Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

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Vachel in Valdosta
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 9:30 pm

Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#826 Post by Vachel in Valdosta » Wed Nov 21, 2018 5:46 pm

Thanks for the DRACULA update captveg. Don't have any Archive blues from the deep supplements era. Am I to understand that none will be forthcoming unless they were produced by WHV "back in the day"?

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captveg
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#827 Post by captveg » Wed Nov 21, 2018 6:36 pm

Vachel in Valdosta wrote:
Wed Nov 21, 2018 5:46 pm
Thanks for the DRACULA update captveg. Don't have any Archive blues from the deep supplements era. Am I to understand that none will be forthcoming unless they were produced by WHV "back in the day"?
That's been the case, yes. I believe the only exception so far for a catalog BD was the commentary for Michael Collins, but that was likely on the shelf from a canceled SE DVD release and not newly created for Warner Archive.

isakorg2
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#828 Post by isakorg2 » Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:00 pm

Re The Thing (Hawks). I was all hunkered in for a long wait - the notice of the delay on Amazon had that don't call us, we'll call you, and don't hold your breath feel to it. But I received a notice that Amazon had been given a release date - and it's this coming Tuesday, the 27th.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#829 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:46 pm

Indeed, it has a product page Here ... I can't wait to see some reviews, although I'm sure I'll pick it up no matter what.

Tuco
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#830 Post by Tuco » Sat Nov 24, 2018 6:34 pm

THE THING is available on Amazon - ordered my copy last night and it will be delivered Sunday.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#831 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Dec 06, 2018 8:14 pm


patreig
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#832 Post by patreig » Fri Dec 07, 2018 4:45 am

Especially the subtitles for visually deficient customers.

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Grand Wazoo
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#833 Post by Grand Wazoo » Tue Dec 18, 2018 5:34 pm

Some new blus announced on the WAC Facebook page:
JUDGMENT NIGHT (1993)
NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER
Run Time 109:00
Subtitles English SDH
Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 - English
Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, 16 X 9 LETTERBOX
Product Color COLOR
Disc Configuration BD 50
Noted producer/director Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, 24, Predator 2) navigates this harrowing journey of four suburban men into the nightmarish neighborhood of Chicago’s crime-infested underworld. When four young men (Emilio Estevez; Cuba Gooding, Jr.; Stephen Dorff; Jeremy Piven) take a wrong turn on their way to a boxing match in a state-of-the-art RV, they witness a murder. Now, the killers’ leader (Denis Leary) cannot let them live, and the four must find their way to safety while being hunted through Chicago’s meanest streets. With a powerhouse cast, this edge-of-your-seat thriller takes viewers on a life-and-death road trip into terror.

THE PRIZE (1963)
NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER
Run Time 135:00
Subtitles English SDH
Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English
Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, 16 X 9 LETTERBOX
Product Color COLOR
Disc Configuration BD 50
Special Feature: Theatrical Trailer (HD)
Top writers, scientists and leaders converge annually on Stockholm to take part in the awarding of the prestigious Nobel Prizes. This year, however, some honorees will find the great event eclipsed by a greater challenge: staying alive. Paul Newman is up to his famed baby blues in danger and intrigue as Andrew Craig, a hard-drinking author and Nobel winner for literature. At first dismissive of the award and only interested in the cash it brings, Craig finds his writerly instincts and wit sharpened when he senses the physics prize winner (Edward G. Robinson) is an impostor. He sets out to expose the hoax, free-falling into a Cold War ploy of secrets, pursuits, subterfuge and assassins adapted for the screen (from Irving Wallace’s best seller) with spice and wit by Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest, Sweet Smell of Success).

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959)
NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER
Run Time 80:00
Subtitles English SDH
Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English
Aspect Ratio 1.78:1, 16 X 9 WIDESCREEN
Product Color BLACK & WHITE
Disc Configuration BD 25
Special Features: Commentary By SFX veterans Phil Tippett and Dennis Muren; Theatrical Trailer (HD)
As in his classic The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, director Eugene Lourie plunges us into a thrilling stomping ground, unleashing another Thunder Lizard to stomp on everything in sight. Alarming levels of radiation have infused the water, plants, and skies, and a radiated paleosaurus rises from the ocean depths. In its path: London. In its arsenal: a strength to topple buildings (King Kong’s Willis O’Brien contributes rampaging stop-motion effects), a stride that flattens cars, a flesh-searing radioactive ray and a ticked-off attitude. Left in ruins on land, humankind takes the fight to the beast’s undersea realm, where a two-man submarine crew must ensure the torpedo they fire is dead-on. The first chance is all anyone gets with The Giant Behemoth.

