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InterActual® Enhanced DVD Wins Best of DVD-ROM Award

DVD Entertainment Awards Honor New Line Home Entertainment's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended DVD Edition

Hollywood, California (September 7, 2004) ― InterActual, a subsidiary of Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC) and the leading provider of added entertainment and DVD bonus feature technology, announced today that New Line Home Entertainment's The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended DVD Edition received the 2004 award for best title in the PC Support & DVD-ROM Features category at the DVD Entertainment Awards Ceremony during the Entertainment Media Expo recently held in Hollywood, California.

The most prestigious awards ceremony of its kind, the DVD Entertainment Awards, hosted this year by Leonard Maltin, recognizes the features unique to a film's DVD release that enhance the viewing experience for consumers. This year marks seven straight years that InterActual-enhanced titles have dominated the DVD-ROM category.

"We are delighted to receive this award on behalf of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended DVD Edition," said Mike Mulvihill, vice president of content development at New Line Home Entertainment. "Fans of the motion picture trilogy have come to expect the most elegant and extravagant presentation of this epic adventure, and InterActual's technology has allowed us to deliver on that expectation."

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended DVD Edition includes exciting extras such as "Gollum's Song," free digital sheet music by Howard Shore and Fran Walsh, provided compliments of Musicnotes.com and Warner Bros. Publications. Also included is an extensive array of DVD bonus features designed by Company Wide Shut of Los Angeles, including:

  • Saruman's Book: This feature lets viewers browse and explore Saruman's books of lore.
  • The Character Palantir: Based on the mysterious "Seeing Stones," this feature incorporates a unique interface to the film's footage plus bonus features that show the relationships between the story's characters.
  • Cast and Crew Palantir: In-depth and interactive information about the cast and crew.
  • The Murals of Rivendell: The wall paintings of Rivendell reveal much of the history of the Elves in Middle-earth. This gallery highlights and explains the images that appear in the film.

"The filmmakers have created a meticulously detailed interpretation of Tolkien's Middle-earth and its various cultures. We felt an obligation to allow viewers to engage with this material, as one might study artifacts in a museum," said Jean-Paul Leonard, design director at Company Wide Shut. "InterActual's technology provided us with the solid interactive platform upon which to deliver that goal."

"We are delighted that New Line Home Entertainment and Company Wide Shut rely on InterActual technology to tell a deeper story that goes beyond the theatrical or even standard DVD experience," says Gunthar Hartwig, program director at InterActual Technologies. "With our industry-standard InterActual Player already installed in millions of DVD-equipped PCs, our clients have a highly compatible and stable platform from which to enrich their DVD titles."

The DVD Entertainment Awards are administered by the International Recording Media Association (IRMA) and CMP Information, Inc. (http://www.recordingmedia.org/conferences/emx/dvdawards/).

About New Line Home Entertainment
New Line Cinema is the oldest and most successful fully-integrated independent film company in the world. In addition to the production and distribution of theatrical motion pictures, it has divisions devoted to home entertainment, television, music, theater, licensing, merchandising and international marketing and distribution. New Line has been a pioneer in franchise filmmaking and it's The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the most successful film franchise in history. Together with its subsidiary, Fine Line Features, New Line is a unit of Time Warner.

About InterActual
InterActual (http://www.interactual.com), a subsidiary of Sonic Solutions, is the leading provider of software and services that enable cutting-edge DVD interactivity in computers and next-generation home entertainment platforms. InterActual's products empower advanced interactivity and the seamless integration of DVD with the power and immediacy of the Internet. The company's customers are the major Hollywood studios, record labels, and other content owners, along with technology companies that license the InterActual platform. Over 1,000 major DVD titles are enhanced with InterActual's DVD-ROM content creation and web integration software. Sonic Solutions, InterActual's corporate parent, is the world's leading developer of DVD creation software solutions.

InterActual, InterActual Technologies, the InterActual spotlight logo, Sonic and Sonic Solutions are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Sonic Solutions in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other company or product names are trademarks of their respective owners. InterActual is a Sonic Solutions company.