Even though they made their debut quite a while back, Blu-ray players haven't become standard yet, since most desktop and portable computing systems don't have such an optical drive, but Buffalo is set to change that with its latest USB 3.0 enabled BR3D-12U3-EU Blu-ray writer that made its debut in Europe.

Although the drive was released in Japan and the US a few months back, Europe had to wait a lot longer to get this USB 3.0 powered Blu-ray burner that is capable or writing a large number of optical discs including BD-R and BD-RE, both single and dual layer.

And thanks to the USB 3.0 interface this external writer is no slouch either, being able to reach speeds of 12x for BD-R, 16x for DVD-R/+R and 40x for CD-R.

Of course that using a USB 2.0 connection will limit that speed, 6x being the maximum for BD-R media, but that doesn't come as a huge surprise to anyone.

Apart from the impressive tech specifications, Buffalo's drive also adds CyberLink Media Suite software to the mix, this application packing a really nice HD upsampling feature that should breathe new life into your old DVDs.

Conversion of regular movies to 3D is also there on the feature list, but I doubt you will get an all that impressive effect.

According to TCMagazine, Buffalo's  drive will be showcased at IFA 2010, following to be retailed at a recommended price of €269.99, so this is definitely not cheap.

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