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Sony to produce descriptive video as an option on DVDs

Below is a press release that was forwarded to me while I was away. I thought I'd post it for those interested. It's kinda neat - grin!

SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT PARTNERS WITH WGBH MEDIA ACCESS GROUPTO DELIVER DESCRIPTIVE VIDEO SERVICE ON HOME VIDEO TITLES
Culver City, Calif. (Sept 3, 2009) – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will partner with WGBH Media Access Group to release select film titles on DVD with Descriptive Video Service®, or DVS® as an optional feature for audiences who are blind or have low vision. Descriptive Video Service provides carefully crafted narration of key visual elements inserted into natural pauses in dialogue. Key visual elements are those which viewers with vision loss would ordinarily miss and include actions, costumes, gestures, facial expressions, scene changes and onscreen text. On DVD and Blu-ray™, the DVS track is an Audio option, listed alongside alternative languages, where the menu selection will read “English Audio Descriptive Service.” The ability to enjoy movies with descriptive narration on DVD and Blu-ray Disc™ is extremely important to the nation’s 12 million movie fans with vision loss, and is the single most requested service of the Media Access Group. Among the first Sony Pictures Home Entertainment titles to be released with the description feature are The Taking of Pelham 123, The Ugly Truth, Julie & Julia and District 9. Sony Pictures has been a leader over the last decade in providing descriptive audio for theatrical releases in movie theaters equipped with WGBH’s Motion Picture Access, or MoPix® systems. Beginning in the fall of 2009, all Sony Pictures theatrical releases with descriptive audio will also include the feature when they arrive on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. About The Media Access Group at WGBHThe Media Access Group at WGBH includes The Caption Center, the world's first captioning agency, founded in 1972; Descriptive Video Service (DVS), which has made television, film and video more accessible to blind and visually impaired audiences since 1990; and the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), a research and development entity that builds on the success of WGBH's access service departments to make existing and emerging technologies more accessible. Members of the Media Access Group's collective staff represent the leading resources and experts in their fields.Additional information about the Media Access Group at WGBH can be found at www.mediaaccessgroupwgbh.org <http://www.mediaaccessgroupwgbh.org/> . The Media Access Group maintains a list of DVDs with DVS at this page of its site: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/accessible-dvds.html Follow the Media Access Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Media-Access-Group-at-WGBH/91628220291?ref=ts About Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentSony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. SPE is a division of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPHE’s global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital contest creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com <http://www.sonypictures.com/> . Contacts:Jason Allen Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Jason_allen@spe.sony.com 310- 244-3502 Mary Watkins Media Access Group at WGBH Mary_watkins@wgbh.org 617-300-3700###

Comments

Anonymous said…
Here in the UK most of the big distributors have been doing that for a few years:

http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/ad.dvd.html

Derek

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