Pioneer DVR-A09XLA

The Pioneer has some of the fastest writing speeds in the review; it is rated at 8X for DVD+RW discs and 6x for DVD-RW discs, as well as 16X for both DVD+R and DVD-R and 6X for DVD+R DL discs.

It's one of the best exponents of double layer burning that we have tested. In our tests, it filled a double layer disc with 7.9GB of data in only 19 minutes and 52 seconds. It read it back to us in 20 minutes and 13 seconds, which is roughly average compared to other drives we have tested.

Its DVD+R and DVD-R write performance was solid, and its DVD reading performance was exceptional.

It didn't fare too well with CDs in our testing, especially in our music ripping test, which recorded a very sluggish time.

At the time of writing, Pioneer planned to make available firmware updates that will allow the A09XLA to write to double layer DVD-R discs, as well as 8X DVD-RW discs.

We don't like the Ulead burn software that this drive ships with. It was limited in its functionality and did not allow us to select a burn speed for our discs manually.