Warner Archive Discussion Thread (FEEDBACK) - Page 108

Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum...

recently got in a couple WA titles from the DeepDiscount sale.

Seven Minutes In Heaven looks to have been destined for a pressed release at some point. The transfer and compression work are near pristine from what I can see stepping through the disc. With this kind of quality, along with the changeover to full cover art and shrinkwrapping, the overall impression it gives off is highly positive. I don't mind paying $15 for something like this. $20 is still a bit too high (and $25 to get a properly 'remastered' disc is just ridiculous). A far cry from Under The Rainbow

Also got in the Torchy Blaine collection. Just stepped through 2 of the films so far. They look pretty ragged, BUT there doesn't seem to be any issues with poor compression. I can accept film elements from a 70 year old film in rough shape. What I can't tolerate is macro blocking, mosquito noise, or a soft low res re-purposed 80's era VHS master. At least with the first and last films in the set, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick 

The good news is that not many of the Archive titles look nearly as bad as the one you illustrate, but at a retail price of $20.00, it is a travesty.Hopefully Warner Bros. will see your post and, if they have a sense of accountability, will respond to it.

Without a doubt, THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE looks the worst of any WA title I've bought, and I figure I've bought around 40 or so. What is sad is that the same transfer is shown on TCM (dirt in same spots, damage, etc.), but the contrast was boosted for the DVD. The version without the boosting on TCM is nothing to write home about (nothing is black or white - everything is gray and soft), but at least detail isn't blown out! :-(

Warner should at the very least remaster it without the contrast boosting and send out a replacement disc to people who bought it. I got rid of mine.

Oh, and I have read a review online where THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE got a decent DVD review! Even without the comparison footage I posted, how is that possible?!?!

Warner is already issuing press releases for February 2011. What did 2010 get us? Mostly repackagings of old material. There were three box sets with new material released once a month during the summer months, and that was about it. Nothing new for the holiday season. It's been this way ever since the start of the Archive program in March 2009. To state the obvious, Warners has pretty much abandoned releasing classic movies to retail. It's pretty much all the Archives now.

Maybe that promised Jean Harlow set will turn up next year as retail pressed discs under the TCM banner. If so, it will probably be one of the only sets they release next year. I also wouldn't be surprised to see the Harlow films end up in the Archive and a Value Pak offered. I would think that press release stating a February 2011 release of a Harlow box set containing no new to DVD titles wouldn't bode well.

It would be nice to see Warner upgrading the Archive's remastering program to retail standards, i.e. releasing the select films they decide to remaster on pressed discs with subtitles. What's to stop them? They're already charging above retail prices for them. Why not bring the quality up all the way to match?

One of the newly remastered films, Five Star Final, is running on Friday morning on TCM. It will be interesting to see if TCM runs the new Archive remastering of the title, or if the new remasterings will remain exclusive to the Archive.

Disappointed to hear about Animaniacs and Tiny Toons. But my big question is, as always, any word on The Road Warrior special edition?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdee28 
Maybe that promised Jean Harlow set will turn up next year as retail pressed discs under the TCM banner. If so, it will probably be one of the only sets they release next year.

There is also a pretty good likelihood of the remaining Monogram Charlie Chans being released

Anything on Rio Rita (Abbott and Costello title)

Warner Archive is like old vhs tapes put right onto dvd

Quote:

Originally Posted by etc041 

Warner Archive is like old vhs tapes put right onto dvd

Well, I own numerous DVD's taken from VHS -- pretty good ones -- and the Warner Archive titles are nothing like those. Even their worst transfer is many times better than a VHS copy.
 

However, it's kind of shame we are being asked to fork out an extra five bucks (over an already steep price) for any title that is identified as "Remastered." Every title released to the series for which even $20.00 is charged should be "remastered."

What I find especially disconcerting is that, although a matter of personal taste and also the fact that numerous excellent titles have been included in the Archive series, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that the likes of DONDI is available (is there anyone on the planet who actually likes this film?) while NORTHWEST PASSAGE and SINBAD THE SAILOR and THE WINDOW and THE SEA WOLF and scores of other superb films remain in the vaults. Who is making the decisions regarding which titles to release, and what market research has been done?

Quote:

Originally Posted by etc041 

Warner Archive is like old vhs tapes put right onto dvd

Edward:

Welcome to the HTF.

