Asus has rolled up its sleeves and jumped into the next-generation optical disc format fight on the side of Blu-ray Disc. This week it announced a multi-format DVD writer with the ability to play BD media.

Asus' BC-1205PT Blu-ray Disc drive

The BC-1205PT Blu-ray Drive is an internal SATA drive for PCs. It'll burn DVD±R/RW media at up to 12x speed, falling to 4x speed with dual-layer discs. It will also handle DVD-RAM writing duties, along with CD-R/RW.

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Despite the name, the drive won't write BD-R or BD-RE media, but it will read these formats and BD-ROM discs, all at up to 5x speed.

Asus also said the drive was good for "high-resolution movie playback" - though users will need BD-compatible playback software for that.

Alas the company didn't say when the drive will be available over here.