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rockysds
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#834 Post by rockysds » Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:09 am

And more Tarzan:
Tarzan Goes To India
Synopsis: No need to land the plane when Tarzan flies to India. Just fly over an inland lake and the loin-clothed hero will leap into its blue depths! Jock Mahoney, who two years earlier portrayed Tarzan's foe in Tarzan the Magnificent, makes his splashy debut as Tarzan in this tale about the Ape-Man's rescue of elephants who will be doomed when a newly built dam unleashes its waters. John Guillermin (Tarzan's Greatest Adventure, The Towering Inferno) directs, combining colorful subcontinent locales with battles large and thunderous (massive bull elephants), small and fierce (cobra versus mongoose), cunning and treacherous (Tarzan against human foes). No matter where the jungle, there is but one jungle lord!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
BRAND NEW 2019 REMASTER OF THE FILM
Vintage trailer for the film
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

Tarzan's Three Challenges

Synopsis: "No stranger from Africa can turn the course of our destiny." But never underestimate a stranger named Tarzan (Jock Mahoney). Over miles and obstacles, he will lead a young heir to Thailand's spiritual throne to his ordination and undo warlord Khan's (Woody Strode) plot to secure the title for his son. First however, the Ape-Man must prove to the heir that he is Tarzan by passing tests of skill, strength and wisdom. Ahead lies a still greater challenge: Tarzan vs. Khan in a bungee-jumping, sword-clanging, flame-dancing death duel! This second and last of Mahoney's Tarzans (filmed to colorful effect in Thailand) was not without real-life challenges: Illness caused Mahoney to lose 40 pounds from his taut, athletic frame.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
BRAND NEW 2019 REMASTER OF THE FILM
Vintage trailer for the film
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

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Gregory
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#835 Post by Gregory » Wed Dec 19, 2018 5:33 pm

Of course—why would Warner want to release the most popular Tarzan series ever when instead they can release these curiosities of the era when the film franchise was on life support, which very few people want? It's sad that Warner hold their vast 1930s holdings in such low regard that they'll now go years without a single title from that decade released on Blu.
When these two movies came out in the 1960s, Jock Mahoney was the the oldest actor ever to play Tarzan, and the in the second film he was deathly ill, as noted in the description. There were a lot more than three challenges as a result.
In the Tarzan film that preceded these two, Mahoney had played a villain, a murderer, but then suddenly he was cast as Tarzan in the next film in the series. How does that make any sense?

IMDb votes are just one imperfect metric of popularity, but Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) has about 6,300 votes whereas these two have less than 400, a great many from viewers who were not exactly keen on these films. If anyone reading this is looking forward to these, more power to you, but at this point WAC is starting to seem like it's intentionally giving a humongous middle finger to fans of 1930s and 1940s cinema. What makes it doubly awful that so many films from that era are never going to see the light of day on Blu-ray is that a sizable number of the DVDs of these films that I spent way too much hard-earned money on no longer even work. That's another whole topic obviously.

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movielocke
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#836 Post by movielocke » Wed Dec 19, 2018 6:02 pm

I think something like this is actually a result of insurance mandates by their asset management team. Meaning insurance has noted there are no suitable protection masters of this asset (1960s Tarzan obscurities) so they put it on the telecine schedule and it’s evaluated for restoration and given a budget for it because the insurance demands that they properly manage their assets to keep their premium low. Then once that process has been done and they have a sparkly new master, warner dictates to the archive that they have to issue it so they can recoup some of the loss.

But if there are perfectly adequate dvd error protection masters of the 30s Tarzan films, they will get ignored by this process and when the producers at the archive goes to warner and asks for a budget to bring the thirties titles to blu, they’re told there’s no money available to do so.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#837 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Dec 19, 2018 6:35 pm

I, as well as many others have been beating this drum as well. It’s a shame WB neglects Classic Hollywood (30’s and 40’s and btw where the hell is A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races!) And for the Archive it’s got to the point where they are repackaging Warner titles that were released in before. Hopefully, there is still a handful of their titles from that era that will end up with Criterion.

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Gregory
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#838 Post by Gregory » Wed Dec 19, 2018 7:32 pm

When these two Tarzans were previously released on DVD via the Archive, the DVDTalk review of the set noted that "none of these has been restored," so movielocke, you may be completely correct about why these got new masters and thus Blu-rays. Still, I don't believe that they have up-to-date masters of huge numbers of their 1930s and ’40s films, so I should think the process you're describing would push more of those older films to get released.

