CYBER-SCREENING : Coming Attractions Come On-Line

Thanks to the information superhighway, scenes from Disney’s “The Lion King” now roar right from my computer’s screen.

I can see only very small parts of the film--about one or two minutes each--in a viewing window about 2 inches wide and the quality isn’t perfect, but it’s still pretty impressive to see and hear a full-motion video and audio clip from a brand-new release.

The on-line information service CompuServe made video clips from movies available on an on-line service for the first time, starting two weeks ago. Anyone with a modem and a Macintosh or PC-compatible computer with Windows can download and watch small parts of “The Lion King,” “The Shadow” and “Wyatt Earp,” although only higher-end systems are fast enough to really do the clips justice.

The future has arrived--sort of. Though this may mark the beginning of an age when consumers will be able to get movies on demand by way of a fiber-optic infobahn, this also shows that the technology has a ways to go.

Finding this out took me just under an hour--that’s how long it was to download one of the shorter “Lion King” clips, and the programs needed to show it, with a fairly fast modem connection (9600 baud).

But though downloading the clips takes time (and hence, money), it’s also fairly easy, especially with CompuServe’s MacCIM interface software. The clips from “The Shadow” (three are offered) and “Wyatt Earp” (two) are in CompuServe’s Entertainment Drive Forum, an on-line area that includes entertainment-oriented discussions and movie stills, while the “Lion King” clips were moved to their own forum because they were so popular.

After downloading the video file “Hyenas and Scar,” I “unstuffed” it using a decompression program I got from CompuServe, then opened “Popcorn,” the cleverly titled viewing program.

When I opened the video file in Popcorn, the window popped up on my screen, complete with VCR-style controls to pause, rewind and fast-forward the picture. I pressed play and watched two hysterical hyenas lament their place as scavengers at the bottom of the food chain.

The sound was choppy and a bit out of sync, possibly because of the computer I was using (a PowerBook 180), but the picture moved fairly smoothly, even though the video was compressed for quicker downloading. A “Shadow” trailer I downloaded was even clearer, and the sound was almost perfect.

Showing the clips in a bigger window lessens their resolution and frame speed, but despite this, the real problem with the clips is figuring out what to do with what are essentially digitized movie trailers. And with CompuServe connect time costing $9.60 an hour for a high-speed modem connection practical for downloading, it’s a question that would seem to demand an answer.

“I think downloaded materials have become trading cards of the on-line world,” said Don Buckley, vice president of advertising and publicity of Warner Bros. “I think people are collecting them.”

The studios are providing the clips for free to CompuServe for a limited time: “The Lion King” will be available the longest, all summer. It’s too soon to tell if digitized videos can actually persuade people to show up at a theater in person.

So though no one is completely sure what people are doing with the clips, quite a few people seem to be doing it. CompuServe’s Entertainment Drive forum is promoting the video clips online, and each clip from “The Shadow” and “Wyatt Earp,” has been downloaded about 150 times since the service began. And although CompuServe won’t give an exact number, the service reports that the eight “Lion King” clips have been downloaded a total of about 2,000 times.

Probably the best reason to download the clips is just to see the computer play them--the “gee whiz-factor” responsible for countless advances in technology. Many people want to show the clips to prove they can, and Entertainment Drive’s multimedia message board is full of messages from those trying to overcome technical glitches in order to see Simba roar in their living room. Once the videos are downloaded, they can also be stored and set to play at certain times--a plus if you like to hear animated hyenas laugh before you work on your personal finances.