Station | Yes |
| Maximum IP cam (Licenses required) | 25 (including 2 Free License) (See All Supported IP Cameras) |
| Total FPS (H.264)* | 750 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 375 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 250 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 200 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 120 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160) |
| Total FPS (H.265)* | 750 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 750 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 450 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 250 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 200 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160) |
| Total FPS (MJPEG)* | 450 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 250 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 160 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 130 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) |
| Notes | Surveillance Station throughput is tested with Axis network camera, using continuous recording with live view from Surveillance Station and motion detection by camera. Live view and recording are sharing the same stream from the camera. |
| Video Station | Yes |
| Video Transcoding | 4K Group 1 (See more) |
| Maximum Transcoding Channel Number | 2 channel, 30 FPS @ 4K (4096 x 2160), H.264 (AVC)/H.265 (HEVC) or 2 channel, 30 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080), H.264 (AVC)/H.265 (HEVC)/MPEG-2/VC-1 |
| VPN Server | Yes |
| Maximum Connections | 20 |
| Environment & Packaging | |
| Environment | RoHS Compliant |
| Packaging Content |
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| Optional Accessories |
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