Press Release: Managing Member Companies of HD DVD Promotion Group
Welcome Intel and Microsoft as Newest Members of the Group
Sept. 27, 2005--Memory-Tech Corporation, NEC
Corporation, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. and Toshiba Corporation, the managing
member companies of the HD DVD Promotion Group, today warmly welcomed Intel
Corporation and Microsoft Corporation's announcement of support for the HD DVD
format and their decision to join the HD DVD Promotion Group.
In a statement issued in Tokyo on behalf of the HD
DVD Promotion Group, the four companies noted that: "The participation of the
two global leaders in the IT industry will assure enhancement of HD DVD format
promotion, bring their technical and marketing expertise to the Group, and will
contribute to the early market penetration of HD DVD products."
"The capacity for volume production of HD DVD discs is
already in place, and the content industry has great expectations of HD DVD as
the key product to sustain the growth of the next-generation audio-visual
software market," said Shiroharu Kawasaki, President and CEO of Memory-Tech. "We
welcome the participation of Intel and Microsoft as further enhancing HD DVD's
potential applications."
"HD DVD format is extremely important for the
development of both the PC and AV markets, as it fulfills the needs of PC
applications requiring high-capacity data and AV applications that require the
recording and playback of high definition images," said Hiroshi Gokan, NEC's
Executive General Manager of Computers Storage Products Operations Unit. "We are
fully confident that Intel and Microsoft's affiliation with the HD DVD Promotion
Group will significantly contribute to the propulsion and penetration of the HD
DVD format."
"SANYO believes that the participation of the two
leaders of the US IT industry in the HD DVD Promotion Group will accelerate the
synergistic conversion of the technologies they have nurtured in the PC and
server industries with those from the digital consumer domain, encouraging
further technology innovation and the creation of new markets," said Hiroshi
Ono, General Manager of SANYO's R&D Headquarters.
"The announcement from these two leading IT companies
reconfirms the design advantages of HD DVD format and its achievement of maximum
compatibility between AV and PC products. In fact, it is increasingly clear that
HD DVD offers the best way forward in the convergence of the AV and PC worlds,"
said Hisashi Yamada, Chief Fellow of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company and
Chairman of Technical Coordination Group at the DVD Forum. "Hollywood studios
are now working on preparation of HD DVD content, and I look forward to the near
future, when people everywhere will be able to enjoy high definition images on
TV and their PC."
Posted: Tue - September 27, 2005 at 09:12 AM