Thursday June 22, 11:01 am ET
New MPEG-4 AVC Encoder and Blu-ray-Java Authoring System Expedite Production of Blu-ray Titles with 1080p-quality Pictures and Advanced Interactivity


SECAUCUS, N.J., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Panasonic, the brand for which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, announced today that it will commence Blu-ray Disc entertainment title (for Blu-ray Disc read-only media, or BD-ROM) authoring service for movie studios at Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory (PHL) in Universal City, California on July 1. Optical discs, like Blu-ray Disc, or conventional DVDs, need to have their content authored as a step toward physical replication of the disc as an entertainment title.

As Panasonic and other electronics manufacturers plan to introduce Blu-ray Disc players this year, Blu-ray titles from the major movie studios are expected to become increasingly available for consumers. The BD-ROM authoring service launched by Panasonic will facilitate the production of Blu-ray Disc titles, so that consumers can experience High-Definition movie entertainment at home.

Panasonic has been authoring DVDs in the U.S. since 1996 and has accumulated a great deal of know-how in digital content authoring. In order to provide the new service, Panasonic has installed state-of-the-art Blu-ray Disc authoring equipment at PHL.

The equipment installed for this purpose includes a specially developed MPEG-4 Advanced Video Codec (AVC) encoder and a Blu-ray Java authoring system. The combination of the encoder and authoring system enables Blu-ray title creators to reproduce near-original, high-quality video with an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) based on Java.

The new Panasonic encoder and authoring system support the Blu-ray Disc Association's BD-ROM specification, and take advantage of the disc's benefits including very high data compression, interactive menus and highly-advanced copyright protection. The Panasonic MPEG-4 AVC encoder, capable of more than twice the compression of conventional MPEG-2 encoding, maintains the highest- resolution 1080p image quality of the source. The result is a stunning picture which Hollywood studio experts have reckoned comparable to the original.

The BD-Java authoring system offers a variety of interactive features such as pop-up menus, allowing for easy content navigation during playback. For example, users can pop up a table of contents during playback, bookmark favorite scenes, or select any desired item from the menu.

"Our engineers worked closely with Hollywood movie studios to develop the Java-BD authoring system," said Kazuhiro Tsuga, Executive Officer in charge of Digital Network and Software Technologies of Matsushita Electric. "We listened carefully to movie studios to help us create easy-to use and high- quality BD-ROM-based entertainment titles. To make them even better, we want to engage in an ongoing dialog with the Hollywood content providers."

"Panasonic plans to offer Blu-ray Disc authoring-related services to major movie studios and other content providers to accelerate the releases of more Blu-ray titles," said Mr. Tsuga. "The introduction of the Blu-ray authoring services and Blu-ray players completes the creation of an environment in which consumers can enjoy stunning High Definition video on their Panasonic HD plasma TVs at home."