What is this, the week of the 8x BD writer or something? Just days after Buffalo announced two such units for the American market (and Delkin failed epically with an alternative half as quick yet more expensive), in runs Sony with an 8x Blu-ray writer of its own. The October-bound BWU-300S can cook an entire single-layer (25GB) BD-R in around 15 minutes, and it'll also burn CDs at up to 48x and DVD-RAMs at an undisclosed rate. In an effort to push the Blu-ray playing aspects, the drive comes bundled with the BD version of Men in Black, and if all that's worth $399.99 to you, you can get your pre-order in this very moment.

Not even a week after LaCie trumpeted its latest 4x external Blu-ray writer, along comes LG to re-up the ante. Its latest trifecta -- the BE06 (pictured), GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L -- all offer SecurDisc capabilities and LightScribe technology, not to mention the ability to toast BD-Rs at 6x (and BD-REs at 2x). As for the external USB 2.0 BE06, you'll be looking at $379.95; for the GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L, however, you can expect to pay $199.95 / $279.97 respectively. The trio is available as we speak.

Regrettably, there's not a lot to go on just yet, but DigiTimes has it that HP will soon be launching "next-generation PCs with a Blu-ray / HD DVD dual-format burner." The announcement was reportedly issued at a product presentation held in Singapore, and while no model numbers were doled out, we can purportedly expect the two-faced machines to land in Europe and America sometime next month. Notably, HP has hemmed and hawed between formats in the past, but we're all for a rig that burns (and reads) both.

[Via TG Daily]

Ah, the sweet aroma of competition in the air. That's what we've gotten a whiff of after catching an (admittedly grainy) shot of what appears to be an internal Blu-ray writing / HD DVD reading combo drive from Hitachi. The GGW-H20N should have no issues playing your favorite high-definition films on either format, and it can also burn 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs, BD-R, BD-RW, and the typical flavors of writable DVDs and CDs. Reportedly, the drive will also boast a speedy SATA interface and will posses a read rate of up to 6x and burn rate of 4x, but the most important detail (read: worldwide release details) was unsurprisingly omitted. Bring on the price drops.

[Via FormatWarCentral]

Just because HP has buried the Digital Entertainment Center doesn't mean that it's forgetting about the media-centric crowd, as the company's forthcoming m8010y and d4890y will offer up some fairly swank high-definition niceties. Aside from offering customers the option for an Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor and NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card, this duo will also include a mysterious dual-format combo drive to handle both BD and HD DVD responsibilities. While we can only assume that the GGW-H10N will be the drive of choice, both PCs will boast HD DVD / Blu-ray playback with burning abilities including on the latter, and as if that wasn't enough HD goodness crammed into a PC, moneyed consumers can also opt to have ATI's TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner pre-installed as well. There's no word just yet surrounding pricing, exact configurations, or a launch timeframe, but word on the street suggests that the combo drive should be made available to the adoring public within "four to six weeks."

While Sony's certainly had its fair share of blue laser supply issues, and the current generation of HD DVD / Blu-ray burners are sluggish at best, it looks like the first step towards marginally acceptable write speeds to next generation formats has been taken. According to Nikkei, Sanyo has developed a blue laser diode which will speed up data access, and moreover, should be able to reach write speeds of "up to 6x for dual-layer discs." Similar to LG's combo unit, this diode also plays nice with both HD DVD and Blu-ray recorders, but there's no word if a hybrid writer using the laser is in our immediate future. Still, any progress towards harmony between the formats -- not to mention being able to burn a dual-layer Blu-ray disc in time for your next birthday -- is a step in the right direction, so we're expecting nothing less than a 6x burner to be hitting shelves sooner rather than later, Sanyo. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

[Via Inquirer]

Hot on the heels of all this last minute, pre-CES HD DVD-related action is the SD-H903A, which Toshiba touts as "the world's first dedicated PC-based HD DVD burner" that writes "to all main optical discs." Aside from the obvious (albeit expected) hand-to-the-face to BD-Rs in that last claim, the burner does manage to write nicely to HD DVD-R (single and dual-layer at a measly 1x), DVD +/- R, DVD-RAM, DVD +/- RW, CD-R, and CD-RW. Additionally, it'll include an 8MB buffer, and if all goes well, should play back all your precious HD DVD titles without complication. While we've no idea how much coinage will be required to pick this (admittedly sluggish) drive up, sample shipments are scheduled to take off this month, and we should get a good look at just what it's capable of at next week's CES.