Synology hasn't had the best of years for 2025. The company has experienced a downward trend in customer loyalty when it came to its series of X25 models, such as the DS925, DS425, and DS225. We reviewed the DS925 and found it to be a decent NAS, rocking the same exceptionally good DSM software, but the entire package was let down by a few questionable company decisions. Namely, restricting HDD support to specific branded options, and outright dropping hardware transcode support, making running Plex, Jellyfin, and other media streaming apps almost impossible.
What's the deal with transcoding?
Why is this such a big deal?
Transcoding is an important feature on a NAS or any server running software that needs to convert media on the fly, such as Jellyfin. By default, the software will try and use the CPU to brute force transcoding, but this component isn't best suited to handling such a tasks. A GPU is immensely more optimized for the job and can really transform the performance of a device running such an application. You may notice a CPU struggle to transcode at FHD or even UHD, but throw in even a budget graphics card and it'll fly through everything. The same goes for integrated GPUs that are found on NAS.
Synology has always offered the option for hardware transcoding to take place. The company switched things up and not for the better with its X25 series NAS enclosures. Whether you've bought a DS925, DS425, or DS225, you'll likely encounter issues getting it all to work with Plex and Jellyfin. This can be a right pain if you're upgrading from a previous-gen Synology NAS as it's not clearly marketed or documented, likely for good reason. The issue with this is the NAS is effectively handicapped with weaker transcoding capabilities due to not being able to leverage the available iGPU.
Plex even maintains a spreadsheet that tracks the transcoding capabilities of various NAS models from Synology, Asustor, QNAP, and others. It's worth checking if you're shopping around for an enclosure for media streaming. Even this sheet notes that all X25 NAS from Synology only support software-based transcoding. Somewhat humorously, the company's affordable BeeStation does support hardware transcoding, all the way up to HEVC HDR (2160p). Thankfully, it's easy to get it back on your 2025 model Synology NAS and I'm going to show you how.
How I got mine working
You can too — it's easier than you think
Luka Manestar over at BlackVoid did an epic write up to get it working. You don't need to know a single thing about inputting commands into an interface, emssing with SSH, or even downloading some dodgy scripts from an unknown website and executing them without due care. If you do wish to follow their guide and get transcoding back up and running on your NAS, I've linked to the piece and it's fairly in-depth, being referenced by a few other media outlets. For today (and what I did), we'll use a simple script offered by Dave Russell on GitHub.
I've looked through the code of Russell's script and it does precisely what it says on the page. It checks that it's running as root on the Synology NAS, checks that the NAS you're running the script on is supported, sees if there's a newer version available on GitHub, creates a driver folder, downloads the transcode modules from BlackVoid, unxips everything, and removes the default driver modules. You're essentially skipping steps one to nine and going straight to ten, which is great if you simply wish to get your NAS back online with all your media at the ready.
How to run this custom Synology X25 NAS script:
- Download the latest version from GitHub.
- Copy the downloaded zip archive to your Synology NAS.
- Unzip the archive.
- Go to Control Panel > Task Scheduler.
- Click Create.
- Choose Triggered Task.
- Select User-defined script.
- Enter a task name (for example, X25 Drivers).
- Select root as the user.
- Select Boot-up as the event trigger..
- Click Task Settings.
-
Type the script path under User-defined script (for example,
/volume1/scripts/transcode_for_x25.sh --autoupdate=3). - Click OK.
Now reboot the NAS. The script will run accordingly and install everything from the downloaded zip archive. You should now be able to fire up Jellyfin, Plex, or some other media streaming software and enjoy all your saved content. It's a shame Synology still hasn't provided the means to do this in an official capacity, but at least the community remains vigilant enough to continue supporting those who purchase the latest enclosures from the brand. The NAS devices themselves are pretty good with the same robust built quality we've come to know and love, and the specificationss aren't terrible.
It's just baffling that the BeeStation can transcode but the DiskStation DS925 cannot. I gladly unlocked transcoding on my Synology NAS and I recommend you do the same if you've picked up a new X25 Synology enclosure without realizing that this issue was present.