Warner Archive Discussion Thread (FEEDBACK) (1 Viewer)

[ahollis]

I can not take the slowness of the site anymore. I have put a way my credit card and will wait until it can take less than a two minutes to bring up title to order. I am using DSL. The site is just overloaded.

 

[KELLYBOY]

My guess is they are waiting for sales of the Sheridan & Lupino individual titles to peter out and then they will offer these as Value Packs. I guess they figure they will be able to make more money from consumers by waiting several months for titles to be bundled together. I am hopeful by Labor Day more Value Packs will be added to the site.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

I have cable internet and no problems at all. Also on a Mac. I dunno...

Originally Posted by ahollis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I can not take the slowness of the site anymore. I have put a way my credit card and will wait until it can take less than a two minutes to bring up title to order. I am using DSL. The site is just overloaded.

 

[ahollis]

You are lucky. Everything from Amazon to Deep Discount load in seconds. But clicking on a WA title on their site to order is just exasperating.

 

[JeffMc]

I just popped in the Archives disc of SHE and it is presented properly in 2.35:1 - no squeezing.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim_K /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Well, going by their preview SHE is a botch job! A 2.35:1 aspect ratio compressed and squeezed into a 16X9 frame. WTF?!

 

[Charles H]

Added or "re-added" to Pre-Orders this morning: DESERT NIGHTS, GUNFIGHT AT COMANCHE CREEK, HOW SWEET IT IS, KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT, A MAJORITY OF ONE, MARY, MARY, NEVER TOO LATE, THE PATSY, THE PLUNDERERS, and QUANTRILL'S RAIDERS.

 

[moviebuffed]

I'd like to chime in and say hello to the HTF board. Newbie here and after months of reading many posts and the amazing variety of topics I finally signed up! I'm very interested in the Warner's archive selections and just this week finally ordered 4 titles. They have yet to arrive but after reading some posts on the slowness of the site (yes, it's slow but I've experienced worse) I found it to be just ok. Ordering was no problem at all and once select items in my cart checking out was no problem at all. However, the quality of the films I ordered is up to debate and once I receive them I'll discuss though from some posts I've read it is about 50/50 with overall satisfaction.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Originally Posted by moviebuffed /img/forum/go_quote.gif">
I'd like to chime in and say hello to the HTF board. Newbie here and after months of reading many posts and the amazing variety of topics I finally signed up! I'm very interested in the Warner's archive selections and just this week finally ordered 4 titles. They have yet to arrive but after reading some posts on the slowness of the site (yes, it's slow but I've experienced worse) I found it to be just ok. Ordering was no problem at all and once select items in my cart checking out was no problem at all. However, the quality of the films I ordered is up to debate and once I receive them I'll discuss though from some posts I've read it is about 50/50 with overall satisfaction.

Welcome the the forum

 

[Thomas T]

Yikes! Just received my STORY OF MANKIND today. Now the clip on the Warners Archives site was wide screen but I knew it was pressed at a 1.33 ratio for the Archives but when I popped it in to my standard TV the picture was squeezed with black bars on the sides! My standard TV is set for 4x3 letterbox so wide screen films plays just fine, not squeezed! Now, when I popped STORY OF MANKIND into my wide screen portable DVD player, it was UNsqueezed and looked just fine even though there were -appropriately for a 1.33 presentation- black bars on the sides. Anybody else have this problem with the MANKIND dvd? Why would a 1.33 presentation be squeezed on a standard TV?

EDIT: Just talked to Warners over the phone and they stated since it was MOD, there was obviously a pressing error and would send me a new copy ASAP!
Edited by Thomas T - 8/13/2009 at 11:10 pm GMT

 

[montag]

HOW SWEET IT IS, KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT, and THE PATSY, were 3 of 4 titles we were asked to vote for. What happened to WATCH THE BIRDIE, which the last time I looked had the most votes. Is there a Red Skelton collection on the way?

 

[ahollis]

Never Too Late has been added to the Pre-Releases. I guess the others that were there one minute and gone the next will return before Tuesday.

