*** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

I will not have time to watch Bhowani Junction until this weekend, but here are a few grabs:

















From just glancing at the film, it looks pretty good; a little more stable than Quentin Durward. Incidentally, Bhowani Junction includes a fullscreen trailer, and Quentin Durward included a non-anamorphic widescreen trailer.

Quentin Durward was presented at a ratio of 2.55:1 and Bhowani Junction at 2.40:1.

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

Thanks Mike and Timothy. As I said, I'm keeping track regardless, so in case anyone wants to see it again, just give a shout.

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Thank you very much for the captures, I'll definitely get this when international orders are allowed.

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Finally received my titles.
1.) Captain Nemo
2.) Captain Sinbad
3.) Crescendo
4.) A Distant Trumpet
5.) Darby's Rangers
6.) El Condor

I scanned through all 6 titles and they all play fine. I'm happy with the picture quality on all and all look as good as normal pressed DVD's. Distant Trumpet did have soft colors though. Definately not something I could have recorded off TCM myself. It appears as though the widescreen transfers are new masters while many of the full screen films are older masters. Happy with my purchase but I will not buy that many in the future for more than $14.95.

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I just measured the capture for B.J., and the ratio is 2.5:1. So I think this was transferred from the full CinemaScope aperture, not an optical soundtrack (2.35:1) element.

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I just received my "Sweet November" (1968) MOD DVD in. I'm going to be viewing the entire movie over the weekend with my wife, but in the meantime I decided to "try it out" on a variety of different setups I have around the house. The provided transfer was 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. (I know this because when played on my projector with zero overscan there were no black bars whatsoever. With a 1.85:1 transfer, I usually see very small black bars.)

First the really bad news: The disc absolutely refused to play on my Vista SP1-based HP Pavilion Laptop. The disclaimer on the package states that "This disc is expected to play back in DVD video 'play only' devices and may not play back in other DVD devices including recorders and PC drives." This was rather disappointing as I use my laptop as a portable DVD player on occasion. Just for the heck of it, I booted into Ubuntu on the same laptop (it's set up in a "dual-boot" configuration) and tried playing the disc with the Linux version of the VLC media player (which normally plays just about anything). It still wouldn't play.

Next I tried the disc on my den system. This consists of a 2008 Philips HDMI 1080i upconverting player mated to a 32" LCD 16:9 Vizio HDTV with a native resolution of 720p. With this configuration the movie looked ... pretty good! In fact, for the most part, it had a nice "film like" quality to it -- which is really all I ask of a transfer. Yes, there was some grain and occasional "speckles" due to print damage but the color was good and even vibrant in places. MPEG-2 compression artifacts seemed minimal. The Wide shots were a little soft (typical of DVD), but closeups looked good and sharp. (Keep in mind that I was viewing this about 8 feet away from a 32" screen.) I would say the resulting picture was about on average with the way good quality commercial DVDs from this era looked on this setup.

Next up was my bedroom system. This very modest setup consists of a vintage 2004 Panasonic DVD player/recorder connected to a 22" 4:3 LCD EDTV (native resolution 480p). I was relieved to find that the MOD DVD played just fine on the venerable Panny recorder. However, the provided 480p component-fed picture appeared pretty bland on the 4:3 LCD set. Since the resulting picture was also dependant on the DVD player's anamorphic downconversion circuitry it was difficult to be too judgemental regarding the transfer; I can say, however, that the picture looked only "fair" compared to good quality commercial DVDs that I have played on this equipment. (Occasional moire' artifacts on close-ups and very slight edge enhancement visible on wide shots.)

