Synology America has announced its first media-centric DiskStation, the DS214play. The DS214play is the first DiskStation to launch with dedicated hardware acceleration, specifically for video transcoding. The DS214play can stream multiple 1080p video codecs, and is still able to handle a variety of additional processor-heavy tasks.
The DS214play has a 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU with integrated floating-point unit (FPU) with 1GB of RAM. The device boasts read/write speeds above 100 MB per second. Additionally, the play comes with two hot-swappable drive bays, using Synology’s tool-less caddies, simplifying installation and maintenance.
Data can be secured with 256-bit AES encryption through the DiskStation Manager 4.3 software package. File Station’s folder link-sharing lets users easily share content without having to set up user permissions, and Cloud Station with selective sync allows users to keep files, file-types, and folders in sync on all devices.
The device is expandable through the use of a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 2.0 port, and an eSATA port. A Gigabit Ethernet provides network access to the DLNA-ready media server. Drives in the DS214play can be configured for JBOD, RAID 0, or RAID 1.
The Synology DS214play is now shipping globally, and will be available in the United States over the next few weeks. Suggested retail price for the driveless DS214play is $370.
