QNAP TS-251A 2-Bay SOHO NAS Review

GUI – Apps: Photo, Video, Download And Other Things

QNAP offers one of the most comprehensive libraries of extra apps of any NAS manufacturer and on this page I’m going to show you some of them. There are simply too many to show them all and also too many functions in each of them to show all of them – but it will give you a little view into all the things possible with QNAP and a QTS powered NAS.

Photo Station

One of the most common functions of a NAS is backup and central storage of your files and that includes all your digital photos, images, and pictures. The Photo Station is a great app for this with plenty of features from gallery function and albums to intelligent grouping based on content and date.

The powerful and extremely fast search function Qsirch is also incorporated into the Photo Station and it quickly lets you find what you’re looking for – no matter how many thousand images you have stored on the system.

Video Station

Video files is another great thing to use your NAS for, may it be TV shows, Movies, home videos or other recordings and the Video Station is a powerful tool for this.

You can adjust the preview size and method, it supports on-the-fly transcoding, and you can easily sort them to your preference.

It also includes a direct playback function in your browser – below is a 4K video in the screenshot that’s being transcoded to 720p while playing it. The blur seen isn’t from the transcoding, but motion due to this being a long video recorded out of the front of a moving train.

Download Station

A NAS is running all the time, or at least most of the time, so why not let it handle your downloads too. Most of the time, the NAS is where the downloaded file will end up anyway – so why not put it there right away. It also saves you from having to occupy another system with this task.

It supports all sort of download tasks from HTTP over FTP to BitTorrent – including a search function. There are more download apps available through the app store should you want something like Transmission instead.

Anti-Virus

Having a great protection is a vital part too, especially if you download directly onto your NAS. QTS also comes with built-in AV function.

Backup Station

Whether you want to create backups to or from your NAS, QNAP has it covered with the Backup Station. Rsync, RTRR, and Time Machine are all supported and so is NAS to NAS file replication, Snapshots, LUN, Cloud Backup and backup jobs to external drives. This is also where you can configure the behavior of the one-touch copy button.

Container Station & Linux Station

One of the somewhat newer functions is one of my favorite functions available and in the case of the TS-251A its actually two functions.

The Container Station allows you to run VMs with ease of your NAS thanks to the LXC and Docker functionality. Develop your IoT and things in a safe environment or just expand the functionality of your NAS in general. The is a nearly unlimited functionality in this and it’s only you that set the limitations (besides the natural hardware limits, of course).

Linux Station is also included which allows you to install Ubuntu onto your NAS with just a few clicks and run it side-by-side with the QTS system. This allows you to turn your NAS into an HTPC at the same time as it still runs as your NAS by simply attaching a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to it. You can also do this without having any prior knowledge of Linux systems.

Qsirch

I previously mentioned Qsirch and this is how it looks. The powerful search function doesn’t just search by file and folder names, it also searches the content and meta tags of close to any file type in order to give you the right match and a quick matter. It is an awesome feature that can save you a lot of time finding the files you’re looking for – especially if you are looking for files that you didn’t create yourself on the NAS and don’t know where are, but you know part of the content, author, or similar.

myQNAPcloud

The myQNAP cloud is the easiest system to use in order to get a remote connection to your NAS no matter where you are. It can pretty much configure itself, which includes your router. Once it’s set up, you’ll have a name and URL for easy connection and to be used in conjunction with the mobile apps for Android and iOS.

App Center

As mentioned before, you can add almost endless extra functions to your new TS-251A NAS through the App Center. It naturally keeps track of both your installed apps and your licenses too and keeps you updated with new updates to the installed apps. Pretty much everything is one-click to install, which makes it a breeze.

There are a lot of apps to choose between, but finding the right one is easy because they’re separated into categories depending on function.

There are also beta apps available which are apps that aren’t 100% tested yet, but they run stable enough to be worth it. It’s also the way to get the latest features and functions first.

Whether you want to run your own website or just create sites for your own leisure, QNAP has it all covered from CMS systems to databases.

There are even apps for home automation, should you have started in that direction.