Play videos from a Synology NAS on Apple TV

Enable SMB on DSM, check the user's read permission, then open the shared folder in Samba Oelek.

1. Turn on SMB in DSM

In DSM open Control Panel, then File Services. On the SMB tab enable the SMB service. Under Advanced Settings make sure the maximum protocol is SMB3 and the minimum protocol is at least SMB2. Samba Oelek speaks SMB 2 and 3 only, so an SMB1-only setting will not connect. Menu names differ slightly between DSM 6 and 7.

2. Check who may read the folder

Open Control Panel, Shared Folder, select the folder with your videos, choose Edit and the Permissions tab. The user you will enter on the Apple TV needs at least read permission. Guest access works only if the guest account is enabled and has read permission for that folder; most Synology setups leave guest disabled, so plan on using a normal user.

3. Connect from the Apple TV

Open Samba Oelek. The network screen lists devices it finds via Bonjour. Synology advertises SMB by default, so the NAS usually appears by its hostname.
Select it. Enter the user name and password when asked. The password is stored in the Apple TV keychain; you will not be asked again.
Pick the shared folder, open the subfolder, select a video.

If the NAS is not listed, choose Add Server and enter its IP address or hostname such as diskstation.local. Enter the host address only, not smb:// and not a path with backslashes.

Good to know

Samba Oelek does not transcode. The Apple TV decodes the file, so nothing on the NAS is used beyond serving bytes. The formats page lists what has been checked.
Folders without any videos are hidden, so a large shared folder does not show empty subfolders.
If your NAS requires SMB signing or encryption, the app follows that requirement. Both settings were tested against a server that enforces them.

Checked against: Synology DSM documentation for SMB file service, Samba Oelek README and SMB test matrix, 1.0.1. Last checked 2026-09-26.