Warner Archive Discussion Thread (FEEDBACK)

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

I'd definitely buy these as well!!

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

WBshop.com - The Official Online Store of Warner Bros. Studios: Wichita (EST-MOD)

I was also going to ask about The Oklahoman which is up too:
http://www.wbshop.com/The-Oklahoman/...,pd.html?cgid=

Basically I was going to ask about a Joel McCrea westerns box featuring some of his Allied Artists films as well as Colorado Territory.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Found it, thanks.
Odd Wichita doesn't show up on the full-view page.
Neither does A Distant Trumpet, The Okalhoman, El Condor, and Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.

I may be able to order titles on your behalf along with my own orders, Simon, after I've heard some feedback on the quality. But be advised that postage to your tiny little continent in the shark-filled ocean far, far away is the single most expensive shipping point for us Americans.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Thanks

I am so excited about this program. I would not care if I had to re-route the order through Mars in order to receive it.

There are some titles in there that are among my favorites ever - by that, I mean titles I have literally seen dozens of times through the years, often in old faded TV prints. I think that, for me, that really justifies the additional shipping expenses, although it would naturally be a lot simpler if the films could be sent directly to me.

I am absolutely, positively buying Three Sailors and a Girl, Painting the Clouds with Sunshine, Three Comrades, The Shining Hour, Invitation, I Was an American Spy, Betrayed, Room for One More, Once Upon a Honeymoon and So This Is Love within the next few days.

Best news of the year - nothing could possibly beat that as far as I am concerned!!!

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Wow, thank you for the offer. I am in a bit of a wait and see mode. I have gone through the list and figured out what I want though!

I have looked at some of the clips from them, and they look like all brand new high quality transfers that we would expect from WHV. They also now are lfeaturing the note:
So I am quite confident quality will be good.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Wow - this news is incredible and that list is beyond belief !

I wonder if any of these will be released with trailers, or any extras at all? Though it does not matter, I never thought some of these films would ever be released!

It is also interesting to speculate about the titles not on the list, like the early Garland films, the Andy Hardy pictures and various missing musicals which I hope will get the full deluxe Warners box some day.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

One more thing, since my cart (aka wish list) is already at $200, I clicked on a banner that mentions a 20% discount - but all I get is a prompt to login again. Did anyone else see that banner and get a different response

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

I'm betting they won't ship via Mars either...



Pretty cool. I just checked out Abe Lincoln in Illinois and there's actually a short clip posted (with a WB bug) so you can check out the quality of the transfer.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

I certainly got no twenty percent discount and I ordered close to $400 worth. Free shipping though.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

If they don't want to ship overseas, they could at least put them up on the iTunes Store so they can be downloaded.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

There is a 25% off code that works only one time for five items. Use it by March 31st.

XB392






Crawdaddy

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

I have great sympathy for those overseas and I hope Warner answers why they are shutting you guys out. I hope it's not rights related or not wanting Region 1 dvds going overseas.

Warner has indicated that these titles are available through "On Demand" from their site so maybe you can try that option.






Crawdaddy

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

This sounds promising?

MY question is: Will Warner eventually tap into their unreleased theatrical animation library (particularly the MGM Tex Avery cartoons) that have more marketing and sales potential than the live-action movies you guys are talking about, but less so than,say, Spongebob or Shrek?

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

My guess is they haven't bothered to consult with their lawyers regarding if they still own all the overseas rights for all of these titles, so they are just playing it safe and restricting it to U.S. sales.

I suggest all us international folk contact the store at service@wbshop.com requesting international sales of the Warner Archive Collection releases.

Don't use the actual "Contact Us" page, because it is currently sending emails to a bad address, so they just bounce.

I emphasised that I am interested in W.B., M.G.M., and A.A. films that WHV would own the international rights to. It's the post 1965 films where rights issues may be a bit murkier.

I also sent an email to DVDPacific asking them to stock them, but I doubt they will be allowed to. It seems if Warner are going to sell these, they want to get all the profit, which I think is fair enough given the time and money they have invested.
I find V.O.D. unappealing, considering the format or DRM system may become obsolete sometime down the track. At least with DVD I know that any DVD player or drive can play it, and I can convert it to other formats if need be.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Well, it is great that WHV is finding a way to make these films available, but at $20 a pop, it will be FAR more expensive to get those Garbo silents than if they had released them through regular channels in a collection. Since no Jean Harlow films are represented on the list, save for the semi-obscure Beast of the City, I'm assuming that the films not listed (Red Dust, Bombshell, Girl from Missouri, etc,) will be going in an eventual boxset. With so many Gable titles listed (none with Harlow), I'm wondering if WHV will indeed be doing a volume 2 for him. The long rumored Lana Turner set also has me wondering if it'll happen since all of her pairings with Gable now appear to be on the list. It'll be interesting to see how this shapes up, but I agree with those who say that WHV should've sought a wider distribtuion deal with Amazon instead of going the lone maverick route. Since this is an On demand service, it probably would've been better to have priced them no higher than $14.95. With no middle man here, there's no real reason why WHV should be selling them for store retail - all imho.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

I don't think it is an On Demand service. On their webpage "On Demand" means movie downloads in copy protected Windows Media Video files. The DRM means it is impossible to covert them to DVD-Video.

