PHILIPS EMBEDS DIVIO NW701 DV CODEC INTO DVD+RW VIDEO RECORDERS.

Divio Inc. has announced that Philips Consumer Electronics is using Divio's market-leading NW701 Digital Video (DV) video encoder-decoder (CODEC) to provide a DV input in its new DVD+RW video recorder. The NW701's patented compression technology allows the up-and-coming Philips DVD+RW video recorders to deliver unrivaled DV quality, performance and write/rewrite functionality for the mass market.

The NW701, the world's first and leading single-chip DV CODEC, and the Philips Semiconductors IEEE 1394 digital interface will provide high-speed DV/1394 connectivity. DV/1394 has become the de facto standard for acquiring and editing video content, enabling day-to-day video applications for consumer and prosumer markets.

The new DVD+RW format, predicted by many to become the next-generation equivalent of the tape-based VCR as well as an excellent platform to archive camcorder footage, will be highlighted in the Philips display at CES, the huge consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, booth number 1326.

"Divio's flexible, system approach enables our designers to simply and easily optimize the entire product development process," said Eric Tijssen, Manager, Product Planning for the Philips DVD Video Recorder. "In combination with our IEEE-1394 digital interface, the NW701's high-quality single chip design has helped us create the DV input in the next generation of consumer video products that will drive consumer market demands."

"The new Philips DVD+RW video recorders are at the forefront of consumer-targeted technology," said Isaac van Kempen, vice president of marketing at Divio Inc. "Product designers can now deliver a wealth of consumer products using the Divio NW701 patent-pending compression technology and high-speed throughput coupled to their own product offering. Our relationship with Philips is already having a profound impact on both the DV and consumer video markets."

In the case of the new Philips devices specifically, the NW701 transcodes DV to an MPEG 2 format for writing/re-writing onto optical media. Divio is also targeting the mass-market adoption of DV by enabling video professionals, prosumers and consumers to easily transform high-quality video from analog to digital and digital to analog. Divio created the NW701 with expanded functionality to simplify the implementation process and reduce time-to-market, allowing manufacturers to drastically lower the cost and time of product development. With its single-chip design and glueless interface to standard video components, the NW701 replaces current multi-chip solutions. It offers an unprecedented feature-set including the DV CODEC along with 1394, S-Video/Audio and Composite in and out ports. It supports NTSC and PAL as well as DV applications. Its unrivaled DV engine delivers real-time DV performance and quality wherever it may be needed.

Divio, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, has been a leader in digital video and imaging technology development since its founding in 1995. Recently, SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) announced a strategic investment in Divio for an approximate 10% stake in the company and a seat on its board of directors.

Divio develops, markets and manufactures an innovative family of chip-based solutions that enables the real-time input, capture, manipulation and exchange of digital video data for PC and consumer applications. The company's products power emerging applications in digital video recording, video publishing, broadcast, digital imaging and video communications.