Synology today announced an important change to its core DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system. Effective 1 August 2023, server-side transcoding with AAC codec will be discontinued for all DSM versions.

"This is a small but important enhancement for DSM," said Eason Chang, product manager for Synology's multimedia and photo management solutions. "Our customers will benefit from a leaner operating system going forward, removing the need to download and install additional applications on their Synology systems."

This decision is the result of Synology's commitment to continuously optimize its products. AAC-encoded content has already gone mainstream several years ago with modern digital media and can be natively played back on virtually any device, including smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. Consequently, server-side support for transcoding has been made redundant and is no longer necessary.