I then took the DVD downstairs to my main viewing room. The equipment in this room consists of an Optoma HD-65 DLP front projector which is set up to provide a 96" 16:9 image; and a Toshiba HDMI XDE-500 upconverting and enhancing DVD player. I normally keep the Tosh in "sharp+color"1080p/24 mode (for DVDs properly flagged as film) since I've calibrated a user pref setting on the Optoma around that mode. Well ... The movie immediately started out looking more like "video" than "film" when viewed with this setting. EE was visible (although not too obtrusive) on all wide shots; and most closeups had moire' artifacts around anything with a cross-hatch pattern (like Newleys' collar in a phone booth in an early scene). Turning off all XDE modes and dropping the upscaling back to 1080p/60 helped a lot -- but the transfer still never approached looking like film. The grain and print defects also looked a little worse on the projector, but I expected that that would be the case. Grain and print defects don't really bother me unless they become too intrusive. On the plus side colors looked stable (even the reds) and the resulting picture was definitely viewable. If I was assigning a grade based on comparable commercial DVDs, I would give it a C+. Keep in mind that I'm use to good quality DVDs looking close to 1080i HD cable quality with this setup.

The bottom line is that I'm happy to have this film in my collection. It's still the best that I've ever seen this movie look. I'm disappointed that it won't play on my laptop, and I wish it looked better on my front projector. (I'm pretty sure now that what member Chuck Pennington posted earlier in this thread regarding the supposition that these transfers are "interlaced-based" is true. As he indicated, the people handling the encodes are probably responsible for this.) While I certainly hope that Warners improves the transfer quality a bit on future films added to the Archive Collection, I still intend to continue to purchase favorite films on MOD DVD for the foreseeable future.

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

I also purchase 5 discs from WB but have only watched one: SO THIS IS LOVE (The Grace Moore Story). The last time I saw this film was in B&W on a small TV set. I don't think TCM has run this one before. I was very impressed by the color print and sound. Colors in the film seem quite vivid and even more so towards the latter part of the movie in the musical numbers. The sound seemed almost stereo-like for the musical sequences especially in the opera finale. There are a few flaws in the print, minor scratches but nothing to get upset about. There was no trailer included on the disc. I am very happy to finally have this film on DVD. The four others I have purchased are:

ON BORROWED TIME
BHOWANI JUNCTION
INTERRUPTED MELODY
THREE SAILORS AND A GIRL

I too would like to continue to purchase titles and hopefully the archive will have more specials @ $14.99.

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

Oops. My bad. I didn't realize such there was such a lapse between filming and release. I allowed the "new" WB logo and the positioning of the credits to fool me.

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

Would you please let us know if the subtitles in English are also included, thank you.

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I haven't seen any subtitles on the five titles that I have purchased.

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Received my 4 films and I just took a quick scan through them (I have a Oppo DVD player that upconverts to 1080p and I have a 40" Sony Bravia HDTV).

I am far from a DVD reveiwer but what I can say are that Dusty & Sweets Mcgee, Rain People and Countdown all are anamorphic but they fall a little below the standards of a regular Warner catalog release from that time period. I did see signs of compression and all 3 films show some softness and lack of detail in some scenes more than others. I would rate the transfers as fair in relation to a regular DVD release. But since this is what I expected, I can't say I am disappointed.

All Fall Down however, was a very nice sharp and clear anamorphic picture...no softness and I didn't see any signs of compression. It looks pretty much like a regular Warner DVD release.

For 14.95 plus tax, I would say I am pleased with these purchases, but I would not pay more than that for future archive releases.

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Received Along the Great Divide (1951) a great 88-minute Western. It plays on my laptop, allowing me to get and post this screen capture. Combing is evident:

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I am not an audio video expert. But i will say that after watching Crescendo and The Big Circus i was pleased with what i saw and heard. I will buy again,as long as WB keeps up the discounts. Still have a few more to watch in my first batch.

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Pete,

Kudos to you for keeping track of the reviews here (post #72)

Looking forward to hearing about One Trick Pony which I
will eventually be purchasing.

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Watched "John Loves Mary" last night. I also had it recorded from tcm. The picture seemed much sharper on this new dvd . But still could have been cleaned up more. My only issue is around the 56 min mark the sound drops noticably. I checked my tcm version ,and it does the same.But the tcm drop doesn't seem to be as big of a drop as the new dvd. Still happy to have the film.

