Thank you very much for the overview! I would like to determine if the server I already have is a better choice (at $1200 I spent on it a while ago) versus the $600 Synology I just ordered with a fraction of the bays, and probably a fraction of the speed -- but supposedly the Synology has hardware accelerated video encoding, etc., which also matters to me. I don't know if I am prepared to make this a hobby project, like I have been in the past. What attracted me to Synology is now simple it is and how everything just works. It's surprising to me that Synology doesn't sell a package that installs itself, for $99 or something like that. I'm betting they make a lot more margin on the hardware, which does admittedly look amazing. I like the notion of a drastically reduced footprint, albeit probably also a drastically reduced maximum capability, etc.
Ben