Support

Product Support

Download Center

Download Center

Other Resources

Developers

Community

Home > Knowledge Base > Tutorials > How to install VLC plugin for your Synology NAS to support more video formats

How to install VLC plugin for your Synology NAS to support more video formats

Overview

You can have your video collections stored on your Synology NAS and play them with the Video Player built into DSM. All video formats supported by HTML5 are compatible with DSM's Video Player. If you wish for more supporting formats, you can install VLC™ Player, which supports embedded subtitles, on your local computer. This article will guide you through the steps to install VLC Player on your computer and play videos with DSM's Video Player.

Before You Start
Play videos with File Station

2.1 Play videos with the built-in Video Player
2.2 Install the latest VLC media player
2.3 Check what video formats are supported by VLC Player
2.4 Mount a subtitle file

1. Before You Start

This article assumes that you have done the following tasks for your Synology NAS:

Hardware installation for Synology NAS
Software installation for Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM, web-based operating system of Synology NAS)

Refer to Quick Installation Guide for more information about hardware and software installation. You can also see Synology DiskStation User's Guide (available at Synology's Download Center) for a general idea about topics related to this article.

Return to top

2. Play videos with File Station

2.1 Play videos with the built-in Video Player

You can play videos stored on your DiskStation with the built-in Video Player on File Station.

Go to Main Menu > File Station, and then browse to the folder where the video is located.
Right-click the video and choose Play to open the Video Player window.

2.2 Install the latest VLC media player

The video should start playing right away. If not, the following message will appear on the screen. Please make sure you have installed VLC Player (Windows, Linux) on your local computer.

2.3 Check what video formats are supported by VLC Player

If you still fail to play the video after installing VLC Player, please check the following:

While installing VLC Player, make sure you have ticked Mozilla plugin and ActiveX plugin.
VLC is supported by the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome
Following formats are supported by VLC Player: avi, dat, mkv, vob, asf, wmv, mov, qt, divx, flv, swf, rm, rmvb, mpg, mpeg, mpeg1, m1v, mpeg2, m2v, mp2, dvr-ms, m2ts, mts, m2t, ts, tp, trp, mpeg4, m4v, mp4, 3g2, 3gp, 3gp2, ogv, webm

Note：

If VLC is not installed on your local computer, video player will play videos supported by HTML5. Please refer to here for HTML5 videos supported by different web browsers.
If you connect to DSM via the HTTPS protocol, you need to import a trusted certificate (Under the HTTP Service tab at Main Menu > Control Panel > DSM Settings) to be able to play videos with File Station.

2.4 Mount a subtitle file

To mount a subtitle file:

Place a subtitle file and video file in the same folder (the file name of both files must be the same).
If your video contains embedded subtitles, you should be able to see them during playback. However, you can change the subtitles if you wish by choosing it from the drop-down menu.