Warner Archive Discussion Thread (FEEDBACK) (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

Don't you just love this quote:
"If the idea of buying a made-to-order DVD sounds pretty archaic, well … that's because Warners Brothers isn't targeting its "archive" service for the likes of you and me. Instead, the site "aims squarely at the over-40 set who enjoy building up physical collections of DVDs..."

"...[T]he likes of you and me" is funny because he sounds like an old man who is just trying to sound hip by saying that no one has physical media anymore but is just confusing music with DVDs. I see tons of people of all ages buying DVDs when I'm in Best Buy, etc.

 

[Simon Howson]

New Warner Website Swamped With Orders for Vintage Movies
If you're having trouble ordering from Warner Home Video's new on-demand DVD and download site that I wrote about a couple of posts back, it's because the demand has far exceeded the studio's wildest expectations on opening day. I just got off the phone with a jubiliant WHV honcho George Feltenstein, who reports that within two hours of the site going live this morning, orders were placed for 140 of the initial 150 titles. "And they might have gotten orders on those other ten by now,'' he tells me. "It's more traffic than we can handle.'' He said the top-secret on-demand project was in the works for two years, "well before the retail landscape for DVDs started to shrink.'' George said the hugely ambitious goal is to make Warners' entire 5000-title catalogue, including hundreds of titles from MGM, RKO and other studios, available, a project that "may take 10 years to accomplish.'' He said the initial offering, which will be supplemented by at least 20 features each and every month -- around 450 are scheduled for the end of 2010 -- was chosen from among titles most requested by fans, as well as titles for which the studios has the good masters. "There's are at least a couple of thousand people who want each of these titles out there,'' he says,."And we wanted to put out titles that look as good as our regular commercial releases.'' He said he was particularly happy to recently discover a good widescreen transfer of Budd Boetticher's much-requested "Westbound,'' his only Randolph Scott western not available on DVD.
George said that two of my most wanted titles, Michael Curtiz' "Mission to Moscow'' and Wilhelm Dieterle's "The Last Flight,'' will "probably'' be available next year. Hooray! ("Portnoy's Complaint'' is coming too). The titles in the Warner Archive program are burned rathan than pressed like WHV's regular discs, but George says tests show these discs, burned with a proprietary technology, "are as durable and playable as pressed discs. They're not like discs you burn on your home computer.'' George emphasized that these releases were intended to supplement WHV's regular retail releases, which will continue to feature supplemental features not available in the new bare-bones discs. He's going to announce some upcoming titles tonight on Home Theater Forum. "If initial sales are any indication, we're in for a long ride,'' he tells me.

Movies

 

[BradleyS]

I DO want them. I just think they are overpriced and what I DON'T want is to spend $20 a pop on a barebones dvd-r, only to possibly have it turn up at a later date as a proper retail release. THAT is my concern and one that has yet to be addressed by the powers that be.

How is Warners supposed to address your concern? Promise that they'll never give any of the Archive movies a wide release? They've already said that some of the titles will eventually go to retail, but they don't necessarily know which ones or when. The Archive program allows for instant gratification; but if someone doesn't want to risk the chance of double dipping, I suppose they can be patient and wait to see what eventually gets released in the years to come.

 

[Dick]

It appears as though these films are not going to be available through rental outlets such as Netflix and Blockbuster, which is too bad. I would love to be able to preview these titles before committing to a purchase.

 

[Robert Crawford]

How is Warners supposed to address your concern? Promise that they'll never give any of the Archive movies a wide release? They've already said that some of the titles will eventually go to retail, but they don't necessarily know which ones or when. The Archive program allows for instant gratification; but if someone doesn't want to risk the chance of double dipping, I suppose they can be patient and wait to see what eventually gets released in the years to come.

Thank you as such a promise wouldn't make sense business-wise from Warner's POV. Consumers will have to be selective on which titles they have to have and whether bonus material and such is important to them or not. For me personally, I just want the film for the most part, however, there are a few titles I'm willing to wait on because I think they'll come out on retail eventually and I would want some bonus material so I'll be patient for those titles.
Crawdaddy

 

[Coopsgirl_31]

Dick,
ClassicFlix will have these movies for rent.
Classicflix.com : - Articles - - More Warner

 

[Jay E]

If Warner would lower their prices they could have people (like me), buying more of their titles and spending more money due to

A) - the more affordable cost

B) - not being as worried if the title does go retail one day with bonus features. At $20 a pop, I am much more worried about this than I would at $10 a pop.

C) - taking a chance on buying a title that I haven't seen. At $20, I am taking no chances!!

 

[GlennH]

Warners could easily assuage these fears by adopting a consumer-friendly policy that would garner them lots of goodwill and prevent many from holding off on some titles now:
Owners of any Warner Archive DVD-R release should be given the option to exchange it if there is a subsequent "normal" DVD release later. This should be free of charge (except perhaps postage).
Purchasers will be paying a premium price to get these movies on DVD-R. Warners should profit well from each purchase. That should merit the consumer the privilege of acquiring the DVD version later.

 

[Jefty]

I've never heard more disheartening "good news" in my life.
Is there any reason for people to buy these $20 US-no-extras DVD-Rs instead of just recording 'em off TCM?
no
there is not
not that my opinion matters to Warners anyway, since I'm Canadian

 

[TravisR]

not that my opinion matters to Warners anyway, since I'm Canadian

Read the thread before complaining.

 

[ChrisPearson]

I'm finding the reaction of some to the suggestion that these discs might be overpriced rather hard to understand.

