CES '09: LG's NAS with Blu-ray

Another hot goodie seen at CES '09 was LG's Network Attached Storage (NAS) device with a built-in Blu-ray drive.

Talk about a massive backup device, this beast not only features a built-in writable Blu-ray drive, but can be configured with a maximum storage capacity of 4TB via a RAID 5 (or more if each of the four drive bays houses the new 1.5TB drives). The N4B1 doesn't connect to a PC, but rather accesses a network directly to enable efficient and secure data storage. According to LG, the N4B1 automatically creates a content catalog when data is saved to the Blu-ray disc. The management system automatically tracks downloaded files as well, preventing duplication.

“Safe and secure storage of digital content is a top priority for techies and SoHo (small office-home office) users alike,” said Peter Reiner, senior vice president, marketing and strategy, LG Electronics North America. “LG’s NAS device is the perfect complement to our award-winning optical disc drive line as it not only provides data security but also offers large storage capacity and gives users the flexibility to read and write Blu-ray.”

Along with four drive bays and the Blu-ray writer, the N4B1 features plenty of goodies ranging from a Gig-E Ethernet connection, three USB connections, the ability to stream content to Blu-ray players, Virtual Disc Library technology allowing a single disc to be shared among many users, a single e-SATA jack and more. The Blu-ray burner reads and writes at 8X (16x as DVD+R, 40x as CD-R), burning a full single layer BD disc (25 GB) in only 13 minutes. The device's overall size is 190 x 289 x 280 mm, and utilizes a web-based graphic user interface for remote management.

According to the company, the N4B1 is compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows-based computers and networks. Currently LG has not released pricing and availability for this NAS device.

  • radar_
    WOW! Totally impressive! Easy Install, intuitive login, straight to the point menus, no clutter and it didn't take long from out of the box to using this NAS from LG. Of course, I did take the time to read the manual which consisted of just a few pages and luckily I did use four 1.5 TB drives because after the Raid-5 auto installed, it resulted in a total available storage of 4.1 TB. The USB sync is excellent; I connected a 1 TB USB drive and synced it via the web based interfaced. Once my data was in the NAS I used the Blu-ray drive to store 25 GB per BD of the files I wanted to archive. WOW! Totally excellent and easy!
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