I remain baffled at how the selection process for restoration has lately skewed almost exclusively toward films from the 1950s to the present, neglecting even the earlier films that should easily be able to turn a profit, such as The Shop Around the Corner, which is in the "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?" top 1,000 list like many of the films Criterion has already licensed from them. That film has appeared on more lists and polls than one can shake a stick at, Christmas-themed films sell well, and it makes no sense to me that Warner hasn't even kept this in print on DVD even in a cheapo TCM set, let alone done a Blu-ray.

There's of course only been one 1930s film released as a WAC Blu (42nd Street), but in the first half of 2016 they were releasing lots of 1940s titles—Hawks, Hitchcock, Ford, Daves, and Huston. Then this pretty abruptly stopped, with just Battleground and The Sea Wolf in 2017. On the previous page, I gave them undeserved praise in light of the announcement of Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, before I'd seen their statement that unless they're suitably impressed by the sales of that one release, this is the end of the line for classic animation as far as they're concerned.

And hear, hear to Criterion continuing to rescue more of the films that are being left in the lurch. I really want to believe that Bringing Up Baby could be coming, along with I Walked with a Zombie, and much more (pre-Code, noir...). But ultimately, Criterion won't be able to release that much out of this huge lacuna, especially the "deep cuts."

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movielocke
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#839 Post by movielocke » Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:04 pm

And 30s and 40s stuff falls under the same but different purview. If film materials are in good condition, it’s about 4x cheaper to do a black and white title for disc release, but there is virtually no ancillary market for black and white titles other than the small and shrinking home video market.

The studios can sell slates of color film and tv back catalog to a variety of distribution options, but black and white demand is a minuscule fraction of color. And black white film assets are very stable, while color is decidedly not, so an asset protection program is going to prioritize the highest risk assets and the studio is going to prioritize the largest commercial markets, and both of those correspond to color back catalog instead of black and white back catalog.

And a lot of the black and white stuff got HD masters made for the DVD era, they’re just not up to modern Blu-ray standards or were done to HDCAM before HDCAMSR hit the market making it even less suitable for Blu-ray. A lot of the obscure stuff the archive has been putting out now are because HD transfers are being made of stuff that was never done in the DVD boom years.


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FrauBlucher
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#840 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Dec 20, 2018 10:17 am

My issue is more the obscure titles they release on bluray, whether color or not, at the expense of bigger titles from the Golden Age of Hollywood. They forego Astaire/Rogers, the late 30s gangster films of Bogart and Cagney, and of course the 2 Marx Brothers films that I already mentioned, for lesser titles. I find it hard to believe the lesser/obscure titles will sell better than what I’ve mentioned. And even if they do how much better would that really be. Of course why would they release the two Sea films Wolf and Hawk from 1940 & 41. They must’ve known someone would be interested in owning these films. WAC acts like some small boutique than a company that has a wealth of film history at it’s disposal.

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bdsweeney
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#841 Post by bdsweeney » Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:14 am

Odd place to do this, but with the 4 for $44 sale I'm going for Gun Crazy, They Were Expendable and Meet Me In St Louis. But which if these is worth the fourth purchase?
Susan Slept Here
Suspicion
The Wrong Man
I Confess

I've not seen any of them and would appreciate the advice. I'm leaning towards Susan Slept Here but also keen to capture any of the three Hitchcocks I've never seen.

Cheers

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kcota17
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#842 Post by kcota17 » Sat Jan 05, 2019 11:18 am

Haven’t seen Susan Slept Here but The Wrong Man is one of Hitchcock’s best IMO. Probably his most underrated and definitely one of his most unique ones (from his usual style).

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domino harvey
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#843 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jan 05, 2019 11:41 am

Susan Slept Here is Tashlin's funniest film, but you can't go wrong with Hitchcock either. So, don't eat this week and buy all four!

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reaky
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#844 Post by reaky » Sat Jan 05, 2019 5:40 pm

A vote here for I Confess. Its grimness is more Lang or Preminger than Hitchcock (which is probably why it isn’t considered top-tier Hitch), but I love it and the Quebec setting.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#845 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jan 05, 2019 5:43 pm

bdsweeney wrote:
Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:14 am
Odd place to do this, but with the 4 for $44 sale I'm going for Gun Crazy, They Were Expendable and Meet Me In St Louis. But which if these is worth the fourth purchase?
Susan Slept Here
Suspicion
The Wrong Man
I Confess
I love Meet Me in St. Louis, it's one of my absolute favorites, but it's a strange title for Warner Archive because it was already given a regular release that retailed for less. It's actually the same exact master - nothing was re-done - and Warner was already selling it as a mid-priced disc overseas. I got mine via Amazon.co.uk for less than $10 US but there was probably a sale going on. (It's currently 9 pounds.) The Warner Archive disc may have better cover art, depending on your taste, but that's it. So if you need to free up a slot, that could be one you can pass on.

