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***The Official Omnibus Consolidated IS WARNER ABANDONING SNAPPER CASES? Thread*** (1 Viewer)

Scott Kriefall

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we univocally condemned the evil studios who dared to bring us DVDs in jewel cases
I was not part of that group, and I recall voicing my preference for jewel cases on the primary DVD newsgroup (alt.video.dvd) circa 1997-8.

I don't really want to start a major discussion of jewel cases, since it's really a dead issue now. I'll only state that I have not encountered the fragility problems that others have described with standard, single-disc JCs. The thin, double-disc JCs do seem more fragile.

I've been mostly content with keepcases, at least compared to snappers and the old Polygram case. Keepcases share two of the main benefits of jewel cases -- they're easily replaceable, and allow the use of alternate artwork. The disadvantage is that they require more storage space... although the new "ThinPak" keepcase variant will hopefully address that in the near future.
 

Chris Farmer

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I loathe jewel cases with a passion, even more then the snappers. The plastic is incredibly brittle, I've had more hubs disentegrate on me, and the hinges break incredibly easy. I've had well over a dozen jewel cases break while they were just sitting in my CD spinner, literally, either the cover crack, or the little plastic bits of the hub fall off, or all of the above. Nice surprise when I take a CD out for hte first time in months (I ripp all mine to high quality AAC so as not to risk damaging the CD, so I only use the physical CDs in the car) and find that the jewel case it was in has become almost useless. I hope they never stick DVDs in those.
 

pitchman

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Although I am not a fan of using a traditional CD jewel case for DVD's. I must admit to kind of liking the new style jewel case that Warner and others use for DVD-A's. The cases are slim, yet sturdy. I especially like the hubs and how the case latches closed. You can fit many more of these on a shelf than a keepcase or a snapper. I would seriously consider buying a DVD in this case if it was offered.
 

Paul_Stachniak

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New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup 2002-2003 Champions dvd, which really pleasantly surprised me being excellent quality, dual-layered, and in ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN??)
The Cup playoffs were simulcast in High Def, and may I add it was quite awesome to see it like that. However, there is your explanation for the widescreen.

...

I should add that I don't mind seeing the Snapper go. I'm always afraid it's gonna break on me.
 

Ian_H

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-- the ones with the tray that slides out from the bottom of the case! Perhaps I'll see if I can locate some replacement art so that I can move my old Terminator disc out of that thing and into a keepcase...
Back in the day Image used that "scratcher case" for Terminator and then they moved to the snapper. When I saw the snapper case for Terminator I e-mailed them to complain and they sent me a snapper for free! It was a slight upgrade from the "scratcher case" I manage a used store and I don't think I have ever been able to take a DVD that was in one of those awful cases because the discs are always scratched to hell.

-Ian
 

Bryant Frazer

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But unless this contract stipulates use of the Snapper and that contract was an unlikely explicit component of the deal, senior management at Cinram could decide to do something differently in the future (just as New Line senior management obviously decided to break with the Snapper despite their corporate parentage).
Indeed. The way I figure it, there are only two reasons WEA/Ivy Hill stubbornly hung on to the snapper through all these years.

First, they wanted to encourage use of it in the industry outside of the Warner empire, which would guarantee a revenue stream into the overall business, rather than just shuffling money from one division (Warner Home Video) to another (Ivy Hill). With essentially the entire industry outside of Warner abandoning the design, this hasn't come true. As it stands, the snapper design itself can't be generating significant outside revenue.

Second, the snapper is a significantly less expensive packaging option, both in terms of material costs and in cycle times off the replication line. (I've seen these suckers being assembled, and it's blink-of-an-eye fast. The engineers are justly proud of their work -- too bad the package is so irritating to so many consumers.) That increases margins at Warner Home Video by reducing the overall per-disc cost of any given release. Price is also the trump card that Warner thought would eventually encourage other customers to adopt the design, perhaps in non-entertainment applications (direct marketing, corporate apps, that sort of thing). Unfortunately for Ivy Hill, the Amaray-style case very quickly became a de facto standard, and it's doubtful the snapper can ever regain the relative momentum it had at the format's launch, when it was a legitimate contender.

