Some good news

discdude wrote on 8/2/2003, 7:35 AM
Well, it's official, Sony has closed the deal. Video Factory belongs to Sony.

They have posted a FAQ on the buyout at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/news/sony.asp

Check it out for a comparison between VF and Movie Studio.

Here are some of the other highlights:

"Nearly every individual involved in the creation, testing, support, and marketing of Sonic Foundry's media software will be joining the ranks of Sony Pictures Digital. Sony Pictures Digital plans to keep the team located in the same Madison, Wisconsin facility they are in today."

"Initially the Sonic Foundry forums will remain right where they are. In the coming months, Sony Pictures Digital will be launching a new website for the Sony Pictures Digital Media Software line. The Sonic Foundry forums will be moved, in their entirety, to this new site. All posts and user accounts will remain intact."

"Sony Pictures Digital will continue to sell VideoFactory initially, but in conjunction with the launch of the latest version of Screenblast Movie Studio, VideoFactory will be phased out."

"Screenblast Movie Studio is built off of the same technology in VideoFactory 2.0, but we've added even more features."

Some unanswered questions:

- Upgrade pricing (will existing VF owners get a discount on Screenblast Movie Studio)?
- Will a demo of the new Movie Studio be released?
- What is the version number on the new Movie Studio, 2 or 3?

Comments

DaveCT wrote on 8/5/2003, 5:22 PM
With the ship date allegedly so close, you'd think Sony would say whether or not loyal users like us get a discount on an upgrade! Has anyone heard anything? Sony customer service, are you listening? Hellooooo...?

-Dave
discdude wrote on 8/5/2003, 7:45 PM
[Rant On]Unfortunately, Sony's Screenblast site sucks. I found much more information about the upcoming Screenblast products on the Sonic Foundry site. Personally, I feel the Screenblast is awful both in layout and content. And they want people to pay a annual subscription to access parts of it. Good luck! If this is the future, I feel scared. Hopefully, Sony will have a proper site up for their "Media Solution Software" or else I feel they will lose sales. Who would want to buy software from a company that can't even design a decent website.[Rant off]

Anyway, between the FAQ and the press release, I can gather that:
1) The retail box will sell for $99
2) There will be a download version but the price for that is unknown.

They seem to indicate they will be following Sonic Foundry's product strategies so I assume there will be an upgrade version. Unfortuantely, they are being coy with the prices.
Chienworks wrote on 8/5/2003, 8:22 PM
I can certainly agree about the Screenblast site. I tried buying something there once. Clicking on links kept opening up pages in new windows that were sized too small with no scroll bars. Dragging the windows out big enough to read the page made all the text disappear. The only thing i was able to determine from the html source was that the ACTION of the purchase form went to a sonicfoundry.com server. I finally gave up and called SonicFoundry's customer support and ordered it over the phone instead.

I definately classify the Screenblast website as "user hostile" programming.
laz wrote on 8/6/2003, 2:55 AM
I hope the Sonic support isn't going to change. Every time I've asked for tech support Brian has been great. The thing I'm worried about is Sony's own support leaves a lot to be desired.

But I'm an eternal optimist and believe Sony are innovative and will be good for SF, even if their website design skills are no good.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 8/6/2003, 6:47 PM
> Sony's own support leaves a lot to be desired

Actually it depends on what part of Sony you need to call. (It’s a BIG company). I have only called their Playstation 2 support but both times I got to a person very quickly and they were extremely helpful and professional. They even fixed my son’s Playstation 2 for free even though it was out of warrantee because they said it should never exhibit the problem I was seeing. I was very impressed with them.

~jr
Steve Grisetti wrote on 8/7/2003, 8:13 AM
I agree that the Screenblast web site is pretty worthless as product support -- but it's clearly in its first phase and not yet designed to be.

Sony set up Screenblast.com (not even a year ago) mainly as a forum that people to post their work on. And, as you saw, it also offers a subscription service that allows you greater web space, stock footage, etc.

But I'm confident that, now that Sony's deal with Sonic Foundry is complete, they'll get behind their software and will offer full support.

They remain on of the two or three best electronics companies in the world. Their video products are some of the best on the market, and their VAIO computers are top-of-the-line multimedia machines. I'm sure they'll really support and build this already great product into the best value on the market.

So, don't worry. Video Factory is in very good hands.
discdude wrote on 8/7/2003, 8:40 AM
Actually, the current site is Sony's second stab at creating a Screenblast website. The first design used Flash and wasn't very good either. But at least they had downloadable demos.

Anyway, the current Screenblast site looks like it was designed by the same guys who did the other Sony sites. I hope that Sony hired some of the web people from Sonic Foundry.

Also, I'm glad this forum will live on as well.