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

It is pretty well documented when each studio changed over to various wide-screen ratios. On these early wide-screen titles, it is essential to examine the actual dates of production as opposed to the release date.

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Now Bob, don't be silly, there's no such thing as documentation in regards to filmmaking, particularly when studios switched over to widescreen. This was an era of lawlessness and crazy time for all involved, so no one knows what films are supposed to be widescreen or not from that era because it's more artistic to not know than to do the research to find out the facts.

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I purchased "One Trick Pony" and it just arrived, but I haven't really had a chance to sit down with it yet. I did scan through it briefly and at the least can tell you that it's a 16x9 enhanced transfer, with 2.0 stereo surround (at least, that's what the packaging indicates - I can't verify if it's anything beyond 2.0 on my current setup). It did not include a trailer. Interestingly, when I hit the "info" button on my Oppo DVD player, rather than indicating that the disc was a DVD-R (as it normally does), it showed up as a regular DVD. So whatever they're doing to manufacture them, that does seem to lend some proof to WB's claim that their MOD process is a little different than standard burn-at-home stuff.

As far as the packaging, the cases they came in were not shrinkwrapped (fine by me), and appeared to be slightly thicker than standard amarays. The discs themselves seemed securely fastened in the cases, and I had no problem removing the disc from the case. The label printed on the disc was of a pretty good, glossy quality, and the outer sleeve packaging is about what you'd expect based on the screenshots on their website.

From the few minutes I watched, I was pleased with the quality. It doesn't look like it's been freshly restored or like a brand new film, but having only seen the film on cable before, it certainly looks far better than any broadcast I had previously come across.

I got mine for $14.99 using the coupon that had been active the first week, and based on my quick look at the disc, I'm satisfied with my purchase. I don't think the price is unreasonable; as other people have pointed out, part of what the price goes to is keeping the entire operation running. For all of the titles they put in there that will sell in good numbers, there are also going to be some duds, and I think it's a reasonable price for specialty product. The way I choose to look at it, the Warner Archive is giving me a chance to get titles that Warner would otherwise not be releasing. To me, it doesn't feel like I got a cheaper product instead of a pressed disc; I feel like I was given the chance to purchase something that otherwise wouldn't have been available at all. That said, I don't have it in my budget to order as many titles as I'd like. Certainly if something came out that I wanted immediately, I'd have no problem paying $20 for it. But for titles that are interesting for me but not essential, I'll probably wait for the next coupon or sale. I'd love it if Warner considered some kind of bulk pricing, i.e. purchase 1-4 titles @ $19.99 each, or if you get 5-10 it's $16.99 each, 10+ for $14.99 each, etc.

All in all, I had a very positive experience with Warner Archives, and if I can't promise to buy religiously from them, at the least I can promise that the site will be bookmarked and explored for new titles frequently.

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

There's a review of "Private Lives" at DVDTalk:
Warner Bros. Archive Collection: Private Lives : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video

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Tonight I watched GOODBYE, MY FANCY. As with THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS, the image was sharp and clear and had an excellent grayscale, but there are plenty of age related dirt specks and the reel change markers are there. There was also one instance of the disc skipping for one moment (when Lurene Tuttle enters Joan Crawford's room). I did get it to do the same thing again, but I forgot to check to see if there was a problem on the disc surface or if this was just built into master.

Otherwise, an acceptable disc.

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I ordered several of these films after the initial announcement was made. I was very excited about finally being able to own many favorites which I thought would never make it to DVD. I spot checked every one of them upon arrival, and found nothing problematic.

Only this weekend did I finally get a chance to watch a few of them, and I am thoroughly pleased and impressed with what I have seen.

I screened two Color/Cinemascope entries....THE BIG CIRCUS and BHOWANI JUNCTION. Both look and sound superb. THE BIG CIRCUS is too good a movie to have been forgotten for so many years, and Warner's disk is sharp & crisp, with surprisingly good color for late '50s Eastman, and bold sound. BHOWANI is better looking than most Metrocolor efforts of the era, and has a nice stereo track that retains the directionality of the original. A significant improvement from the old laserdisc.