You'll find the film enthusiasts here like to have more drawn out discussions.  Do you have a rationale for your statement?

The two WA titles I just watched:  Never Too Late and One on One looked far superior than a VHS presentation.  Any particulars you'd like to cite would be welcome.

Re: THE WINDOW, Warner Archive already confirmed this title will join the Archives in the near future.   They are likely are working on a new transfer (it was restored for a Film Noir Festival recently).

Warner also said (somewhere, I forget) that it was looking for the best possible SEA WOLF elements before proceeding. 

Agreed on the redundancy and uselessness of the "VHS" crack; take it outside this thread, please. The complaints on pricing are pretty tired, too. It is what it is, and most of us here would like to move the discussion forward, not grind our gears. 

Right you are, Bob.  With various coupons floating around, nobody should be paying "full price" for these discs. 

I'm just wondering, are these archives discs shipping to Canada yet?  Any Canadians buy from the site?  The site isn't really clear about the specifics with the archive.  when I click on the faq and what not it lists the WBShop and I don't know if it's all the same thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russell G 

I'm just wondering, are these archives discs shipping to Canada yet?  Any Canadians buy from the site?  The site isn't really clear about the specifics with the archive.  when I click on the faq and what not it lists the WBShop and I don't know if it's all the same thing.

THE WARNER BROTHERS WERE CANADIAN, YET I CANNOT buy from the Archives. I have to purchase all my Archive titles from "Movies Unlimited" (part of tcm.com).

I am collecting all Best Picture Nominees, so those are the ones I've bought, and I had to get them all from Movies Unlimited. The first four, Four Daughters, The Citadel, Flirtation Walk and The Big House were all available by the time I found them on Movies Unlimited; When I went to order The Hollywood Revue of 1929, I had to wait two months for it to become available on thier site. Fivve Star Final was ready right away.

But no, I don't belive ANY of the Archives will be shipping to Canada (Why not?!?!?!?!?!?)

I thought Warner held the rights to it's films in Canada and the US, but I really can't figure out why they wouldn't ship to Canada. there are movie fans up here, too!!! We'd like to get in on the deal as well!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Cashill 

 

The complaints on pricing are pretty tired, too. It is what it is, and most of us here would like to move the discussion forward, not grind our gears. 

Except this is the FEEDBACK thread, so you know bitching about the price is part of the feedback. We already know you LOVE DVD-Rs (and you know i hate them) but its all FEEDBACK. Good or bad, people should be able to talk about it if this is the thread designated for it. Right?

Indeed, but saying you hate the pricing isn't adding anything. Do you have something new to add, something to move the conversation forward? It's been said a million times before. I HATE THE PRICING. I HATE DVD-R. I HATE THE WARNER ARCHIVE. I HATE THAT THE STUDIOS HAVE GIVEN UP ON PRESSED DISCS--all covered, and exhausted, 107 pages ago. This isn't "feedback," it's reverb, endless echoes. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Cashill

Indeed, but saying you hate the pricing isn't adding anything. Do you have something new to add, something to move the conversation forward? It's been said a million times before. I HATE THE PRICING. I HATE DVD-R. I HATE THE WARNER ARCHIVE. I HATE THAT THE STUDIOS HAVE GIVEN UP ON PRESSED DISCS--all covered, and exhausted, 107 pages ago. This isn't "feedback," it's reverb, endless echoes.

But it's what we do best!

And not just about MOD!

We like to go around, and around about DNR, aka no grain vs. grain. The colors are right, the colors are wrong. The sound is to soft, the sound is too high. I hate black bars, I hate pan and scan. You name it, someone could go around and around. But that's why we are here, for better or worse.

Now how about those wires on The Wizard of Oz? That was a good one, back in the day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by battlebeast 

 

THE WARNER BROTHERS WERE CANADIAN, YET I CANNOT buy from the Archives. I have to purchase all my Archive titles from "Movies Unlimited" (part of tcm.com).

 

I am collecting all Best Picture Nominees, so those are the ones I've bought, and I had to get them all from Movies Unlimited. The first four, Four Daughters, The Citadel, Flirtation Walk and The Big House were all available by the time I found them on Movies Unlimited; When I went to order The Hollywood Revue of 1929, I had to wait two months for it to become available on thier site. Fivve Star Final was ready right away.

