Thomson announced today that it has established the first Blu-ray Disc Association approved Blu-ray Disc Testing Center in the United States. Located in Burbank, CA, the test center has been categorized as a content verifier and has been given the task of testing commercial content for the BDA.

Thomson (Paris:18453) (NYSE:TMS) the worldwide leader in video solutions for the Communication, Media & Entertainment (CME) industries through its Technicolor Business Group, today announced it has established the first Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)-approved Blu-ray Disc Testing Center in the United States at its Burbank location.

Because Blu-ray Discs feature cutting edge video, audio, and interactive features (BD-Jive and BD-Live), a sophisticated level of testing is required to ensure compatibility and flawless operation of all players available on the market before the discs are publicly released. Technicolors test center is categorized as a content verifier testing facility, approved by the BDA and tasked with testing commercial audiovisual (AV) content for the Association.

Technicolor, as an expert in Blu-ray Disc production, recognizes the need for improved quality control and format verification for Blu-ray Discs to ensure better compatibility and performance. The creation of a testing center directly addresses the demand by studios and content producers to create a knowledge center for improving disc compatibility and performance, and accelerate the release of Blu-ray Disc titles into the market.

We are very excited to establish this Blu-ray Disc testing center, said Bob Michaels, vice president of world wide DVD compression and authoring services. This will provide a value-added service to the industry and ultimately result in a better user experience of Blu-ray Discs.

Because Technicolor possesses a great deal of expertise in the Blu-ray authoring language BD-Java, the company is well positioned to process discs through a variety of tests to ensure standards compatibility, format integrity, and advise content producers on how to improve the disc behavior.

As a leader in managed services, Technicolor offers its customers a wide range of comprehensive Blu-ray Disc services including postproduction services such as 2K workflows and restoration; mastering services including duplication, metadata and encoding; creative interactive design, menu creation, compression & authoring (C&A) services including TIGER AVC encoding, BD-Jive authoring (Technicolors proprietary BD-Java System), Disc Initiated Services, testing and verification, and BD+ watermarking; Electronic Distribution Services including BD-Live distribution; and Home Entertainment services including BD-25 and BD-50 replication, packaging, distribution and supply chain management.