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January 10, 2006
Munich and the Cinea cock-up
The Guardian reports a regional encoding goof will likely cost Munich any notice in the upcoming BAFTA awards. "...The preview DVD sent to the academy's members is unplayable on machines used in the UK. As a result the majority of BAFTAs 5,000 voters will not have seen the film... and can hardly be expected to recommend it for acclaim.... The company coordinating [the] campaign blamed the mistake on human error at the laboratory where the DVDs were encrypted. "Someone pushed the wrong button," she said... The problem, it appears, was partly down to teething troubles with the limited edition DVD players issued last year to BAFTA members. Developed by Cinea, a subsidiary of Dolby, the players permit their owners to view encrypted DVD "screeners", but prevent the creation of pirate copies. Munich screeners were encoded for region one, which allows them to be played in the US and Canada, rather than region two, which incorporates most of Europe." The DVDs were late already, having "missed out on the first round of voting on January 4... A previous batch mailed out before Christmas were reportedly held up by customs officials in the UK. "It's been quite a cock-up," said one BAFTA member, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We were promised that they were going to send screeners before Christmas, but they never arrived. Now we finally have a copy but there is no way we can watch it." [More politicking at the link.]
Posted by pride at January 10, 2006 07:48 PM
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