New Sonic Direct-24 Video Encoding Accepts Direct Input From Avid Symphony Universal for High Quality MPEG-2

NOVATO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2000-- Sonic Solutions announced today a major enhancement to its high-end DVD Creator MPEG-2 encoding systems which allows direct 24P digital video input from Avid Symphony Universal, Avid's (NASDAQ: AVID) high-end editorial finishing and 24P Universal mastering system.

With Sonic's new Direct-24 input capability, DVD Creator can encode film content directly from a 24 FPS (frame-per-second) film source, making it possible to encode film material at speeds faster than real time and at the same time deliver higher quality.

"Sonic is a recognized leader in bringing new DVD production technology to the professional market," said Michael Phillips, Senior Product Designer at Avid Technology. "Using Avid Symphony Universal, our users can edit, color correct and master a film-based project in a totally digital, uncompressed, 24 frame progressive environment. Sonic's new 24P support in DVD Creator makes it possible to directly transfer content to MPEG-2 without having to re-insert 2:3 pulldown (a telecine process), speeding production and improving quality."

Sonic's new technology speeds video encoding by eliminating the time-consuming process known as "inverse telecine." Since film and video run at different frame rates, 24 frame-per-second film material must be converted to 60-field (30 frame) -per-second video.

This process, known as 2:3 pulldown, adds redundant video fields to the 24-frame video in order for it to play back correctly on an NTSC video monitor. The MPEG-2 video format used in DVD is capable of storing the encoded film content in its original 24 frame-per-second format.

In order to achieve the best quality video for DVD, the duplicate fields that were added during the telecine process must now be removed during an "inverse telecine" process in encoding.

With Sonic's new Direct-24 feature, film cadence from Avid Symphony Universal can be automatically logged in real-time, eliminating the need for an inverse telecine analysis pass. Alternatively, film source video can be recorded from Avid Symphony Universal at 20% faster than real-time, again bypassing the inverse telecine analysis and increasing productivity.

"Avid Symphony Universal represents the state-of-the-art in digital editing and mastering for film-based projects," said Mark Ely, Director of Product Marketing. "Working with Avid, we have been able to extend DVD Creator to support direct 24P input from the Symphony workstation, maximizing both quality and productivity for high-end DVD publishers."

About Sonic DVD Creator

Sonic DVD Creator is the world's leading DVD Video encoding and authoring workstation. 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 custom-tailored to any facility's production requirements. Sonic's new Direct-24 feature for faster than real-time film encoding is targeted to ship in June 2000.

About Avid Symphony Universal

The Avid Symphony Universal 2.0 system represents Avid's next generation digital nonlinear editing, finishing and mastering technology.

Symphony Universal 2.0 includes a host of real-time finishing tools as well as Avid's revolutionary new 24P Universal Editing and Mastering technology, which provides capabilities critical to projects that need to be delivered in multiple aspect ratios and formats.

About Avid

Avid Technology, Inc. is an international, industry-leading provider of digital audio and video tools for information and entertainment applications.

The company's products are used by a variety of customers worldwide including film, television and interactive content producers, TV news broadcasters, corporate communicators and consumers. For more information, visit Avid's Web site at www.avid.com.

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 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.

The above paragraphs of this press release contain forward looking statements that are based upon current expectations. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements as a result of various risks and uncertainties including, among others, the timely introduction and acceptance of new products, costs associated with new product introductions, the transition of products to new hardware configurations and platforms and other factors, including those discussed in the Company's annual and quarterly reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release should be read in conjunction with the Company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which contain a more detailed discussion of the Company's business including risks and uncertainties that may affect future results. (c)2000 Sonic Solutions. Sonic, Sonic Solutions, the Sonic logo, DVD Creator, DVD Fusion, DVDit!, and SonicStudio HD 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