Blu-ray Disc Association Surpasses 100th Member Milestone.

February 15, 2005 08:02 AM US Eastern Timezone

Blu-ray Disc Association Surpasses 100th Member Milestone; Leaders
from Critical Industry Segments Join to Support the Blu-ray Disc
Format, Further Solidifying Blu-ray's Leadership Position

HOLLYWOOD--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 15, 2005--The Blu-ray Disc
Association (BDA) surpassed a milestone today as its membership grew
beyond 100 companies. Established in October of last year, the BDA has
rapidly gained the support of leaders from the computer, consumer
electronics, video gaming, optical media, disc replication, authoring
and content industries. All of these industries are critical to the
successful development and launch of a high-definition optical format.

Among the most recent companies to join the BDA are Toho Co., Ltd and
Toei Video Company, Ltd., which are the two leading movie studios in
Japan. Toho Co., Ltd. is a leading production house and distributor of
movies in Japan. Toei Video is known for its production of movies,
sales of DVDs as well as other packaged media. Toei Video generates a
steady stream of release titles from its diversified parent company
Toei Co., Ltd. that includes Japanese films, animation and independent
films.

"When a new format launches, people tend to notice only the end
product -- the hardware and the software. What often remains out of
sight is the ecosystem needed to support those end products," said
Brian Zucker of Dell Inc.'s Client Product Group. "What's most
remarkable about the growing support for Blu-ray is not just its sheer
volume, but its breadth. Blu-ray has support from the computer,
consumer electronics, gaming and content industries, as well as the
authoring, replication, application development and manufacturing
leaders that are critical to sustaining any format."

Blu-ray Disc provides consumers and content providers with a single
common format that has the capacity, image and audio quality,
interactivity and connectivity needed to expand beyond the simple
movie playback offered by other formats and into a range of
interoperable consumer products and applications that will bring a new
dimension to home entertainment.

"The addition of new members to the BDA enables expanded opportunities
for both the format and consumers," said Victor Matsuda, Sony
Corporation of America's Vice President for Blu-ray Disc. "Due to the
broad support of Blu-ray Disc, we will be able to offer unparalleled
games, versatile recording applications, and hybrid discs that allow
high definition and standard definition movies to reside on a single
disc. These combined attributes will also offer the greatest
flexibility for both new and legacy consumer playback devices."

Currently, the Blu-ray Disc Association's Board of Directors consists
of: Dell Inc.; Hewlett Packard Company; Hitachi, Ltd.; LG Electronics
Inc.; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Panasonic (Matsushita
Electric); Pioneer Corporation; Royal Philips Electronics; Samsung
Electronics Co., Ltd.; Sharp Corporation; Sony Corporation; TDK
Corporation; Thomson; Twentieth Century Fox; and Walt Disney Pictures
and Television.

Contributors: AudioDev AB, Broadcom Corp., Canon Inc., CMC Magnetics
Corporation, Coding Technologies GmbH, CyberLink Corp., DaTARIUS
Technologies GmbH, Deluxe Media Services Inc., Digital Theater Systems
Inc., Dolby Laboratories Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Fuji Photo Film
Co., Ltd., Kenwood Corporation, LITE-ON IT Corporation, MediaTek Inc.,
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd., Moser Baer India Limited, MX
Entertainment, Nero, Optodisc Technology Corporation, Pulstec
Industrial Co., Ltd., Ricoh Co., Ltd., ShibaSoku Co. Ltd., Sigma
Designs Inc., Sonic Solutions, Sonopress LLC, ST Microelectronics, Sun
Microsystems, Inc., Ulead Systems Inc., Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.,
Visionare Corporation and ZOOtech Ltd among others.

General Members: Almedio Inc., Alpine Electronics Inc., AMC Co. Ltd.,
ArcSoft Inc., Asahi Kasei Microsystems Co., Ltd., ATI Technologies
Inc., Bandai VisualCo., Ltd., BenQ Corp., Ciba Specialty Chemicals
Inc., D&M holdings, Inc., Daewoo Electronics Corporation, Elpida
Memory, Inc., ESS Technology Inc., Expert Magnetics Corp., Funai
Electric Co., Ltd., Imation Corp, Infomedia Inc., Intersil
Corporation, InterVideo Inc., Konica Minolta Opto Inc., Lead Data
Inc., Leader Electronics Corp, LINTEC Corporation, Memorex Products
Inc., Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd., Nan Ya
Plastics Corp., NEXAPM Systems Technology Inc., NVIDIA Corp., Ono
Sokki Co., Ltd., Opt Corporation, Ritek Corporation, SDI Media USA,
Shinano Kenshi Co. Ltd., Sony BMG Entertainment, STEAG ETA-OPTIK GmbH,
Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd., TEAC Corporation, Teijin Chemicals Ltd., Toho
Company, Ltd., Toppan Printing Co., TOPTICA Photonics AG, Ltd., Unaxis
Balzer AG, Yamaha Corp. and Yokogawa Electric Corporation among
others.

About Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray Disc is the next-generation optical disc format being
developed for high-definition video and high-capacity software
applications. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 25 gigabytes
of data and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 50 gigabytes
of data.

About the Blu-ray Disc Association

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is responsible for establishing
format standards and promoting and further developing business
opportunities for Blu-ray Disc -- the next-generation optical disc for
storing high-definition movies, games, photos and other digital
content. The BDA has over 100 members. Its Board of Directors consists
of Dell Inc.; Hewlett Packard Company; Hitachi, Ltd.; LG Electronics
Inc.; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Panasonic (Matsushita
Electric); Pioneer Corporation; Royal Philips Electronics; Samsung
Electronics Co., Ltd.; Sharp Corporation; Sony Corporation; TDK
Corporation; Thomson; Twentieth Century Fox; and Walt Disney Pictures
and Television.






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