HDCD Now Available in Zoran's Vaddis III DVD Decoder and Audio DSP ICs; ICs Enable OEMs To Add HDCD To DVD Players and A/V Receivers

Business Wire, Jan 8, 1999

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 1999--At the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Pacific Microsonics announced today that Zoran Corporation (Nasdaq:ZRAN), a leading provider of integrated circuits and software for digital video and audio, has added Pacific Microsonics' HDCD decoding and HDCD precision filtering to Zoran's Vaddis III(tm) DVD audio/video decoder and their new ZR38601 and ZR38650 digital audio processor ICs.

"We are very excited to be working with Zoran because these ICs provide a very important solution for our customers," said Andy Johnson, Vice President of Marketing for Pacific Microsonics. "Many of our customers who are manufacturing HDCD-equipped CD players are planning to feature HDCD in DVD players and A/V receivers. These industry leading ICs from Zoran provide a high-performance, cost-effective solution for these product categories."

With the HDCD Vaddis III IC, DVD player manufacturers can now offer consumers a product which is both a high quality DVD-video player and a high quality HDCD audio CD player. Decoding HDCD encoded CDs produces true 20-bit dynamic range and resolution from the 16-bit CD format and HDCD precision filtering significantly improves the sound quality of conventional CDs.

Integrating HDCD in the Vaddis III, which also contains MPEG video decoding, Dolby Digital audio decoding, and 3D virtual sound, enables consumer electronics manufacturers to easily add HDCD capability to DVD players without adding additional, dedicated HDCD circuitry.

"We are most pleased to be the first DVD Decoder IC manufacturer to offer the sonic benefits of HDCD and to also be able to include HDCD in our Silicon Software(tm) library of advanced audio algorithms for our new ZR38601 and ZR38650 digital audio processors," said Paul Goldberg, Vice President of Audio Products for Zoran. "Adding HDCD to the Vaddis' existing high quality audio and video feature set enables Zoran to provide its customers the highest valued-added, single chip DVD solution in the industry. While providing HDCD for use with our new ZR38601 and ZR38650 digital audio processor ICs allows Digital A/V receiver and Digital Surround Sound speaker manufacturers to include this important audio standard in their products, with no extra hardware cost."

Zoran expects to begin shipping the Zoran platform versions of HDCD in March 1999.

About Pacific Microsonics and HDCD

Developed by Pacific Microsonics, HDCD(R) (High Definition Compatible Digital(R)) is a patented process for delivering on Compact Disc and DVD-Audio the full richness and details of the original microphone feed.

By correcting distortions found in current digital recording technology, HDCD provides more dynamic range, a focused 3D sound stage, and extremely natural musical timbre. HDCD recordings offer improved sound quality on any CD player, and when reproduced on HDCD equipped players they provide the ultimate in sonic fidelity.

Over 2,000 HDCD encoded CDs have been made and over 100 million HDCD CDs have been sold. Over 100 HDCD-equipped CD players and DVD players are available from the world's leading consumer electronics companies including Arcam, Denon, Harman Kardon, Linn, Madrigal, Rotel, Sansui, and Toshiba.

About ZORAN

Zoran Corporation develops and markets software, integrated circuits (ICs) and IC Intellectual Property (IP) cores for digital audio and video applications enabled by compression. Zoran also provides complete reference designs based on Zoran's technology.

Zoran's product lines and IP include JPEG codecs, MPEG and DVD decoders, digital audio processors and real-time DVD software for PC's. All these standard-based products benefit from Zoran's Standard Plus(tm) technology. Zoran's software is bundled by PC and graphics-card manufacturers for software and software assisted DVD playback on PCs.

The company's ICs are used in numerous digital audio and video products. Leading applications incorporating Zoran's products and IP include professional and consumer video editing systems, filmless digital cameras, stand alone DVD players, SuperVCD players and PC-based systems, digital speakers and audio systems.

Zoran is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with additional operations

in Haifa, Israel; Toronto, Canada and offices in Tokyo, Japan and Shenzhen, China. For more information about Zoran call 408/919-4111, or visit our website: www.zoran.com. For our latest press releases please call our fax-on-demand service at 1-800-PRO-INFO, ticker symbol ZRAN.

Note to Editors: HDCD and High Definition Compatible Digital are registered trademarks of Pacific Microsonics, Inc. Vaddis and VaddisIII, Standard Plus, and SiliconSoftware are trademarks of Zoran Corporation. All other trademarks are properties of their respective holders.

This news release is available at www.hdcd.com and www.zoran.com under "What's New".