Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by filmlover22

just a heads up. Target is having a B2G1 sale starting on Sunday. While their WAC BD are limited, there are quite a few. At around $18/movie, you can three for an average of $12 a pop, which is about as good as it gets nowadays.

For last month's sale, I stayed up until the sale went live at 2AM CST and could only find 1 WAC title I wanted, but it sold out within a minute of me checking out. Great if people can find any recent WAC from the slim pickings on their site, but don't set your expectations too high that they'll still be in stock. Plus you have to match it with 2 other items, of course.

[Sinbad75]

Originally Posted by Sinbad75

Did nobody ask Mr. Feltenstein about the remaining, yet to be released Tex Avery MGM cartoons? Are we treading lightly on this topic for some reason? Does not help when the reviewer of Tex Avery Volume 3 states that " This third volume closes out Avery's remaining output from this period, " which is clearly NOT a true statement. Just curious and hoping those remaining cartoons get their Blu-ray release soon.....

I'm quite surprised that not a single member of this forum, especially lovers of classic theatrical cartoons, has any interest or input on this issue. I guess I am the only Tex Avery MGM completest. Looks like Volume 3 of the Tex Avery MGM cartoons really, and sadly, does "close out his output of this period."

[xochipilli]

With the confirmation of no more announcements for December, WAC's 2021 is officially over, and wow what a year it's been! Even with all the behind the scenes chaos it's amazing how little of it trickled down to the final product, with the Archive having it's fullest year so far, focusing mostly on the 50's and 40's almost all from 4K scans holding for the most part to their usual near-perfect standards. Plus, we've had on average more than one technicolor title a year, plus fourteen(!) 30's titles, which would seem far-fetched even two years ago. And for those clamoring for more recent stuff, on the second half of the year some of the most requested post-60's stuff started finally being released! All i can say is I hope that 2022 keeps going like this, hopefully doubling down on all they've been doing right and aiming even higher, as much as their budget allows!

Anyway, looking back at some stuff I posted last November, my top-wants wishlist has had quite a chunk taken off it: four of the fifteen titles I listed were released, one of them was I didn't even expect to be near the top of the list. For next year I'm putting up twenty titles I think have a chance and that are among my most wanted:

Ryan's Daughter
Around the World in 80 Days
Cheyenne Autumn
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Marie Antoinette
Random Harvest
King Solomon's Mines
Lili
Julius Caesar
Little Women(1949)
Somebody Up There Likes Me
The Old Man and the Sea
The Adventures of Don Juan
Johnny Belinda
The Three Musketeers
Blossoms in the Dust
Anthony Adverse
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Top Hat
Romeo and Juliet(1936)

Removed any Goldwyn titles now that I know their restorations are out of Warner's hands, though I'm still hoping for maybe an anniversary release of The Pride of the Yankees. Otherwise, all of the above seem reasonably likely. Anyone else who wants to look back at their wishlist and see how well they've been served this year, and post their most wanted for 2022, feel free!

[andantelise]

Does anyone think/know if there will be a sale someday?

[xochipilli]

Also, thirteen of WAC's 2021 releases celebrated an anniversary, quite a few of which I predicted in a post earlier in the year. So, I'm posting a list of possibilities for the next year:

1932(90th anniversary)
The Champ
Freaks
Tarzan the Ape Man
Red-Headed Woman
Red Dust

1937(85th)
The Life of Emile Zola
Captains Courageous
Camille
A Day at the Races(unless Opera was a test case and they haven't started on the rest, very likely)
Stage Door
A Star is Born(A new restoration is apparently being debuted at the TCM Film Festival, and with WAC loosening their "no public domain" rule recently we might get an official release)

1942(80th)
Kings Row
Random Harvest
Johnny Eager
For Me and My Gal

1947(75th)
Life with Father(it's ready, so they just have to give it the go-ahead)
The Bachelor and the Bbby-Soxer
Song of the Thin Man(practically certain to turn up in a month or two)

1952(70th)
The Big Sky
The Narrow margin
Clash by Night
Scaramouche

1957(65th)
The Prince and the Showgirl

1972(50th)
The Candidate

1977(45th)
The Late Show

1982(40th)
Honkytonk Man

[captveg]

Re: Anniversaries, we should be getting The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) release in 2022.

