Sonic Solutions today announced that Pioneer Europe has chosen to bundle five of Sonic's top software solutions for digital media with its new 4X Double Layer DVR-A08XL DVD writers.

The collaboration allows Pioneer Europe to provide its users with proven, powerful CD and DVD burning technology that gives them the ability to easily create and enjoy CDs and DVDs for music, data, video, photo slideshows and backup.

"We are delighted and honored that Pioneer Europe has chosen to use our technology for their new DVR-A08XL DVD writers," said John Newman, Director of European Operations at Sonic. "Together we provide an exceptional combination of features, performance, and award-winning ease-of-use that makes it fun and simple for Pioneer customers to take advantage of the speed, recording quality and Double Layer capabilities of the DVR-A08XL."

The software to be bundled with the DVR-A08XL includes Sonic MyDVD, RecordNow, Cineplayer, Simple Backup and Drive Letter Access. MyDVD and RecordNow utilize the Sonic HyperMux-DL(TM) engine which leverages Sonic's successful history of creating multi-layer disc authoring systems for Hollywood studios by applying advanced title layout, buffer management, layer-break management, and frame selection technologies to consumer DVD creation applications for the first time.

"The DVR-A08XL leads the pack with 16X write speeds and Double Layer burning," said Chris Tampsett, Senior Manager, Pioneer Europe NV, Multimedia Division. "Sonic has been creating Double Layer DVD technology for Hollywood since 1996 and provides Pioneer with access to unmatchable experience in making Double Layer discs which perform optimally in the broadest number of consumer players."

The Pioneer DVR-A08XL DVD writer will be available from the end of August at retail outlets across Europe at the suggested retail price of €179.00.

About Sonic MyDVD

Sonic MyDVD is the leading PC application for consumer DVD creation. With its ability to record analog and digital video (DV) in real-time into MPEG-2 for DVD, MyDVD is the fastest and easiest way to share treasured video memories with friends and family on DVD discs, from wedding videos to children's birthday parties and other special events.

Sonic MyDVD makes it easy to burn high-quality DVDs with integrated video editing, automatic scene detection, motion-video menus, animated buttons and DVD slideshows with transitions and soundtracks. Sonic MyDVD also features optimized Direct-to-DVD(TM) recording which allows users, in just a few clicks, to record their content directly to DVD from a video source connected to the computer's video input. Sonic MyDVD is also OpenDVD(TM)-compliant, enabling previously burned DVDs to be opened, re-edited, updated with new video and photo content and re-burned to DVD and CD recordable/re-writable media. This enables an entirely new generation of DVD and CD applications, such as video diaries, compilations of family events, up-to-the-minute, customized sales presentations, and more.

About Sonic RecordNow

Sonic RecordNow powers millions of CD and DVD burners worldwide, giving users the ability to burn high-quality, high-integrity discs of their music, photos and data. Designed with ease-of-use in mind, RecordNow combines an award-winning user interface with a powerful and robust CD/DVD burning engine, making it easy and approachable for first-time users, but powerful enough for DVD and CD burning pros. With RecordNow any burning task, from creating music CDs to backing up photos and mission-critical data to making copies of CDs and DVDs, can be easily accomplished.

About Sonic CinePlayer, Simple Backup, and Drive Letter Access

CinePlayer combines the highest-quality video playback with an extremely easy-to-use and intuitive user-interface. Simple Backup allows users to perform full or partial backups to CDs and DVDs. Sonic Drive Letter Access is a powerful utility that uses Universal Disc Format and packet writing technologies to provide drag-and-drop burning directly to discs.

From BusinessWire