Panasonic Japan announced today the availability of the external LF-P967C DVD burner, capable of 18x DVD+R and 12x DVD-RAM writing. The impressive specifications of the drive include writing to DVD+R/-R with 18X, DVD-RAM with 12X (Class 1, DVD-RAM Ver.2.2 media only), DVD R/RW Double Layer with 8X, DVD+RW with 8X and DVD-RW. Compared with the 16x recording speed, the drive will burn a full DVD+R/-R 20 seconds faster, while the 12x DVD-RAM speed promises a full 5-minute gain in the total recording time, compared to the currently supported speed (5x), according to Panasonic. It bundled with B's Recorder GOLD 8 Security and PowerDVD 6 software. It weights 290 grams with the size of 135 x 135.6 x 14.8 mm. LF-P967C DVD burner will be available from August 25th with the price of 25,000Yen (USD213).

[via panasonic]