We have grown used to Warner releasing boxed sets of classics at SRPs working out as $10 per disc (such as the past two Gangsters collections, which had SRPs of $60 and contained six discs). Online retailers would typically knock off 20% on initial release and as much as 50% in sales further down the line. Most of these DVDs had extensive extras, such as Warner Night at the Movies.

Now Warner is expecting consumers to pay $20 per disc for bare bones releases with no hope of a reduction (as Warner is the only company selling them). They might be reissued to retail at some point, possibly with extras, in which case you can shell out all over again.

I can understand people's excitement at getting some of their favourite films on DVD, and appreciate that these are among Warner's more obscure titles. But to go from paying $10 or less for a loaded DVD to paying twice that or more for bare bones -- in a recession no less -- is a bit rich. Isn't it reasonable for some of us to feel somewhat locked out?

 

[Jefty]

Read the thread before complaining.

If there are ordering channels for Canadians, I won't be using them. I hope people boycott this whole project.

 

[TravisR]

If there are ordering channels for Canadians, I won't be using them. I hope people boycott this whole project.

There's nothing that anyone can say to someone that won't even try to find out correct information and hopes for a boycott (which, from the sounds of it, isn't happening).

 

[Jefty]

There's nothing that anyone can say to someone that won't even try to find out correct information and hopes for a boycott (which, from the sounds of it, isn't happening).

I didn't bother to find out information about shipping to Canada (although initial reports did say they would only ship to US addresses--sorry if I expect press releases to give correct information) because I don't think this is a good deal, for anyone who has access to TCM.

 

[Patrick Mason]

I pulled the trigger on a handful of films I've been wanting for years, but I have to say the price tag really hurt. Hopefully if this is successful they would consider offering "boxset" prices if you buy multiple titles? If these could get down towards the $10 range of other Warner catalog titles, I would take chances on a lot of films I haven't seen. At the current price structure, that's just a bit hard to justify. Love the program, I would just like to give my two cents! (Oh, and as for the Wall Street Journal article referenced above, I think it's a bit funny I'm considered a good 14 years shy of their "target" audience for these releases. Guess I should start acting my age and go watch Chronicles of Riddick on my iPhone. What do they base this stuff on?)

 

[Timothy E]

As a former resident of Canada, I can relate to the frustration being expressed in this thread by movie lovers outside the United States who feel like they are being treated poorly by Warner Bros. shipping their DVD Archive collection only to addresses within the United States. I cannot tell you how many times I have had this same experience living in Canada when trying to obtain merchandise by mail and I know how irritating that feeling can be.
I also believe that frustration is leading some posters in this forum to react out of proportion to the actual situation. I guarantee that many of our HTF members outside the United States will be able to obtain these Archive DVDs in the near future. It is entirely possible that Warner Brothers will even expand this program in the near future to ship worldwide. Even if that does not happen, these movies will inevitable turn up very soon on Amazon, eBay, iOffer, and other sites where our international friends can purchase them. International customers who complain that they might have to pay a little more if they are forced to purchase these DVDs on the secondary market are forgetting that, even if Warner Bros. were shipping these worldwide, the studio would be incurring substantial additional expenses charged to them by the U.S. Post Office or other couriers and those costs would have to be passed on to the buyers anyway.
There are many members of this forum who reside in the United States who will be willing to trade or forward films on to our international friends at little or no additional cost for our time and expense. Keep in mind that even us fortunate ones who reside in the U.S. and who have already ordered from the website do not have any of these movies on hand yet.
I do not work for Warner Bros. but I think the criticism being leveled at the studio is out of proportion to the offense. There are legitimate reasons that the studio might not be willing or able to ship these DVDs outside the U.S. The studios do read what we post on this forum, and we should remember that Warner Bros. usually goes above and beyond for consumers, compared to some other studios, as is evident by the fact that they have started this program, even if it is not yet available internationally. What other studio is making this effort to make their entire catalog available on DVD?
Does anyone really believe that any other studio, if and when they ever offer such a program (since no other studio has yet), will ship worldwide, and that Warner Brothers is deliberately discriminating against international customers?
I encourage everyone to read Ron Epstein's comments regarding the negative comments being posted about this program and about the Warner Bros. chat here:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...ould-read.html

 

[TravisR]

...I don't think this is a good deal, for anyone who has access to TCM.

In some cases, that may be true but I doubt every movie that they're going to release has been on TCM. Not to mention that someone might not have recorded a movie that they want.

 

[borisfw]

I don't see an issue for complaining about the price.The price is a little off as pointed out many times in this thread.I still have already taken the plunge on 5 films for 75 shipped.But i will only purchase again when and if they have a sale or lower the prices.Unless like many collectors,they have a film i really want.I think if other studios follow with a similar plan the prices will fall with the competition.I hope.

 

[TravisR]

Quote:

 

[Douglas R]

I can understand people's excitement at getting some of their favourite films on DVD, and appreciate that these are among Warner's more obscure titles. But to go from paying $10 or less for a loaded DVD to paying twice that or more for bare bones -- in a recession no less -- is a bit rich. Isn't it reasonable for some of us to feel somewhat locked out?

It's the law of economics - if you produce a product which is going to have limited demand, the cost will inevitably be higher than a mass market product. If the higher cost is the only way to get the Warner catalogue out then so be it. No-one is being forced to buy titles and these titles are considerably cheaper than the DVDs which I was buying when the format was first introduced. I really don't get all the whinging about this brilliant initiative by Warner Bros.