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Pioneer New Media Technologies Chooses Sonic MyDVD™

Award-Winning DVD Recording Application Selected for New DVD-R/RW Writers

Marin County, California (April 18, 2001) – Sonic Solutions [NASDAQ: SNIC], the world leader in DVD authoring applications, announced today that Pioneer New Media Technologies, the leading manufacturer of recordable DVD drives, has selected to bundle Sonic MyDVD™ authoring software with the new Pioneer DVR-A03 combination DVD/CD Recordable/Re-recordable drives, the company’s third-generation DVD recorders. The news comes less than a month after Pioneer Europe selected MyDVD to include with their products in the European market. Priced at less than $1000, the Pioneer DVR-A03 breaks a significant price barrier and, when combined with MyDVD, is the first affordable DVD recording device for home users and small businesses who want to record and author their own videos in the popular DVD-Video format.

"Sonic DVD applications have uniquely defined the market for consumer and industrial DVD recording," said Andy Parsons, Senior Vice President of Product Development and Technical Support for Pioneer New Media Technologies. "Our longstanding relationship with Sonic, coupled with their leadership position in home and office DVD authoring, made our choice of Sonic as a partner a logical decision."

The Pioneer DVR-A03 offers exceptional format flexibility. Finished video projects can be written to DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R and CD-RW media. DVD-RW discs are based on phase-change technology and can be re-recorded over 1,000 times. Projects written by MyDVD to DVD-R media can be played on most DVD set-top players and DVD-ROM drives, which together have an installed base of close to 100 million units.

"We’re excited to be working with Pioneer to deliver a digital video publishing solution for home and office users," said Mark Ely, Vice President of Business Development at Sonic Solutions. "For the first time, consumers can add the great features of DVD – interactivity, higher quality and fast access – to their personal videos and presentations and then record their own DVD-Video discs. The Pioneer DVR-A03 with Sonic MyDVD is the breakthrough that makes personal video publishing possible."

T he Pioneer DVR-A03 will be available as an after-market product in May. In addition, Pioneer has received significant commitment from OEM partners – including Compaq, Apple and NEC/Packard Bell – which are including the DVD-A03 with their high-end multimedia desktop offerings.

About Sonic MyDVD
The first DVD authoring application for consumers, MyDVD makes it easy to capture "your life on DVD." With its remarkably friendly user interface and intuitive authoring, MyDVD makes it possible for home video enthusiasts to take video, music, digital photos, and scanned artwork and create their own interactive movies. Users can record their finished DVD projects on the latest generation of DVD recordable drives, making it easy to publish interactive videos on universal, low-cost media and play them on any DVD player.

About 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. The 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 the 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.

About Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC)
Based in Marin County, California, Sonic (http://www.sonic.com) is the leading manufacturer of solutions for DVD publishing. Sonic DVDit!™ (http://www.dvdit.com) is the first application for DVD authoring targeted at videographers and corporate video producers, and is bundled with major video editing, capture, encoding and media production systems. Sonic MyDVD™ (http://www.mydvd.sonic.com) is the first DVD authoring application for consumers, making it easy to capture "your life on DVD." Sonic DVD Creator®, Sonic Scenarist®, Sonic ReelDVD® and Sonic DVD Fusion® are the most widely-used systems for professional DVD publishing, and are installed worldwide at major studios, post production facilities and in corporate marketing departments. SonicStudio® HD is the leading digital workstation for preparing audio for release on CD and is the first for creating content for the new DVD-Audio format. Sonic is also a full voting member of the DVD Forum, the standards-setting body for the DVD format.

© 2001 Sonic, Sonic Solutions, the Sonic logo, eDVD, MyDVD, DVDit!, "The Easiest Way to Publish on DVD" and "Your Life on DVD" are trademarks of Sonic Solutions. DVD Creator and DVD Fusion are registered trademarks of Sonic Solutions. All other company or product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Specifications, pricing and delivery schedules are subject to change without notice.