Panasonic Establishes Panasonic Hollywood Blu-Ray Testing Center

Panasonic Establishes Panasonic Hollywood Blu-Ray Testing Center

Pre-Replication Content Verification Facility to Accelerate Release of Blu-ray Disc Video Titles

SECAUCUS, N.J., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE:MC) known for its leading Panasonic brand, today announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Panasonic Corporation of North America, will establish a Panasonic Hollywood Blu-ray Testing Center (PHBTC) within the existing facilities of Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory and start testing services immediately.

Blu-ray Discs feature strong copyright protection technology, and conducting logical format verification of entertainment content in replicated BD-Video discs requires technical sophistication. Until now there has been no testing service available for content verification before disc replication although many in the motion picture industry expressed the need for a testing center to provide such services, especially in the Hollywood area. The new Panasonic testing center, PHBTC, meets the industry's need and is expected to accelerate the release of BD-Video titles by the motion picture industry.

In addition, Panasonic is inviting the member companies of Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) to install their BD-Video playback products, including Blu- ray recorders and players in PHBTC so that content providers and authoring studios can confirm the interoperability of their titles using these playback products.

The testing services that will be provided include -
1. Format Verification Service for the logical format of BD Video/Live
Discs.
2. Playback Testing Service for BD Video/Live Discs with the BD Video
playback system.
3. Rental Site Service for Format Verification and Playback Testing.

In addition to the Blu-ray player and forthcoming Blu-ray products, Panasonic is a major contributor to the creation of Blu-ray pre-recorded discs. Established in 2001, Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory is a leading authoring, replication and encoding facility within the industry, as well as a driving force in the research and development of Blu-ray components.

About Panasonic

Based in Secaucus, NJ, Panasonic Corporation of North America markets a broad line of digital and other electronics products for consumer, business and industrial use. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE:MC) of Japan, and the hub of Panasonic's U.S. branding, marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. Information about Panasonic and its products is available at http://www.panasonic.com/. Additional company information for journalists is available at http://www.panasonic.com/pressroom.

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Source: Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company

CONTACT: Editorial Contacts: Chris De Maria, Tel: +1-201-348-7182,
demariac@us.panasonic.com, or Jeff Samuels, Tel: +1-201-392-4571,
samuelsj@us.panasonic.com, or Akira Kadota, International PR,
Tel: +81-3-3578-1237, Fax: +81-3-3436-6766, or Panasonic News Bureau,
Tel: +81-3-3542-6205, Fax: +81-3-3542-9018; or Business Contacts: From United
States/European countries - Mr. Yoshihiro Mori, Panasonic Hollywood Blu-ray
Testing Center, Tel: +1-818-301-1850, E-mail: moriy@research.panasonic.com, or
From Japan/Asian countries - Mr. Asaichi Akagi, Format Verification Laboratory
of Panasonic, E-mail: akagi.asaichi@jp.panasonic.com

Web site: http://www.panasonic.com/

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