Warner Catalog Titles on BD/UHD

[knives]

Well that sucks. Thanks.

[triodelover]

Yeah, they could have just reissued all the Vitaphone shorts on SD DVD. I doubt those original elements were in any condition to justify a BD, but at least one could sell the DVD set and replace it with the new BD without losing anything.

[stevewhamola]

The back of the packaging details 3 discs with the Vitaphone shorts on the 3rd.

[martin]

I've compared the UK standalone North by Northwest BD with the one in the UK 3-movie box. The version in the boxset has the exact same artwork, same barcode, and the disc itself has the same label-artwork including numbers and such (on the label side). The discs, however, are not digitally identical. The blu-ray in my 3-movie boxset is indeed missing the music only track.

Excerpts from BD Info:

Standalone release:

Code: Select all

Disc Title: NORTH_BY_NORTHWEST
Disc Size: 46.256.498.680 bytes

Playlist: 00001.MPLS
Size: 34.328.414.208 bytes
Audio: English / Dolby TrueHD Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1326 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Embedded: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -4dB)
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -4dB
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB / Dolby Surround

Box-set release:

Code: Select all

Disc Title: NORTH_BY_NORTHWEST
Disc Size: 44.834.613.150 bytes

Playlist: 00001.MPLS
Size: 33.591.656.448 bytes
Audio: English / Dolby TrueHD Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1326 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Embedded: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -4dB)
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB / Dolby Surround

[triodelover]

The back of the packaging details 3 discs with the Vitaphone shorts on the 3rd.

OK, then. No wonder knives was uncertain. So you get the contents of the first disc on a BD with the only certainty is the main feature will be HD and a repeat of the 2 DVDs in the original set. And based on this and this, the UK steelbook will just be the first disc of the US digibook edition. Looks like I'm keeping my original US set to go with the steelbook.

[TMDaines]

What an unsatisfying mess.

[triodelover]

What an unsatisfying mess.

What would be most satisfying is WHV actually being a customer-oriented company and allowing those of use who coughed up for the original 3-disc set to swap disc 1 for the BD with a reasonable upcharge. But as the old saying goes, wish in one hand and s**t in the other and see which one fills up the quickest.

[swo17]

Isn't that sort of the idea behind this? (Assuming The Jazz Singer becomes eligible at some point.)

[triodelover]

Isn't that sort of the idea behind this? (Assuming The Jazz Singer becomes eligible at some point.)

As soon as I posted that, I knew one of the literalists would show up. [-X I know you know this, but they need to make that offer now, not after everyone has bought the digi/steel books and sales have dipped. Coming back then with an "if anyone's interested and since we aren't selling anymore of these things, we'll let you do a swap just so we can unload the rest of these Blus in the warehouse" offer is a tad disingenuous..

[manicsounds]

The Jazz Singer BD review

[hearthesilence]

Stumbled across this very bizarre listing on Amazon. For a moment, I forgot Paramount's back catalog was now distributed by Warner:

Casablanca / African Queen [Blu-ray] Starring Shannon Tweed, Sam Hennings, Colleen Coffey, et al. (!?!?) (2013)
Blu-ray
Buy new:$19.98 $17.98
Available for Pre-order. This item will be released on March 12, 2013.

A bargain if this clones the 70th anniversary mastering of Casablanca.

[andyli]

Yeah they also have the Ben-Hur/Ten Commandment combo at similar price.

[manicsounds]

For some reason, "Grand Hotel" Blu-ray also said "starring Shannon Tweed", but that's been changed.

[dx23]

Has anyone purchased or seen the Zodiac re-release? Amazon took the listing a couple of weeks ago and then just put it back this past week, but it says that it is out of stock. I couldn't find any of the Paramount re-releases at my local Best Buy so I'm wondering if anyone has any details on this BD release.

[cdnchris]

I got mine from Amazon a few days ago. I'm guessing there wasn't a lot of stock to go around to begin with. Based on the fact they just placed Warner stickers on them I'm assuming they're just going through whatever stock Paramount had left in their warehouses.

[dx23]

Is this new release a 2-disc re-release?

[cdnchris]

Yep. It's the same as the old one. Warner just put a new upc sticker on the case over the Paramount one. It's also in one of Warner's Eco cases.

[dx23]

Thanks for the info Chris. Hope that Best Buy or Amazon has some stock soon. I heard that Best Buy may have this for $9.99 next week along with the other Paramount-Warner re-releases and I can get the disc for $4.99 after the DVD trade in program.

[rwaits]

Is Best Buy currently running the DVD trade in?

[dx23]

Is Best Buy currently running the DVD trade in?

It starts tomorrow until the end of the month/beginning of February. Same rules as before in that 5 max trade-in per visit and the discount is on Blu-rays $9.99 and above.

[Gregory]

For some reason, "Grand Hotel" Blu-ray also said "starring Shannon Tweed", but that's been changed.

Not my area of expertise, but it looks like some kind of softcore porn dream team made up of Shannon Tweed, Colleen Coffey, Doug Jeffery, and the director Kelley Cauthen have been racking up prestigious credits for films such as Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Ben Hur, Dirty Harry, Sergeant York, North by Northwest, Bullitt, etc. They've got something like 400 films credited to them at Amazon. Oh, I do love me some WB/Amazon.com schadenfreude.

[feihong]

Maybe Shannon Tweed starred in "Grand Motel," and someone typing this up got confused.

[Gregory]

I'm planning to order the Casablanca blu, and I hope they send me some recently made color version with lots of shower scenes.

[dx23]

That steamy sex scene Shannon had with the Ninja Turtles is what made The Secret of the Ooze tolerable.

By the way, it seems that the only way to get these WB-Paramount re-releases is through online e-tailers as Best Buy and Wal-Mart are not carrying the majority of them in-store.

[AMalickLensFlare]

Has anyone purchased or seen the Zodiac re-release? Amazon took the listing a couple of weeks ago and then just put it back this past week, but it says that it is out of stock. I couldn't find any of the Paramount re-releases at my local Best Buy so I'm wondering if anyone has any details on this BD release.

I ordered it directly from WB (link) for only $9.95 + free shipping. I ordered it on the 3rd and it shipped a few days ago...got it today. There was a bit of a hold-up on the orders, according to some of the users on the blu-ray.com forums who called WB customer service, but it looks like everything has been worked out. I'd imagine Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers will be getting it soon enough.