Suspicion is a great Hitchcock film and for my money Cary Grant's greatest performance in a Hitchcock picture. The Wrong Man is a masterpiece. I have yet to see Susan Slept Here but I love Tashlin and it's supposed to be excellent. I actually think I Confess is the "weakest" of the four, but it's interesting with plenty of merit (for starters, it's certainly compelling to see Hitchcock draw from his Catholic background for more or less an entire picture).

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Drucker
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#846 Post by Drucker » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:21 pm

I'm going to feel incredibly foolish for not figuring this out, but I can't figure out how to get the discount applied. What am I missing?

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swo17
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#847 Post by swo17 » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 pm

I believe it's supposed to be automatic once you have at least 4 eligible items in your cart

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movielocke
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#848 Post by movielocke » Sat Jan 05, 2019 8:04 pm

FrauBlucher wrote:My issue is more the obscure titles they release on bluray, whether color or not, at the expense of bigger titles from the Golden Age of Hollywood. They forego Astaire/Rogers, the late 30s gangster films of Bogart and Cagney, and of course the 2 Marx Brothers films that I already mentioned, for lesser titles. I find it hard to believe the lesser/obscure titles will sell better than what I’ve mentioned. And even if they do how much better would that really be. Of course why would they release the two Sea films Wolf and Hawk from 1940 & 41. They must’ve known someone would be interested in owning these films. WAC acts like some small boutique than a company that has a wealth of film history at it’s disposal.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCAM

I may be misremembering, but I believe Feltenstein has said before that WB did not switch to HDCAMSR mastering until sometime in 2005, so that means HD masters made in the 1997-2005 time frame were (probably) done to HDCAM.

The problem there is that it is an 8 bit sample compressed at 3:1:1, and is actually 1440 (because of pixel geometry, it’s rectangular), so it also has to undergo a hardware on the fly upconvert to display 1920x1080.

And depending on when they updated their tape decks in that time frame, they were also hardware locked to 1080i, if I recall correctly. I believe feltenstein has said that the heralded 2001 digital “restoration “ of singing in the rain, the first to digitally recombine a three strip negative, was no good for Blu-ray because it mastered to 1080i. And they had to redo all the work as a result.

Even though as with silent film, there is no difference between the fields, it was still providing a noticeable inferior image to using more modern technology.

A lot of they titles you mention were released in that 2002-2007 super surge of DVD releases, and they all received new harvests from film elements to prepare them for DVD (and for TV sales to HD channels). That was a big capital investment, and it was often all done to HDCAM.

So these simply wouldn’t look that good released on Blu-ray in what are essentially upscales from 1440, given they’re blacked and white the 3:1:1 subsampling isn’t as severe a drawback, but fundamentally WB or criterion look at these vintage masters as unacceptable.

As for sales, the capital investment in these titles was made already and with a 9000 title library to service with state of good repair maintenance (so to speak), WB isn’t likely to invest more capital in them more often than every thirty years or so, and since they likely mostly lost money in the first place and the masters are still fine for TV sales and streaming, you’re looking at only home video revenues to recoup the investment of prepping the releases for Blu-ray and that won’t pencil out.

Something like the sea wolf never got a dvd release, but it finally came up through the queue to get a modern master made and the archive took advantage of that serendipitous scheduling to issue a Blu-ray.

For the most part the archive has no “either or” say in choosing titles to release, unrelated departments who are working on decades long asset management programs generate new masters on their own time table and the archive can take what they can get.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#849 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:16 pm

FYI... There are some reporting on bluray.com that they purchased the Sea Wolf, probably during the recent Warner Archive sale, and when they opened it the disc was the Sea Hawk. So you may want to open sooner rather than later if you purchased it.

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colinr0380
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#850 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:58 pm

reaky wrote:
Sat Jan 05, 2019 5:40 pm
A vote here for I Confess. Its grimness is more Lang or Preminger than Hitchcock (which is probably why it isn’t considered top-tier Hitch), but I love it and the Quebec setting.
Apropos of nothing but I Confess also received one of the earliest meta-Hitchcock 'remakes' (i.e. more about the world around the film, with an actor playing the director, and using the material to go off into its own story) with the 1995 Canadian film Le Confessionnal.

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