Buffalo will be launching the HDV-ROM2.4FB at the end of this month. Officially this HD-DVD drive (OEMed by Toshiba) will be the world"s first HD-DVD drive for PCs. Some high-end PCs already shipped with HD-DVD drives, but until now it was impossible to buy any ATAPI HD-DVD drives sold independently for PCs. Next to HD-DVD discs, the device will of course also read all previous formats: DVD±R/RW, DVD±R/R DL, DVD-ROM and CD-R/RW/ROM.
The device will retail for about 38850JPY, thats ~337usd/254eur. Seems a bit expensive considering the Xbox 360 HD-DVD Addon is already available right now for just 199usd and can be used in Windows Vista (natively) and Windows XP (with some special drivers) too. The only thing missing in the Xbox360 HD-DVD package is PC software to playback HD-DVD movies. The Buffalo drive comes with PowerDVD HD-DVD Edition.