Add Blu-ray functionality to your PC with the excellent LiteOn External Blu-ray Disc Combo

The Pioneer BDR-206MBK writes to 28GB discs, but is there any point?

In a band? Got a showreel? Here's how to duplicate discs on an industrial scale

The convenient way to add a second optical drive and burner to your Mac set-up

Back up your HDD using Blu-ray magic

Ignore watching the latest Blu-ray movies, use this drive to back-up your HDD instead

This is the first Blu-ray drive specifically for PC users that doesn't write to recordable BD media and, believe it or not, this is a significant milestone for Blu-ray. For the reasons highlighted above, an affordable Blu-ray option for PC users means we can finally watch some hi-definition movies on our screens.

Wait for the formats to bed in. That’s often what the sceptics say about emerging technologies, but with Blu-ray on your PC they might just be right.

At a claimed 20x speed, many modern drives appear to destroy the barriers put in front of them by physics. NEC's low-cost attempt, rated only at18x, certainly has a go, but falls marginally short of shattering any barriers

Pioneer is carving a name for itself as a manufacturer of quality, sensibly priced drives. The recording speeds on offer here are an improvement over previous products, making DVR-112 an excellent upgrade choice.

Available with either a DVD or Blu-ray drive, the SE Disc Publisher is an all-in-one, low-volume disc burner and printer that's a much more rounded product than its predecessor. An entry-level model with a 20-disc capacity, it packages together a Panasonic burner and Lexmark printer, complete with robotic arm for whipping blank discs between hoppers.

The Blu-ray vs HD DVD battle is a twisting turning leviathan that has just got a lot more slippery with the release of this drive - a non writable Blu-ray drive that's a lot more tempting an option thanks to its low price. You can burn DVDs from it as well, although increasingly this is becoming more and more niche an option as USB drives take over.

The Blu-ray vs HD DVD battle is a twisting turning leviathan that has just got a lot more slippery with the release of this drive - a non writable Blu-ray drive that's a lot more tempting an option thanks to its low price. You can burn DVDs from it as well, although increasingly this is becoming more and more niche an option as USB drives take over