Panasonic to Release New Blu-ray Disc Drives for PCs and Non-Cartridge Blu-ray Discs

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Osaka, Japan - Panasonic, the brand for which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, today announced that the company will introduce a half-height internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) drive for desktop computers* in Japan on June 10, 2006. The LF-MB121JD BD drive can read and write single- and dual-layer BDs as well as DVDs and CDs. Prior to the introduction of the BD drive, Panasonic releases 2x-speed 25 GB and 50 GB non-cartridge BD-R and BD-RE discs for PC drives on April 28.

Increasing data volume on personal computers and the rapid and continued growth of high definition (HD) television have accelerated consumer demand for an optical drive that can read and record massive PC data as well as HD content at home. The new BD drive and discs will meet this growing demand.

The LF-MB121JD, complied with Blu-ray Disc Association's BD-R, BD-RE and BD-ROM standards, can read and write single-layer 25 GB and single-sided, dual-layer 50 GB BDs. Supporting the three generations of optical discs, the 41.3-mm high internal BD drive is compatible with 11 different writable optical discs and 13 different readable optical disc formats**.

The drive comes bundled with a wide variety of software to help users easily backup and archive a large amount of data, edit video and audio and intuitively drag and drop data for DVD and CD burning.

For use in low-profile drives, Panasonic introduces non-cartridge type (bare disc) 25 GB and 50 GB rewritable and write-once BDs for computers. The discs support recording and transferring data at 2x speed (maximum 72 Mbps), which approximates 6x write speed of DVD (1x data transfer rate for DVD is defined as 10.8 Mbps). The dual-layer BDs can store up to 50 GB of data, ten times the capacity of conventional single-sided 4.7 GB DVD discs. The LM-BE25D and LM-BE50D rewritable and LM-BR25D and LM-BR50D write-once discs incorporate Panasonic's newly-developed surface-treatment technology that enables a significant boost in disc resistance to scratches and abrasions, ensuring high reliability and durability even without a cartridge.

Panasonic also announced today that it makes available the half-height BD drive for desktop computers and slim-line slot and tray loading BD drives for notebook PCs for OEM clients starting this month.

"Panasonic is committed to the Blu-ray technology, as we believe BD delivers true benefits of better image quality in visual entertainment," said Mr. Kazuhiro Tsuga, Executive Officer in charge of Digital Network and Software Technologies, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

"The BD technology is supported not only by major Hollywood movie studios including Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, MGM, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, but also by leading PC makers such as Apple, Dell and HP and other major CE manufacturers such as Hitachi, LG, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp and Sony. That means consumers can expect long-time and wide-ranging support for BD products. Panasonic introduced our first BD recorder in 2004 and is now releasing BD drives for PCs. Through our BD technology and products, we will continue to enhance HD experience of our customers."

*Windows XP Home, Professional and Professional X64 Editions and Windows 2000 Professional Edition. Windows is either registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

**Recordable discs include BD-RE, BD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-R (for General), DVD-R DL (Ver.3.0), DVD-RW (Ver.1.1/1.2), DVD+R (Ver.1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3), DVD+R DL (Ver.1.0), DVD+RW (Ver.1.1/1.2/1.3), CD-R and CD-RW. Readable discs include all these discs plus DVD-ROM and CD-ROM. When software becomes available, BD-ROM can be read.

About Panasonic
Best known by its Panasonic brand name, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of US$81.44 billion for the year ended March 31, 2005. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, New York (NYSE:MC), Euronext Amsterdam and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net.

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