Cinea phooey
Disney should forget about winning Oscars this year.
That's the opinion of ABC News radio entertainment reporter Bill Diehl, who got in a wrestling match with his Cinea box at his office last week while trying to show it to me. The box won.
As a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Bill is one of the few showbizzers who gets screeners, which means he got shipped The Notorious Cinea Box so he can watch the Oscar ponies of Disney, the first studio to agree to use it.
"Look at this thing! It's huge!" Bill gasped while showing off the still-sealed box that contained a video recorder about the size of a VCR, circa 1995. As he struggled to pull the box toward him and show how bulky it is, it flipped backward due to its counterweight and flopped to the ground. "Does Disney think academy members will lug this thing around to their country homes in Palm Springs? Or take it on the road with them when they're making a movie? People forget that academy members are mobile. Can you imagine an academy member saying to his or her spouse, 'Oh, dear, we must go back to L.A. tonight so I can watch a movie!''
Even if academy members stay at home, Bill said he believes that many still won't see that movie because they're Luddites.
"Academy members are older folks who won't know how to hook this thing up!" Bill said. "How does this thing get wired into their home entertainment system? Does it go between the TiVo and the VCR or between the cable box and the TV set?
"'Oh, just forget the whole thing!' is probably what they're going to say to THAT!" Bill fumed. "If studios want to win Oscars, they're better off sending encrypted DVDs just like they did last year. That's something academy members can tote around with them anywhere and watch anytime that's convenient!"
