Since we performed the comparative test entitled DVD Burner Test: Seven Times The Capacity at the beginning of the year, DVD capacity has generally increased by seven times and the DVD writer market has continued to grow at a fast pace. Many manufacturers now offer DVD writers in their catalogs. Write speeds have increased, of course, and by fall, all DVD devices should be able to record at 4x speeds.

Meanwhile, Sony has initiated a new trend. For once, Sony is leaning away from imposing its own proprietary standard and backing a multistandard format. The Dual mode makes it possible for a DVD writer to accept the "minus" standard of the DVD Forum and the "plus" standard of the DVD+RW alliance. Since these two formats are virtually the same, so as to retain compatibility in playback, the optical blocks are no different from each other. There are minimal differences at the electronic level. Changing the firmware could almost change a DVD-R writer into a DVD+R writer.

For this sixth generation, Pioneer has implemented the latest technologies in DVD writing, so the DVR-A06 writers comply with the latest standards. The table below summarizes the various features of the DVR-A06.