Electronic Entertainment Expo/Los Angeles, CA -- VM Labs Inc, InterActual Technologies, Inc. and Panasonic Disc Services Corporation (PDSC) today announced their cooperation in creating a broad set of authoring tools and replication services for NUON™ enhanced DVD players. The new tools will enable movie studios to easily expand DVD movie disk content, adding such features as entire film Web sites, customized user interfaces, and 3D videogame software. After several in-person demonstrations and comprehensive meetings, Hollywood's entertainment studios are putting their stamp of approval on the NUON technology created by VM Labs. NUON is a powerful and versatile technology that transforms digital video products such as DVD players, digital satellite receivers and digital set-top boxes into interactive multimedia centers for the whole family.

"Our goal is to provide consumers with the same interactive DVD experience on the television that is currently available only on PCs with DVD-ROM drives," said Richard Miller, CEO of VM Labs. "These powerful tools provide the technical solution that will allow studios to focus on bringing software and Internet assets to the DVD medium, right along with film content."

"VM Labs is effectively bringing true interactivity to DVD," said Dave Miller, Marketing Manager of MGM Home Entertainment. "NUON is positioned to broaden the landscape for home entertainment significantly as DVD adoption rates continue to grow rapidly."

Authoring tools provided by InterActual will make possible such DVD movie experience enhancements as interactive browsing of a movie script and storyboards, unlocking of special movie content, and real-time access to Internet Web sites and live Web events. DVD content providers will be able to present interactive extra features to home video consumers as easily as they can now for PC users. For the first time, consumers will be able to enjoy high performance videogames, educational and reference applications, with sophisticated film quality 2D and 3D graphics, on the same machine that provides movie content.

"NUON brings a new interactive DVD standard to the living room," said Todd Collart, President and CEO of InterActual Technologies. "This tool set enables Hollywood to develop an enhanced entertainment experience that will be limited only by the producer's imagination."

"New Line is fully committed to interactive entertainment," declared Steve Ramirez, Vice President of Marketing and Sell Through for New Line Home Video. "We were the first studio to provide exclusive interactive content for DVD-ROM and now recognize many of the same features, as well as additional capabilities for the set-top using the NUON technology."

NUON technology is designed to be embedded in the next generation of digital video products such as DVD players and set-top boxes. The powerful NUON processor provides the raw horsepower to decode digital video and audio, while delivering advanced trick modes and an enhanced user interface. At the same time, the NUON operating system provides a powerful platform for interactive content, enhanced movies, 3D videogames and many other applications. NUON complements the Open DVD standard, allowing access to a vast library of pre-existing film titles. Panasonic Disc Services Corporation will be providing authoring services and replication for NUON-enhanced DVD movies, as well as NUON Interactive DVD game software.

"PDSC is working with VM Labs to provide our clients with authoring and replication services that extend the audience for interactive and Web content beyond the PC," stated Harvey Mabry, General Manager, Sales and Marketing of Panasonic Disc Services Corporation. "The enhanced interactivity provided by NUON will further grow the expanding DVD marketplace."

InterActual Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of software and services that enhance the playback of DVDs for personal computers and next-generation set-top players. InterActual offers comprehensive DVD technologies and services to both the entertainment industry and corporate markets for integrating broadcast-quality video with the Internet, E-commerce, interactive games, targeted push capability and advertising. Additional information about InterActual is available at http://www.interactual.com.

Established in 1997 in Torrance, CA, as the world's first DVD-only replication facility, Panasonic Disc Services Corporation (PDSC) is a subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE:MC), a leader in the development of digital electronics for the home, office and in between. Matsushita Electric has pioneered the development of DVD technology and its application in DVD movie players, DVD memory devices for computers, DVD-Audio, key components, software development and disc manufacturing.

VM Labs Inc., based in Mountain View, CA, was founded in 1994. NUON™ technology represents a new standard in interactive entertainment. It provides casual and hardcore video gaming and interactive content, combined with Internet access, delivered in tandem with mass-market movie and video entertainment. Analysts predict that digital video will replace the current analog method over the next five to ten years. VM Labs and their partners are poised to achieve total market penetration for interactive entertainment with NUON-enhanced digital video products, the same way televisions and VCRs are now available in virtually every home in the nation.

NUON™ is a trademark of VM Labs, Inc.

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