Studios Reducing/Ending Retail DVDs of Classics - Warner Interview - Page 5

I've watched three of them thus far, and aside from a few white speckles, the video quality is quite good. Sound is a little hissy but nothing severe.

As someone who studies history and works as an author and film historian, in addition to dabbling in both pop culture and general world history, it's hard not to see a bigger picture here. I believe the cyclical nature of culture will eventually find an opportunity to spin classic movies back in at least a variation of vogue. 

After all, the whole concept of "classic film" wasn't much more than a virtually unknown, untested theory until the proliferation of television in the late 40's-60's helped spawn the idea and ideal of looking back instead of forward.  Perhaps a future catalyst is out there waiting to make everything old new again, as the song said.  Or perhaps we are just dinosaurs watching the comet in the sky and shrugging over the inevitable.  Whichever, live your life now, not on a shelf collecting dust. 

Or as Ray Bradbury once said: "Go not with ruins in your mind."

If they used dual-layer DVD+Rs, it would only take 7 discs for an entire season. In fact, Warner should already be using dual layer discs for movies that are over 2 hours long. While no one knows the longevity of burned discs for sure, I have CD-Rs over a decade old that play with no problems. 

Ditto on Matt's post.  I've seen 3 of them so far and the transfer Q's are pretty good considering that these are RKO's.  No complaints.  I'm watching them on a 50" Plasma with 4:3 format at about 8-9 ft viewing distance. 

This has been my only Archive purchase so far.  I just figured that we wouldn't see the Barkers released on pressings and when the discount/coupons brought them below $10 ea, I pulled the trigger.  If I recall, they were about $7+ each including shipping back during that "bundle set" sale.

I couldn't even wait for the replies and ordered this afternoon. The only purchase I will probably make through the archive program, unless they release the Gordon years or the TV show. I was able to get the bundled price of $49.95 and use a $10 off coupon. Unfortunately, I couldn't work around shipping so it ended up about $9 a movie.

They could use dual-layer disks. However, while I do not have a dual- layer burner I had heard from a few people that they were more problematic. Maybe that is no longer an issue but if so, it may be why they have stayed away from them. Also, they are more expensive, but for what they are charging that shouldn't be an issue.

Personally, I would stay away from +R's and stick with -R's. While I can burn both I had issues early on with some DVD players reading +R's but very rarely an issue with a -R.

You made a good buy, imo.  That price ea is a good one.  I remember when I was looking at that set, I had set the "$10ea including shipping line in the sand" that I wasn't going to exceed in price.  The other reason that it's a good buy, imo, is that I don't see any future pressed releases of these titles.  Maybe it'll happen but I doubt it for these.

This reminds me that I still need to watch 2 more in the set.

That's because there are more players on the market that can read the -R format, though now all players can read both -R and +R and have been able to for several years. I have burned hundreds of DVD+R DL discs and have yet to have a problem with any of them, though I also only use high-quality Verbatim media for DVD+R DL. Using Memorex or some of the off-brands that are known to be highly unstable with poor dye layers means creating a disc with a very limited lifespan. 

I have found very many DVD players have no trouble with DVD+R DL burned discs, but there are some that refuse to load them. One of my friend's Sony players from 2001 refuses to play the DVD+R DL discs I send him, but his Sony player from 2005 plays them just fine. One would have to go back to pre-2000 to find DVD players that have trouble/can't play DVD-R discs, though the dye layer has a lot to do with whether players can focus in on it and play it. There are some DVD-R brands  and DVD players that are just poor when it comes to compatibility. One of my players will usually not recognize discs burnt onto Ritek media (which I stopped using years ago anyway), though at one time it would read them.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to using burned media, period. I should think that if Warner chose for a few special titles to be dual layer they would actually make a small pressed run of them in that format due to the compatibility issues with dual layer media with players out there on the market.

Actually, DVD+Rs are manufactured to higher standards than -Rs, which is probably why Verbatim only sells dual layer +Rs.

Yes, age of one's DVD players and the different formats brings up an interesting decision for WB with regards to burned media. Bringing it up made me think about my own setup. I currently have 4 DVD players in operation produced in the following years 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2007 (for PAL support). The one's that get used the most are the 2001 (daughter's use in family room), and the 2003 (Denon 2900 in the HT).  As for my burner, I use a Pioneer 05 I bought back in 2002 that is still going strong and I only use Sony single layer DVD-R's for burning.

As stated, newer equipment probably would not cause an issue but one has to consider the abundance of quality older equipment still around working fine. Maybe I'm an anonmaly as far as age of setup's go, but I would guess not.

True that.  In Beethoven's time, the music of Haydn and Handel from a generation or two earllier was considered hopelessly old-fashioned.