News Release：Pioneer Launches Two New DVD-R/RW Drives for PCsOffering Both DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW Recording and Playback

August 23, 2001, Tokyo, Japan --- Pioneer Corporation today announced the release of two DVD-R/RW drives for personal computers capable of reading and writing write-once DVD-R (For General Ver. 2.0) discs and rewritable (approx. 1,000 times) DVD-RW (Ver. 1.1) discs, as well as reading and writing CD-R and CD-RW discs, to the Japanese domestic market.

DVR-A03-J

DVR-S303

< Planning Concept >

The number of personal computers marketed with pre-installed DVD-ROM drives, has been constantly increasing through these few years. There is a growing users' demand for DVD-R/RW, which features a high playback compatibility with other DVD-ROM drives, and boasts a rough seven times greater storage capacity compared to CD-R/RW discs.

Since the beginning of this year, Pioneer has been supplying DVD-R/RW drives to computer manufacturers on an OEM basis. And today, Pioneer announces the launch of the internal DVR-A03-J DVD-R/RW drive, which is the first consumer-use DVD-R/RW drive to have the Pioneer brand name in Japan.

The professional-use external DVR-S303 DVD-R/RW drive, primarily designed for DVD authoring purposes to check DVD titles and for distribution of small quantities, is priced considerably more affordably than existing professional-use drives. The product can be used in software debugging^*1 and data archiving^*2 applications. When used as an authoring tool, it offers a more efficient authoring environment^*3

< Main Features (common to DVR-A03-J and DVR-S303) >

1 ) Records and plays DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW discs

Both models are capable of reading and writing DVD-R (For General Ver. 2.0) and DVD-RW (Ver. 1.1) discs, which both have an equal 4.7GB storage capacity to that of DVD-ROM and DVD-Video discs. Both models also offer 2X DVD-R recording speed, which is the fastest in the industry. Reading and writing of CD-R and CD-RW discs is also possible.

2 ) Playback compatibility with DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players

DVD-R (For General Ver. 2.0) and DVD-RW (Ver. 1.1) discs containing computer data recorded by these models can be read by most DVD-ROM drives^*4, and video data recorded on these discs in Video mode can be read by most DVD-ROM drives or played back by existing DVD-Video players^*5.

3 ) DVD playback and easy-to-use writing and authoring software supplied

Both models come bundled with "PowerDVD"^*6 DVD playback software (from CyberLink Inc.), "PrimoDVD"*6 disc-at-once writing software (from Easy Systems Japan Ltd.), and "DVDit!SE"^*6 DVD authoring software (from Sonic Solutions).

< Main Specifications (DVR-A03-J and DVR-S303) >