Zoran Receives DVD Copy Protection Software License From CSS; License expected to rapidly accelerate the introduction of Zoran-based DVD products throughout the PC industry

Business Wire, June 3, 1997

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 1997--Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN) and its subsidiary CompCore Multimedia today announced the completion of a license to distribute DVD technology with copy protection implemented in software. This license has been granted by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. acting as the CSS Interim Licensing organization. Zoran expects to start shipping software decryption and authentication as part of its "SoftDVDT" solution during the third quarter of this year. Zoran will demonstrate its SoftDVD and DVD hardware solutions this month at DVD 97 (June 10, Wyndham Hotel, San Jose, CA), PC Expo (June 17-19, Javits Convention Center, New York), and Windows World Expo Tokyo 97 (June 25-28, Nippon Convention Center, Tokyo).

Copy protection is an integral component of the overall DVD standard used for the authoring and playback of digital video and audio information. Copy protection decryption/authentication is required to play encrypted content such as recently released DVD titles. Until now, DVD copy protection was only licensed for use in hardware implementations of DVD. With the new license, Zoran is now authorized to ship an implementation of software copy protection with SoftDVD, its integrated MPEG-2/Dolby Digital software which provides an extremely low cost solution for DVD playback on the PC.

"Receiving approval from the CSS Interim Licensing organization to implement DVD copy protection in software achieves a major milestone in our PC DVD strategy," said Levy Gerzberg, president and CEO of Zoran. "The industry has been anxiously awaiting DVD software products with decryption. Zoran expects to be one of the first companies to provide an all software DVD solution with copy protection. With the availability of these products, we expect to see an accelerated acceptance of DVD players and DVD-enabled PCs based on Zoran's SoftDVD and other DVD products."

"Getting permission to ship copy protection software is the culmination of a lengthy process pursued by Zoran, CompCore and several major companies in the PC industry," said George Haber, executive vice president of Zoran Corporation. "Now that this hurdle has been removed, we believe the overall PC DVD market will expand dramatically. Zoran expects to be a major player in this market due to our continued leadership in providing high performance, low-cost solutions."

Through its subsidiary CompCore Multimedia, Zoran has been a leading advocate for software implementations of DVD playback systems for the personal computer. This early support began with CompCore being the first company to demonstrate software MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital decoding on the PC during the first half of 1996. Since then, Zoran and CompCore have announced and demonstrated the SoftDVD Navigator which is used to play DVD content through pre-programmed menus. Now, with the approval to distribute SoftDVD with copy protection software, Zoran is in a position to provide a complete software DVD solution for the PC.

SoftDVD is available in two basic configurations; 1.) an all-software version, and 2.) a software/hardware hybrid combination. To implement the all-software version of SoftDVD, an Intel microprocessor which supports MMX technology, an architectural enhancement for improving multimedia and communications on PCs, is required. The all-software version of SoftDVD will use software copy protection. For hybrid hardware/software solutions, SoftDVD interoperates with Zoran's latest single chip MPEG-2/Dolby Digital decoder, the ZR36700. With these types of hybrid implementations of SoftDVD, copy protection will be performed in hardware.

About Zoran

Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN) develops and markets integrated circuits and software for digital video and audio applications enabled by compression. CompCore Multimedia Inc., a leading provider of software and hardware cores for MPEG products, was acquired by Zoran Corporation in December of 1996. Zoran's product lines include JPEG codecs, MPEG video decoders, Dolby AC-3 and MPEG audio decoders and real-time DVD and Video CD software for the PC. The company's software is bundled by PC and graphic systems manufacturers for software-only or hardware assisted DVD ROM or Video CD playback software on the PC. Current applications for Zoran IC products include professional and consumer video editing systems, PC-based and stand-alone Video CD systems, DVD-ROM and stand-alone players, digital audio systems, and filmless digital cameras. Established in 1983, the company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has additional operations in Haifa, Israel. Zoran's technologies have been adopted by many of the world's largest manufacturers including Acer, ATI, AT&T, Avid Technology, Cirrus Logic, Compaq, Denon, Diamond Multimedia, Dolby, FujiFilm, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Kenwood, Marantz, Matrox, Matsushita, Miro Computer, NEC, Packard Bell, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Yamaha and many others. For more information about Zoran, call (408) 919-4111.