Sonic AuthorScript® to Add Support for HighMAT

New Digital Media Authoring Technology to be Supported in Industry’s Leading DVD Authoring Engine

Las Vegas, Nevada (January 9, 2003) — Sonic Solutions [NASDAQ: SNIC], announced today at the International CES Convention that it plans to support HighMAT, the digital media playback technology developed by Microsoft and Matsushita (Panasonic). Sonic plans to add support for creating HighMAT discs in AuthorScript, Sonic’s DVD creation Software Developer Kit (SDK) that is the underlying technology used to create most commercial and home DVD titles.

“We are delighted that Sonic will add HighMAT support to AuthorScript, the key enabler for the most-popular DVD authoring applications,” said Jonathan Usher, Director, Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft Corp. “Sonic’s products have brought the power of Hollywood-style DVD creation to consumers by hiding and automating the complexities of DVD-Video authoring. Sonic’s endorsement of HighMAT is an important step in bringing its benefits to consumers.”

HighMAT is intended to make digital media formats such as JPEG photos, MP3 music files, and Windows Media Audio and Video files easily playable on a wide variety of consumer electronics devices as well as PCs. Sonic plans to incorporate support for HighMAT authoring into AuthorScript, the formatting engine which is the standard used to create the vast majority of DVD titles. By integrating HighMAT with OpenDVD, a technology for making revisable DVDs and CDs, Sonic will provide the most flexibility and highest playback compatibility to its customers.

“HighMAT is an excellent complement to DVD,” says Jim Taylor, Chief of DVD Technology and General Manager of Sonic’s Advanced Technology Group. “HighMAT has the potential to standardize media file playback just as DVD created a new standard for movies. With the addition of HighMAT output, applications built on AuthorScript will be able to produce discs that not only play in hundreds of millions of existing DVD players, but also take advantage of the latest DVD and CD players that incorporate the HighMAT technology. We are excited that Microsoft has chosen us to help establish HighMAT.”

About Sonic AuthorScript
AuthorScript is the world's leading DVD-Video formatting and recording technology, which has been licensed by companies including Adobe, Avid, InterVideo, Microsoft, and Sony; it is also the technology underlying Sonic's DVD applications including MyDVD® and DVDit!® which are bundled by major OEMs such as Adaptec, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Sony, TDK and others.

Sonic AuthorScript includes many advantages that have made this DVD engine the dominant solution for DVD recording and authoring on the PC: the highest playback compatibility, comprehensive support for DVD-Video and DVD-VR recording and editing, DVD+RW video recording (+VR), and OpenDVD^® for reading and re-editing recorded discs. AuthorScript supports all popular DVD devices, including DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM, as well as CD-R and CD-RW.

In addition to AuthorScript for PCs, AuthorScript CE allows consumer electronics manufacturers to incorporate the Sonic DVD engine in set-top devices such as DVD recorders, PVRs/DVRs, and home media servers. AuthorScript CE links the CE and PC worlds by including support for OpenDVD – technology that writes project information along with the content, allowing users to quickly and easily revise and update recorded DVDs on a PC or an advanced DVD recorder. AuthorScript CE is available for advanced recorders incorporating a hard disk drive and running a Windows or Linux operating system, as well as for low-cost “VCR-style” DVD recorders based on embedded processors.

About Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC)
Based in Marin County, California, Sonic (http://www.sonic.com) is the world’s leading supplier of DVD creation software. Sonic’s professional DVD authoring software is used to produce the majority of major film releases on DVD. Sonic’s desktop DVD creation software powers most of the world’s DVD burners, and Sonic’s CD and DVD mastering software is the top-rated OEM solution for transferring and backing up data to CD and DVD media. Sonic's core strengths include in-depth knowledge of the DVD and CD digital media formats and the video and audio data types they require, and the design of friendly, yet powerful, authoring and editing applications for the consumer, desktop and professional CD and DVD markets.

Sonic, the Sonic logo, CinePlayer, Edit-on-DVD, OpenDVD, and PrimeTime are trademarks of Sonic Solutions. AuthorScript, Sonic DVD Creator, MyDVD, DVDit!, ReelDVD and Scenarist 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.