Toshiba, NEC, And Memory-Tech To Hold Three-Day HD DVD Showcase To Spotlight Progress In Next Generation DVD Standard; Toshiba And NEC Confirm 2005 Launch Of HD DVD Hardware

26-Jul-04

Toshiba Corporation, NEC Corporation, and Memory-Tech Corporation announced a three-day ìHD DVD Showcaseî that will present the latest advances in the HD DVD format to 1,000 key executives from 150 companies in Japan's entertainment industry. The three companies, proponents of the High-Definition DVD format (ìHD DVDî), will host the event from July 26 through 28, 2004 in downtown Tokyo, Japan providing leaders from major Japanese movie studios, animation film creators, the broadcasting, music and publishing industries and the retail sector, with a total venue for experien-cing the impressive advances HD DVD has achieved as it moves toward its 2005 launch as the next-generation DVD standard. The Tokyo Showcase will shine a light on the very latest hardware prototypes supporting the format, including HD DVD players and PC ROM drives. It will include demonstrations of film clips from major studios authored and recorded on to HD DVD discs for technical evaluation purposes, and also deliver an update on disc manufacturing status, all in preparation for the volume launch of HD DVD hardware and discs when they are commercialized in 2005. On the eve of the Tokyo event, Pony Canyon Inc., Japan's largest distributor of DVD titles, became the first company in the world to announce its clear support for HD DVD. ìHD DVD is a promising format that will secure continuous growth of the DVD industry as well as bringing about fresh innovation to the consumer experience,î said Hideki Oyagi, General Manager, Visual Entertainment Headquarters, Pony Canyon. ìWe very much look forward to launching HD DVD titles at an early stage of 2005, in line with the expected launch of HD DVD players and recorders.î The initial titles for release include ìMoonlight Jellyfish,î a Japanese Hi-Vision movie. Commenting on Pony Canyon's decision, Mr. Yoshihide Fujii, Corporate Senior Vice President and President and CEO of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company, noted: ìWe are pleased by this formal announcement of support for the HD DVD format by Japan's largest supplier of DVD titles. This is a clear sign of recognition of the benefits and potential this advanced format offers the entertainment industry as the most affordable, the most realistic package media for inheriting and building on the legacy and success of the DVD industry. We are confident we will see a number of major studios and software companies launch titles to coincide with our release of HD DVD products in 2005.î ìHD DVD, the successor of DVD, will further encourage the convergence of PC and audio visual products, as it realizes crystal-clear picture quality in the personal computing environment,î commented Mr. Hiroshi Gokan, Executive General Manager, NEC's Computers Storage Products Operations Unit. ìThe success of today's DVD industry clearly indicates that the timely release of movie and audio titles on read-only memory discs will be key to triggering the take-off of the next-generation DVD format,î predicts Mr. Shiroharu Kawasaki, President and CEO of Memory-Tech Corporation, Japan's leading disc replicator. ìWe are working with almost every major studio in the United States and Japan to establish the HD DVD format through extensive joint evaluation, and already getting strong, positive feedback from many of these companies.î Memory-Tech installed HD DVD disc mass production line at its Tsukuba plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan in May 2004. The facility has a capacity of 1.4 million discs a month, and an authoring and mastering system that is already available for comprehensive disc creation. Production yields have already reached 90 percent, a level practical for volume production of commercial discs and comparable with the 95 percent yield rate of current DVD discs. The flexible convertible line can switch between standard DVD and HD DVD production in five minutes. Memory-Tech's Kofu Plant in Yamanashi Prefecture will also be ready for HD DVD production this August, doubling the company's total capacity to 2.8 million discs a month. In order to support and expedite the early diffusion of this promising format, Memory-Tech and Toshiba are preparing to disclose and provide expertise on disc manufacture to major disc replicators around the world, starting in late August. For further information about Toshiba, please visit www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm; for more information regarding NEC, please visit www.nec.com; for more information on Memory Tech, please visit www.memory-tech.co.jp/index_e.html; and for more information about Pony Canyon Inc., please visit www.ponycanyon.co.jp.

Read More:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm
http://www.nec.com
http://www.memory-tech.co.jp/index_e.html
http://www.ponycanyon.co.jp