For more information on Panasonic-branded DVD-RAM drives and media, contact Panasonic Document Imaging Company, Two Panasonic Way 7D-9, Secaucus, NJ 07030, 201 392 6355, www.panasonic.com/storage.
Panasonic DVD-RAM Drive And ASTARTE DVD Authoring Tools For DVD Video Production
Panasonic Industrial Company and ASTARTE GmbH announced that ASTARTE's DVD newest production tool - DVDelight - is fully compatible with Panasonic's high-capacity, rewritable DVD-RAM drive. Available now with a retail price of less than $1,000, ASTARTE's DVDelight combines with the DVD-RAM drives and media to enable desktop computer users to produce linear DVD videos almost as easily as they prepare a slide presentation. DVDelight provides DVD authoring tools that production facilities and media labs demand, but its low cost and ease-of-use will also appeal to businesses and promotional departments. The application's built-in intelligence keeps users from making mistakes and ensures that the finished video conforms to all DVD standards. Using DVDelight's simple drag-and-drop interface, a DVD video project incorporating up to 99 video and audio tracks can be defined. The tracks can be set up to play sequentially whenever the DVD-RAM media is inserted. For self-running or looped videos such as point-of-sale videos or kiosks, DVDelight allows users to program the video for automatic and unattended ""loop"" play. ""The standards-compliant Panasonic DVD-RAM drive is an excellent storage solution for organizations that are developing and editing DVD videos,"" said Freddie Geier, Vice President of Sales for ASTARTE's DVD software products. ""It outperforms other rewritable DVD drives on the market as well as earlier video storage solutions such as DLT tape. The combination of high-capacity, a very low storage cost and media reliability are important to DVDelight users."" DVDelight accepts encoded audio and video streams in a variety of standard formats and formats them for DVD. Video source files can be MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, and audio files can be MPEG, AC-3, AIFF or SoundDesigner files. Users can encode their source material using any DVD-compliant hardware or software encoding system. The Macintosh version of DVDelight includes a copy or ASTARTE's MPEG encoding application: M.Pack. Windows versions include PixelTools ExpertDVD MPEG encoding software. By storing the video on single-sided 2.6GB or double-sided 5.2GB DVD-RAM media, users can quickly develop their DVD videos, have the work-in-progress reviewed and can edit the work before final production. When the video is completed the DVD file structure can be saved to DVD-RAM or DVD-R for shipment to a pressing facility. DVDelight's built-in intelligence keeps users from making mistakes and ensures that the finished video conforms to all DVD standards. Completed videos can be stored on removable 2.6GB (single-sided) or 5.2GB (double-sided) DVD-RAM discs at transfer rates of up to 10.5Mbps. Panasonic has enhanced its DVD-RAM drive with a 2MB buffer to ensure that movie frames won't be dropped, even when other tasks are run in the background. A single rewritable disc can store 150 minutes of high-quality MPEG-2 video, or more than 8 hours of AC3 audio; and, unlike tape, DVD titles won't deteriorate over time. Widely available for about $.008/MB, DVD-RAM discs provide more than 100,000 write/rewrite cycles. ""DVD-RAM provides enhanced authoring and production capabilities that simplify the video development and editing process,"" explained Jeff Saake, Group General Manager, Panasonic Industrial Co., Computer Technology Group. ""Since DVD-RAM is a physically addressed medium, users can go to specific video location on the disc to edit their work. Data can be written to any disc location and sections can be rewritten without stressing the error correction codes."" Businesses and content developers who purchase the versatile Panasonic DVD-RAM drive for storage and playback of videos produced with ASTARTE's DVDelight can also use the drive to read from discs currently accepted by CD-ROM, CD Audio, CD-R, CD-RW and video CD drives, as well as DVD video, DVD-ROM and DVD-R drives. In addition, files stored on DVD-RAM media can be read by the latest DVD-ROM drives. Pricing, Availability ASTARTE DVDelight is a complete DVD video authoring tools program that can be used with both Windows and Mac-based computers. DVDelight is available for immediate delivery through ASTARTE resellers worldwide at an SRP of $999. The Panasonic LF-D101 DVD-RAM drive is available as an internal drive with a SCSI-2 interface. OEMs can purchase the drive from Panasonic Industrial Company. Panasonic Document Imaging Company (PDIC) is also marketing Panasonic-brand DVD-RAM drives for an MSRP of $699. DVD-RAM media, which is marketed under the Panasonic brand name, is available from several other leading manufacturers. The removable double-sided 5.2GB disc has an MSRP of $39.95. The 2.6GB single-sided media has an MSRP of $24.95 and is sold with a removable cartridge for playback on the latest Panasonic 5X and 6X DVD-ROM drives. About ASTARTE GmbH ASTARTE GmbH is a privately held company, formed in 1992. The company, based in Karlsruhe, Germany, develops and distributes software for DVD authoring and multimedia production. ASTARTE's products include DVDirector and DVDirector Pro, the professional authoring suites for DVD-Video; DVDelight, DVDExport, a Macromedia Director Xtra which allows producers to author DVD-Video titles using Director; M.Pack, a software-based MPEG-2 encoder, and A.Pack, a Dolby Digital professional AC-3 encoding system. For further information, contact: Mike Evangelist, ASTARTE USA, 364 Wildwood Avenue, Birchwood, MN 55110, phone: 651 653 6247, fax: 651 653 6495 or visit the ASTARTE Web site at http://www.astarte.de/dvd. About Panasonic DVD-RAM OEM Drive The Panasonic DVD-RAM OEM drive is manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. For more information on the Panasonic DVD-RAM OEM drive and media, contact Panasonic Industrial Company, 1600 McCandless Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035, phone: 408 945 5600, fax 408 262 4214. Visit the company's Web site at www.panasonic.com/oemdvd-ram.