Here's Pioneer's latest DVD burner, and it supports burning dual layer DVD±R discs at 6x. I sort of lost track of DVD burners when they got to 8x (my own drive supports dual layered burning, but I've never burnt a dual layered disc before), but this is a pretty good indicator of how far things have come since then.

Also, I've finally come to realize how complicated these competing DVD formats are.

Pioneer Corporation will release the "DVR-A09-J" DVD±R/RW drive supporting 6x DVD±R DL burning, in the middle of January. The estimated price is around 16,000 yen. Supported operating systems are Windows 2000 and XP. Available body colors are Pure White, Black, and Silver.

Although the drive supports writing of DVD±R DL discs at 6x, at shipment, it will support o­nly the burning of DVD+R DL discs at 6x. Pioneer has said the drive also supports burning 2.4x media at 6x. Support for DVD-R DL at 6x and DVD+RW at 8x is planned via a firmware update to be released later.

Regarding the release date of this firmware, Pioneer has said ,"we've heard the DVD-R DL format will be finalized some time in February. We're prepared so that after the standard is finalized, we'll be able to release a firmware with no delay."

Other write speeds include DVD±R at 16x, DVD±RW at 6x, CD-R at 40x, and CD-RW at 24x. Also, it supports the reading of DVD-RAM Ver2.0 ~ 2.1 discs without a cartridge.

Included with the drive is the "Advanced Quiet Firmware," which will control the disc rotation speed in response to needs so to be as quiet as possible. Also, operating noises have been decreased through the addition of dust/sound padding inside of the drive itself. It has a 2MB buffer.

The drive includes "Power2Go4" writing software, "InstantBurn" packet writing software, "PowerProducer3" DVD authoring software, "PowerDVD6" DVD playback software, "PowerBackup" backup software, a Pioneer-developed quieting utility, and so forth.

The body size is 148 x 180 x 42.3mm (W x D x H), and it weighs about 1kg.





Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/0106/pioneer.htm

Press Release:
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/press/release470-j.html