Panasonic Germany Expands Line of DivX Certified DVD Devices
Both DVD Players and Home Theater in a Box Solutions Available in German Retail Stores: DVD Devices Will Support Playback of Popular DivX Video Format
HAMBURG, Germany & SAN DIEGO, Calif.--September 2, 2005--Panasonic Germany, a global manufacturer of consumer electronics, announced today the expansion of its 2005 line of DivX Certified DVD devices for sale in European retail outlets. Five different DVD products, including both standard standalone DVD players and Home Theater in a Box solutions, will be available on the German retail market this year. The DivX Certified Panasonic devices offer users unprecedented flexibility in watching pre-recorded discs and discs that they have created from their own multimedia content. Panasonic Germanys 2005 line-up of audio/video products are designed to create a complete entertainment experience that enables users to enjoy the widest variety of digital media formats. The DivX Certified DVD devices from Panasonic Germany include the standalone models DVD S49 and DVD 295, but also includes three Home Cinema devices, featuring everything necessary to create a true Home Theater. The SC HT885W, SC HT535, and the SC HT 335 all offer full 5.1 channel speakers along with a DivX Certified DVD player. The SC HT885W also offers wireless networking capability to expand the interactive and multimedia functions beyond just traditional playback. Products that bear the DivX Certified logo have undergone a rigorous quality and compatibility testing program to ensure interoperability, security and visual quality. DivX Certified products enable consumers to create, play and share high-quality video content across a range of devices and platforms. More than 50 million DivX Certified chips have shipped and powering a range of consumer electronics devices from the worlds leading brands. We designed these new DVD products to empower our users to enjoy the widest variety of entertainment content possible in the most convenient manner possible, and support for the widely popular DivX video format, which has become the standard for high quality, highly compressed digital video, is a key element of that vision, said Panasonic Germanys Michi Langbehn. By including DivX capability in a variety of different DVD devices, Panasonic Germany is proving their commitment to creating and distributing products that meet the needs of the millions of users all over the world who are clamoring for products that support DivX video playback, said Bill Holmes, Vice President of Consumer Electronics at DivX, Inc. For more information on DivX Certification, visit www.divxnetworks.com/solutions/certification/index.php. For more information on Panasonic Germanys DVD devices, visit www.panasonic.de About DivX, Inc. DivX, Inc. is a consumer-focused video technology company positioned at the center of multimedia convergence. The company's core offering is the DivX video codec, among the world's most popular video compression technologies with over 250 million DivX software downloads. The patent-pending DivX video can acheive DVD-quality at a fraction of the size of MPEG-2/DVD files, enabling full-length films to easily fit on a CD or be delivered over broadband connections. DivX video technology powers a range of applications that span the convergence value chain, from a secure IP-based video-on-demand solution to next-generation consumer electronics products and video software applications. DivX, Inc. is headquartered in San Diego, California. About Panasonic, Germany Best known by its Panasonic brand name, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of US$81.44 billion for the year ended March 31, 2005. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, New York (NYSE:MC), Euronext Amsterdam and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company's website at http://www.panasonic.de.