Daikin ScenaristÆ NT 2.0 Brings Full Spectrum Of PanasonicÆ Rewriteable DVD-RAM Drive Capabilities To DVD Authoring

Daikin US Comtec Laboratories announced that its tests have confirmed the compatibility of Daikin's ScenaristÆ NT 2.0 advanced DVD authoring software with PanasonicÆ's 5.2GB DVD-RAM drive. Enhanced with new productivity features, Daikin's professional premastering and authoring software simplifies the most difficult aspects of creating a DVD title so production time - and the associated costs - are substantially reduced. With drag and drop output to the Panasonic DVD-RAM drive, businesses and professional videographers can also realize significant savings in storage costs. By utilizing the same DVD-RAM drive for premastering, video storage, backup, database storage and for reading CDs at 20x speeds, Scenarist NT users can achieve even greater savings. DVD-RAM technology offers DVD software developers, DVD publishers, post-production and creative content providers with compelling reasons for adding a DVD-RAM drive to their DVD authoring tools. The discs provide a removable storage capacity of up to 5.2GB (double-sided) and more than 100,000 write/rewrite cycles for about .008(cent) per MB. Applications that can benefit from combining Daikin's Scenarist NT with a Panasonic DVD-RAM drive range from entertainment, training, and educational videos to corporate product demonstrations. ""The versatility and capacity of the DVD format has raised the expectations for video content and interactivity,"" said Dr. Panos Nasiopoulos, Daikin US Director of Marketing Communications. ""At the same time, increased competition and tight budgets are dictating the need for faster delivery of DVD titles at a lower cost. Scenarist NT helps DVD authors meet all of these expectations with tools that simplify production and support for DVD-RAM technology."" Easy enough for a novice, yet powerful enough for the most experienced professional, Daikin's Scenarist NT 2.0 provides a complete solution for managing video, audio, stills and other assets; laying out data; and defining navigation paths. User interface features such as copy and paste, accelerator keys and multiple levels of zoom are included to reduce production time. Other features, such as project templates that allow simple drag-and-drop authoring of titles plus faster processing of subtitles and disc images speed the authoring process. With the availability of project wizards that take users step-by-step through the creation of a DVD title, even a novice can produce a high-quality video that supports the full set of DVD specifications in a matter of minutes. The Panasonic rewriteable DVD drive, which is also fully compliant with the DVD Forum DVD-RAM standards, provides the performance, capacity and reliability videographers need to store their DVD videos. The drive offers data transfer rates of up to 10.5Mbps, a 2MB cache buffer, and the capacity to easily store two and a half hours of DVD/MPEG-2 video or more than eight hours of Dolby AC-3Æ audio on a single, removable disc. With an access time of 120ms (or better), videos can be quickly retrieved for playback with DVD decoder-equipped personal computers and for adding or editing the content. Users can advance to specific segments of the disc to edit their work, and small sections of data can be rewritten without stressing the error correction codes and having to re-record the entire video. ""By incorporating time-saving features introversion 2.0 of Scenarist NT and adding DVD-RAM output, Daikin is fueling the growth of the DVD Market,"" said Jeff Saake, Group General Manager, Panasonic Industrial Co., Computer Technologies Group. ""The combination provides content developers with a complete, easy-to-use solution for DVD authoring that enables them to go back again and again to exploit the full range of DVD's capabilities and rework the digital content."" A versatile storage solution, the Panasonic DVD-RAM drive provides unprecedented media exchange capabilities. Videos recorded to single-sided DVD-RAM media can also be read by the latest DVD-ROM drives. In addition, the Panasonic drive can be used to read from discs currently accepted by CD-ROM, CD Audio, CD-R, CD-RW and video CD drives as well as DVD-ROM, DVD-Video and DVD-R drives. Pricing, Availability Scenarist NT advanced DVD authoring software is available for immediate delivery through Daikin's authorized resellers worldwide with MSRPs starting at $9,800.00 Panasonic Industrial Company's LF-D101 OEM DVD-RAM drive is as an internal drive with a SCSI-2 interface. Panasonic-branded DVD-RAM drives are available from Panasonic Document Imaging Company (PDIC). The internal drive, model LF-D103U, has an MSRP of $699. The external drive, model LF-D102U, has an MSRP of $799. Panasonic double-sided 5.2GB DVD-RAM media 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, 6X and 8X DVD-ROM drives. About Daikin US Comtec Laboratories Based in Novato, California, Daikin US Comtec Laboratories is the center of operations for R&D, marketing and support for the worldwide distribution of the acclaimed series of DVD authoring and support tools, Scenarist, Scenarist EDK, DVD Informer and ROM Formatter. Daikin US Comtec Laboratories is a subsidiary of Daikin Industries, Ltd. of Japan. For more information, contact Daikin's Marketing and Sales Department, 415 893 7800, 415 893 7807 fax, info@scenarist.com or visit the Web site at http://www.scenarist.com. About Panasonic The Panasonic DVD-RAM OEM drive is manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC), one of the world's leading producers of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives and other DVD technology-based products. The drives are marketed by the company's principal North American subsidiary, Matsushita Electric Corp. of America. For more information on the Panasonic DVD-RAM OEM drive and media, contact Panasonic Industrial Company, 408 945 5600, 408 262 4214, berzind@panasonic.com or visit www.panasonic.com/oemdvd-ram. For more information on Panasonic-branded DVD-RAM drives and media, contact Panasonic Document Imaging Company, 201 392 6355, www.panasonic.com/storage or truppim@panasonic.com. In Canada, contact Panasonic Canada, 905 238 2254, 905 238 2414 fax or rkwong@panasonic.ca.