I was lucky enough to be bought a fancy new TV for my birthday last year, an LG LED Smart TV featuring their WebOS 2.0 software. I also have a Synology DiskStation which I used primarily as a recording device for my security cameras but I also stream some video from it.
Unfortunately despite both products being fantastic in every other way, some communication error between them was resulting in the video information from DiskStation being displayed in the LG in a very limited and intermittent fashion. Only in about 1 in every 100 views would I get any sort of ‘thumbnail’ (album/video cover – call it what you will). In addition to this, the video titles would intermittently change from being the full file name, to the movie title and year to one of the two with/without the MP4 suffix.
Well after only 11 months I finally decided to see if I could do something about it and it took all of about 2 minutes to solve (whoops).
So first off lets get the assumptions out of the way, my setup is based on the following:
- LG webOS 2.0 Smart TV
- Synology DS215j running the DSM 6.1.1-15101 software
The problems I had all revolved around the DLNA profile assigned to the TV which it seems can be changed, although its not obvious. To change the profile for a device, perform the following steps:
- Login to your DiskStation
- Click the main menu button (top left)
- Click Media Server
- Click the DMA Compatibility option on the left
- Click the Device List button at the bottom
In the options list that pops up, identify your LG TV and under the profile column on the right, select a different profile.
Initially I tried the Generic DLNA profile and that immediately improved things but the thumbnails were still a little pixelated on the TV, I then changed it to LG TV – LA Series and this seemed to improved them further, so I finally had clear movie titles and thumbnails!
BOB! You are my hero! I’ve been looking for this for ages.
One more note is that the file name of the thumbnail has to be the same as the video “Whatever Movie.jpg” and also if you don’t have a cover for a movie, you can create a generic image called “cover.jpg” which will be displayed for any video that doesn’t have a .jpg for a cover.
Bravo! Your solution is the better.
Was looking for this for a loooong time. THX !!!
Cool thanks for this, ideally we would have the D’s video app to view our media, I also have a ds215j and Plex just does not play well on it all.
Any webos programmers out there fancy building a DS video app?
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the info:
I have both an EDS14 and DS215j
What LG app are you using to display thumbs and such?
I’ve only used smartshare. It’s functional but not aesthetic looking.
Thanks
Hi Sam,
I was using SmartShare but in the end I put an Amazon FireStick in and installed the DS Video app on that, works great.
Used the information to get thumbnails to display from my EMBY server on the lg tv, completely missed the profiles in the DLNA settings, big thank you, was doing my head in, since plex never had a problem.
Now if I could just work out why the tv shows a sub folder inside the original folder where the media is, I’ll be happy!
Hey at least you got something – I can’t seem to connect with synology network to my LG OLED TV using the DS218+ Hoping to start watching 4K Movies with 5.1 surround onto my LG E8PUA tv. I tried all configurations and troubleshooting for hours – now working with Synology support.
I am using Xfinity high speed internet with 1GB speed. I would appreciate and welcome any suggestions that could help?
Hey Stephen, in the end I ditched the LG OS for browsing movies and use the DS-Video app on an Amazon Fire TV stick. If you want 4K you’ll have to use a cube instead: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KGVB6D6/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bobmckay-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B07KGVB6D6&linkId=2fb61490bdf273fb415ef4cede2fd754
I then used the built in (and free) Synology media server, it indexes your movies, downloads covers, descriptions, etc. You can also use Plex (available from the Synology package store). It provides a much better user experience.
I recently got a Panasonic OLED only to discover DS Video App isn’t available on that. So I reluctantly setup DLNA and came across this blog whilst trying to figure out how to get thumbnails working.
As I’m only using Video Station (not media server) your guide didn’t help. But then I stumbled on a better solution. DS Video App has a “remote feature”, where it can push a video to a DLNA client. It’s described in the App guide:
https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/Mobile/help/DSvideo/iOS_iPhone
You need to give the initiating device (iOS, Android, etc) Airplay/DLNA privilege under video station settings. Which is counter intuitive, as my iPhone isn’t using DLNA. But once you do, click remote player and your DLNA client devices are listed on the App. In my case, my Panasonic TV. Select the device you want and now any video you play on the DS Video App will be sent straight to the selected device. In this case my TV.
