Sonic Solutions announced this week the appointment of Jim Taylor to its executive team. As Chief of DVD Technology, Taylor will help define strategies for developing tools for creative artists to express themselves with DVD technology. He joins Sonic after serving as Chief Technology Officer of Daikin U.S. Comtec Laboratories and, previously, helping to direct and develop DVD features in Windows as the DVD Evangelist for Microsoft.

“We are extremely pleased to have Jim Taylor join our team at Sonic,” said Bob Doris, President and CEO of Sonic Solutions. “His reputation in the DVD industry as a visionary and advocate in advancing the state of DVD technology will help to reinforce Sonic’s leadership position in DVD.”

In his role at Sonic, Taylor will also continue as a DVD industry “guru,” teaching, lecturing, writing, and broadening the market for DVD. He remains President and Technical Director of the DVD Association, and will continue working in the DVDA’s Haiku group and with the DVD Forum to develop standards for Web-integrated DVD — the powerful combination of DVD and Internet technologies.

“I believe that digital video editing and recordable DVD will revolutionize the video industry just as desktop publishing and laser printers revolutionized the printing industry,” said Taylor. “Sonic’s acquisition of Daikin combines the strengths of the two top companies in the DVD authoring industry, and will help accelerate the exciting transition to home video publishing that has now begun. The future lies in the combination of DVD content with the Internet — DVD is a convergent medium for a converging world. It is the bridge from analog to digital, the conduit from passive viewing to active involvement, and the perfect means to unify published media with online delivery. Web-enabled DVD technologies such as Sonic eDVD(TM) will forge the path to broadband delivery.”

Jim Taylor is the author of “DVD Demystified,” the best-selling book about DVD technology, now in its second edition. Called a “minor tech legend” by E! Online, Jim created the official Internet DVD FAQ – which is part of our site – writes articles and columns about DVD, serves as President and Technical Director of the DVD Association, and sits on advisory boards at several DVD companies. He received the 2000 DVD Pro Discus Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Industry, and was also named one of the 21 most influential DVD executives by DVD Report. Jim has worked with interactive media for over 20 years, developing educational software, laserdiscs, CD-ROMs, Web sites, and DVDs; and teaching workshops, seminars, and university courses. Jim consulted to Microsoft for two and a half years as DVD Evangelist, and was formerly VP of Information Technology at Videodiscovery, an educational multimedia publishing company.