The question for Cinram is, I guess, whether there are enough cost benefits, or potential to market the design to new customers, to keep the snapper case on life support. Certainly they now have a lot of snapper-pack automation equipment that they purchased as part of WAMO's manufacturing capacity. My guess is if they don't kill it in the near future -- and just take a loss to discard all of the snapper-related machines at the manufacturing plants -- it might go away through attrition as Cinram beefs up production with new equipment.

All that said, the release of Reloaded in an Amaray-style case bodes poorly for the snapper. It could be that, with this title slated for one of the largest replication runs in the history of the format, WEA Manufacturing simply doesn't have enough capacity to package both Reloaded and the rest of its catalog in snappers. I can't think of any other reason to make this decision, unless the studio is suddenly admitting that, you know, snapper cases are too second-rate to use on a first-class release.

-bf-
 

Frank@N

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I also have a soft spot for snappers, although the general lack of overall casing standardization bugs me.

The snapper, to me, seems a bit more upscale with better artwork and paper quality while having plastic edges for durability.

Keepcases, with their flimsy or non-existent inserts, seem to scream 'cheap'.

I do buy a lot of used DVDs, however, and the keepcases are easier to clean-up (remove stickers and dirt).

When buying a used snapper, 'what you see is what you get'.
 

Mark Zimmer

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I think CD jewel cases are getting more and more fragile. Of the last 10 CDs I bought, the tabs broke off about half of them very quickly. That used to only happen after significant abuse, but now just opening the case seems to do it. :angry: Are the mfrs trying to save money by reducing the thickness of the plastic?

At least no one has suggested bringing back the nasty Polydor drawer cases. Those things are so terrible! I still have 3 of them in my collection and hate to watch the discs for fear of damaging them. I should just replace them with keepcases, I suppose.
 

Cees Alons

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Mark,

Like you, I have three of those too. I keep a sturdy glossy paper inside to help the DVD slide in/out without damage.

Cees
 

William Waits

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First, it was Australia. Now according to R2 Project (www.r2-dvd.org), the Snapper is about to die in Europe as well. Hopefully, the US can't be far behind! [I say 2 down with only one to go because I don't know if other regions, or if R2 - Japan uses any snappers at all, although the Warner discs that I have from Japan don't.]

Let's let Time Warner know that we don't want this infestation here either! Email, call, write, shout, sky write, broadcast, telepathy, or whatever method will work to get your voice across. Let them be hear by us! Why should the rest of the world be so lucky? Warner Bros is the only ones using it, and their sister companies and other licencees have all ceased using this abomination of a DVD holder. They admit to having complaints, so what's the holdback...? Start the conversion!

Now, if they would only handle the switch from snappers that way they did in Australia....

Here's to hoping!

Bill
 

MikeEckman

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Its its not dying, its gotta be at least a possiblity. I guess they have a new policy of selectively releasing films in Amaray cases, as the new Matrix Reloaded will not be in a Snapper. Thats a start!!!
 

Yumbo

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I have a couple of R1 Warner titles in keepcases...recently.
 

grant>d

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As title.
And I apologise if this has been raised before, no doubt it has.

Although I live in England, I buy R1 DVD's, mostly.

Warner own the rights for Friday the 13th part 1 in the UK, and have just released a truly excellent version, which is the most uncut print I have seen (certainly more than Paramounts R1 affair) and contains a commentary track, featurette & trailer.
Supplied in a rather neat amaray case.
It appears they have abandoned the snapper altogether in the UK.
Yet, I recentley received Where Eagles Dare, Tightrope, The Rookie from the States, all in snappers.
 

James Reader

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I belive some time ago, the story was the factory that made snappers was being closed / was already closed.

I guess each division is just getting through their outstanding stock.

Personally, I'll miss them. :frowning:
 

Joshua Clinard

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I do hope this is true. It would seem to be the case, as some of thier most high profile releases, are being released in snappers. Matrix Reloaded and Terminator 3 are two that I know of.
 

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