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by andantelise

Does anyone think/know if there will be a sale someday?

Nope. Literally no one here knows.

[xochipilli]

Originally Posted by captveg

Re: Anniversaries, we should be getting The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) release in 2022.

Since that one's basically confirmed, I decided to leave it out of a list which is mostly speculation, but you're right, should be announced in a month or two. Also, I remember seeing you post that you were pretty sure what one of the Archive's December surprises would be. Was either Angels or Ivanhoe it, and if not, do you think it'll be up for January?

[Jaymole]

Originally Posted by andantelise

Does anyone think/know if there will be a sale someday?

[Matt89]

I would commit murder for a blu-ray release of The Narrow Margin. Lol. Seriously though, incredible film. Shocking it's not been released yet. I also really hope For Me and My Gal is in the pipeline. I've wanted to rewatch it for years (features some very nice Gene Kelly/Judy Garland chemistry) but have been holding out for an HD release. Hopefully next year's the year with its 80th anniversary and all.

Would also be nice if they put out Blackboard Jungle and The Roaring Twenties. I'm always down for some more Glenn Ford and Jimmy Cagney on the format.

~Matt

[captveg]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

Since that one's basically confirmed, I decided to leave it out of a list which is mostly speculation, but you're right, should be announced in a month or two. Also, I remember seeing you post that you were pretty sure what one of the Archive's December surprises would be. Was either Angels or Ivanhoe it, and if not, do you think it'll be up for January?

It was Angels with Dirty Faces. I had heard the legal issue had been cleared.

[captainsolo]

I finally made a video about the dvd rot issue. I searched high and low to find all reports of rotted titles and compiled a list of every reported rotter that I could verify along with the rotted discs I own. The third document is a selection of the technical posts made in the various HTF and other threads to better explain the disc manufacturers and various plants-and the Cinram plant that apparently caused this whole mess. Thankfully I haven’t seen reports of other rotted discs and 2010 DVDs onwards are fine as are 2005 and before.

Master List of rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
My rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
Technical information from Warner DVD rot threads on hometheaterforum, dvdtalk and Bluray.com: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true

[Dave Bannion]

Originally Posted by Matt89

I would commit murder for a blu-ray release of The Narrow Margin. Lol. Seriously though, incredible film. Shocking it's not been released yet. I also really hope For Me and My Gal is in the pipeline. I've wanted to rewatch it for years (features some very nice Gene Kelly/Judy Garland chemistry) but have been holding out for an HD release. Hopefully next year's the year with its 80th anniversary and all.

Would also be nice if they put out Blackboard Jungle and The Roaring Twenties. I'm always down for some more Glenn Ford and Jimmy Cagney on the format.

~Matt

Given the modern-day popularity of noir, I'd love to see any and all RKO noirs get released, but Narrow Margin would be near the top of the list. It's a pipe dream, but I'd also love to see them release Road Block, another Charles McGraw title and incidentally on the TCM app at the moment.

[hariseldon]

Originally Posted by Jaymole

Please don't.

I'm not 100% sure why anyone would think that within minutes of a sale is known about that there won't be 100 posts about it.

Is there a concept that nobody can announce a sale until the 10th person in a week asks about it and if a sale is know about a simple search will find it without asking

[theater dreamer]

A9E665A0-8976-4B9F-9F79-D4577020C053.jpg

Speaking of James Cagney, I’d like to see The Bride Came C.O.D., which I just finished, get a Warner Archive blu-Ray release. It’s a fun little screwball comedy vehicle for James and Bette Davis, and it looks like they had real fun doing it.

[Scottishguy]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

I finally made a video about the dvd rot issue. I searched high and low to find all reports of rotted titles and compiled a list of every reported rotter that I could verify along with the rotted discs I own. The third document is a selection of the technical posts made in the various HTF and other threads to better explain the disc manufacturers and various plants-and the Cinram plant that apparently caused this whole mess. Thankfully I haven’t seen reports of other rotted discs and 2010 DVDs onwards are fine as are 2005 and before.