 

But no, I don't belive ANY of the Archives will be shipping to Canada (Why not?!?!?!?!?!?)

 

I thought Warner held the rights to it's films in Canada and the US, but I really can't figure out why they wouldn't ship to Canada. there are movie fans up here, too!!! We'd like to get in on the deal as well!!!

Thanks for the reply and letting me know.  Looks like Warner's can go to hell, and I'll steal the inevitable DVD rips to stick in the war time Gold collection box.

TCM did not air the newly remastered version of "Five Star Final" this morning. Could it be that the new remasterings are being kept exclusive to the Warner Archive?

If so, why not license the new remasterings to TCM, or enter into a partnership with them, like they have with the pressed discs? Maybe that could bring the cost to the consumer of the remastered Archive discs down?

its not a conspiracy to keep the remaster exclusive, rather it's that to broadcast on TCM, the studios send a clone of a BetaCam SP or digibeta master of the film to TCM. They digitize the tape master into their server and then use the server to program with.  They either keep the old tape or keep the old digitized version on their server.  If there's not a reason to replace it (and pay for the new clone, pay for the shipping of the clone, pay for the man hours to digitize it into the server) they probably will not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jobla 

Bob, THE TODD KILLINGS has always looked soft.  It was a low-budget National General Pictures release, not a Warner Brothers studio product.  The new MOD is superior to the old Warner VHS tape.

 

My package of six WA titles arrived in Seattle yesterday.  However, there was some confusion over the online tracking.  Here's the poop: the package did cross the country via UPS (Mail Innovations), and was delivered to the local UPS depot yesterday morning at 3 AM.  Around 6 AM, UPS then delivered the package to the local post office.  At that point, the online tracking stated "Out for delivery," so I was all prepared for my letter carrier to bring the parcel to me.  However, he had no package for me.

 

Here's the rub: the package was considered to be "out for delivery" by UPS, but NOT by the local post office!  The post office would probably have delivered the package to me today, but that wasn't good enough for me.  I drove over to the local postal branch and picked up my package in person.  I wanted to be certain of receiving it before Halloween, due to the horror content. 

 

I still don't like this handing-off of packages between UPS and the USPS.  It will cause a delivery delay of at least a day, and there's more chance of a package getting lost (especially during the busy holidays).  In the future, I think I'll avoid these "free shipping" deals.

 

Warner, please consider returning to UPS ground.  It's faster, more direct, offers more reliable online tracking, and presents less chance of a package going missing.

Under the innovations program, once the package is accepted by the Post Office, UPS tracking stops. At that point, if you want to know when it is expected to be delivered, you have to go to the USPS website and track it there. When I checked the status of my last shipment on the USPS site last Friday, it said that it would be delivered on Monday, and that is when it arrived.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard Gallagher 

 

Under the innovations program, once the package is accepted by the Post Office, UPS tracking stops. At that point, if you want to know when it is expected to be delivered, you have to go to the USPS website and track it there. When I checked the status of my last shipment on the USPS site last Friday, it said that it would be delivered on Monday, and that is when it arrived.

My package that was sent out on the 13th via ups mail innovations took a very odd trip . I live in NH . My package went from Il to NY(northeast) to NJ(south) to WASH DC (south) to MD (more south) to North Carolina(Even more south) . So after 15 days WB considers it lost or misdirected . They are reshipping it 2nd day air . Happy with the WB service . Not so much with the UPS innovations .
 

Richard, I did use the USPS online tracking site.  It said "Out for delivery," but the package was found sitting in the local post office.  I am not favorably impressed with UPS Mail Innovations. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randy Korstick 

Like the Archive or not you might as well accept it and not lose sleep over it since it is the future for all studios releasing titles. DVD sales have been down for two years and all major chain stores are reducing or clearing out DVD's. Its a pretty clear picture. Archive MOD's and Downloads will be the future.

I don't believe it, not for "all" movies. Maybe older, more obscure films. But newer releases and the more popular classic titles of yesteryear will probably still get official releases. And how many are there out there that we don't already have?

And even then, you're talking about the "majors" being the ones relying a lot of MOD. Oh, which reminds me - I need to go and order my official pressed copy of DARK CITY from Olive films..
 

