It packs in a speedy USB 2.0 connection and will read HD-DVD disks with the best of them. As such, the HD100 external drive from HP is said to be the first of its kind. In order to run this drive, you’ll need at least a Intel Core Solo 3.2GHz Pentium processor or an AMD 64 X2 2.2GHz processor, and if you’d like to make full use of it, you’d need an HDMI or HDCP-compliant DVI-D cable as well. Naturally, it’s backwards compatible with the old school CD and DVD (including dual-layer, both + and -) formats as well. The HD-DVD read speed is 2.4x (equivalent to a 10944kbps transfer rate).

In the war between next-gen optical storage media, HP has aligned itself with the HD-DVD camp and eschewed the Blu-ray format, and this latest product further demonstrates their alliance.