Master List of rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
My rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
Technical information from Warner DVD rot threads on hometheaterforum, dvdtalk and Bluray.com: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true

Here's Spencers video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufAL...ature=youtu.be

The following isn't a direct response to him, just my take on this.



As we can see from this structural illustration of a single layered DVD, there is only one data storage layer for the laser to read, so it doesn't have a lot of substrates to deal with vs a dual layer DvD.

And as this issue seems to only be present in dual layers, the problem would likely be the reflective layer (or two, I think DvDs often employed two) becoming unglued from a faulty adhesive layer.

Thus the laser is unable to make a connection with the secondary data layer. So if the film is entirely on the second data layer, the disc will freeze at the menu. If it's spread across two layers, then it will play up to the point of the layer change.

But because DvD has hard edge err things to product the disc from such threats to the metallic layer like oxidisation, you won't see bronzing (actual DvD rot) present on every disc. Though it's possible I think over oh 50 year's these detached reflective layers will go bad eventually.

So aye, in conclusion the whole thing is rather multifaceted I'd say. DvD was designed with more protection after learning from all the problems with CD in real world use, and so was Blu-ray sort of with utilising the hard coat spec. Though that was mostly all about data protection. (it's not superfluous extra protection that means you can just house discs in stupid packaging *cough* Criterion)

But with creating a more sophisticated disc, so comes the greater risk something will go wrong. And what happened with these Warner DvDs was just the thing that did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVYH...ature=youtu.be

[surfinhank]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

I finally made a video about the dvd rot issue. I searched high and low to find all reports of rotted titles and compiled a list of every reported rotter that I could verify along with the rotted discs I own. The third document is a selection of the technical posts made in the various HTF and other threads to better explain the disc manufacturers and various plants-and the Cinram plant that apparently caused this whole mess. Thankfully I haven’t seen reports of other rotted discs and 2010 DVDs onwards are fine as are 2005 and before.

Master List of rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
My rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
Technical information from Warner DVD rot threads on hometheaterforum, dvdtalk and Bluray.com: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true

This is great, thanks. I'll look at it more closely when I have time, but I know there are discs I had that aren't listed. Just off the top of my head: Prisoner of 2nd Avenue and Yakuza. I can make a list of the others if you're interested.

[YogiYahooeys]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

I finally made a video about the dvd rot issue. I searched high and low to find all reports of rotted titles and compiled a list of every reported rotter that I could verify along with the rotted discs I own. The third document is a selection of the technical posts made in the various HTF and other threads to better explain the disc manufacturers and various plants-and the Cinram plant that apparently caused this whole mess. Thankfully I haven’t seen reports of other rotted discs and 2010 DVDs onwards are fine as are 2005 and before.

Master List of rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
My rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
Technical information from Warner DVD rot threads on hometheaterforum, dvdtalk and Bluray.com: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true

Jeez, I think I own 3/4 of the titles in the master list. Scared to look at them now. {sigh}

[BamaDullard]

Apologies if it’s already been posted, but George Feltenstein was the guest a couple of days ago on the podcast The Extras.

https://www.theextras.tv/podcasts/bl...t-gfwac-nov221

He goes into detail on the specs of each November release. It’s a great listen, and the host does a terrific job of just letting George talk.

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

I finally made a video about the dvd rot issue. I searched high and low to find all reports of rotted titles and compiled a list of every reported rotter that I could verify along with the rotted discs I own. The third document is a selection of the technical posts made in the various HTF and other threads to better explain the disc manufacturers and various plants-and the Cinram plant that apparently caused this whole mess. Thankfully I haven’t seen reports of other rotted discs and 2010 DVDs onwards are fine as are 2005 and before.

Master List of rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
My rotted DVDs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true
Technical information from Warner DVD rot threads on hometheaterforum, dvdtalk and Bluray.com: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...f=true&sd=true

NBA and NFL DVDs, too.