An Open Letter to the Okudas

[Warp Coil]

They obviously need more eyes (and ears) on the final product before it goes out to replication.

How about someone overseeing you at your job to make sure you don't make mistakes? I suspect very few of us would really "appreciate" such a suggestion.

Humans make mistakes. Adding more humans into the mix is not the clear solution some might think it is.

Quality control is part of any standard development cycle. It has nothing to do with scrutinizing someones work for mistakes. It's there to make sure a product that is released to the mass market has the least amount of faults possible to reduce the burden of replacements and costumer support.

This. Before the blu-ray sets are mass-produced at a factory, there should be a "master" set that is made by the studio. These masters should undergo a thorough QC to ensure that there are no technical errors prior to the production process. A QC may not catch some issues with f/x shots (how would a tech know if a phaser blast is missing? they probably wouldn't) but the audio glitches that have been reported should have been noticed at some point.

I spent two years as a QC tech. If the audio configuration on a show was wrong, or if the audio sounded tinny or overmodulated, it was my job to notice and to put it on my evaluation.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

What if the Masters were OK? Could the problem have occurred at the point of manufacture?

Maybe the conversion process was the problem area. Still, they should have tested some of the production product, no?

 

[Warp Coil]

What if the Masters were OK? Could the problem have occurred at the point of manufacture?

Maybe the conversion process was the problem area. Still, they should have tested some of the production product, no?

I won't pretend to have a thorough understanding of DVD and blu-ray mass production processes, but I think that once the master discs are created, QC'd and approved, it's a straight-forward cloning process. The discs are just copied. Any audio issue that would be the result of the cloning/production process would likely be across the entire disc. But since it seems to be inherent on only specific episodes (and not entire discs), I am pretty sure these issues existed on the masters prior to the production process.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

What if the Masters were OK? Could the problem have occurred at the point of manufacture?

Maybe the conversion process was the problem area. Still, they should have tested some of the production product, no?

I won't pretend to have a thorough understanding of DVD and blu-ray mass production processes, but I think that once the master discs are created, QC'd and approved, it's a straight-forward cloning process. The discs are just copied. Any audio issue that would be the result of the cloning/production process would likely be across the entire disc. But since it seems to be inherent on only specific episodes (and not entire discs), I am pretty sure these issues existed on the masters prior to the production process.

Definitely. In fact, phil_g over in the discussion thread posted this image of the audio waveforms which demonstrate that the problems occurred during the mix:

Spoiler: 11001001 waveforms

 

[Maxwell Everett]

They obviously need more eyes (and ears) on the final product before it goes out to replication.

How about someone overseeing you at your job to make sure you don't make mistakes? I suspect very few of us would really "appreciate" such a suggestion.

Humans make mistakes. Adding more humans into the mix is not the clear solution some might think it is.

I want to be very clear: I'm not suggesting more people should oversee the job the Okudas are doing. The VFX that seem to be missing or uncorrected were likely already listed in their very thorough notes that they gave CBS Digital. I bet they just slipped through the cracks somehow in CBS Digital's rushed production schedule -- and it's possible CBS didn't have the time or staff to check the end result side by side with the DVDs one last time.

Full res: http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4553/okudanotes.jpg

 

[CaptainJack]

I was gonna buy the 1st season Blu-Ray set. But knowing what I now know, I will wait til I know its fixed. I realize there is alot of content and little things might get overlooked. But I sure as heck do not want to buy a defective product. Unless I get some guarantee that they will be replaced at some point in the near future with corrected audio/vfx.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I was gonna buy the 1st season Blu-Ray set. But knowing what I now know, I will wait til I know its fixed. I realize there is alot of content and little things might get overlooked. But I sure as heck do not want to buy a defective product. Unless I get some guarantee that they will be replaced at some point in the near future with corrected audio/vfx.

Hopefully, there will be some way to tell the difference if you wait.

 

[FreddyE]

how about actually sending letters to CBS about this instead of posting it on a board where it might or might not be seen?

 

[NewHorizon]

They obviously need more eyes (and ears) on the final product before it goes out to replication.

How about someone overseeing you at your job to make sure you don't make mistakes? I suspect very few of us would really "appreciate" such a suggestion.

Do you know what QC / QA is? Quality Control / Quality Assurance. That's what I do for a living and I can assure you that the developers whose work we evaluate do appreciate a fresh set of eyes looking over their work. We catch glaring issues like the one with the sound on this set. It's going to cost a lot to correct this issue I imagine and it all could have been avoided with some proper QC / QA.

Humans make mistakes. Adding more humans into the mix is not the clear solution some might think it is.

Yup, they sure do...and that's why companies have QC / QA to inspect their product during different stages of development.

How the QC missed these issues is beyond me, but it's pretty clear that they need some extra help. Quite often those working in QC are not even familiar or fans of the things they're testing, it's just a job to them. Who better than Trek Fans to help out and save CBS the money and embarrassment of having to recall the next 6 releases too?

 

[Snaploud]

It may be that the QA/QC workers are happy to have the extra help, but I imagine it would be awkward for the executives to make such a pitch. The executives would essentially be admitting that their company can't do the job without outside assistance from unpaid viewers.

