Video Category
DSM admin or users belonging to the administrators group can categorize videos into movie, TV show, home video, and TV recording as shown on the left panel of Video Station. Of all the categories, Video Station provides default libraries in which videos of these types can be stored for movie, TV show, and home video. Videos can also be placed in libraries customized by DSM's administrators with the rights to set access permissions on both default and custom libraries.
Before organizing your video files, you need to add video folders for each category and library. Afterwards, you can browse the videos by different classifications, and manage the videos by adding them to favorites, watchlist, or custom collections for quick access.
Create Custom Libraries
Unlike the three systems' default libraries which can be accessed by anyone by default, you as DSM admin or users belonging to the administrators group can create custom libraries and assign access rights to certain users.
Custom libraries will appear on the left panel of Video Station in parallel with system's default libraries in alphabetical order of video type: Movie, TV Show, and Others.
To create, edit, and delete custom libraries:
- Go to Settings > Library, and click Create > Create library.
- Do the following and click OK.
- Name: Enter a name for the newly-added library.
- Video Type: Select which type of videos you want to put in the folder.
- Permission Type: Select Public if you want the library to be accessed by everyone. If you wish it to be seen by some particular users with access rights to Video Station, click Private > Assign permissions, tick the checkboxes to grant access to the users, and click OK.
- If you want to modify settings of the library or delete the library, click Edit > Edit library or double-click the library on the library list, or click Delete > Delete library to remove it. Please note that by removing the library all indexed metadata of the videos in this library will also be deleted.
Add Video Folders
You as DSM admin or users belonging to the administrators group need to create video folders for default libraries (movie, TV show, home video), TV recording, and custom libraries first to store your videos before managing files with Video Station. While placing video files, please make sure they are stored by corresponding type.
To add video folders:
- Go to Settings > Library (for movie/TV show/home video) or Settings > DTV (for TV recording). If this is your first time using Video Station, a prompt will appear taking you to the setup page once the application is launched. Click OK to continue.
- Depending on which type of video folder you want to create, do the following:
- If you have selected a correct library to which the folder will be added, click OK; otherwise, you can click the Library drop-down menu to choose another existing library from the list.
- Select a display language for video info. As the name suggests, the selected language only applies to the metadata of the type of videos stored in the video folder in question. The default language is English. If you change the language setting, the video info of the original language will be replaced with that of the selected language only if the metadata of the later selected language is available over the Internet.
- Click OK.
Tips for naming video files:
When placing videos in respective folders, it is recommended you follow the distinctive naming rules for different types of video files in addition to storing them by type. In doing so, not only files can be properly indexed, metadata can also be correctly retrieved from the Internet to update the video info. Naming guidelines for movies and TV episodes are as below:
- Movie - It should follow the format: Movie name (Release year).ext. For example, Avatar was released in 2009. According to the formula, the best file name is "Avatar 2009.avi".
- TV Show - It should follow the format: TV show name.SXX.EYY.ext. For example, if you are compiling a video clip, say episode 4 of season 3 for Gossip Girl, the best file name is "Gossip Girl.S03.E04.avi".
To edit and delete video folders (not applicable to the TV recording folder):
- Go to Settings > Library.
- Select the library whose video folders you want to edit or delete, click the folder on the right panel, and click Edit > Edit folder or Delete > Delete folder from library.
- Depending on which mode you have chosen, do the following:
- Edit: You can change the location of the folder and its video info language.
- Click Select to choose another folder from your DiskStation if you want to modify the file location.
Select the folder you want, and click Select. You may create a new folder if you wish.
- Select another display language for video info.
- Click OK.
- Delete: Click Yes to delete the selected folder. Please note that by removing the folder all indexed metadata of the videos in this folder will also be deleted.
Re-index Video Files
Video files within the specified video folders will be indexed by default, but if files in a folder matching search criterion somehow appear missing, you may need to perform re-index to re-construct the index structure of the files.
You can also re-index the video files to update their metadata periodically.
To re-index video files:
- Go to Settings > Library.
- Select the folder whose video files you want to re-index on the right panel, and do either of the following:
- Click Re-index all files to re-index all video files without searching video metadata over the Internet.
- Click Search all video info again to re-index all video files and search video metadata over the Internet all over again.
Browse Video Files
Videos of each category can be sorted by different criteria. You can do any of the following to quickly browse your video files.
- Method 1
- Select the video type which contains the files you want to browse on the left panel, and click the Sort order icon at the top-right corner to reveal the drop-down menu.
- Depending on how you want to sort the files, you can choose to sort them by date or title in either ascending or descending order.
- Method 2
- Select the video type which contains the files you want to browse on the left panel, and click the Home icon at the top-left corner of the main area of Video Station to see the Classification menu.
- Click any of the classification items to browse the sorted files by the category you have chosen.
- Method 3
- Select the video type which contains the files you want to browse on the left panel, and enter a keyword in the search field at the top-left corner to search for files whose video title or metadata contain the keyword.
- The search result will be displayed in the main area of Video Station.
Manage Video Collections
You can create your own video collections by adding videos to predefined favorites or watchlist, as well as to your custom collections for quick access.
To create your own video collections, do either of the following:
- Method 1 - via the Action menu
- Click the Action drop-down menu, and click Collection > New collection.
- In the window that appears, enter a name for the collection, and click OK.
- Method 2 - via the Custom collection icon
- Movie/Home Video/TV Recording: Select a video clip in the main area to enter the single-video view. Click the Add to custom collection icon and click New collection. Enter a name for the collection and click OK.
- TV Show: Select a TV show in the main area. All available episodes and seasons of the TV show will appear. Click an episode to enter the single-episode view. Click the Add to custom collection icon and click New collection. Enter a name for the collection and click OK.
To add videos to favorites, watchlist, or your custom collections, do either of the following:
- Method 1- via the Action menu
- Movie/Home Video/TV Recording: Select a video clip you want in the main area, click the Action drop-down menu, and click Collection > Favorites, Watchlist, or [Custom collection name].
- TV Show: Select a TV show in the main area. All available episodes and seasons of the TV show will appear. Select the episode you want or click the episode to enter the single-episode view, click the Action drop-down menu, and click Collection > Favorites, Watchlist, or [Custom collection name].
- Method 2 - via the Favorites/Watchlist/Custom collection icon
- Movie/Home Video/TV Recording: Select a video clip you want in the main area to enter the single-video view, and click the Add to favorites, Add to watchlist, or Add to custom collection icon.
- TV Show: Select a TV show in the main area. All available episodes and seasons of the TV show will appear. Select the episode you want or click the episode to enter the single-episode view, and click the Add to favorites, Add to watchlist, or Add to custom collection icon.
Once the selected videos are added to the lists, the Add to favorites or Add to watchlist icons will be replaced with Remove from favorites or Remove from watchlist, while collection names on the drop-down list will appear with a check to indicate the video is successfully added. You may click to remove the items from any of the lists.
To view your favorites, watchlist, or custom collection:
Go to the Collection tab on the left panel, and click Favorites, Watchlist, or [Custom collection name] to see the videos added to the category in question.