Jim (the Frog) Taylor

Jim Taylor is Chief of DVD Technology and General Manager of the Advanced Technology Group at Sonic Solutions, the leading developer of DVD and CD creation software. He is the author of DVD Demystified, the best-selling book about DVD technology, published by McGraw-Hill. Called a "minor tech legend" by E! Online, Jim created the Internet DVD FAQ, writes articles and columns about DVD, serves as Chairman of the DVD Association, and sits on advisory boards of leading-edge companies in the DVD industry. Jim received the 2000 DVD Pro Discus Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Industry, was named one of the 21 most influential DVD executives by DVD Report, was an inaugural inductee into the 2002 Digital Media Hall of Fame, and was named one of the Pioneers of DVD by One to One magazine. He has worked with interactive media for over 25 years, developing educational software, laserdiscs, CD-ROMs, Web sites, and DVDs, along with teaching workshops, seminars, and university courses. Before joining Sonic in 2001, Jim was DVD Evangelist at Microsoft, and was formerly VP of Information Technology at Videodiscovery, an educational multimedia publishing company.

More about Jim in his own words:

I discovered computers when I was 13. My scout troop visited a company that had a minicomputer. We played a Star Trek game (with maps made of ASCII characters on a monochrome CRT -- Klingons were little "K"s). Halfway through the game the computer crashed. They had to reload the operating system and the game from punched paper tape. I knew then what would occupy the rest of my life.

My life of multimedia crime began in 1979 with the Montevidisco project at Brigham Young University, where I saw my first laserdisc player (an industrial MCA DiscoVision behemoth). After fiddling with the remote for a bit, I figured out how to program it to make the kids on the merry-go-round hop back and forth (bonus points if you recognize the laserdisc). From that point on I was hooked on random access video. I played a very small role in the development of Montevidisco, a ground-breaking language-learning multimedia project that used two Pioneer LD-V8000 players, video overlay cards, and other goodies at the cost of $18,000 per system. Now, after 20 years, we can finally achieve most of the same functionality on an $80 DVD-Video player.

My various positions at BYU over the course of ten years included Manager of Microcomputer Support for Curriculum, Academic Computer Labs Administrator, Courseware Production Supervisor, Systems Programmer, and TICCIT Courseware Author. I developed and taught workshops on multimedia and computer applications, and I also taught a graduate computing course.

In 1991 my wife Julia and I moved to Seattle to join Videodiscovery, a publisher of educational multimedia. My job was to guide the company through the jungle of new technology and to develop technology-based solutions for production and operations. I served as Director of Software Development, Director of Information Technology, and VP of Information Technology.

From 1998 to mid 2000 I was on contract to Microsoft as DVD Evangelist (yes, that was my official title). From July 2000 to February 2001 I was Chief Technology Officer at Daikin U.S., a leading DVD authoring software developer. Our goal of spinning off the DVD business from Daikin (a multi-billion dollar company based in Japan) eventually culminated with an acquisition by Sonic Solutions in February 2001.

I am currently Chief of DVD Technology and General Manager of the Advanced Technology Group at Sonic. My group develops core DVD/CD technology, including Sonic AuthorScript, the engine that powers Sonic's application as well as software from companies such as Adobe, AOL, Avid, Microsoft, MusicMatch, and Sony.

I maintain the DVD FAQ and I wrote the books DVD Demystified, and Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD, published by McGraw-Hill. I do a bit of writing for magazines and newsletters such as Widescreen Review, DVD Intelligence, and DV Report. I've written for Proceedings of the IEEE, SMPTE, Funk & Wagnalls Multimedia Encyclopedia, TechTV, and various other publications. I've taught seminars and given presentations at various conferences such as CES, DVD Pro, DVD Production, DVD Europe, and New Media. I serve as Chairman of the DVD Association. I was named one of the 21 most influential executives of the DVD industry by DVD Report and Tape Disc Business, was awarded the 2000 DVD Pro Discus Award for Outstanding Contribution to the DVD Industry, was one of the five inaugural inductees into the DVD Fest Digital Hall of Fame in 2002, and was named one of the Pioneers of DVD by One to One magazine.

My accomplishments include the award-winning MediaMAX software (now obsolete), the amazing Videodiscovery Web site (now completely rewritten), the charming Rusting TARDIS Web site (totally out of date), and the award-winning Grader-Aider gradebook management program (still runs fine in DOS mode). My fondest accomplishments are the adorable Anneke Taylor and the cuddly Corwin Taylor.

Some of my past activities include DVD Forum working groups, CALICO executive board, the HTML Working Group and the IMA (later SPA, later SIIA) DVD Special Interest Group. When I was in high school I played the cello in the Utah Valley Youth Symphony. I lived in Madrid, Spain in 1973 and 1977. I lived in Taiwan from 1980-1982.

My interests include science fiction, entertainment media, high-fidelity video and audio, languages (I once spoke six of them--now I'm lucky to limp by in English), educational technology, and cognitive science. I love to snow ski but I hardly ever get around to it.

In the unlikely event that you're interested, here's more information about me, including a picture of what I really look like. Or you could view a boring list of my publications, presentation, and other productions.

The furry guy with Xena is my brother, Steve.