InterActual Player Online Monthly Usage Tops 10 Million; Record Numbers Enjoy Hollywood's DVD Titles On PCs

26-Apr-05

Signaling massive growth in DVD viewing on personal computers, InterActual?, a subsidiary of Sonic Solutions?, announced that its InterActual Player software for DVDs exceeded a record 30 million online uses in the first quarter of 2005, averaging over 10 million uses per month. Installed on over 38 million Macintosh and Windows computers, including Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition PCs, InterActual Player allows viewers of Hollywood DVD movies to access special bonus features with a seamless combination of DVD interactivity and online Internet connectivity. The resulting entertainment experience goes far beyond what is possible with the capabilities of a standard set-top DVD player. ""The PC has become an attractive viewing platform for a rapidly expanding audience that demands the most compelling and interactive content from their DVDs,"" said Matt Kennedy, Co-Founder of 1K Studios, a leading DVD creative services developer in Los Angeles, California. ""InterActual's is the only technology that allows us to expand the boundaries of PC-based DVD entertainment to deliver the innovative, first-of-kind special features that DVD audiences have come to expect."" Millions of DVD discs have been enabled with InterActual bonus content, including such blockbuster titles as Warner Bros. ""Harry Potter"" series, Lucasfilm's Star Wars Trilogy, Buena Vista's ""Pirates of the Caribbean"" and New Line Cinema's ""Lord Of The Rings"" trilogy. InterActual also licenses its DVD Player technology for integration with third-party DVD player applications such as InterVideo's WinDVD 6 and Cyberlink's PowerDVD software to enable native playback of InterActual bonus content. ""Movie enthusiasts are continuing to take advantage of the enormous entertainment value InterActual-powered DVDs provide on their computers,"" said Clint Ludeman, Vice-President at InterActual Technologies. ""We are committed to maintaining the strong reputation that InterActual Player has earned among studio creatives and technologists for its stability and proven ability to handle the requirements of an ever more sophisticated DVD viewing audience.""