Buffalo Technology has announced the availability of its first external optical disk drive and the BRHC-6316U2 is a Blu-ray - and HD DVD - combo drive that can both read/write Blu-ray and read HD DVD.

The device boasts single and double layer Blu-ray read/write speeds of up to 6x, HD DVD read speed of up to 3x, and DVD read/write speeds of up to 16x.

The drive is backwards compatible meaning it can play existing DVD formats as well as burn DVD-ROM discs that are compatible with "ordinary" DVD players.

Buffalo says the drive is easy to use, with a simple plug and play connection to any PC via a USB interface.

The drive offers Buffalo's TurboUSB with Secure Lock Ware Software for Windows as well as the latest version of Nero 8 software for burning multimedia content.

The Blu-ray and HD DVD combo drive will be available in late April from Amazon, Dabs.com, Misco and Play.com for around £284 plus VAT.