Only now are we seeing a raft of combo drives that support HD DVD and Blu-ray, despite HD DVD collapsing a few months ago.

It can take months or years to develop a drive, so manufacturers who thought they were being cunning a while back now have products with limited extra appeal. Buffalo’s external USB drive can write to Blu-ray blanks at 6x, read HD DVDs at 3x and write to DVDs at 16x. In testing we couldn’t manage above 12x and we’re also not aware of 6x Blu-ray media yet.

It also expensive and rather long, measuring 28cm deep, but it is well made and has two easily accessible open-door buttons.