Sideload Synology DS-Video App on to Amazon Fire TV Stick

Sideload Synology DS-Video App on to Amazon Fire TV Stick

UPDATE: 25th February 2019
Despite the DS-Video app now being available in the Amazon Fire TV App store, I have updated this because it seems that the Fire TV version of the apps has problems with SSL certificates (even ones issued by a 3rd party certificate authority).  There’s been a few changes to the locations of downloads, an additional prompt on the Fire TV stick when connecting via ADB and many newer versions of the APKs!

UPDATE 5th Aug 2017
Thanks to Benil for the info about a new Synology DS-Video App specifically designed for TVs, info below updated.  Note if updating to the new Android TV App, you’ll need to remove *ALL* DS-Video app versions from your Fire Stick as they cannot co-exist.

I recently purchased one the newer generation Amazon Fire TV Sticks (with Alexa voice control).  I was very much in two minds as to whether or not to buy the older one as I knew that one could have apps sideloaded.

Fortunately it turns out the newer one can too!  Immediately this meant I could install two key apps: the Synology DS-Video app (to browse movies stored on my Synology NAS) and the Synology DS-Cam app (to watch the feeds from my security cameras just – well – because).

The steps below explain how to sideload an app using the DS-Video app as an example.

Prepare the Amazon Fire Stick

Enable Debugging

On your Amazon Fire TV Stick, select Settings the main menu

On the Settings menu, select Device

On the Device menu, select Developer Options

On the Developer Options page, turn ADB debugging ‘On’ and Apps from Unknown Sources ‘On’

Determine the Fire TV Stick’s IP Address

On your Amazon Fire TV Stick, select Settings the main menu

On the Settings menu, select Device

On the Device menu, select About

On the About menu, select Network

On the right hand pane you will see the IP Address being used by your Amazon Fire TV Stick, note this down – you’ll need it later!

Download Necessary Files:

To get the DS-Video App working with your Amazon Fire TV Stick you’ll need to download 3 pieces of software:

Android Debugging Tools SDK

This provides a set of tools to let you connect remotely to Android devices.

http://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html#download

Synology DS-Video App APK

This is the DS-Video app used to browse the Video Station media server on your Synology NAS.

Synology have now released a version of the DS-Video App specifically for Android TVs, I used version 1.14 which you can download here: AndroidTV-DSvideo.1.1.4-10049.apk.

You can view all the releases of the Android TV app here: here: https://archive.synology.com/download/Mobile/Android-DSvideo/

If you have any problems with the Android TV version, you could try an Android Phone/tablet version as this work for me previously too, the last version I used was: DSvideo.3.3.0-247.apk

Click here to download DS Video 3.3.0-247

Click here to visit the Synology download website

VLC Media Player APK

The original DS-Video app is unable play video files itself and so VLC Media Player needs to be installed to actually play selected videos for that *but* the newer Android TV DS-Video app seems to have a player built in that worked fine for me.  If you have any problems however, use VLC.

Update: You can now download VLC from the Fire Stick app store with no problems

Click here to download VLC Android 2.0.6 ARMv7

Click there to visit the VLC Official download website

Connect to the Amazon Fire Stick

Unzip the Android SDK Tool kit to a folder on your computer, I highly recommend putting it in a folder in the root of your C: drive to make it easy to reference in command prompt, for example c:\androidsdk

Open a Command Prompt with Admin privileges

Browse to the folder you unzipped using the following command:

cd \androidsdk

Enter the command:

adb connect 192.168.1.123

Where 192.168.1.123 is the IP address of your Fire TV Stick as identified earlier.

Update: Amazon have added a security feature at this point, you will see a prompt appear on your TV via the Fire TV stick asking you to confirm you want it to accept the connection.  It should be similar to below:

 

Click OK to confirm

You can now verify you are connected to the Amazon TV Fire Stick by running the following command:

adb devices

You should see your device listed like this:

192.168.1.123:5555      device

To install an APK, ensure its copied to an easy to access path on your machine (I put them in the same folder as the Android Debugger Tools) and install them using the following command (changing the filename to match the APK you wish to install):

adb install AndroidTV-DSvideo.1.1.4-10049.apk

You should see a Success update.

Setting up the DS-VIdeo or DS-Cam App

You may have trouble finding the app when you first install it, sometimes I have to launch it via ‘Managed Installed Apps’ found under Settings > Applications > Manage Install Applications – select the App then press Launch.

The next problem you may encounter is that the application layout is completely stretched and messed up.  For some reason this occurs when you first run a Synology Android app on a Fire TV that was made for generic Android.  If you press the home button and open the app again, the layout should be fixed.

Finally, entering your information can be frustrating on a non TV version of the app – just remember that the application doesn’t always show a visible cursor when moving through the options and also that sometimes you need to use left and right (as well as up and down) to move across to things like the checkboxes on the other side of the app.

