Microsoft Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) today announced they are expanding the HighMAT (TM) specifications to support all major writable DVD media formats (DVD-RAM and other recordable DVD formats) for exchanging digital audio, pictures and video files between personal computers and consumer electronics devices in addition to CDs. The companies plan to support the new technology for DVDs in their respective product lines. HighMAT stands for High-performance Media Access Technology, which Microsoft and Panasonic jointly developed to make organizing and accessing photos, music and video on storage media such as CDs and DVDs easier and faster on a wide range of consumer devices.

In addition, Roxio Inc., maker of the award-winning software CD/DVD burning product Easy CD & DVD Creator� for Windows�, and Creative, a worldwide leader in digital entertainment solutions for PC users, today announced their intent to support HighMAT in future products. To date, 14 companies spanning content creation software publishers, consumer device manufacturers and integrated circuit (IC) vendors have already announced their intent to support HighMAT in their products.

Panasonic HighMAT Players Available in Stores This Month

At the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2003), Panasonic introduced seven models of digital A/V products including CD players and DVD players that are compliant with the HighMAT 1.0 specification. They will be the first consumer electronic devices to have built-in support for the new HighMAT technology (audio and images), and will be available in the retail market by the end of May 2003. Models include the Panasonic DVD-LX9 portable DVD player, DVD-S55 single-disc player, DVD-F65 five-disc changer, DVD-F85 five-disc changer, SC-HT900 DVD/CD home theater system, SC-DT310 DVD/CD home theater system and SC-DP1 DVD/CD home theater system. Panasonic plans to incorporate HighMAT technology with DVD support into its future models of DVD products once DVD is added to the specification later this year.