Like how certain players don't deal with them very well? Or how scratched up some of them are? Or how if you have any problems with them after 30 days you're screwed (meaning you better open them on arrival else you're s.o.l. if there was a problem)? Those types of non-issues?

You've just answered your own question, Cobb, as highlighted by fdm. Look at how many of you US citizens are buying them and lapping them up as if they're just standard DVDs. People seem quite happy with them for some reason. If no-one bought them then they wouldn't exist and Warner would have to go down a different route.

While I agree that buying DVD-Rs seems to be mainly focused on the US market at the moment and to my personal dismay folks are actually buying them, and from all accounts on this forum and elsewhere European consumers seem to prefer pressed DVDs, when Warner decided to introduce the Archive collection in France what made them decide right out of the gate to introduce them as pressed DVDs? Surely they have largely ignored boards like this, so consumers voicing displeasure with DVD-Rs on Internet Forums would hardly be the reason. Have they tried to introduce DVD-Rs in Europe unsuccessfully and I missed it, did their French subsidiary tell them to not bother. While I'm personally glad to hear they are pressed DVDs, I really wonder what made them take this decision - does anyone know?

probably it's an infrastructure thing, the company that Warner has make the archive discs has a lot infrastructure in place that lets them price the per unit cost very low, lower than small batch disc replicators can probably match. Some of this large scale burn and package on demand equipment probably either doesn't exist in France of would require a large initial capital outlay that would raise the price beyond what Warner will accept. And because france is a smaller market there are probably more and more competitive small batch disc replicators willing to give WB acceptably low bids. Another possibility is client relationships, if WB has a good relationship with their replicator clients, that client could be offering to take the small batch titles at a loss in order to keep the big orders for the real (money making) titles like Dark Knight flowing to them. They might be taking a bath in order to keep the overall custom from WB. More likely, a Cost benefit analysis probably showed that even if they have x number of unsold discs and have to store them for x amount of time, they'll still make more money than if they install the burn on demand equipment and have no inventory overages and storage cost losses. Because not releasing the titles is likely a revenue loser and releasing them is a revenue winner, it's probably been worked out by an actuary that small batches will work best in that market to generate revenue from the existing assets.

Basically the economics are probably very different in the two markets, and thinking that the consumer preference of 200 whiners on the internet about burned vs pressed (when 99.999% of dvd purchasers aren't aware of the difference, nor do they care) is foolish.

New print of a Warner Archive title announced for 2012 TCM Film Festival. From TCM newsletter email:

"OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (1928) - A new print of director Harry Beaumont’s Jazz-age silent melodrama starring Joan Crawford."

Of course, whether this means 'new' as in 'restored' and 'improved' is questionable.

a new print probably means restored, it probably means a restoration master element has been made and a print has been struck from that element. Believe it or not, striking a print is a very different process from telecine-ing a new master.

Yep, those are the ones. I don't understand how any Warner Archive discs would be scratched up if you buy them new, or why anyone with any sense wouldn't check any kind of disc as soon as it came in the mail. As for the failure rate of recordable disc media, there's anecdotal evidence, but is there any statistically reliable data on that, especially as pertains to Warner Archive DVD-rs vs. the kind you buy at Walmart? The player compatibility issue is the strongest argument here, but then I had that occur with pressed discs early on, too.

I do, however, reserve judgment on all the non-Warner DVD-r programs, if only because they don't optimize their bit rates. I get Sony Screen Archives releases that barely fill half the disc, which means it's upwards of 4x as compressed as a competently done dual-layer pressed disc would have been.

Again, I don't think the pressed vs. burned thing makes any difference (nothing lasts forever). But I felt this way about the price point -- that the $20 thing was their pie-in-the-sky number and that if we could've all banded together somehow and told Feltenstein to fuck off, they would've caved and set the base price at $15 or even $10. At least Warners reinvested some of the money they picked from our pockets into new transfers for most of the releases after the first wave.

And they call me MISTER Cobb!

I've had "new" ones show up with various combinations of scratches and/or fingerprints and/or dirt on the playing side, some just lightly scratched, a couple have looked like somebody's returned rental copies.

They now all get opened upon receipt after wbshop told me that one time to f.o. your 30 days are over, we don't care if it plays properly or not. Any time I find any of the above on the playing side I let them know pronto to send a clean copy, given that the scratches on that one particular problem disc weren't all that significant until I tried to play it. You're correct, theoretically there shouldn't be any scratches etc, but nonetheless sometimes there are, just like with regular discs.

Wish I had time/inclination to watch them all within 30 days, but at least I can avoid scratched up copies within that return/exchange window, and usually do get to most all of them in a couple weeks.

Get a decent disc-ripping software on your computer. They should scan your disc and see if there's any abnormalities. I use it anytime I buy a used DVD, or rent something (burned too many times mid-way through a film).

Up for pre-order:

The Fugitive (John Ford)
The Young Stranger (John Frankenheimer)
The Last Hunt (Richard Brooks)
Period of Adjustment (George Roy Hill)

Got this code for 5 discs for $45 in the thank you section. Any suggestions? I'm eyeing It's a Big Country, Safe in Hell and Yes, Giorgio right now.

Two Tickets to Broadway and Tomorrow Is Another Day!

Thanks, that's one I would have overlooked entirely. Sounds interesting.

Of course the ones I most want -- The Merry Widow, The Boy Friend and Black Moon -- aren't eligible.

Dom's suggestion wasn't either. Wound up getting The Great Garrick and a bunch of Wellman's.

The Great Garrick is wonderful, as is Whale's Remember Last Night?, which even after studio interference is a worthy successor to the best pre-code free-for-alls.

Got the same type of code, anyone wants it they can have it since I'm not going to use it: HZYB-9ZZL-IE27-UPK7

"The Last Run" from which John Huston departed after a short time to be replaced by Richard Fleischer, is now available on DVD from Warner Archive.

Interesting film in many respects and a joy for those of us who enjoy George C. Scott's early 70s work - he's not quite as good as he is in Fleischer's other film "The New Centurions" - and Alan Sharp's screenplay is predictably classy. I personally suspect a Huston version would have been one of his movies for hire in the mould of "Mackintosh Man" but you never know.

This sale ended up being the best-ever for Warner Archive discs, as they didn't top out after five and you could apply the new $10 off $100 coupon, so I got a dozen titles for $98!

Also, I only just noticed: knives, I love Kathryn Harrold as much as the next guy but is there a more compelling reason you or anyone bought Yes, Giorgio?

I didn't buy, but I'm curious pretty exclusively as a Planet of the Apes fan.

Wow, just noticed Coppola's Rain People is also part of this "collection." Surely someone with a name as big as Coppola deserves a pressed disc for one of his early films? Especially one as brilliant as Rain People. I mean if we can get pressed discs of Boxcar Bertha (a pretty bad picture but one of the first by Scorsese) why can't we get a special edition of this one?

You're a Big Boy Now's in the Archives as well. For what it's worth, the Rain People is a real disc in France via their pressed not burnt Warner Archives

That doesn't help any Americans though. Can't order from that site.

True. What we need is a French liaison. Posting the position to Monster.com now

You'd think they would tack on George Lucas's Making of Rain People documentary just to cash in on the Lucas "brand."