Warner Archive Discussion Thread (FEEDBACK) (1 Viewer)

[borisfw]

I was told mine shipped today.No e mail yet for tracking.

 

[Simon Howson]

How does an "Amaray Nexpax Rental Case" differ from the regular Amaray cases DVDs normally come in?

Nexpak is the company that makes official Amarays, i.e. the same top grade cases all the major studios use:
Nexpak - Products - Making a Case For Innovation
Most public domain DVD companies use cheap knock-off versions.

 

[Thomas T]

Thanks, Simon!

"I'm kind of boycotting paying $19.95 a title for now"

Mr. Crawford! A HTF administrator not fully embracing Warners policies? Heresy!

 

[Paul_Scott]

I still haven't made my way through all 150 yet and it's been 3 days...I keep getting frustrated and then click to another website.

One of the major design principles for business based websites, was to keep everything simple so that information loads quickly and is clear and easy to navigate. Warner OTOH, with both the archive and its other store, seem to be operating on exactly the opposite principle. As I said in the other thread, while I can easily order from Amazon, Deep Discount, and others regularly from my mobile device (all I have), Warners Flash heavy sites are impossible for me to access.
I've got 5 titles in mind I want to order, but I'll have to make a special trip to the library to do it. A bit of an inconvienence.
I wish them a lot of success with this (and I have little doubt other studios will follow soon), but they need to make it easier to actually do business with them , rather than simply having the Flash-iest site on the web to look at.
BTW, my per title cost with a 25% off coupon + free shipping + NYS tax comes to about $16.50. Even that will inhibit a lot of blind buys, but for the titles I want badly, it's not too bad. Anything above that though will remain out of my budget. 25% off comes to the same deal (almost) as buy 3 get 1 free. I think that (at least) needs to be instituted as a permanent incentive offer asap.

 

[Simon Howson]

I don't understand why any webstore needs to use Adobe Flash.
They could've put the film samples (many of which are currently the wrong ratio or associated with the wrong film) on YouTube. That way it would work as free advertising as well.

 

[bgart13]

Will these discs have English subtitles and/or Closed Captioning?

That's a really good -- and really fair -- question. Something a majority of people don't have to think about is hearing issues others have. Good job, Bill McA!
Ben

 

[Paul_Scott]

A poster on The Classic Horror Film Board just received On Borrowed Time via 2 day air...and he's livid at the quality. I can't easily cut and paste, but he says this looks just like something he could record himself off of TCM and about the same as making a copy off of a laserdisc. I believe he's using a front projector. Another poster got it as well and had good things to say about the packaging and from a general viewing (presumably on a much smaller display).

 

[Robert Crawford]

"I'm kind of boycotting paying $19.95 a title for now"
Mr. Crawford! A HTF administrator not fully embracing Warners policies? Heresy!

When it comes to high pricing for video product, I've been one of the most vocal critics on this forum. Also, what does being a HTF administrator have to do with the "price of tea" or in this case "dvds"?
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...u-ray-but.html
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/3528135-post84.html
Crawdaddy

 

[Brandon Conway]

A poster on The Classic Horror Film Board just received On Borrowed Time via 2 day air...and he's livid at the quality. I can't easily cut and paste, but he says this looks just like something he could record himself off of TCM and about the same as making a copy off of a laserdisc. I believe he's using a front projector. Another poster got it as well and had good things to say about the packaging and from a general viewing (presumably on a much smaller display).

You can tell form the clip at the website (link below) that the source print for this title is in pretty poor shape. I imagine on a large projection system it'll look fairly beat up. If it's source issues, not much they can do without dumping real money into restoration. If it's digital artifacts/macroblocking, then that's an authoring issue.
https://www.wbshop.com/On-Borrowed-T...contentVide o

 

[Simon Howson]

A poster on The Classic Horror Film Board just received On Borrowed Time via 2 day air...and he's livid at the quality.

Here's the post:
WB Archives - Classic Horror on DVD - Classic Horror in Other Media - Classic Horror Film Board - Message Board - Yuku

 

[Jim Peavy]

(I posted this on Classic Horror Forum as well)
I got Abe Lincoln in Illinois today and it's definitely an older transfer. The credits are incredibly window-boxed, meaning they're really protected for major CRT over-scan. Have only watched a few minutes on my computer monitor (had no trouble playing it on my PC despite the warning on the back), and there showed the faintest of "rainbowing" throughout the picture, which is the sure sign of an early (or pre-) DVD transfer. I imagine it'll look okay on my 36" Sony HD CRT, though.
My opinion: if you've got these recorded on DVD-Rs from TCM (or whatever), I'm guessing many (some?) of these probably won't be worth your $$ (I've no real access to TCM). The anamorphic widescreen stuff has got to look better, though. If it's anamorphic, I'm guessing it's gotta be a newer transfer -- ?
I'll post some screen grabs tomorrow if'n anybody's interested.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Well, if the website clips are anything to go by, the later films certainly seem to be better quality (such as Countdown).