Agreed about Olive Films and its deal with Paramount, but I can only wonder how much more of the iceberg we'll be seeing after that tip of a deal they've struck. (The Legend/Best Buy arrangement didn't stick past two dozen or so titles.) The volume is paltry compared to what WB and Sony have put out via their MODs, and the extras--and prices--are pretty much equivalent. Criterion's not going to pick up that much of the studio slack, either.

All the majors should have MODs. As Joe Dante said at Dave Kehr's blog last week, re: the WA's welcome release of 50s horrors, "Warner Archive is obviously a great idea, and everyone’s copying it, which is good for all of us. I think it’s finally sinking in that once a certain generation passes there’ll be virtually nobody to sell these movies to." Absolutely. 

Yes, I'm really looking forward to the future of DVD being movies at double or triple the price whilst being unrestored and having no extra features whatever.

Of course everyone is copying the MOD model.

What business would miss the opportunity to produce a product more cheaply and charge more for it?

And that's the only reason everyone is jumping on to this little bandwagon. The only thing it has to do with "giving the movie fans films they want" is the money to be made from doing so. The "DVD market" argument is just smoke and mirrors. It's not that there's no profit in it - just not enough profit to interest studios who regard anything that's not going to sell tens of thousands of units as not worth the trouble.

Fair enough, the studios aren't charities, but at the same time let's not get so misty eyed about seeing these films released that we can't see what is happening.

Do I love movies? Yup. So bad that I want them in mediocre quality for very high prices? Nope!

It's a crying shame that someone thought of MOD instead of licensing out the films to smaller outfits who can operate at smaller scales.

I don;t have anything particular against MOD as a concept*. What I find galling is the way it's being done. The movie lover is getting stiffed. The studios have us over a barrel - and they know it.

* Excluding doubts over the long term viability of the discs, which is a technical issue, not conceptual.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Cashill 

Agreed about Olive Films and its deal with Paramount, but I can only wonder how much more of the iceberg we'll be seeing after that tip of a deal they've struck. (The Legend/Best Buy arrangement didn't stick past two dozen or so titles.) The volume is paltry compared to what WB and Sony have put out via their MODs, and the extras--and prices--are pretty much equivalent. Criterion's not going to pick up that much of the studio slack, either.

 

All the majors should have MODs. As Joe Dante said at Dave Kehr's blog last week, re: the WA's welcome release of 50s horrors, "Warner Archive is obviously a great idea, and everyone’s copying it, which is good for all of us. I think it’s finally sinking in that once a certain generation passes there’ll be virtually nobody to sell these movies to." Absolutely. 

All of this is so true.  Thanks for posting this.

And as far as someone else's comment above saying movie lovers are being "stiffed", I know I'm not being stiffed.  Warner Archive and all these MOD programs are a godsend to real movie lovers.   It would have taken at least a decade to see this many classics get released the old way, and the old way was pretty much dead anyway.   If they're too expensive for you, then just don't buy 'em.   No one is forcing you to buy anything.  

And can we get back to the movies, please.  That is what this thread is supposed to be about, right?   People can b*tch all they want about these programs in that other thread which I don't even bother reading anymore - and I'm sick of reading the same old tired complaints here.   Any scoop on what titles are coming this Tuesday?   

At the risk of repeating myself, I have a few of the Olive releases. They're fine...but not restored at all, and no significant extras, maybe one or two have trailers. Equivalent in visual quality to many of the WA MODs (most are better, frankly, the older titles the worse for wear) and not as good as the Sony MODs; all the ones I have are gorgeous. List prices for the Olives are $25, which of course come down if purchased via Amazon, but not that much. I expect (or at least hope) that the MOD companies will make good on discs if they start failing en masse...or until everything switches over to streaming, which may very well come first. I have 10-year-old DVD-Rs that play just fine.

But as JeffMc noted we're again at the usual impasse when the discussion heads in this fruitless direction, so all I can do is call WA first thing in the morning to badger them for my latest orders, not for me, but for Point-Blank and his list. 

As an explanation...the last several posts were moved to this thread from the Warner Archives "announcements/films" threads.

Please.  This thread is for Feedback on the Warner MOD program--either positive or negative.

The Announcements/Films thread is for comments on the films themselves.

If anyone has any questions about the moved posts, please contact me privately.  Not in this thread.