Panasonic Shipping DVDBurner, Industry's First Combination DVD-RAM/R Drive

(June 27, 2001) – Panasonic just announced that it has begun shipping to its OEM customers the industry's first combination DVD-RAM/R drive and will demonstrate the drive at the PC Expo DVD Pavilion (booth #3822). Called DVDBurner, the drive is a major breakthrough in DVD storage flexibility and media interchangeability. For retail customers, Panasonic will begin shipping its branded DVD-RAM/R drive in October. This branded drive will include DVD video recording/editing software, and be backed by a one-year Panasonic warranty providing a total solution. With retail pricing under $600 (for the ATAPI internal version), the drive delivers on Panasonic's commitment to provide customers a single, cost-effective solution for home video, personal computing, and business storage/archiving, as well as development and testing of master DVDs.

In addition to reading from and writing to both DVD-RAM (rewritable) and DVD-R (write-once) discs, the multifunction drive provides all of the functionality of the DVD Forum specifications for DVD-RAM and DVD-R General, including maximum compatibility with DVD video players, recorders and DVD-ROM drives. Panasonic's versatile new DVD-RAM/R drive leverages the company's 15 years of experience in high-density, phase-change-type recording/reading technology and builds on its nearly three-year track record of delivering highly reliable, rewritable DVD drives and media with hard disk-like random access.

By switching between 650 nanometer (nm) and 780 nm wavelength laser strengths and one objective lens, the Panasonic DVDBurner offers the widest range of media interchangeability currently available. With the ability to write to and read from general-purpose 4.7GB DVD-R discs and 2.6GB/5.2GB to 4.7GB/9.4GB DVD-RAM discs, the multifunction drive provides the familiarity of CD-R/RW. The difference is, DVD provides at least 7 times the capacity of 25-year-old CD technology plus video and audio capabilities that cannot be matched by CD formats. Other features, such as the ability to play back DVD video, DVD-ROM and DVD-R discs, and 24x CD media read performance make the drive exceptionally cost-effective.

Using 4.7GB DVD-R General media, the Panasonic DVD-RAM/R drive provides a transfer rate of up to 11.08 Mbps, which is equivalent to about 9 times the transfer rate of CD-ROM's 1X speed. The 22.16 Mbps transfer rate for 4.7GB DVD-RAM translates to an 18x CD data rate. Seek times are 75ms for DVD-RAM and 65ms for DVD-R, DVD-ROM and CD media.

"Our new DVD-RAM/R drive provides businesses and consumers, as well as content developers, the best of both worlds," said Tamotsu Matsuo, deputy director of the AVC Network Business Group of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., which is known for its Panasonic brand products. "For the first time, they can have an all-in-one DVD storage solution that provides the security of write-once and the flexibility of rewritable. A single drive can be used for high-capacity, removable storage; personal computing and home movies; corporate and professional video authoring/editing; low-cost content distribution; system backup; document, data and image archiving as well as video playback."

The write-once DVD-R General technology incorporated in Panasonic's new drive will provide businesses, banks, insurance companies, law firms, medical facilities and government agencies with the security they need for recording and archiving large volumes of information that cannot be accidentally or maliciously altered. In addition, because DVD-R discs can be played back by the existing installed base of most DVD video players, recorders and drives in use throughout the world, content can be recorded on the disc, removed from the drive and shared with others.

Often described as the bridge between business and home applications, DVD-RAM combines the ease of use and random access of a hard drive with more than 100,000 write/rewrite cycles and ultra-reliability. With the random access capabilities, users have almost instant access to any file or a very small (2Kb) specific video frame for editing and playback. The rewritability and random access of DVD-RAM also makes it an excellent storage device for backup and fast recovery.

By offering both DVD-RAM and DVD-R technologies, the Panasonic DVD-RAM/R drive will have broad appeal among consumers, businesses and professionals who want the ideal DVD solution for applications ranging from home movie authoring and editing to PC and enterprise data storage and image archiving.

For more information on the Panasonic DVD-RAM/R OEM drive and DVD media, contact Panasonic Industrial Company, 1600 McCandless Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035; 408.945-5600, FAX 408.262-4214. Or, visit the company's Web site at www.panasonic.com/oemdvd-ram. For more information on Panasonic-branded DVD-RAM/R drives and DVD media, contact Panasonic Digital Imaging Solutions Company, Two Panasonic Way 7D-8, Secaucus, NJ 07094 800-742-8086, www.panasonic.com/storage.

SOURCE Panasonic