Pioneer and Buffalo Technology have announced the world's first Blu-ray disc burner drive for PCs compatible with the Blu-ray Disc Association's new 128GB BDXL format announced last April. There will be two models: an external BRXL-6U2 that hooks up via USB 2.0 and the BRXL-6FBS-BK which is connected internally via SATA II. Both models will be able to handle new 4-layer (128GB) and 3-layer (100GB) BD-R XL discs at 4x speeds in addition to 3-layer BD-RE XL and older BD-R/BD-R DL and BD-RE/BD-RE DL Blu-ray disc media.


Currently BDXL discs are only playable on standalone devices, including a couple of players that Sharp announced a few months back for around $2,300 and $3,500. Unfortunately neither Pioneer nor Buffalo shared any kind of significant information regarding pricing and availability for their Blu-ray burner drives, but going by the prices of Sharp's players it doesn't look like these super high capacity discs will see any kind of mainstream use anytime soon.