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Cash Flagg wrote: Has anyone who returned discs had to pay for return shipping? Gypsy shipped today.

Seemingly being the magnet for all of their incredibly scratched up discs, I've had to return damaged/defective items to them a couple of times (they fairly recently changed their policy of just sending replacement copies and you get to dispose of the damaged goods). They will reimburse you in that case if you jump thru a few hoops (like send them a copy of your receipt indicating mailing costs... still haven't quite figured out how to include a receipt inside a sealed package that you haven't shipped back yet...).

If you just want to return something you don't want, though, I suspect they will not pay for that. Check out their return policy web page.

Similarly, having just tried refusing their last shipment when they were replacing damaged discs and they sent the wrong one (sent v4 instead of the v5 I returned to them), I would warn against going the refuse route with them... I got lucky, since I scanned the package I was refusing before dropping it in the mailbox, and it turned out the tracking number was different from the one they sent in their email; luckily the post office just happened to scan it to show that it had been refused (don't recall seeing them do that in the past, but maybe that was just FedEx or UPS)... Up until I was able to provide that particular tracking number from the package for them to look up, they were going to pretend that they never got the return, this being three weeks or so after I refused it. Crisis averted, but let's just say I'm not a happy camper at this point.

fdm wrote:(they fairly recently changed their policy of just sending replacement copies and you get to dispose of the damaged goods).

That's interesting. When I've received damaged or scratched discs, they have always let me keep the damaged one and sent me a replacement free of charge, going back to when Warner Archive first began. Perhaps you have just unfortunately always contacted the one hateful bastard at the company?

Feego wrote:

fdm wrote:(they fairly recently changed their policy of just sending replacement copies and you get to dispose of the damaged goods).

That's interesting. When I've received damaged or scratched discs, they have always let me keep the damaged one and sent me a replacement free of charge, going back to when Warner Archive first began. Perhaps you have just unfortunately always contacted the one hateful bastard at the company?

Me too, but maybe they just got tired of me. I think I usually do email, so some butt-head over there that one time responded to mine that way. I just ass-umed it would be the case the next (second/last) time, so sent it off that way (guess that's what I deserve for paying attention to their webpage). Although I also ran into a couple more butt-heads when I tried to get that refund for the refused package. Next time I guess I'll just call them... Lotta butt-heads over there. (And really I am usually quite polite in my emails, so it ain't me babe.)

Maybe some posters here who are better at reading WB's mind than I am can answer this question: what is the likelihood of our getting either The Unsuspected or I Love Melvin on blu through the Archive?

"What?"---Warners

Good news for some: the two Warner Archives Blu-rays both have English subtitles

I can't remember if anyone's reported back on this or not, but I can confirm that the Gypsy BD is by all appearances a pressed disc and the transfer looks fantastic to boot.

Next blu-ray release - Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes on April 9 and available already at Amazon.

Any word on what the next Archive blu-ray will be?

felipe wrote:Any word on what the next Archive blu-ray will be?

I believe they implied it may be Peter Weir's FEARLESS with Jeff Bridges. I sure hope sure; it's a very good film that only received one poor DVD release featuring a 1.33:1 cropped image.

At their current rate of one BD every 2 months, it may be a while.

Cash Flagg wrote:At their current rate of one BD every 2 months, it may be a while.

At that rate we'd have a new BD next month. However, it was 4 months between Hudsucker Proxy and Greystoke.

That's the title they rescue from the first Doris Day boxed set? Do the people at studios who decide what gets a Blu-ray release literally have no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they all have degrees in business management and think old classic cinema is Heat. Beyond the numbers they have no clue.

knives wrote:Yes, they all have degrees in business management and think old classic cinema is Heat. Beyond the numbers they have no clue.

Then they must be using those numbers in order to make the decisions, right?

Maybe they are?

My guess is that the #1 and #2 criteria for which films to go Blu with are sales history and condition of a suitable HD master. #3 is probably what's due up in the cycle (such as the upcoming proper widescreen release of Fearless). Often the more popular films that would qualify for #1 are in worse shape since more prints were made from it, and so getting the #1 and #2 aligned is probably not always the simplest thing.

Seriously guys, there's nothing to worry about--I triple-checked the math on my random title generator before signing it over to Warners last month.

This is probably a dumb question, but who makes these HD masters? Warner Archive offers a lot of HD movies on their streaming website, so do they make all these HD masters themselves?

felipe wrote:This is probably a dumb question, but who makes these HD masters? Warner Archive offers a lot of HD movies on their streaming website, so do they make all these HD masters themselves?

Not a dumb question at all. IIRC, Warner uses Lowry Digital or MPI, or some combination thereof. However I believe they didn't start doing at least 2K until the late '00s, so many HD Masters created for HDTV before then are not viable for current Blu-ray standards, which certainly weighs into their options.

Warner Archive mentioned on their Facebook page that since mid-2010 when they had to start remastering their films for release, everything has been done at 2K. It's apparently company policy at this point and that's why so many WAC films on their Instant Service have HD masters. Most of the retail pressed disc releases from WHV from about 2005 onwards also have 2K or better masters.

Thanks for the answers, guys.

When somebody asked about the possibility of Mame on blu-ray they said that probably not once it didn't have an HD master and they would have to start from scratch. That's what gave me the impression they didn't do their own masters or, at least, not when it required a lot of work.