Also, I don't even know if all of the Warner Archive Collection will be exclusive to the store. If you go to the MOVIES menu at the top, and go down to the bottom, there is the Warner Archive releases, but then there is another list below that called WB Exclusives http://www.wbshop.com/WB-Exclusives/...efault,sc.html

There are only 9 titles on the exclusive list, most of them are only on the Archive list. I guess we will find out more when the fill in the FAQ that is currently blank. http://www.wbshop.com/Warner-Archive...pg.htmlArchive Collection FAQ

Only one of my definite buys (Westbound) is on the Exclusive list. Hopefully this means other than those, retailers will be able to buy the others.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

If these really are 'made to order' with full jacket art, and high quality masters/encodes/authoring- $20 a pop is CHEAP.
Seriously, I would love to pay $15 instead of $20, but I can easily see this becoming such a logistical nightmare for Warner, that $20 doesn't seem near enough for all the hassle involved.
Has anyone seen the Gordon Scott Tarzans listed? What about titles with Hedy Lamarr or the Lane sisters (Four Daughters, Daughters Courageous,etc), or the Gish silent 'The Wind'? (I've only got a mobile device at the moment and can't get thru all the Java on that site).

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Aside from the fact that you have to constantly pester a friend in the USA who does have to go to all the trouble of going to the nearest post office and filling in all the forms etc.

The main reason studios don;t ship abroad is because it lets them control how titles are marketed. USA releases are very often cheaper than their European counterparts. The studios don;t want Europeans buying American discs and importing them. They want them to buy the more expensive European ones. In addition, when films got a staggered global release, often stuff went to "home video" in the USA before it reached the theatres elsewhere; people were buying movies on "home video" - and then not going to the theatres. The studios didn;t like that either.

It is for these reasons that we have DVD region coding. It is for these reasons that the studios themselves still make some effort to stop people buying DVD releases outside of the release region, whilst accepting that it does happen.

This new way of doing releases may be great for you lucky Americans - but it's really, really bad news for anyone who lives outside of the USA.

This isn't about movie fans.

It's about squeezing maximum profit by releasing these movies to a captive audience, at what is really a pretty extortionate price (when you compare them with boxsets that have movies at $4 each or less) and without costs of things like extras.

I think people are enthusing a little too much, by being caught up in the joy of seeing titles they wanted finally on a disc.

Are you really celebrating a way of releasing them that lets the studio have you over a barrel - $20 for a disc with no extras?!

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Maybe that is the case in Europe, but in Australia the big discount department stores sell a lot of classic Hollywood DVDs from Warner Home Video for under $10 (the price is usually AUD$8.83, about US$6), and 2 disc special editions for AUD$12.73, about US$9). They are usually exactly the same releases, the Australian versions are just released 12 - 18 months later than the U.S. versions.
Region coding is just a stupid joke now. In Australia you have to absolutely go out of your way to buy a DVD player that still has region coding. And I mean name brands like Sony and Pioneer as well, not just cheap Chinese import DVD players.
Are you sure? I'd suggest that places like Amazon.com and DVDPacific sell thousands of DVDs to overseas buyers every day. If the studios were actually upset about this they would stop THOSE companies from selling DVDs.
I am, because I have wanted some of these films like Wichita and Four Horseman of the Apocalypse out on DVD for years and years. Plus buying this first lot of discs could prompt WHV to release many others. If these discs don't sell, then they may simply give up on digging deep into their library, and start reissuing the same things over and over the way Paramount does.

Don't forget to vote to encourage more releases! Click Here.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Of late, not least with the effects of the falling £, WBs UK releases work out much cheaper than buying from the US (particularly if you hang on for a sale). Unfortunately, from whatever studio, we don't get all US releases, and even when we do, they aren't always replicated either in terms of quality, or extra features.

On the face of it, this is quite a clever move from WB; no doubt they will be high-lighting the 'exclusivity' of these titles as some sort of benefit, a come-on for collectors of classic film. They are presumably saving on promotion, without the use of a middleman they are keeping more of the profits, they appear to be saving on the cost of producing extras and, per film, because I don't see any box sets here, they are garnering a far greater net price. Far from being a hassle for WB, they are pitching them into a niche market supplying as demand requires with little or no waste, no need to roll 'em out into the bargain bins.

There are some great films in the list, some of which I would dearly love see get the red carpet treatment, rather than this - IMHO - low rent (not loving the box art TBH), relatively high price marketing 'exlusivity'. Maybe down the line, maybe on BD.

But the bottom line is, far from locking titles in a vault until the worlds economies recover (as so many others appear to be doing), WB is thinking laterally, and at least getting the titles out there, even if 'there' is only restricted to the US. However...

I hate to say this, but the far eastern bootleggers are probably already licking their lips...

