Pioneer To Ship Industry's First Combination DVD|CD Recordable|Re-recordable Drive, the DVR-A03

Unprecedented Drive Offers DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R and CD-RW Read and Write Capabilities

Pioneer New Media Technologies, Inc., the leader in recordable DVD technology, will ship the world's first combination DVD/CD recordable drive, the DVR-A03, by the end of May at the MSRP of $995. Targeted for digital video recording and data archiving applications, the aftermarket drive will ship with software support for recording both data and video.

The third generation drive reads and writes four recordable formats including DVD-R (write once For General), DVD-RW (re-recordable), CD-R and CD-RW, and offers up to 4.7GB of storage capacity per DVD side. In addition, the new drive is capable of recording DVD-R discs at twice normal speed (2X)?an industry first.

"Pioneer has played a key role in the development of DVD recording technology and was the first to bring DVD-R to DVD authoring professionals," said Paul Dempsey, president of Pioneer New Media Technologies. "Priced under $1000, the DVR-A03 now delivers both DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW recording to the consumer market for the first time in a multi-functional drive that can meet all DVD and CD recording needs."

The DVD-R and DVD-RW formats are members of the DVD Forum's family of DVD specifications. DVD-R is a write-once format that is compatible with most DVD Video players and DVD-ROM drives, and DVD-RW is a re-recordable format that allows users to record, erase and re-record their own DVD discs more than 1,000 times.

The DVR-A03 will come bundled with a 4.7GB "DVD-R for General" disc and software including Sonic Solutions' MyDVD for DVD-Video authoring, CyberLink's PowerDVD 3.0 software DVD player and Prassi Software's PrimoDVD for recording data to DVD and CD media.

"In developing DVD-R and DVD-RW technology, compatibility was a major objective," said Andy Parsons, senior vice president of product development and technical support, Pioneer New Media Technologies. "We wanted to bring a product to market that would allow consumers to cost-effectively archive their own video creations onto DVD discs that could then be played on existing DVD players. With the DVR-A03 we have done that."

With its low cost and compact design, Pioneer's DVD-R/RW drive targets digital video editing and archiving as its "killer application" as well as traditional data and digital image storage applications. Key product specifications for the new drive include 2X recording speed for DVD-R, 1X for DVD-RW, 8X for CD-R, and 4X for CD-RW. Read speeds are 4X for DVD-ROM and 24X for CD-ROM.

"Announced at Comdex last November, the OEM version of the drive, the DVR-103, is currently available in Compaq Presario 7000 and PowerMac G4 systems," said Hani Gabriel, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Optical Systems Division for Pioneer. "We feel this signals industry acceptance for the DVD-R format across the PC and Macintosh markets."

The drive has been named DVR-A03 for the aftermarket. It ships to distributors the end of May 2001 and is expected to hit the retail channel later this year.

Pioneer New Media Technologies

As an industry leader in the digital marketplace, Pioneer New Media Technologies, Inc. continues to provide the industry's most innovative technologies for professional and industrial business applications. World's first technologies introduced by Pioneer include recordable DVD-R drives, multiple-disc CD-ROM changers, mass storage DVD libraries, multifunctional optical drives capable of reading and writing to both M-O and WORM and combination DVD/CD recordable drives.

The optical division's products include DVD-R and DVD-ROM drives, DVD/CD library systems, M-O/WORM optical drives and media, and DVD-R media for a wide range of applications in the education, government, legal, banking, medical, insurance, finance, industrial and general business markets. The company is also a leading supplier of DVD-ROM drives to the majority of first tier OEM PC manufacturers. For more information, contact Pioneer New Media Technologies, Inc. at 2265 E. 220th Street, Long Beach, Calif. 90810; phone (310) 952-2111 or (800) 444-6784; URL: www.pioneerelectronics.com.