News Release：Pioneer's Announcement on DVD-Audio/DVD-VideoCompatible Players Launch Schedule

TOKYO, Japan, December 10, 1999 --- Pioneer Corporation made the following statement regarding its launch schedule of DVD-Audio/DVD-Video compatible players to the Japanese domestic market.

< Background of the Statement >

DVD-Audio players were originally planned to have a built-in copyright protection system developed by 4C Entity LLC (a joint organization of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, IBM Corp. and Intel Corporation). However, the code in this copy protection system recently has been broken by a third person and made public on an Internet home page. Because of this incident, major DVD-Audio software manufacturers in the U.S. have decided to postpone the introduction of DVD-Audio software titles until a more effective copy protection system is developed.

Pioneer has decided that the company will launch its DVD-Audio/Video compatible players at the end of December 1999 to the Japanese domestic market as per announced on October 4, 1999.
The reasons are:
The announcement of launching two DVD-Audio/DVD-Video compatible players has been highly welcomed by consumers as well as dealers and has inspired expectations and demand for the DVD-Audio in the market, while it is foreseen that the development of a new copy protection system will take at least 6 months. Under such circumstances, Pioneer is afraid that withholding the launching of DVD-Audio players at this stage is not beneficial to the DVD-Audio industry.
Pioneer decided to respond to customers' anticipation and to take supplier's responsibilities by launching the two products as scheduled.
As for a copy protection system, Pioneer will undertake free* of charge version-up service onto the units purchased before the adoption of a new copy protection system.

< Pioneer DVD-Audio/DVD-Video Compatible Players >

The following is a brief introduction of the players and their playable discs, announced on October 4, 1999.

(Playable Discs)

1. DVD-Audio discs that follow the DVD-Audio format standards, without any copy protection system.
   *Adoption of any copy protection system is up to the software manufacturers or contents copyrights holders decision.
2. DVD-Video discs, Video CD discs
3. Super-Audio CD discs (only DV-AX10)
4. Audio CD discs

Furthermore, Pioneer is preparing to introduce DVD-Audio software titles that follow the descriptions of the upper 'playable discs (1)'.