Panasonic announced at PC Expo today that it will begin volume shipments of next-generation 4.7GB DVD-RAM drives and media in July. The announcement was followed by a series of application demonstrations which will run throughout the show in Panasonic Press Rooms 19-20. The demonstrations illustrate how the higher capacity, faster recording speed, and broad compatibility of Panasonic's new 4.7GB/9.4GB DVD-RAM drives and bare disc media are positioning rewritable DVD for computer and home video applications.

Priced about the same as Panasonic's first-generation 2.6GB/5.2GB DVD-RAM drives and media, the 4.7GB format combines the ease of use and random access of a hard drive with new enabling features that enhance the drive's value and versatility:

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C-Cube Microsystems today announced that consumer electronics leader LG Electronics has begun volume production of advanced DVD players designed with C-Cube's next-generation DVD decoder, a solution that delivers industry-leading audio-video capabilities while reducing production costs.

The ZiVA-4 DVD decoder builds on C-Cube's highly successful ZiVA-3 solution with higher levels of integration and advanced audio and video features including MP3 audio decode to play back personalized CDs, on-the-fly video zoom of movies, and slow-motion forward and reverse. ZiVA-4 also features an integrated video encoder that delivers full support for all major NTSC and PAL standards and four video-output DACs that support composite, S-video, and component video outputs, along with the European SCART standard.

``ZiVA-4 allows us to offer our customers DVD players that deliver the richest DVD audio-video capabilities available,'' said Mr. Kwang Soo Jung, LG's general manager and executive vice president of Digital Video OBU. ``We are designing ZiVA-4 into our new LG and Zenith DVD players.''

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STMicroelectronics, the world's number one supplier of MPEG-2 chips, has introduced a new DVD decoder/host processor chip, the STi5508, that offers all the functions of the popular STi5505 along with enhanced audio and video features, including a powerful Karaoke processor and MP3 decoder. Like the STi5505 when it was introduced at the end of 1998, the STi5508 is the world's most highly integrated DVD back-end solution and enables a significant increase in DVD audio and video performance to be cost-effectively achieved.

The STi5508 is aimed not only at stand-alone DVD-Video players but also the proliferation of Digital Consumer convergence products that combine functions such as DVD, Digital Satellite set top box, games consoles, digital video encoders or hard disk drives in the same box. It interfaces easily to all types of DVD front-end circuits, making it compatible with all existing DVD drives. A complete System-on-Chip DVD back-end solution, the STi5508 reduces PCB area and costs and supports all regional market requirements.

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Hitachi will showcase the industry's first DVD-RAM Camera at PC Expo 2000. Hitachi is taking DVD technology beyond the desktop by marrying the quality and vast storage capacity of DVD technology with the mobility and versatility of an innovative camcorder. Hitachi's DVD-RAM Camcorder records up to two hours of superior quality video or 2,000 still photos onto a small DVD-RAM disc. Consumers can then easily connect to a TV and enjoy a recorded video, or plug into a PC for editing, printing, emailing or posting to a Web site.

Hitachi will also feature a demonstration of its GF-2000 high-speed rewriteable DVD-RAM drive. Boasting single-sided storage capacity of 4.7 GB, the GF-2000 is suitable to process today's demanding PC applications. Hitachi is at the forefront of DVD technology developing innovative solutions that extend the power of DVD to a consumer's desktop and now to a camcorder.

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Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC), Storage Device Division (SDD), today announced its highest-capacity DVD-RAM drive, the 4.7GB SD-W2002. With 4.7GB of capacity on a single-sided disc and 9.4GB on a dual-sided disc, Toshiba developed the SD-W2002 for high capacity storage, including hours of video and graphics-intensive applications.

Businesses and consumers will be able to harness the power of their electronics by storing hours of digital movies, tens of thousands of photos and volumes of data on a single disc. DVD-RAM media is the most durable and reliable storage available, with a data life of more than 30 years, a cost of $.005/MB and a rewriteability of more than 100,000 times.

``Toshiba is pleased to deliver a DVD-RAM drive that will increase the overall value and creative abilities of PC users,'' said Maciek Brzeski, vice president, marketing, Toshiba SDD. ``Both businesses and consumers will benefit greatly from a rewriteable drive that will store more than 400,000 documents or 4,700 full-color digital photos on a single disc.

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Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Cate Banchett electrify the screen in the riveting thriller from Oscar – winning director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient).

Matt Damon “gives one of the year’s most extraordinary performances” (Premiere) as Tom Ripley, a calculating young man who believes it’s better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy American shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie (Law). Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend (Paltrow), plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" is rated "R" and has a running time of 138 minutes.

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