Warner unveils new "on demand" DVD ordering program

[Traveling Matt]

Warner Home Video is unveiling a new, online “on-demand” DVD ordering program! They will be making nearly their entire library (almost 7,000 titles) available, over a period of time, to be purchased as either an online download or on DVD. Rather than mass producing DVDs and shipping them to stores, each disc would be burned on a per-order basis and sent right to your mailbox.

A plan three years in the making, this could be a revolutionary way to expand the potential of home entertainment. If successful, maybe Henson, Disney and Sesame Workshop might be persuaded to begin a similar program for Muppet movies, shows and music otherwise unavailable in retail form.

Tomorrow night is the Home Theater Forum’s annual online chat with the heads of WHV, where this new program is sure to be discussed. Linked below are two articles, the HTF's conversation about the program and the Warner chat room homepage. The chat is scheduled to begin at 8 PM Eastern.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/dvd/2009-03-22-classic-films-on-demand_N.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/22/america/Warner-Bros-Digital-Archives.php

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf...16-140-150-warner-classic-exclusives-dvd.html

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/chatannounce2/Live_Chat_with_Warner_Home_Video.html

 

[Traveling Matt]

Despite the revelation that these titles will be burned to DVD-Rs (rather than factory pressed onto better quality retail discs), this still sounds like an amazing opportunity to acquire previously unattainable material. Hopefully more information, including purchasing options for non-USA customers, will come forward in tonight's chat.

Here's the program's FAQ page: http://www.wbshop.com/Warner-Archive-FAQs/ARCHIVE_FAQ,default,pg.html

And another article: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-warnerbros23-2009mar23,0,4288760.story

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Sounds good! Like the idea!

 

[Traveling Matt]

Last night’s chat was very interesting, the busiest one HTF has had. Under the Warner Archive program, Warner will be shipping most of their titles worldwide on professional DVD-Rs, not of home computer quality but manufactured using a proprietary MOD (manufactured-on-demand) method. It sounds like a happy medium between standard retail discs (which are pressed en masse) and lower-quality consumer DVD-Rs, enabling them to burn each disc to order while maintaining reliability. They stand by each disc. The program will not replace their retail plans, yet more popular Archive titles may see a proper retail release with bonus material etc.

Even before the chat, Warner announced that they have been overwhelmed by orders their first day, mostly for classic films people have been dying to see for years, if not decades. Nearly every title received an order. Hopefully this will encourage other studios to open their vaults and explore the possibilities being realized right now by WHV. I would personally love to see the entire Henson media archive – movies, specials, shows and music – publicly and legally available on disc or download. This could just about eliminate the frustration often felt regarding older product that has either gone out of stock or never been offered, and could provide studios a way to reap the benefits of their less popular material that would otherwise sit on a shelf and collect dust.

Here’s an article describing opening day feedback: http://blogs.nypost.com/movies/archives/2009/03/new_warner_webs.html

And a transcript of last night’s chat: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/chat/warner09.txt

 

[bazooka_beak]

I guess this is similar to Nickelodeon's Amazon-DVD-On-Demand? Only I hope they FINISH the shows they release