I don’t need to do anything on my TV. It automatically switches from whatever source i’m watching and starts playing the DLNA streamed video. Essentially it works like Chromecast, where the video is sent directly between the NAS and TV, the App is just initiating. You can use the App as a remote as well (forward, rewind, pause, etc) or you can just use the TV remote.
It’s actually my ideal solution, as much easier flicking through my library on my phone, then via the TV remote. So it now doesnt matter the DS Video App isnt available on my TV. Saved me having to get a chromecast 🙂
Hope this helps anyone else looking to do the same.
Hi John,
Many thanks for the info! I must admit I switched to using Amazon Fire TV sticks and installing the DS Video app on that instead which works great and means my kids can easily browse through movies, etc. and it even has feature to cache a copy (so I can throw a movie on the Fire TV stick and take it with me to a hotel and watch it on the hotel TV. 🙂
Thanks John F,
Been wrestling for years trying to get my LG OLED TV & Synology Discstation to play my old films.
1. Installed DS Video app on my android phone.
2. Open it and log into the Synology – (it finds it immediateley)
3. Select a film & by some magic the TV just starts playing the film ( using the Smartshare app)
I am amazed! So simple.
NB I have previously connected the phone to the TV. And the used smartshare to view files on the Discstation (but they would not play)
Many thanks again.
Hello! I would like to know if this method works only using a “cover.jpeg” file or is possible to see the thumbnail even without it.
Thank you!
Hi Ivan, this worked for me just with the cover photos the Synology grabs automatically, I didn’t create any cover.jpeg files.
Thank you Bob, let me understand better: what kind of “cover photos” the Synology automatically grabs from a video tape?
The first frame?
Or you see many frames (thumbnail) when the arrow of the TV LG remote controller is over the movie file?
The Synology NAS goes on to public services such as the Internet Movie DataBase (https://www.imdb.com/) and fetches the original movie poster, the movie information (cast, overview, etc.) and also background images.
Hi Bob, thank you for your answer.
Regarding the fact that “Synology NAS goes on to public services such as the Internet Movie DataBase”, how do you connect LG and Synology NAS?
I use Synology Server Media (no Video Station) to connect the Synology to TV and the method described in your post doesn’t work.
Maybe do you use Video Station instead of Server Media?
Yes its actually the VideoStation package that grabs the content. I did this because I used to then browse the movies on my phone and just ‘send’ the movie to my LG TV (I didn’t even need to use my LG TV remtote). Sisnce then, I have switched to using Amazon Fire TV Sticks with the DS Video app. I wrote an article about it here: https://bobmckay.com/life/tech-gadgets/sideload-synology-ds-video-app-amazon-fire-tv-stick/
Instead of using DS Video you can try Emby.
There is an application for Synology NAS and for WebOS.
Works as I set it up.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the comment and suggestion – I must admit I actually stopped using the native functionality in LG a couple of years ago and switched to using the DS-Video app on Amazon Fire TV Sticks, works great too.
Thanks so much! This was driving me crazy!!
hi; and thanks! using only media server…
can I control the folder image? it seems like I am able to control cover images with cover.jpg if I put the cover image and the movie file in the same folder.
media server seem to have the ability to pass folder images as well with a file called folder.jpg but I cant seem to get this to work with any of LG’s dlna profiles. any suggestions (other than installing a different app)
thanks!
Thanks, this solved my issue.
Wow, that works on all LG TVs at home. Amazing find, thank you!
Side note… New video station collections stopped showing.
Are collections showing on your amazon stick?
Hi,
Yes the collections are still working for me on the Fire TV stick, no idea about the LG TV though – we stopped using its OS quite a while ago as we found more and more apps weren’t available on it. We either use the built in freeview or a 4K firestick with an ethernet adapter.
I know the years are passed from initial post, still, this does not happen often, but it resolved my issue. Thank you!
Hey Cul, glad it helped!