Bob McKay

About Bob McKay

Bob is a Founder of Seguro Ltd, a full time father and husband, part-time tinkerer-with-wires, coder, Muay Thai practitioner, builder and cook. Big fan of equality, tolerance and co-existence.

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18 comments on «Sideload Synology DS-Video App on to Amazon Fire TV Stick»

  1. Tom says:

    Hi Bob.
    Great step-by-step tutorial. 🙂
    After minor hiccups (working with a mac where adb is no default command) I succeed installing the DS Video app on my fire stick.

    I can start DS Video but unfortunately the app is wider than my tv screen. The edges are cut off. I could not find a setting where i can set up the resolution.

    Vlc seems to fit o.k.

    Any ideas?

    //Tom

    1. Bob McKay says:

      Hey Tom,

      Definitely try some of the previous versions of the app. I had an issue with the DS-CAM app where I could not select the ‘Login’ button to click it no matter what I did. I switched to the second newest version and problem solved.

      I believe the apps are HTML based and use responsive CSS for layout to adapt to screens as best they can but obviously TVs via a Fire Stick are a bit of an outlier for them!

      Good luck

      Bob

      1. Benil says:

        Bo, Thanks for the tutorial. It indeed help…Use the Android TV version of the apk which is much better than using the Mobile version. http://download.synology.com/download/Mobile/AndroidTV-DSvideo/1.1.4-10049/

        1. Bob McKay says:

          Benil,
          Wow – thanks for the tip! The Android TV version of the App is so much better in terms of interface, etc. I’ve updated the tutorial and given you credit for the update.
          Thanks again
          Bob

  2. Ben says:

    Fantastic guide, thanks.

    One issue is that the latest version of the fire TV stick doesn’t display the IP address in the network settings.
    The only way I could find out was to log on to my router and look at the client list for the entry. On mine it said amazon_ followed by an alphanumeric id.

  3. Matthew L. Trimmer says:

    Bob – thank you for the details about the Android TV version. I also just purchased a Fire Stick v2 and it works perfectly – EXCEPT that I can’t get it to appear in the “Your Apps & Games” section or in recent. If I pull it up through settings / applications / manage installed applications, i can run it… but terribly inconvenient. Any ideas? Thank you again!

  4. shtu says:

    One thing to add – the DS Photo app works just as well as DS Video, and can be sideloaded using the same method.

    I used the Android TV version from here – https://usdl.synology.com/download/Mobile/AndroidTV-DSphoto/1.0.0-10018/AndroidTV-DSphoto.1.0.0-10018.apk

  5. GedK says:

    An updated version of the TV DSvideo package is now available: https://global.download.synology.com/download/Mobile/AndroidTV-DSvideo/1.1.5-10054/AndroidTV-DSvideo.1.1.5-10054.apk

    Release Notes:

    https://www.synology.com/en-uk/releaseNote/AndroidTV-DSvideo
    Version: 1.1.5-10054 – (2017-11-22)

    Updated to be compatible with Amazon Fire TV
    Fixed an issue where too long video descriptions might not display properly

    1. Bob McKay says:

      Awesome – thanks for the heads up Ged! I’ll be updating shortly! 🙂

  6. Newtofire says:

    The DS Video app doesn’t show up in the main app menu on the home despite moving it up in the list of apps. Any ideas?

  7. Gary says:

    thank for the guide. i can bin my Roku player now

  8. Toby Chapman says:

    Bob, I followed your procedure exactly and got a success on the Android-DSvideo.3.3.3230-247.apk, but it bricked my Firestick. It boots but the remote no longer works. Would you have a procedure for getting it back to a state (like an uninstall) where it will work?

    1. Bob McKay says:

      Hi Toby,
      The remote is highly unlikely to be affected by any apk install as it interacts with the OS directly. The firestick remotes are known for being flaky though so I’d reboot and pull the batteries from the remote for a while.

  9. Jesse Klint says:

    Bob,
    What version of dscam did you manage to get the login button to work? Tried 2.8.1, 2.8.0 and 2.7.x with no luck.

    1. Bob McKay says:

      HI Jesse,

      I’ll take a look for you when I’m back home but what I do remember is that it was tricky – moving up and down on the Amazon stick isn’t enough because there are links and options on the left and right, some of which don’t highlight when you’re on them. If you managed to enter your username, password and select the Stay Logged In box though, I seem to remember the login button being the easier bit.

  10. Iphone user says:

    Do you have instructions for the iphone version of the ds_video app?

    1. Bob McKay says:

      No I’m afraid Apple have the iPhone locked down so it’s possible but no easy, check out this post: https://www.secjuice.com/sideloading-an-ios-app/.

  11. Romaing says:

    Well, thanks really, because I was stuck with a VLC with DS video on my fire tv who randomly went back to the main menu while playing 1080p mkv. Now I installed the 1.17 with adb, VLC keep playing my video to the end, and the bug no longer occurs =)

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