Warner Archives DVD-Rs

Warner Brothers has made an odd and possibly revolutionary decision to release a whole bunch of their remaining catalog of titles not onto remastered DVDs but DVD-Rs officially licensed by Warners.

This does give movie junkies access to hundreds of obscure, bizarre and forgotten flicks that might not otherwise have ever made it onto the market, indeed many in this first batch never even had VHS releases in the 1980s or '90s. The catch is that they aren't going through the expense of being "remastered" in the audio or visuals. Instead what they use are the best existing transfers they have, the ones they give to say Turner Classic Movies when they broadcast movies on TV. They are all in their original aspect ratios and unedited, but if you have some super-deluxe incredible television you may well be less than impressed by the transfer. But it's as least as good if not a bit better than watching it on TCM or DVRing it from there yourself, and should definitely be a step up from any old VHS copy you have hanging around.

They've got about a hundred and fifty titles in this first batch, movies from the 1930s up to the 1980s. Check out the Warners website, HERE.


I just rented one last night, Coppola's The Rain People. Obviously it would be better to have it actually authored for DVD and BluRay, get some extra features and such, but I have to admit that if it's just something you have to have in order to complete your collection or scratch an itch of curiosity or travel down memory lane, it's fine. I expect to be renting at least a few more of them in the next couple days.

Like the DVRs you can make at home, there are no actual "chapters", but you can advance in ten minute increments. The menu, such as it is, simply tells you how to navigate through the no-frills information...



Now the real drawback, transfer quality notwithstanding, is the price. Warners is selling these at $20 a pop! I'm lucky that the great video store in Portland here is buying up bunches of them for their stock so I can simply rent 'em for $2.50, because even the ones I'm most interested in I can't see shelling out twenty bucks (plus shipping) when you can buy most of the "real" Warner DVDs for less than that, and they have better transfers and extras. I would think the price has to come down if it's going to succeed in the longer run. You can also download a handful of the titles for $14.95 each. And it appears these DVRs are for U.S. customers only.



Anybody else checked out one of the Warner Archive DVRs yet?

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Interesting stuff -- hadn't heard or tried this yet.

Gotta say, I'm genuinely stunned by that price. The whole point of movies and video on demand is that, in addition to quick delivery turnaround, the price can be lower, because the only thing they have to pay for once they're set up is bandwidth. Frankly, given how old some of these films are, I'd have been a little taken aback at a mere $10, but $20 is, well, right out.

Still, a heartening trend. The prices will fluctuate and probably reach a far more consumer-friendly point. The real news here is that major studios are finally catching up to the idea that there's a lot of pent-up demand for this sort of thing.

Yeah, I would expect the price just has to come down. If they are in the $7.99 to $9.99 range, I think people will happily give them a try. But $20?!? I mean, you can go online right now to DVD Planet, Amazon or just about any other online shop and get say the two disc special edition of Warners' The Treasure of the Sierra Madre which has beautiful art and tons of bonus material for less than $18. Or you can go to the Warner Archives DVRs and get, for example, the 1984 Kristy McNichol dramady Just the Way You Are or the Merv Griffin footnote So This is Love for $20. That just ain't right, and I expect it's a model that won't hold for very long.



But if the price does indeed come down, I do like the basic idea of it. I think it's sad that for some of these movies they have decided there simply isn't a market for a true DVD transfer and release (are Mr. Lucky and The Rain People really not anywhere on the immediate horizon for DVD?), but at least they are making them available.

Also, I should note that older or cheaper DVD players may not play DVRs at all. So before you go ahead and pony up the dough for that movie you just have to see, be sure you'll be able to actually watch it when it arrives.

So wait, like how do you order one of these movies? Like, you order it and what happens?

__________________
I used to be addicted to crystal meth, now I'm just addicted to Breaking Bad.

So, what are these DVRs? I was thinking the cable box DVR at first, but you speak about it as if it was a type of media...

__________________

Thank you, that's what I was trying to say, except I just couldn't word it.

DVR meaning recordable DVDs, like the ones you can get for recordable DVD players or to write media from computer drives. The video pirate's best friend! These are DVD discs, just not authored with the same kind of care and quality as most of the DVDs you purchase in a store. As I say, you'll find some DVD players won't read such discs, though most will.

Got it - I hadn't heard them called that before... round these parts, it's usually DVD Rs.

So, you download the movie then put it on your DVD+R?

I suppose, in theory, sure. Haven't downloaded one myself though, I rented the DVD.

Wait, so stores are renting out the DVD+R disc, movies?

One of the stores here in Portland is, sure. Why not? They are officially licensed by Warner Brothers and sold on their site, so why wouldn't they rent 'em?

Mk. Just wondering, seems cool.

I love this movie. Mine is a VHS. That was all they had it on, way back when I bought it. Has anyone else here seen it?

__________________

I hadn't heard of this before, Holds. I wonder if Netflix will be renting them or even better, freely streaming them? I think one of the considerations involved in the price is that some of the films are just so rare, and if you wanted to track them down, some would cost much more than the $20 for the rabid fans if they bought them at Amazon or eBay. But that makes them definitely a niche purchase, so I agree that the prices will come down, especially if they're going to keep adding titles. Mr Lucky, huh? "Hand me the fiddle-and-flute. Get your tit-for-tat."

Yes, Dest, I've seen Rage, but only one-and-a-half times. I know you love you some George C. Scott. He was your avatar when I first joined.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Great idea Warner. Once they get done with the initial cash grab and get the price down they will do a fine business online. Streaming and downloading is the wave of the future and if they make these harder to find flicks affordable people like me will buy them. Definitely not paying $20 a pop though. That's outrageous.

I have a whole mess of box sets with basic transfers like these of older flicks that only came out edited on VHS and haven't been remastered or anything and I think the most I paid for one was $29.99 and that was a set of 100 movies! So, yeah. Get the price down fellas dig?

__________________
We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Never heard of it, but it seems very interesting. If they pop up (which they will) at my local rental store I'd be sure to give it a test.

__________________

I rented five more yesterday (Altman's Countdown, George C. Scott's Rage, Jacqui Bisset in Grasshopper, the Red Scare flick I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. and the original Sweet November), and all six of the ones I've seen thus far are surprisingly good quality.

Coolio. I'm not surprised they're decent quality. Being the big studio they are I bet even if they were releasing these on VHS they wouldn't look terrible. That's pretty cool that your local video store has a bunch of them.