Spruce Technologies, Inc., the market leader in new media authoring solutions and services, today announced the availability of SpruceUp(TM), the world's first and only Web-enabled personal DVD authoring software, for Pioneer's groundbreaking combination DVD/CD Recordable Drive for PCs. Pioneer New Media Technologies, Inc. the leader in recordable DVD technology, announced its DVR-103 third-generation drive, the OEM version, for DVD-R, CD-R and CD-RW recording formats, in 4Q 2000. Its DVR-A03 retail version will be shipping in May 2001.

SpruceUp establishes new standards for personal DVD authoring, allowing users to shape captured content and author their own rich and captivating productions--such milestones as weddings, birthdays, reunions, graduations, conferences, corporate presentations, and product catalogs--to share with family, friends, colleagues, and clients on their Windows PCs. SpruceUp is the only low-cost product with SpruceLink(TM), for built-in support of WebDVD connectivity that adds dynamic Web links to productions as simply as typing a URL.

SpruceUp users become productive more quickly because it is designed for the Windows desktop, with key authoring/editing functions built right in. Flexible support for commonly used file formats means users aren't locked into buying additional templates for each new project. Taken together, the features in SpruceUp typically cost five to eight times more than its $129 price.

``SpruceUp delivers the ease-of-use, feature richness, creative freedom and performance-price value that consumers have come to expect in the personal software market,'' said Kirk Paulsen, Executive Vice President of Spruce Technologies.
``When you combine SpruceUp with the Pioneer recordable combination drive, you equip consumers and video enthusiasts with the best authoring software tool and an unbeatable medium to showcase their work using standard DVD video players and DVD or CD ROM drives.''