1/ The Beosound 5 cannot play video, photos and web on its own screen and you can only navigate through N.MUSIC and N.RADIO through the Beosound 5 using the wheel. BUT the Beomaster 5 can do all this, when connected to your TV. I cannot remember the list of video codec on the top of my head. Beomedia had issues playing video files, I hope this will be better.

2/ The design and the pleasure of operating it cannot be totally ignored. I have seen it today and that kind of convinced me. The photos and the website can't replace the experience using it. One of the advantage, is the fact that it is always on. It will operate in a slightly different manner with the remote. I am not sure it is great. Also, you gain the access through the TV (Beomedia style), from the main TV and the link rooms.

3/ No, and there is no access to podcasts. That is a shame as I think today Podcasts are more interesting than N.RADIO.

4/ Absolutely, the BM5 has the same size as the BM1, so it will fit perfectly in your BV9. 

So if I understand correctly: BS5 can handle music+N.Radio and BM5 can handle video and pictures, but only via BeoVision.

Can I rip avi or other movie files via BS5 to BM5 then and watch them on TV?

Although designed to appear like the hifi itself, the Beosound 5 is in fact a big wired controler. It does nothing on its own. The Beomaster 5 does it all. 

BS5 and BM5 do not have any CD or DVD drive. You rip music and video on your computer and send them to the BM5's hard drive. 

You have 3 ways to control the BM5:

- Using the BS5, with local controls: you can navigate through the N.MUSIC and N.RADIO only.

- Using the remote, pressing N.MUSIC or N.RADIO. You then need to navigate through your songs in a blind manner.

- Using the remote, pressing PC. A Beomedia like interface appears on your TV (on the main TV, bit you can also call it from a link room TV). You can navigate through the list of N.MUSIC and N.RADIO as well, but also access the WEB, your digital PHOTO library and VIDEO.

p. 

U see, so B&O for that amount of money should built in BM5 at least 1000 GB.

6TB is not possible unless you RAID array at least 4 1.5 TB hard drives. The FAT32 file system (used in Windows) only supports up to 9TB though. Mac OS supports just under 80,000,000 TB, which is enough 😎

Either way, B&O's choice to use a 500 GB drive is sensible. 1TB drives are still not as reliable as the less dense 500 GB drives which have been around for quite some time. Higher drive density = slower read speeds and higher chance of failure...