 

[Jobla]

Thomas, let us know if you receive a corrected copy of THE STORY OF MANKIND. My copy appears in full-frame on both my high-def TV and my standard, 15 year old TV. I didn't notice black bars on the sides of the image.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

You might try playing with the settings on your DVD player, changing the 4x3 letterbox setting to 4x3 pan/scan. If you do this and the disc suddenly plays properly on your 4x3 television it is because the disc was either mastered with improper flagging or your DVD player is not interpreting the flags encoded on the disc properly. I do not think a new disc will change that since it will be created from the same authored and compiled source.

Originally Posted by Thomas T /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yikes! Just received my STORY OF MANKIND today. Now the clip on the Warners Archives site was wide screen but I knew it was pressed at a 1.33 ratio for the Archives but when I popped it in to my standard TV the picture was squeezed with black bars on the sides! My standard TV is set for 4x3 letterbox so wide screen films plays just fine, not squeezed! Now, when I popped STORY OF MANKIND into my wide screen portable DVD player, it was UNsqueezed and looked just fine even though there were -appropriately for a 1.33 presentation- black bars on the sides. Anybody else have this problem with the MANKIND dvd? Why would a 1.33 presentation be squeezed on a standard TV?
EDIT: Just talked to Warners over the phone and they stated since it was MOD, there was obviously a pressing error and would send me a new copy ASAP!
Edited by Thomas T - 8/13/2009 at 11:10 pm GMT

 

[Jim_K]

Originally Posted by JeffMc /forum/thread/283916/warner-archive-discussion-thread/2520#post_3595597
I just popped in the Archives disc of SHE and it is presented properly in 2.35:1 - no squeezing.

Good to hear that.
I'll pull the trigger on She whenever I can get it for a reasonable price. I'll either wait for a general price drop to $9.99, a 50% sale or if they ever start allowing customers to create their own "bundles" instead of having them pre-selected.

 

[borisfw]

I'm just waiting for some new bundles or value paks or whatever they want to call them. Like say....Women of Warners?????

 

[Thomas T]

Jobia, I'll do that. Warners said it should arrive next week. Still, is your high def wide screen? Then surely a 1.33 aspect ratio would have bars on the sides, no?

Chuck, I did adjust my settings thinking maybe that would get rid of the black bars on the side or at least the "squeezing" effect but trying all three (4x3 letterbox, pan and scan, 16x9 wide screen) modes on the standard TV yielded no change. But as I said, the disc looks just fine on my portable wide screen DVD player, bars on the sides but the picture unsqueezed so that faces look normal and natural.

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[MichaelEl]

WARNING about the SHE DVD: the image is compressed vertically.

It would appear they took a transfer cropped to 1:85:1 or 16x9 (The U.K. disc is apparently cropped to 16x9, so maybe that was the transfer they used) and then squeezed the image vertically so that it matched the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The image should actually fill a 16x9 screen, not have black bars at the top and bottom.

IMO, Warner should either give everyone who bought this a refund or else send them a corrected copy.

 

[Jobla]

Thomas, my high-def TV is a 16X9 widescreen TV. I didn't see the black bars on the sides, but I also didn't feel that the image was improperly squeezed (THE STORY OF MANKIND). That said, I still suspect that it should have been matted to 1:66-1. However, I'm not an expert.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

Originally Posted by MichaelEl /forum/thread/283916/warner-archive-discussion-thread/2520#post_3596078
WARNING about the SHE DVD: the image is compressed vertically.
It would appear they took a transfer cropped to 1:85:1 or 16x9 (The U.K. disc is apparently cropped to 16x9, so maybe that was the transfer they used) and then squeezed the image vertically so that it matched the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The image should actually fill a 16x9 screen, not have black bars at the top and bottom.
IMO, Warner should either give everyone who bought this a refund or else send them a corrected copy.

I'm not entirely sure what you are trying to say -- my copy fills the 16:9 frame, is in 2.35 and looks well composed, if a bit aged. The edges even have that Cinemascope "curvature", which signals to me it's not being cropped.

 

[Thomas T]

Michael's problem with SHE and my problem with STORY OF MANKIND, while others have no problem with the same titles, indicate the problem lies perhaps with the person who is doing the actual encoding of the DVD. Since these are manufactured on demand, it's obviously not always the same person who is doing the encoding and transferring. While it would seem logical for all titles to be transferred from the same source material, doesn't this make sense? How else to explain someone getting a perfect disc and others getting a mis-transferred print?