Buffalo To Sell Portable 3D Blu-ray Optical Drive

Buffalo's new 3D Blu-ray external drive is sleek and compact.

Buffalo Japan announced on Wednesday that it will make available the BG3D-PI6U2-BK, a compact, portable, external optical drive for 3D Blu-ray playback. Users simply plug the device into a USB port via Windows XP, Vista and 7 to view 3D Blu-ray movies or other 3D content. Naturally consumers will need a 3D-enabled PC or display to view the content.

According to the specs, the portable drive measures 5.39 x 5.78 x 0.78-inches and weighs 340g. The Blu-ray drive writes data on BD-R/RDL6 discs at 6x, and on BD-RE/RE DL discs at 2x. The drive will cost around $354 and is expected to hit Japanese stores within the month.

So far a North American release has not been announced, however Buffalo devices typically come to the States after a Japanese release.

Recently Buffalo made the larger MediaStation 12x external USB 3.0 Blue-ray writer available to consumers in the States. Deemed as the fastest external drive on the market, the optical drive measures 6.3 x 2.0 x 8.7-inches and is capable of writing speeds of up to 12x for BD-R (SL/DL), 2x for BD-RE (SL/DL), 16x for DVD-R/+R, and more. The drive also comes bundled with software that supports 3D Blu-ray.

Expect to hear more about the thinner BG3D-PI6U2-BK optical drive next month.