ESS Technology, a leading supplier of silicon solutions for digital audio, video and imaging consumer electronics, today announced that it is introducing support for Nero Digital in its Vibratto II DVD solutions. ESS will offer Nero Digital certified reference designs for DVD player manufacturers to satisfy the growing consumer demand for the latest developments in MPEG-4 video/audio compression. A Nero Digital demonstration will be presented at the upcoming Hong Kong Electronics Fair on October 13-16, 2004. DVD player reference designs supporting Nero Digital are now available.

Nero Digital is the result of extensive co-development efforts by Ahead Software Inc., makers of the popular Nero CD/DVD burning application software, and Ateme of France, one of the world's leaders in video and signal processing. Nero Digital is the first complete MPEG-4 solution offering high quality MPEG-4 video coupled with high fidelity MPEG-4 AAC audio. Nero Digital is currently the only MPEG-4 solution capable of providing chapter markers, subtitle and multi-language soundtrack support.

"We are excited to announce that ESS Technology will offer Nero Digital certified technology in their Vibratto II DVD chips," said John Tafoya, vice president of business development of Ahead Software Inc. "ESS has previously demonstrated its ability to advance innovation in the DVD player market, so their support of Nero Digital is a definite win for the consumer."

Patrick Ang, executive vice president and chief operating officer at ESS Technology, stated, "We are very pleased to provide the Nero Digital experience to the consumer. Nero Digital is a complete MPEG-4 solution with exceptional video and audio quality that also provides chapter markers and multi-language soundtrack support. Again, ESS demonstrates its market leadership by being one of the first to introduce Nero Digital to the mainstream DVD player market."