Marin County, California (April 19, 2000) – Sonic Solutions, at last week's National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB) in Las Vegas, announced significant enhancements to its industry-leading DVD Creator DVD production system – including a third-generation SD-2000 MPEG-2 video encoder, exclusive web-linked DVD authoring functionality and title production automation.

"Sonic has always delivered the best quality, most functionality and highest performance to our high-end DVD production users," said Giles Baker, Product Manager for Sonic DVD Creator at Sonic Solutions. "Sonic’s Version 2.1 DVD Creator software and our new SD-2000 MPEG-2 video encoder give DVD professionals the most productive system for delivering stunning DVD content for the set-top or the PC."

Sonic DVD Creator 2.1 integrates Sonic eDVD authoring into the standard DVD Creator workstation. Exclusively incorporating PCFriendly-based embedded-web technology, the standard in Hollywood for hit DVD releases such as Warner Bros.’ "The Matrix," Sonic DVD Creator offers the power to add web integration to any DVD title. The advantage of the eDVD approach is that the web link information is stored in a webpage rather than on the DVD disc, making it possible to update URLs at any time.

"Sonic DVD Creator is the authoring system we rely on for the hundreds of DVD titles we create every year for the feature film market," said Tom McCarthy, Manager, Henninger Interactive Media, a leading post-production group with seven facilities nationwide. "Sonic DVD Creator gives us the power to author anything our clients dream up and the ability to deliver our projects on time and within budget."

Sonic’s new SD-2000 video encoder takes advantage of the latest developments in MPEG compression and video RISC processing technology. Combining the latest MPEG chip technology with an array of programmable logic and video processing hardware, the SD-2000 offers a level of quality and functionality not previously available in the DVD production market.

The Sonic SD-2000 includes:

• Direct-24 Support – Direct encoding of 24 fps video from telecine, tape or hard disk in 20 percent faster than real-time.
• Pre-encoding Optimization – Integrated video pre-processing eliminates high-frequency noise prior to MPEG encoding – maximizing picture quality and delivering the most film-like MPEG video to date.
• Frame-Accurate Chapter Placement – GOP sequence headers may be placed at any video frame during the real-time encoding process, guaranteeing that DVD chapter marks are always exactly where you want them.
• Constant-Q VBR – Sonic’s patented technology for maximum quality video encoding, regardless of the quality of the video source material.
• AutoCadence IVT – For removing 3/2 cadence from film-sources content, AutoCadence provides accurate field removal with up to a 20% improvement in video quality.

A single PCI card, the DVD Creator SD-2000 encoder includes SDI digital video I/O, multi-channel digital audio I/O and integrated RS-422 machine control, and linear timecode reading. The SD-2000 also includes real-time MPEG-2 VBR and CBR encoding and decoding, Dolby Digital encoding and decoding, and support for complete DVD title de-multiplexing and proofing.

"Sonic has long been the leader in delivering high-quality MPEG-2 video mastering and DVD authoring systems," said Casey Mershon, DVD Premastering Engineer, at Avenue, a Chicago-based post-production facility. "Sonic’s new SD-2000 Encoder and expanded DVD Creator feature set will be welcome additions to the several Sonic DVD production systems we have in operation today for our film and corporate clients."

DVD Creator Version 2.1 also includes the ability to simultaneously multiplex and write a DVD title directly to DLT and DVD-R, halving the time required to create a final DVD master.

Sonic DVD Creator 2.1 will now be available in authoring configurations starting under $15,000.

About Sonic DVD Creator
Sonic DVD Creator is the world’s leading DVD production system. Designed from the ground up as an integrated production tool, DVD Creator seamlessly combines DVD authoring, video and audio encoding, title proofing and final disc formatting into a single, streamlined process. As an integrated set of modular tools, DVD Creator can expand from a single workstation to a multi-system workgroup operating over fibre channel – custom-tailored to any facility’s production requirements.

About Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC)
Based in Marin County, California, Sonic (http://www.sonic.com) is the leading manufacturer of solutions for DVD publishing and interactive, streaming video on the Internet. Sonic DVDit! (http://www.dvdit.com) is the first application for DVD authoring targeted at consumers and corporate video producers, and is bundled with major video editing, capture, encoding and media production systems. Streaming DVD is the first interactive technology based on DVD for content distribution over the Internet. Sonic DVD Creator and DVD Fusion for Macintosh are the most widely-used systems for professional DVD publishing, and are installed worldwide at major studios, post production facilities and in corporate marketing departments. SonicStudio HD is the leading digital workstation for preparing audio for release on CD and the first for creating content for the new DVD-Audio format. Sonic is also a full voting member of the DVD Forum, the standards-setting body for the DVD format.