Las Vegas, NV (NAB, April 23-26, 2001) - JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY announced that it has shipped an initial order of D9-HD 100 MB/s recorders to Fox Digital for use in episodic television production. It is Fox's intention to use JVC's 720p/24 D-9 HD as a solution to replace film in episodic television production.

"At Fox, we worked with JVC on the development and refinements of their world class D-9 digital video tape recorder. JVC's engineers were the first to step up and build, to our spec, a full resolution 4:2:2 sampled 1280 x 720 progressive video recorder that runs at 24 frames per second. At 100Mb/s, we are in the sweet spot of production level compression, comparable to 720p60 on D5. We look forward to using this technology as a substitute for film in TV program production," noted Jim DeFilippis, Vice President Television Engineering, News Technology Group.

Working with JVC and other companies, Fox has found 720P/24 to achieve the optimum balance of uncompromised high quality and economy. Moreover, 720P/24 has proven to be a far more effective balance of quality and cost than some sub-sampled or "pre-filtered" 1080 line High Definition systems being proposed from some sources.

The migration from film to digital television production as a primary medium is inevitable, as major studios have come to realize that digital production brings substantial economies and increased productivity to the program production process. Similar to the movement of independent filmmakers toward digital technologies in lieu of film, episodic television producers are finding that they can significantly reduce expenses without sacrificing aesthetic appeal or quality because there are virtually no artifacts or generation loss.

D-9 HD is the high definition line extension to JVC's D-9 broadcast format, and is the collaborative fruit of R&D by JVC, its gallery of strategic partners, and the News Technology Group, the Research and Development arm of FOX Digital. Over the last year, JVC and Fox have been working toward the development of this digital technology for 720p24 production. JVC's D-9 HD format was refined to meet specific technical and artistic criteria inherent to program release on television, which varies greatly from the needs of the traditional "Broadcast" market.

"We are pleased to partner with Fox Digital in the development of 720p/24 D-9 HD," said Bob Mueller, Executive Vice President of JVC. At JVC, the paradigm has always been to achieve a balance between technology and economy, delivering the optimum product that ensures maximum return for our customers' investment. Just as JVC has raised the bar in electronic display with D-ILA technology, we are poised to do the same in the teleproduction arena with D-9 HD."

Based on JVC's renowned D-9 format, D-9 HD is uniquely able to record the volume of data necessary to achieve a true high definition picture. By using a newly developed compression engine as well as all new IC's, D-9 HD achieves a 100 MB/s data stream and true HDTV performance. JVC's D9-HD is capable of recording a full hour of 100 Mbps HDTV on a single cassette.

The award winning 100 MB/s CODEC was developed exclusively by JVC, and is used within JVC's D-9 HD products. It has been widely recognized as providing a superior High Definition data stream.

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