Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

While I'm a little disappointed some are made to DVD but I'm still happy these titles are now available. I've been waiting for a few them since I started collecting VHS.

Picked up the Jock MaHoney Mike Henry set $49.99 + $5 shipping:

1) Tarzan and the Great River
2) Tarzan and the City of Gold
3) Tarzan and the Jungle Boy
4) Tarzan's Three Challenges
5) Tarzan in India

as well as:

Planet Earth amd Genesis II 30% off $13.95 both.

Started my wish list with Andy Griffith's Winter Kill and Debbie Reynolds and James Garner in How Sweat it is.

Now if 20th Century FOX would follow suit so I could get The Flim Flam Man.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

They have a lot of dvds that I'm looking to get. The Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus, Angus, and Bad Ronald, to name a few.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I've ordered quite a few from them. There are still some that I need to pick up but I can live without them for the time being.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I grabbed a few Tarzan titles and there are a couple more I would consider. At the end of the day though, they're still expensive burnt discs that should never go out of print, so it's never much of a priority for me to grab them. There's still a ton of actual pressed discs that are going out of print that I haven't gotten around to.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

Anyone pick up the Westerns that they have- El Condor, The Command Distant Trumpets ?
I've been wanting to get these for awhile but I have been scared away by the price and the fact that they're DV-R's. I've been waiting for any kind of review on these but none has surfaced yet. I'm not going to buy them until I hear about how the quality is with them.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I didn't realize Steel was on there. I'm not going to get it I just find it humorous that it's on there.

Didn't Universal start something like this?

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I've got El Condor and Distant Trumpet. Both Anamorphic. Average quality. Same as most older catalog titles from other studios that didn't receive special treatment before release. The prints are good just no remastering for DVD. DVD-R has nothing to do with quality. A DVD-R of Avatar looks identical to a DVD of Avatar.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I ordered my first (and so far only) WB Archive title from Amazon.com on June 23 and I'm still waiting for it. I requested it be sent by regular mail. Instead they sent it by UPS, which refuses to deliver during hours when any working person would be home. So I still don't have it. Is delivery any better directly from the WB Archive?

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

True, but there may be a question/concern regarding longevity. From personal experience, I have seen some DVD-R's I've made for my children that have started to freeze or have the image break-up after extended use. None of the commercial DVD's used under similar circumstances have done so. And I do use quality DVD blanks burned as slower speeds.

Now I have purchased a few films through the archive program since they would probably not be released in any other way. I am trusting the fact that with care these will still last a very long time. Chances are I won't have watched any of them as repeatedly as my shildren watch theirs (if use in itself is part of the issue).

So while the output quality between the two methods based on the same digital content should be the same, I think potential issues with longevity is a legitimate concern. Especially, when one considers the price being charged.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I understand that the video quality would be good, and to tell the truth, I have bought regular releases of DVD movies that had crappier transfers so i understand that video quality isn't a negative. I do have one DVR already, The White Buffalo, which is a MGM release, but still a DVR product. I had to return the first copy because it froze up halfway through the movie, received a second copy. The second copy only works in one of my DVD players. I have two DVD players. I just said the hell with it and kept it and only play it in the DVD player where it will play and can't play it on the other player. These are the kind of issues that I have with DVR's. I would try them more readily anyway if they were at a cheaper price. I would take more chances with them. But the DVR's have issues that don't justify their high price.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I've ordered from the Archives a bunch of times and they have always shipped via UPS even when just a single disc. Luckily, I'm usually home when they deliver in early evening in my area.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

I've seen El Condor and it's a reasonably entertaining Western, especially for fans of Lee Van Cleef (who has a much showier role than Jim Brown). There's plenty of action, good scenery chewing by Van Cleef, and an eye-opening performance by Marianna Hill, who finds a way to distract both the troops guarding the gold and any male viewer with a pulse.

As far as the technical specs of the film, they are good but not great, about what I would expect for a forty-year-old catalogue title. I've seen about a half dozen of these Warner Archive titles and Warner (or whoever owned the master prints) seems to have taken good care of them for the most part. Older movies (1930s and 40s) look worse than the more recent ones, but they are nowhere near as bad as some catalogue titles I've seen. Plus, it's an anamorphic widescreen release. The negatives are that there is only a rudimentary menu screen, virtually no features (occasionally a trailer on one of the titles) and chapter stops every ten minutes. I could probably play a scene at random from the Archive titles and the other pressed titles I own of similar vintage films and most people could not tell which was which.

I've never had a problem with any production issues on any of the Archive titles I've watched, but admittedly, I've only seen the movies once or twice (as I've seen a lot of the movies I own). I have a bigger problem with the cost. El Condor is not worth $20, nor are most of the Archive titles. If you are patient and wait for a sale you can get Archive titles for around $10 or so.

Bottom line:

Once you realize that the studios will never pay serious money to clean up these titles, that you won't ever see a Blu-ray release, that you won't ever see any significant extras, and that the look of the case and menu screen are rather rudimentary, you can have a good time watching these movies. You may well feel, however, that many of the films simply are not worth the price Warner is charging (and that would be true no matter how good the film looked).

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

Just wish they shipped to Canada.

Re: Just Stumbled on the WB Archives.
 

Recieved mine via UPS, I get and email saying they are shipped and the next day their here.

I don't know about the UPS in your area but here they dump and run, they ring the door bell and drop at at the door and away they go.