 

[Simon Howson]

window-boxed, meaning they're really protected for major CRT over-scan. Have only watched a few minutes on my computer monitor (had no trouble playing it on my PC despite the warning on the back), and there showed the faintest of "rainbowing" throughout the picture, which is the sure sign of an early (or pre-) DVD transfer. I imagine it'll look okay on my 36" Sony HD CRT, though..

Is it a dual layer disc? I'd hope so for a 110 minute film.
To check, just look if the total disc size is over 4.7 GB.

 

[Brandon Conway]

A single layer disc can hold a 2hr film without problem. Most of Warner dual-layer discs released of late don't even use that extra space, and this is with extras.

 

[DanMel]

A quick update on Bright Leaf. After much effort and some dealing over the phone with WB, I was able to finally get Bright Leaf ordered although I had to pay full price and didn't get free shipping as I used the 25 percent off code with free shipping for some Grant, Tracy and Gable movies earlier in the day after I gave up hope on getting Bright Leaf ordered. It could not be added to that order but I am still happy with the way things turned out. WB support was very nice to me on the reply they emailed me back and the person I talked to over the phone.

As for quality, three of the five titles I ordered to my knowledge have never been shown on U.S. TV in Crisis/Grant, Room for One More/Grant and Bright Leaf/Cooper, so I think I'll be more than happy to get the best that WB has to offer for them. The other two titles To Hot To Handle/Gable and Mannequin/Tracy I do have TCM recorded copies and I'll see how they look compared to what WB sends me. I'm thinking that WB was working on Bright Leaf for a Gary Cooper Vol 2 box set that got cancelled over a year ago, so the quality for that movie should look pretty good. Bright Leaf was suppose to be one of the movies included in that set before it was cancelled.

The only thing I got to figure out now is why the Blu-Ray pre-order for Road to Super Bowl xliii I pre-ordered for only 29 dollars after 25 percent off and free shipping with my first order is not showing up on the wbshop site. It was on my confirmation email I got from them. I think I'll wait until after they ship out my movies to check with them about it as I certainly don't want them holding up all my other movies until June when that one is released. I guess having an order confirmation for 29 dollars for it will be all that I will need later on to get it at that price. The strange thing about their site is that they stated that all my orders were in stock even though I know that the Super bowl 4 disc edition is not going to be released until June. (Correction as I just noticed on a recently added picture to Amazon that the Blu-ray is going to be only 2 discs with 2 games on each disc.)

 

[TAUBLAR]

One big debate is DVD-Rs vs NOT DVD-Rs. Warner Bros. execs have said these are not DVD-Rs. Ron has said they are not DVD-Rs, yet people continue to say these are DVD-Rs. Now maybe it's just a case of semantics. Maybe these are not the DVD-Rs as we have come to know them. On one of the other boards (not this one), there are some folks that are steadfast, WB can call them whatever they want but by some people's standards anything that is "burned" and not "pressed" is a DVD-R.

 

[Mike*HTF]

Will these discs have English subtitles and/or Closed Captioning?

At least I Was a Communist for the FBI and Too Hot to Handle do not.
Another poster on Criterionforum.org stated that his copy of Beast in the City also did not have subs or closed captioning. This is consistent with the RKO set which didn't have any subs either.

 

[Simon Howson]

A single layer disc can hold a 2hr film without problem. Most of Warner dual-layer discs released of late don't even use that extra space, and this is with extras.

About 110 minutes seems to be WHVs usual cut off for dual layer discs. This suggests Warner tries to keep the bitrate at around a 6 Mbps average.
Bombers B52 (106 minutes), Sex and the Single Girl (110), An American in Paris (114), Gigi (116), and The Stalking Moon (109) are all under 2 hours yet are on dual layer discs. Paris and Gigi have most of their bonus materials on the second discs. Pete Kelly's Blues is on a dual layer disc, and that's only 92 minutes.
I agree that it depends on the nature of the film, but 2 hours on a single layer disc would mean a bitrate average below 5.4 Mbps, which is lower than the Forbidden Hollywood set (5.6 Mbps), which includes 2 films + extras per dual layer disc.
It looks like this company - http://www.alliedvaughn.com/index.htm
Media Distribution, CD Rom Duplication - Allied Vaughn
Here's an explanation of the economics of the system:
MOD Economics

 

[Mark_D_Fischer]

There are now screencaps and pics of the packaging of BEAST OF THE CITY at Criterionforum:
• View topic - Warner Brothers Archive Collection

 

[Jacqui]

There are now screencaps and pics of the packaging of BEAST OF THE CITY at Criterionforum:
• View topic - Warner Brothers Archive Collection

This was on the top of my 'most wanted list'. Thanks Mark!