 

[Start Wreck]

Heavily restricted / moderated access to the videos might be feasible (hiring a select few outside volunteers), but opening it up to the public at large? Can't see it happening. These things are too carefully handled, too precisely marketed, to allow that sort of inside access.

Has anything like that ever happened before with a commercial project?

 

[Sho]

It may be that the QA/QC workers are happy to have the extra help, but I imagine it would be awkward for the executives to make such a pitch. The executives would essentially be admitting that their company can't do the job without outside assistance from unpaid viewers.

In the vein of Star Trek: Let's be more evolved than that. Again, we live in an open source world today; participative development is nothing new anymore, and increasingly accepted. It's true that many traditional companies still have trouble getting themselves to make use of it because they fear PR fallout, but they shouldn't have to. This is a case where the maker of the product and a significant part of the buying audience share a common goal (preserving Star Trek at the best quality possible), and many are willing to put work into that for free. There is no shame in accepting what is willingly offered, and I'm sure if there were a PR fallout we'd all sing CBS' praises for doing it to rebuke critics.

Has anything like that ever happened before with a commercial project?

In the video game world, especially with multiplayer games, unpaid public betas (along with unpaid closed betas under NDA, but with public signup) are par for the course. In fact, gamers will get angry if you don't do it, because audience feedback makes for a better end result. Here, public beta testing builds trust.

Games and Blu-ray are both entertainment products, why make a big difference?

 

[Start Wreck]

Game beta testing tends to be for stress-testing online play, doesn't it? It's sort of accepted that online games need some testing that can't be done any other way but with real people and real network conditions. I don't recall hearing of open betas for offline games, and I don't think they could use that as an excuse for testing a Blu-ray set either.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love it to happen, but I don't think the market is ready for it.

 

[Sho]

Beta tests for single-player games are definitely a lot rarer, but not unheard of either, especially for games that rely on well-tuned balancing even in their SP campaigns, like RTS games. And beta testing isn't just for stress testing, also for good-old bug finding and as mentioned, balancing issues.

As for market readyness, my hope is simply that if it were to happen, it could actually be spun to CBS' PR advantage by some decent journalism. How is allowing fans to give input to ensure a lasting, satisfying product not a good thing for a company to do, after all?

 

[Start Wreck]

Well, here's hoping!

 

[Maxwell Everett]

how about actually sending letters to CBS about this instead of posting it on a board where it might or might not be seen?

Lazziness, on my part... it's much easier to just create a thread -- after all, Mike Okuda has an account here. He's not really in a position to single-handedly put such a crowd-sourcing project in place, but he could conceivably suggest it to the appropriate people... if he felt it was a worthwhile idea, that is.

As it says in my letter, CBS may have already taken measures to either correct or prevent further mistakes from slipping through. Honestly, I was just fishing for a confirmation, really... while throwing in a constructive -- admittedly, unlikely -- solution.

 

[FreddyE]

Didn´t know he has an account here. Maybe we can Beetlejuice him?
Mike Okuda, Mike Okuda, Mike Okuda ;-)

 

[GalaxyX]

Beta tests for single-player games are definitely a lot rarer, but not unheard of either, especially for games that rely on well-tuned balancing even in their SP campaigns, like RTS games. And beta testing isn't just for stress testing, also for good-old bug finding and as mentioned, balancing issues.

As for market readyness, my hope is simply that if it were to happen, it could actually be spun to CBS' PR advantage by some decent journalism. How is allowing fans to give input to ensure a lasting, satisfying product not a good thing for a company to do, after all?

I have a feeling that a lot of the reluctance of companies not considering an open source style system like this is simply that they are terrified of piracy.

For example: Even providing beta testers with a 480p quality video would probably lose them sales of the final product if this video got leaked on torrents (as most of these do eventually) this would hurt their sales, as people who were borderline to pay might not bother.

Personally I'm sick of all the assholes who pirate everything and spoil it for the rest of us when companies don't want to improve their products due to fear of theft.

 

[Trekker4747]

Beta tests for single-player games are definitely a lot rarer, but not unheard of either, especially for games that rely on well-tuned balancing even in their SP campaigns, like RTS games. And beta testing isn't just for stress testing, also for good-old bug finding and as mentioned, balancing issues.

As for market readyness, my hope is simply that if it were to happen, it could actually be spun to CBS' PR advantage by some decent journalism. How is allowing fans to give input to ensure a lasting, satisfying product not a good thing for a company to do, after all?

I have a feeling that a lot of the reluctance of companies not considering an open source style system like this is simply that they are terrified of piracy.

For example: Even providing beta testers with a 480p quality video would probably lose them sales of the final product if this video got leaked on torrents (as most of these do eventually) this would hurt their sales, as people who were borderline to pay might not bother.

Personally I'm sick of all the assholes who pirate everything and spoil it for the rest of us when companies don't want to improve their products due to fear of theft.

Well, if they DID do a "beta test" sort of program, it'd have to be one where the beta testers sign up, get selected and handed the product to review for any problems. And certainly the individual betas they hand out could be encoded in such a manner that any leaks could be traced back to the tester who would face fines for the leak.

 

[Joker]

Personally I'm sick of all the assholes who pirate everything and spoil it for the rest of us when companies don't want to improve their products due to fear of theft.

Yeah... doesn't happen, except in corporate whining and wet dreams.