LG debuts N2R1 NAS with built-in DVD burner, up to 2TB of storage
By Donald Melanson 
posted Sep 10th 2009 1:16PM
posted Sep 10th 2009 1:16PM
It may be a pretty crowded field to compete and stand out in, but it looks like LG is intent on angling for a bigger share of the NAS market nonetheless, and it's now taken advantage of CEDIA to debut its new N2R1 model. While this one doesn't pack a Blu-ray recorder like LG's earlier model, it does still include a somewhat uncommon built-in DVD burner to complement the two standard hard drives (for up to 2TB of storage). Otherwise, you can expect the usual Ethernet and WiFi connectivity (just 802.11g, unfortunately), DLNA support, and all the basic security measures you'd expect -- not to mention a stylish white enclosure. Look for this one to hit retailers sometime this Fall with a list price of $299 for the 1TB version or $399 for the 2TB model.
If this had 802.11n then it would be a cool wifi dvd burner for a netbook or CULV.
Why do you need wifi, when you can connect a nas using your routers gigabit port and stream it across the network?
why do people want file servers to be wireless?
Use it wired to serve media to multiple points in your house, and to use it wirelessly, your router is already doing that job for you.
some people may want to have this device locked up somewhere in a closet and not take up any more space in the office area
Why not 3TB or 4TB of storage? or a driveless version? The 2TB drives are out.
The absence of Blu-ray in lieu of DVD is rather shocking.
What, you want this box to cost 500 bucks for the 1 terrabyte?
A Blu-ray writer would probably push the price up quite a bit.
2TB and DVD driver to burn 4gb? Seems not in the same scale to me.
hopefully they will sell a diskless version for $199 or so.
external 2TB single drive is like $180 if I remember right, I'd rather have a nettop with dvd burner to do that instead of NAS
for 400 i could buy 2 2TB hdd, right click them on my computer, and pick share.
Which would be absolutely great, untill I park myself infront of projector/PS3, and find that the UPnP server is unavailable after i've turned the 850W PC off.
except that since you apparently know nothing about electricity.
otherwise you would know that just because something CAN draw 850W, doesn't mean it does.
in fact, it will draw only what is necessary at any particular time.
and at idle, that's about the same as a 100W lightbulb for most computers.
so if you prefer, build a purpose built low power nas using off the shelf components, get much more storage capacity, and for not much more.
hell i built 12TB for about $700.00
I would assume that the reason for the included dvd drive is for netbooks without a drive in them. Or I guess for multiple people playing a pc game without a no-cd crack.
I'd say it's neat idea, i believe it is possible to replace the DVD burner with a blu-ray writer.
I have not seen writable blu-ray discs on the market yet, i haven't look around so. 2tb maybe
kinda limiting, hope it supports 2tb or more per disks to make it future proof.
Just got a netgear readyNas with 3tb of storage and it's immense. Streams HD to the xbox and even acts as a print server. Not sure what the DVD drive would really be used for
I've wrote it before, but I'll paste it in to hopefully steer someone in the right direction:
Here is the deal with NAS Units:
Don't buy one unless you are comfortable spending at least $350 *without* harddrives. For some reason, all of the cheap consumer NAS companies (and many "consumer" units from the more established NAS makers) use slow-as-molasses chip sets in their units. Seriously, nearly all of the cheap consumer NAS units from Western Digital/Linksys/Iomega/Buffalo/etc can barely do 10MB/sec even over a gigabit network. It is not even worth it.
If you don't want to spend $500+ to get a decent NAS, the best thing to do is to buy one of the small Intel Atom "net-top" boxes with eSATA and then buy an external drive (with eSATA connection). Even a drive connected via USB2 will be significantly faster than the NAS. Then just connect it to your network. If you are really geeky, you can install FreeNAS, Windows Home Server, or linux on the net-top and use it as a file/media/backup server. I just went through this whole process, and many people that don't figure this out end up very disappointed with an expensive "consumer NAS" paperweight.
You speak the truth - I bought a couple of MyBook worlds a while back, which were a total waste of time. Have now switched to using my shelved PPC mac mini as a file/bittorrent/FTP/itunes/upnp/SqueezeCenter server.
@ loosely_coupled: Agreed on the Atom nettop thing. Even better though, I've been using an Acer Easystore H340 since May, and love it.
http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1190
$399 gives you a 1TB drive, WHS, gigabit ethernet, eSATA, 4 hot swappable drive bays that DO support 2TB drives no problem for a max of 7TB (Acer's marketing boo-boo in saying 4TB). If you shop around, you might even find some local computer sellers honouring the "get a bonus 1TB drive" promo deal. When I was last at my local mom-n-pop computer store (a couple of weeks back), they still had the promo going.
Low energy profile, quiet and hidden in a closet beside my router, this thing has no problems serving up media of all kinds to my living room HTPC, Xbox 360, desktop rig or laptop or netbook. The fact that it's doing backups in the background is an extra bonus.
I initially picked it up because I got sick of looking at external drives connected to my desktop rig. With all the added functionality a proper home server has, I don't know how I went without one before.
Netbook idea seems valid, not sure origianal CD verification works over SMB/CIFS/AFP though.
I play games over a shared dvd drive all he time on my home network.
Anyone have recommendations on good eSata external drives or enclosures?
why use an enclosure.
use a dock instead
i have a thermaltake BlacX that does 70MB/s over esata connected to a Roswell PCIe x1 two port card.
A NAS without Wireless n? That's kinda... odd for a device whose main functions are internet related
Hey, I already have one of these!
Oh, wait, that's my shuttle xpc...
The link to the previous article about the version with a Blu-ray writer is included in the summary.