| POWEREDCOM, Toshiba and Tokyo Electric Power Company To Start Trial Service of "Hikari de DVD"DVD Video Content Distribution 2 November, 2004
TOKYO -- POWEREDCOM, Inc., Toshiba Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. (TEPCO) today announced that they will start trial operation of a new DVD content distribution service, "Hikari de DVD," that delivers video to DVD recorders in the home via a high capacity fiber-optic broadband network. The trial will start on December 1, 2004 in Tokyo and its environs, with 1,000 monitors. Viewers interested in becoming monitors can sign up for the trial at the "Hikari de DVD" web site (http://www.hikari-de-dvd.com) from November 2. "Hikari de DVD" is the first video content distribution system to combine the capabilities of a high speed FTTH (Fiber To The Home) broadband network with the versatility of a DVD recorder able to support downloads of movies and music to a DVD-RAM disc. The service adopts DVD-VR (video recording), the standard format for DVD recorders, allowing it to achieve a high level of usability. The service uses CPRM (Content Protection for Recordable Media), standard content protection technology for DVD recorders, in a digital rights management (DRM) system that supports a high level security for content distribution. The system supports both rental and sales of content. Rented content can be viewed for a certain period, while purchased content can be viewed repeatedly. The trial service will offer approximately 300 titles, mainly movie and Japanese animation video content, from 19 content providers in Japan and overseas. A list of the content providers supporting the trial is appended to this release. The system brings together the diverse capabilities and assets of the three partners. POWEREDCOM drew on its experience with its "Powerbroad" broadband content distribution service for consumers and "Powered Stream," an enterprise distribution infrastructure service. POWEREDCOM will handle user authentication, user support and accounting. Toshiba developed the system's DRM, including integration of high end content security, and will oversee its operation. The company also developed a DVD recorder able to support the trial service. TEPCO will offer a "last mile" solution via "TEPCO HIKARI," the company's 100Mbps high-speed FTTH broadband network service. A visual outline of the trial service is appended to this release. Toshiba's specially developed DVD recorder adds network support to a fully-featured home DVD recorder, allowing users to record content to a DVD-RAM disc in a similar way of recording with a usual DVD recorder. Its diverse capabilities include time-shift, allowing viewers to view video content as it is being saved to a disc. Content in the DVD-VR format, the standard format for DVD recorders, can be saved to a DVD-RAM disc, and in case of sales of content, can be played back on any DVD hardware that supports DVD-RAM and CPRM. The service offers high levels of video and sound quality as it supports the MPEG-2, AC3 with both stereo and 5.1 channels output, linear PCM and dual audio tracks. The DVD recorder also supports a chaptering function, including skip and chapter naming. Toshiba's digital rights management system uses CPRM for Network Download, which was standardized by the 4C Entity in August 2004. Content is encrypted in CPRM and downloaded to a DVD disc in a secure condition, achieving safe network distribution. As a decryption key is also encrypted in association with a unique ID given to a DVD-RAM disc, content can be decrypted only with that particular disc, which prevents unauthorized copying of downloaded content. Security is further enhanced by the fact that the service is operated in a closed network that is isolated from the wider Internet. The trial service will run from December 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005. The three companies will use the trial to examine the usability of the system, and bring the results to development of a commercial service. Note: This service is a trial to distribute content to monitors in a specific period. The service contents may differ when commercial service is introduced.
About POWEREDCOM About Toshiba About Tokyo Electric Power Company Contact on the trial service: Press Contacts: Toshiba Corporation Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc.
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