The secret of Synology and Chromecast with an Apple iPad

Disclaimer first, it is not really a secret but it is a bit of function that is not well advertised or documented. However, I took some license with the title because it sounds more interesting.

The humble Chromecast is a inexpensive little dongle that plugs into the HDMI socket of a TV to turn a cheap/older TV into a modern smart TV.

Chromecast

I bought a Chromecast rather than upgrade my TV in order stream content to my TV, or have the continued hastel of having to plug a laptop/tablet into my TV. Having watched BTSport, YouTube, pondered whether I to join Netflix on my new Chromecast; I wondered whether I can stream content from my home server - A Synology DS110J.

Synology DS110J

 If I had stayed loyal to my Android tablet, no problem streaming to a Chromecast there are several apps. However, I recently defected to "The shiny fruit" and own an iPad Air. 

After much hunting I discovered that Synology's own media playing application: DSVideo, supports Chromecast in the latest DSM5.0 in the following blog: Media Streaming with Chromecast. So I upgraded to DSM5.0, Fired up DSVideo on my iPad and then hunted for the Chromecast button.

Chromecast Button as found in most applications e.g. YouTube

What the help files don't explain very well is that you ignore the Chromecast option in the main menu and look for the a different logo in the top right corner. 

The option to stream a video to your Chromecast

Concluesion

A brilliant marriage of my Synology NAS and Chromecast, just wish they would make the DSVideo application a bit more user friendly.