Pinnacle Systems Announces USB Personal Video Recorder

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 5, 2000 - Pinnacle
Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLE), a leader in broadcast and consumer video
solutions, today announced plans to offer a USB Personal Video Recorder
(PVR).

The product, codenamed Bungee, turns a PC into a
Personal Video Recorder for the TV, giving users the ability to pause live
TV, create instant replays, and schedule recording events. Bungee is an
external device with USB and video ports that easily connects to any desktop
or notebook PC. Bungee has TV output capability that allows users to
timeshift programs on their PC and watch them on their TV set. Bungee is
targeted to ship in Spring 2001.

“Bungee lets consumers use the power of their PC as
a Personal Video Recorder,” said Bill Loesch, vice president of marketing
and technology for Pinnacle Systems’ Personal Web Video Division. “The
advantage to Bungee is that is allows users to watch timeshifted programs on
their computer monitor or on a larger TV screen.”

Bungee is an external USB peripheral that enables
users to upgrade their PC with TV viewing and PVR functionality without
having to open up their computer. Bundled with Pinnacle Systems’ Vision
application, an advanced TV viewing software, users can pause broadcast
shows, create instant replays and receive FM stereo. Bungee can display
timeshifted video on both PC monitors and televisions and it comes with a
remote control for all TV, VCR and timeshift functions.

Like set-top PVRs, Bungee uses MPEG2 encode and
decode processors to deliver the highest quality audio and video. The
efficient compression of the MPEG2 format enables Bungee to stream TV
programs in both directions over a standard USB port for storage and
playback on the PC’s hard disk. Bungee is one of the first products to
support simultaneous video recording and playback over the USB port.