The American Film Institute announced Wednesday that it will screen The Rink, a Charlie Chaplin film, on its Web page on 22 January, marking the start of its new Web-based classic film series. Viewable via the streaming video technology system VDO, the silent film will be the first full-length movie to be screened on the Internet, AFI says.
But don't throw away your Blockbuster card just yet. "It's too small and jerky," comments Paul Callahan, an analyst for Forrestor Research. "[AFI's movies are] certainly not going to be for home use, unless you have a lot of bandwidth."
Even with a lot of bandwidth, the quality of online video is a far cry from that of your home entertainment system. While VDO's streaming video technology offers quick download times, it doesn't offer high quality viewing: Video quality is low because of extreme compression, and attempting to view the 20-minute film in a 3-inch-by-3-inch window will be a somewhat painful experience.
AFI doesn't plan for the movies to draw in classic film aficionados, but rather new viewers curious about online film. "There is a certain loyal audience for classic films," comments Dan Harries, online media director for AFI. "This is opening it up to a whole new audience, like teenagers ... who won't grab the Chaplin movie at the video store on Friday night" - but who might stop to watch it on the Internet.
While AFI's upcoming online screenings will be limited to shorter films, the institute is optimistic about the possibility of higher-quality video and longer features in the near future. "Once cable modems come out, that's when we'll see it - it's all bandwidth," comments Harries.
The analysts are less optimistic. "There's going to be a fairly substantial wait," says Callahan.