I also screened 3 B&W 4x3 MGM pictures. MRS. PARKINGTON with Garson and Pidgeon is a lavish costume picture that has been given a first-class presentation here. Very clean image with lovely grey scale, a no impairments that I could see. Even better is H.M. PULHAM ESQ. This is a very impressive historical drama with Hedy Lamarr and Robert Young. A solid example of fine MGM craftsmanship, I found the new DVD to be virtually flawless. The last was a silent film I've always wanted to see, but never had before. Beatrice Lillie in EXIT SMILING. This is a sweet comedy, and it's interesting to see how effective such a comedienne as Lillie could be even without her trademark way with words. For a movie that is 83 years old, it looks quite good, with its only visual difficulties seemingly coming from nitrate deterioration on the source.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, I had to indugle a guilty pleasure and watch "THE D.I." with Jack Webb. The 16x9 b&w image quality is not remarkable, but it is commensurate with other B&W titles of the era already released by many studios. It's still a fine DVD, with more than acceptable quality, and is a testament to the strange phenomenon that was Jack Webb.

I am very pleased with my purchases, and plan to order more...once I finish watching the rest of my first batch!

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I must say if you find that The Big Circus looks superb I cannot learn anything from your post - because the DVD I watched of The Big Circus is, of course, anamorphic, so that part is nice, but is nothing really more than average in terms of transfer quality. As I stated before, the best transfer in what I've seen is The Money Trap, which is quite good. The others range from acceptable, a little more than acceptable, and several that are really not acceptable and would not be tolerated from any other studio releasing them.

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Roger,

We really appreciate your reviews of these discs, but need to know what kind of equipment you viewed them on.

For example, the one MOD DVD that I've purchased so far ("Sweet November") looked very good on my 32" 16:9 Vizio den set (native resolution 720p); but was just barely acceptable when viewed on my front projector system.

The type of equipment you view these discs on makes a difference!

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

Back on topic!





Crawdaddy

Re: *** Official Warner Archive DVD Review Thread

I just got my Doc Savage dvd-r. Will watch it in a few days and tell you what I think of it.

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That doesn't compare to The Big House. By far the worst picture quality of all the movies I got. It was just downright difficult to watch. Movie was fun, but picture was more than distracting. No detail, faded. It's the one title I could say looks like what people think of when they think $1 "public domain." Make that $1 VHS "public domain". Was not worth $20.

Other end of the spectrum was Crescendo. Possibly the best looking of the bunch I saw. Despite a few clunkers, I was happy with more than not happy, especially considering the release method, and will be buying more.

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How is it that after nearly a month, people STILL don't understand that these films are NOT going to be remastered for this. It's one thing to expect a lower price point, but when are people going to accept that these are old video masters and will NOT have the picture/sound quality (and the extras) of a regular dvd.

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Posted by JohnMor:
Actually, that DVD Talk review may have inadvertently revealed why. He mentions finding the 2-disc special edition of Ryan's Daughter for $3 at Big Lots. The reviewer had paid $20 for it when it came out, and they had about ten copies of it. The reviewer used the example to show that people are not going to pay $20 for so-so DVD releases, and that may be true. But he misses his own point: if Warner, or any other studio spends big bucks producing a special edition like the 2-disc Ryan's Daughter only to have it end up at Big Lots for $3, they are probably thinking that these "classic" catalog titles are not worth the effort.

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Just got CRISIS. Not in the league of Casablanca, but very watchable in my 80 inch projected screen. Very happy to finally have this in my collection. It includes a trailer.

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That's a bit of a red herring. Big Lots also recently carried all of the titles included in the very first Warner Gangster box at 3 bucks each. Considering there were three subsequent follow-up sets, either the first set was profitable or Warner was insane.

Just because an item finally gets remaindered in no way determines it's profitability.