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Sonic AuthorScript® 3.1 Delivers Expanded Toolset for DVD Authoring

Industry's Leading Solution for Integrating DVD Authoring into OEM Applications Adds OpenDVD™ Support, Enhanced Media Encoding and More

Marin County, California (March 6, 2002) - Sonic Solutions [NASDAQ: SNIC], the world leader in DVD production systems, announced today AuthorScript Version 3.1, an enhanced version of the industry's most widely adopted set of developer tools for integrating DVD, Video CD (VCD) and Super Video CD (SVCD) creation into video applications. Based on the same Sonic technology that has become the Hollywood standard for commercial title production, AuthorScript now incorporates important enhancements that enable applications developers to address the needs of the rapidly emerging market for home DVD recording.

New in version 3.1 are:

OpenDVD™ support – AuthorScript 3.1 supports the new OpenDVD standard by incorporating Sonic's unique technology which allows the contents of a DVD to be revised and updated without having to re-author from the source files (video, audio, stills) originally used to create it. With rewritable formats, the changes can even be written back to the same disc.

Edit-on-DVD™ – When editing an OpenDVD-compliant disc, the minimum amount of content necessary is transferred to hard disk, allowing most DVDs to be re-edited in a fraction of the time previously required.

Multiple menus – DVDs created with AuthorScript can now include a virtually unlimited number of menus, allowing more complex titles to be produced.

Transcoding – Sonic's advanced high-speed media transcoder makes it possible to use a wide variety of video and audio file types, including those which are not DVD-compliant, and automatically convert them into formats suitable for DVD, VCD and SVCD.

QuickTime import – QuickTime movies have been added as a supported media type, ensuring that virtually all video formats can be used with titles created by AuthorScript.

Direct burning to disc – Integrated burning to disc provides application developers with a simple, high-speed solution for recording finished titles on DVD media.

Expanded drive support – The new DVD+R/RW drives are supported with AuthorScript's integrated DVD burn engine.

AuthorScript is a suite of tools that includes an Application Programming Interface (API) that can be called by third-party applications, a set of C++ libraries which are directly compiled with the target application, and developer tools including sample code, technical support and more. AuthorScript provides access to Sonic's DVD, VCD and SVCD formatting engine, data conversion for still images, video and audio, DVD multiplexing, and driver support for all forms of DVD recorders. Sonic's announced AuthorScript partners include Adobe, Microsoft and Sony Electronics.

"With the phenomenal success of the DVD format, interest in Sonic's AuthorScript technology is unprecedented,” said R.T. Weber, AuthorScript Product Manager at Sonic. "With Version 3.1, Sonic AuthorScript delivers its partners additional and more powerful tools to take advantage of new opportunities as DVD creation moves from commercial distribution of Hollywood titles to home video recording."

About Sonic AuthorScript
The technology underlying Sonic's award-winning authoring applications is AuthorScript. The AuthorScript API (Application Programming Interface) is a collection of C++ libraries that takes care of all of the low-level processes for converting video, audio, pictures, and graphics into a DVD, Video CD, or Super Video CD. These libraries are available for license to third-party developers who would like to integrate DVD-Video publishing into their applications, enabling direct publishing of video, pictures and audio onto DVD-recordable and CDrecordable discs in DVD-Video, Video CD and Super Video CD formats.

About Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC)
Based in Marin County, California, Sonic (http://www.sonic.com) is the world's leading manufacturer of solutions for DVD creation. Sonic MyDVD™ (http://www.mydvd.com) is the first DVD authoring application for consumers, and is the leading DVD solution among DVD recorder and PC manufacturers. Sonic DVDit!® (http://www.dvdit.com) is the leading DVD authoring application for videographers and corporate video producers; more than 1 million copies of DVDit! have been sold. 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. Sonic is a full voting member of the DVD Forum, the standards-setting body for the DVD format.

Sonic Solutions, the Sonic logo, Edit on DVD, MyDVD, OpenDVD and ReelDVD are trademarks of Sonic Solutions. AuthorScript, Sonic DVD Creator, DVDit!, Scenarist, and SonicStudio are registered trademarks of Sonic Solutions. All other company or product names are trademarks of their respective owners and, in some cases, are used by Sonic under license. Specifications, pricing and delivery schedules are subject to change without notice.