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I had the opportunity to talk to several top executives from Sony Pictures Entertainment at CES last week. I spoke with President David Bishop, Executive Vice President of Advanced Technologies Don Eklund, Vice President of New Business Development Rich Marty, Senior Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Lexine Wong and others.
The topics were related to their Blu-Ray releases and their perception on AVS. We had a very frank discussion and I found it an encouraging meeting and cause for a lot of optimism for BD users.
One thing I tried to encourage was more participation from experts in the forums. Amir's participation from HD-DVD is well received and I suggested they provide the same for BD users. It looks like that may be happening now with more recent participation from Paidgeek which is certainly good news for AVS readers. They repeated many times how important they view AVS readers and how they recognize its impact on purchase decisions.
But the primary message they wanted me to take was they want their content to have the best quality and have taken many measures to try to get there. I am convinced of this commitment and I expect we will see the results of it very soon.
First off, they quite humbly admitted several mistakes in past releases. They were caught up in a rush to market and didn't fully appreciate the consequences of some actions they took during the transfers. They are well aware of the reputation problems that and some early hardware problems caused on the forum and they really want to turn it around. They said in retrospect they wished they could go back and do a few things over again.
I suggested the best way to improve their reputation was to get the best quality product out there and the perception will follow. They said they are trying to do that and mentioned several actions they already have taken and will be taking for software improvements. Here are some:
1. They have brought in consumer displays to use during the transfer in addition to their professional quality displays. I'm not sure why but they said they found that some content that looks OK on professional monitors looks poor on consumer displays. They mentioned the reluctance of some doing the transfers to use of these displays, but said the result has already shown some improvement.
2. They are simply working harder on the transfers. They said they now more fully appreciate the need to take more care during the transfers and are doing so. We didn't discuss any specifics.
3. They said they brought in producers/directors and sat them down and showed them the results of transferring their content to BD. They said they actually are trying to get their films produced in a way that will look better when transferred to BD. This surprised me the most and went the farthest to convince me they are committed to this.
They suggested Black Hawk Down is a recent release that shows the improvement that some of these steps have taken and suggested that we can expect continued improvements in future releases. I am going to watch and see.
All in all it was a very interesting discussion and it says a lot about the influence AVS has on this budding industry.
Edit: I should clarify that I talked to several people at various times over about an hour. I didn't keep track of who specifically said what, so when I speak of what "they" said I mean one or possibly more of the execs I spoke with said that.
The topics were related to their Blu-Ray releases and their perception on AVS. We had a very frank discussion and I found it an encouraging meeting and cause for a lot of optimism for BD users.
One thing I tried to encourage was more participation from experts in the forums. Amir's participation from HD-DVD is well received and I suggested they provide the same for BD users. It looks like that may be happening now with more recent participation from Paidgeek which is certainly good news for AVS readers. They repeated many times how important they view AVS readers and how they recognize its impact on purchase decisions.
But the primary message they wanted me to take was they want their content to have the best quality and have taken many measures to try to get there. I am convinced of this commitment and I expect we will see the results of it very soon.
First off, they quite humbly admitted several mistakes in past releases. They were caught up in a rush to market and didn't fully appreciate the consequences of some actions they took during the transfers. They are well aware of the reputation problems that and some early hardware problems caused on the forum and they really want to turn it around. They said in retrospect they wished they could go back and do a few things over again.
I suggested the best way to improve their reputation was to get the best quality product out there and the perception will follow. They said they are trying to do that and mentioned several actions they already have taken and will be taking for software improvements. Here are some:
1. They have brought in consumer displays to use during the transfer in addition to their professional quality displays. I'm not sure why but they said they found that some content that looks OK on professional monitors looks poor on consumer displays. They mentioned the reluctance of some doing the transfers to use of these displays, but said the result has already shown some improvement.
2. They are simply working harder on the transfers. They said they now more fully appreciate the need to take more care during the transfers and are doing so. We didn't discuss any specifics.
3. They said they brought in producers/directors and sat them down and showed them the results of transferring their content to BD. They said they actually are trying to get their films produced in a way that will look better when transferred to BD. This surprised me the most and went the farthest to convince me they are committed to this.
They suggested Black Hawk Down is a recent release that shows the improvement that some of these steps have taken and suggested that we can expect continued improvements in future releases. I am going to watch and see.
All in all it was a very interesting discussion and it says a lot about the influence AVS has on this budding industry.
Edit: I should clarify that I talked to several people at various times over about an hour. I didn't keep track of who specifically said what, so when I speak of what "they" said I mean one or possibly more of the execs I spoke with said that.
