Buffalo plans to release the "BR3D-12U3" Blu-ray disc next month in Japan. The external drive has a USB 3.0 interface and supports playback of Blu-ray 3D content. In addition, the company will release the internal "BR3D-12FBS-BK" (SATA) drive in June.

The external "BR3D-12U3" USB 3.0 Blu-ray burner supports playback of Blu-ray 3D and 2D content using Cyberlink's PowerDVD 9 software bundled with the drive. The burner can be connected to either a USB 2.0 or the ultra-fast USB 3.0 interface. The burner is also capable to write BD?R LTH discs up to 6x, BD-R Single or Dual Layer at 12x (USB 3.0 connection - with specific 6X BD-R media) BD-RE single layer or Dual Layer and read BD-ROM single layer at 6x and dual-layer at 8x. Other writing speeds include 16x for DVD±R, 8x for DVD±R DL/+RW 6x for DVD-RW, 5x for DVD-RAM, 40x for CD-R and 24x for CD-RW.

The BR3D-12U3 will retail in Japan next month at a suggested retail price of 39,100 YEN (US $433.2). The internal version of the drive (BR3D-12FBS-BK SATA) will be available at the same time for 28,500 YEN (US $315.8)

	Write (max)	Read (max)
BD-R SL LTH	6x	6x
BD-R SL	12x	8x
BD-R DL	12x	8x
BD-RE SL	2x	8x
BD-RE DL	2x	6x
BD-ROM SL		6x
BD-ROM DL		8x
DVD-RAM	5x	5x
DVD-ROM SL		16x
DVD-ROM DL		12x
DVD-R/+R SL	16x	16x
DVD-R/+R DL	8x	12x
DVD-RW	6x	12x
DVD+RW	8x	12x
CD-ROM		40x
CD-R	40x	40x
CD-RW	24x	24x
Interface	USB3.0, USB2.0
Size	W220 x H50 x D160mm
Weight	About 1.2kg