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Thanks!

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

The Andy Hardy films were supposedly planned for future releases (store/mainline releases) at some point according to another HTF member that contacted a WB rep. I hope that's the reason we're not seeing them listed at this site.

After reading the posts here, I'm getting a better feeling about the DVD quality from this outlet. If they're comparable to the usual factory-pressed DVD's, I think this is a good idea from WB.

If they hadn't rolled out this service, how many of these titles would have appeared in stores? The way I look at DVD releases is that Std DVD has been around...12 years now? And there's so many mainline studio releases out there still waiting for their initial releases.

In a way, this story getting out there before the WB chat might turn out to be helpful for overseas customers since there will be plenty of MTF posts to reference at chat time.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

I'll say this again.

With the repeated conversations I have had with Warner over the
past few months about this rollout, the quality of these releases are
supposed to be the same as factory pressed DVDs.

Have there been tremendous restoration efforts done to these films?
I don't know, but I would highly doubt that they wouldn't have done at
least a minimal amount of general cleanup to these titles.

We'll find out more tomorrow evening. I'm going to pick up a few
titles myself including One Trick Pony which I haven't seen
since it aired on cable back in the 80s.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Excellent point, but in order to be fair here, I see some problems for Warner and their marketing strategy.

Yes, there is a big market for these titles from classic film fans, collectors and people just wanting their favorite films on DVD. However, the price point is rather high and without some kind of discounted pricing along with free shipping while also having to pay sales tax, these select DVDs could cost a consumer $22-23 a piece. That's not cheap for a DVD, especially for one that is without any extras and with packaging less than what consumers might get from DVDs bought at a retailer. At around 22 or 23 bucks, I could buy a Blu-ray disc cheaper than that from Amazon or other retailers.

Such a high price will affect sales and I understand Warner's desire to maximize profits, especially considering today's economic situation, but they need to realize that this economic situation cuts both ways here. Without a middle man in this marketing equation, they need to find a way to make these titles a little more affordable. Consumers even classic film lovers have less discretionary spending now a days so they need to, at the very least, continue these 25% off codes and possibly expand them for more than just five DVDs. Also, free shipping options should remain available for consumers.

Lastly, I don't know Warner's issues for not allowing these titles to be purchased from people outside of the United States so I'm going to speak to them, knowing, I am ignorant about the reasoning behind that decision, but you need to take another look at it. There is a big market for these titles from film lovers all over this world. If you really want to move some units on these titles then don't ignore these consumers. There are more of them than you realize and their passion for these titles are just as great as American film lovers. As I stated beforehand, I'll be the first to admit that there might be some issues unknown to me regarding not selling them to folks outside of the USA. However, it's really in your best interest to revisit this issue and try to resolve it so that film lovers everywhere can enjoy these titles as it will be more profitable for you to do so.






Crawdaddy

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

You're welcome.

Again, the 25% off code is XB392, but you can only use it one time and for only five items.





Crawdaddy

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

On all those issues, well said.

I am boycotting Warners!

I just saw the other thread about Warnes releasing classics. I was very excited to see some that ive been dying to see for along time is comming. I was so happy. That was until I saw that they wont be shipped outside US. BIG FAT SLAP IN THE FACE!
This is so rude! Im so mad! Ive been a faithful buyer of Warner Classics for 4 years now. I have given alot of my money to them, and this is how they treat me? I won't be buying anymore from them! No "Forbidden Hollywood Collection vol.3" for my money! No "Warner Gangster Collection vol 4" for my money! No "Greer Garson movies" for my money! I just download them for free!

Beast of the City
Betrayed
Chained
Dance, Fools, Dance
Emma
Forsaking All Others
Goodbye, My Fancy
Homecoming
Honkey Tonk
Ice Follies of 1939
Idiot's Delight
The Kiss
Laughing Sinners
Love
Love On The Run
Mannequin
Mrs Parkington
Payment On Demand
Possessed
Private Lives
The Shining Hour
The Single Standard
Somewhere I'll Find You
Spring Fever
Strange Interlude
This Woman Is Dangerous
Three Comrades
We Were Dancing
When Ladies Meet
Wild Orchids

30x 19,95 = 598,50

They are losing 600 dollars on just 1 person. I sure hope they are reading this and that someone will take it up on the chat tomorrow! Goodbye Warnes!

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

If Warner persist with the only U.S. sales policy, then they will just create a market of people buying the discs in bulk, then on selling them on Amazon.com Marketplace and / or eBay; most likely at inflated prices as international buyers revert to buying them from there.

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

Unless WB switches their policy, maybe some of us can run a "third party" mediator project for those in the UK exclusively on HTF. How about the cost of the DVDs, shipping, and a £1 fee?

re: Warner Archive Discussion Thread

If you have friends who are also movie lovers, believe me there is no need to pester anyone. They will be the ones to offer to get them for you, just as you would for them.


I have been thinking of this too Same for Harlow, early Bette Davis, John Garfield, Errol Flynn, Mitchum, Stanwyck...