BobO'Link

Not really a "bargain", yet, but worthy of mention.

DD is now offering the Warner Archive Collection titles.


The prices are about the same for most titles when compared to directly ordering from WB after taking shipping into account (depending on number of titles ordered), but I'm assuming these will be included in the next % off sale which makes them more attractive.

The real question is: If Warners is now going to offer these at other online merchants why don't they do "real" pressings instead of using DVRs, especially considering the price.

MooMooMooMoo

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

dan31655

$23.98... wow. Plus they don't even have the two titles I want.

drak b

hmm.... I will probably stick to using WBStore and wait for further 5 for $50 or 10 for $100 sales. I've bought about 20 titles that way and think it's just about the right price point. That said, this might be extremely beneficial to our foreign friends if they don't put restrictions on shipping regions.

marty888

A few weeks ago I spotted several of these on the shelf at Kim's (East Village NYC). Some were tagged $19.95, others were $24.95.

GorillaX

I hate these covers

RequiemX

I will never pay for a burned movie. Burned discs go bad after a few years.

If these were pressed, I'd pick up a few based on the titles I saw.

rwp2084

How can you tell that these, or any other DVDs for that matter, are burned rather than pressed without having the benefit of being able to inspect the disc?

Brian T

There's plenty of evidence (as in, reports) all over this forum--as well as at the WBShop site, and virtual any review of any disc from this series--that these titles are all burned all on DVD-Rs. It's should be common knowledge at this point.

bsmith

I'm not a fan of purchasing burned disks, but it is really hard to predict how long they will last. Some reports give them a decent lifespan that would more then satisfy most.

A lot depends on the quality of the blanks and care put into burning, use, and storage. I only use Sony myself these days and have had the best luck sticking with 2x burn speeds. So far I have had none that I burned up to 5 years ago go bad that get limited playing time.

However, I have seen a few that I burned for my children where the picture has started to break up or freeze after just a couple of years. Now these get a lot of playing time, which may account for a premature life span.

So if WB uses a quality burning process and blanks, these stay in the limited viewing category (once every couple of years), and are properly cared for, they just may last quite a long time.

drak b

I think he might be referring to the Warner titles that will be sold through DD. I know it's a very long shot but we can all hope. I know one or two Archive titles that I would gladly buy again for full retail if it I could get a burned copy. Discovering Cary Grant's "Room For One More" has made the whole collection worth it to me.

creekdipper

Are you kidding me? $23.88 for a BURNED copy? I can burn them myself from TCM or other cable channels for about 20 cents. Most of these titles appear on cable periodically...most of them widescreen & uncut. For instance, Bhowani Junction was on TCM sometime over the past couple of days.

If they offered them for $2.99-$4.99 in a bare-bones release (which they appear to be; even the covers are next to generic), I might see somehow purchasing them if someone needed them right away & couldn't wait (or didn't have access to them on cable or direct tv). Otherwise, be patient & record about 100 movies for the price you'd pay for one of these. You can probably print out much better covers, too.

JP5683

bah. The Our Gang collection is not there.

docdoowop

Yeah, that's the reason I'm reading the thread.

Brian T

Five dollars sounds reasonable, especially when you stack any one of these up against many of Warner's regular, pressed DVDs. The reviews for many of these have not been kind, with most resigned to the "we'll take what we can get at this point" defense because it's unlikely these will ever see the light of day in any other physical media format. Most will probably end up as downloads some day (and probably in the $2.99 - $4.99 range), and from the sounds of it, the quality, compared to most downloads of nearly anything at present time, might rival what's ending up on many of these discs: just acceptable.

John Sinnott

They are downloads right now... at $14.95 a pop.

wm lopez

Me too.

Pizza

For me, this is the start of a bad trend.

JackBurton

"Between grief and nothing, I'll take grief."

"great."

scottp120

I just got the Our Gang set in the mail yesterday and have watched the first disc already. The quality is excellent and worth it even if it is burned.

kenbenobi

That's good to hear. It's the only reason I'm reading this thread as well... I may spring for it in the next month or two...

NoirFan

Definitely. WB has, for all intents and purposes, discontinued releasing classic catalog titles on DVD.

davidh777

Is that really true? It seems they've released a fair number of classics this year--not as many as they've put into Archives, but a number of them. Karloff/Lugosi, Esther Williams, and Wagon Train come to mind recently. And I'm not counting Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

NoirFan

The tentpole titles are still being released, and a few box sets here and there (with a 5th Noir set coming next year), but by and large individual films from the Golden Era seem to have been relegated almost exclusively to the ghetto of over-priced, interlaced DVD-Rs.

Jaymole

To be fair, it was only the initial batch of 160 or so titles that were interlaced. All (or almost all) of the releases after that have been progressive.

That being said, they are still way over-priced.