Lite-on unveiled its internal Blu-ray Disc writer, the LH-2B1S, in June this year, promising to ship it in August. It hasn't shipped the drive - it'll now appear in October - but that hasn't stopped the company announcing a new, external model, the LX-2B1U.

The drive's capable of working with single- and dual-layer Blu-ray media, including both recordable (BD-R) and rewriteable (BD-RE) discs, all at 2x speed, the current de facto standard for BD drives.

Lite-on's unit will also write DVD±R/RW, including dual-layer versions, but there's no CD-R/RW compatibility, it seems. The drive has a USB 2.0 interface.

Speaking of which, the internal unit - the LH-2B1S - will feature a SATA connector, Lite-on revealed this week.

The LX-2B1U is set to ship later this year, "toward the start of 2007". ®