LG to launch Blu-ray rewriter for nets

LG is to launch a network-attached-storage (NAS) box with up to 4TB of hard-drive capacity and a Blu-ray rewrite drive capable of storing up to 50GB for disk.

The launch at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin follows Sony's announcement that it will ship its Blue-ray burner only to France intially because of the paucity of HD programmes in other European countries.

But that is a consumer product and the LG N4B1 NAS box is aimed at a corporate users for archiving.

The drive will cost betwen $1000 and $2000, depending on configuration. There are four hard-drve bays cunfigured RAID 5 by default Raid 0,1,1+0 are supported. The Blu-ay burner will also burn CDs and DVDs.

The device has three USB2 ports, gigabit ethernet, an eSATA port and a memory-card reader.