Sonic Solutions today announced that it will support the forthcoming DVD-R Dual Layer recording standard across its complete line of consumer and professional applications as well as in its industry-standard AuthorScript® engine. Working closely with the leading drive manufacturers developing the DVD-R DL format, Sonic is leveraging its advanced dual layer recording technology, developed for Hollywood DVDs, to deliver the industry's first DVD-R DL applications when the drives ship in early Q1, 2005. DVD-R DL enables users to create DVDs that can hold up to eight hours of video or 8.5 billion bytes of data on a single recordable disc.

"Sonic has long been a partner of Pioneer's in helping to bring the latest advances in DVD recording technology to market," said Ryuichiro Yoshimura, general manager of the Business Planning Department, Components Business Company at Pioneer. "Sonic's commitment to Dual Layer DVD-R will clearly make this advanced recording technology available to a broad number of users. We are very pleased to be working closely with Sonic as this major advancement in recording technology is introduced to the market."

Sonic's support for DVD-R DL is based on its industry-leading HyperMux™ DVD formatting technology which has been used by Hollywood to create the majority of the world's professional dual layer DVDs. By extending this technology to the DVD-R DL recording format, Sonic's applications and software development kits are able to take advantage of the same advanced title layout, buffer management, layer-break control, and frame selection technologies used by Hollywood.