Sonic DVD Creator Delivers Advanced DVD-to-Web Connectivity

New Version of Leading DVD Production Application Adds Web Linking, Enhanced Video Quality, Improved Productivity

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (September 8, 2000) - At this week's International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, Sonic Solutions announced DVD Creator Version 2.1.1, the latest release of the world's leading system for professional DVD production. Among the many enhancements included in this release are Sonic's powerful eDVD(tm) Web-integration capability, new WriteDirect(tm) functionality to boost productivity, and enhancements to Sonic's award-winning video encoding.

DVD Creator 2.1.1 makes it possible to create DVD-Video titles that provide access to Internet URLs. When viewing DVD titles on Internet-connected PCs or compatible DVD set-top players, users can directly access Web pages from DVD menu buttons and from within video segments. Sonic's eDVD technology features InterActual Technologies' new 2.0 playback engine. Because this is tightly integrated with the vast majority of DVD software players, eDVD supports web-connected playback on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. It also avoids the feature and compatibility problems involved with other approaches that require a special DVD player to be distributed on the DVD-Video disc - for example, some approaches make it impossible to use standard DVD surround audio on the web-connected title.

"eDVD brings us an unbelievable opportunity. We can enhance our entertainment titles, and give our corporate customers a powerful new capability combining DVD quality with up-to-date Web information," says Dave Pollard, Partner of Squash, a Soho-based future media company. "Sonic and InterActual are an unbeatable combination -- they are both leaders in their respective fields, and the technology is identical to what is used by the Internet-enabled Hollywood titles."

DVD Creator also includes new WriteDirect functionality, which streamlines the process of outputting to DVD-R, DLT drives, or DVD disc images. "We've eliminated the intermediate disk-write steps within this process, which saves time and makes the overall formatting process far more efficient," said Giles Baker, DVD Creator Product Manager at Sonic Solutions. "WriteDirect is another key element that ensures that our customers have the industry's best workflow environment, and can be productive throughout the DVD production process."

Sonic has also made important improvements to the video quality delivered by the powerful SD-2000 encoder by implementing new and advanced VBR (variable bit-rate) targeting algorithms. These algorithms take a more sophisticated approach to maximize compression without sacrificing quality - the result is that, overall, a disc can be mastered at a higher "effective" bit rate resulting in higher quality for the entire title.

"We chose Sonic because of their award-winning video quality," said Daniel Bird, DVD Producer at CineMagnetics Video & Digital Laboratories, a leading New York-based DVD authoring facility. "Our clients demand the highest possible video quality, and with Sonic we've been able to deliver beyond expectations. In fact, we're in the process of adding another Sonic DVD system to our fourth authoring suite to keep up with our client demand."

The new release of Sonic DVD Creator is shipping now, and is available in configurations starting at under $15,000.

About Sonic DVD Creator
Sonic DVD Creator is the world's leading DVD production system, used to produce over half the DVD titles in circulation today. Designed from the ground up as an integrated production system, DVD Creator seamlessly combines DVD authoring, video and audio encoding, title proofing and final disc formatting into a single, streamlined process.

About Sonic eDVD
Sonic eDVD implements the Hollywood standard for linking web content with the DVD format. It gives authoring facilities the power to create compelling web-connected DVD content without having to code in HTML or Java. By simply adding a URL to a DVD menu button or within motion video, eDVD authors can enable web-connected viewers to easily jump to a web site. Using an integrated XML engine, Sonic's DVD authoring applications automatically convert URLs and other web events into XML code that is compiled by the integrated InterActual DVD engine into the runtime software required for the PC and Mac platforms. This runtime, automatically included in each eDVD title made, ensures web-connected playback on all platforms.

About Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC)
Based in Marin County, California, Sonic (http://www.sonic.com) is the leading manufacturer of solutions for DVD publishing. Sonic DVDit! (http://www.dvdit.com) is the first application for DVD authoring targeted at videographers and corporate video producers, and is bundled with major video editing, capture, encoding and media production systems. 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.

© 2000 Sonic, Sonic Solutions, the Sonic logo, eDVD and DVD Creator are trademarks of Sonic Solutions. All other company or product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Specifications, pricing and delivery schedules are subject to change without notice.