Way to Blu

I don't make a habit of promoting such stuff, but I'm actually a little bit awestruck by the new wrinkle Warner is adding to its long-standing "trade your old Warner DVD for a Blu-ray version of same" policy (UPDATE: that policy having, I remembered after posting, pertained to trading in old HD format discs for Blu-rays as those became available; ought to have been clearer on that, I see now), for a limited time: now, you can trade ANY professionally pre-recorded DVD that's not porn (wonder what the policy is on those Joe Sarno Seduction Cinema titles, not that I'm contemplating giving those up...) for a Warner Blu-ray disc for only $4.95. And you get free shipping on orders that add up to over $35. The catch, such as it is, is in the selection of Blu-rays; there are only 100 titles offered for trade. But a lot of them are, as they say, cherce, including An American In Paris, The Wild Bunch, Rio Bravo, Superman II, and more. I myself am contemplating cleaning up and sprucing up my own library in just this way. Seems like an easy enough process, too. Just go to the "DVD2Blu" page, which will get you started. Let me know what you're trading and what for. 

Comments

[Jason]

This would be great were it not that all the good titles/title I want were BDs that I already have ....

[Nort]

I didn't know about the long-standing policy. Do you mean I can take my Casablanca DVD and trade it straight-up for a Casablanca Blu-ray?

[Ian W. Hill]

Glenn, do you know how to access the 'long-standing "trade your old Warner DVD for a Blu-ray version of same" policy?' That might be of more use to me than this new deal (though I'll probably take them up on some of this as well).

[Adam Greene]

History of Violence. Sadly, I've already upgraded some of these.

[Stephen Bowie]

Meh. Now if they'd let me trade in the sludge from my screener pile for some Warner Archive....

[Ryan Kelly]

Wow.

Thank you so much for calling this to my attention. What a great promotion.

[Brian P]

mother of god.
thank you

[Thomas D.]

Glenn Kenny rocks my face up and down the highway. Thank you for the alert. I got the following:
American in Paris
Assassination of Jesse James
Superman II
Rio Bravo
Dirty Dozen
Freddy Vs. Jason
Troy
Tango and Cash

All but Tango and Jesse James I had on DVD, so the others were an even exchange (well, even + $5). For the other two, I traded in my DVD packaged with the Escape From New York blu, as well as the DVD packaged with the Troll 2 blu (and I still have the older Troll 2 DVD anyway). So, basically, I gave up a bunch of DVDs that I would've ended up giving away anyway after upgrading them to blu. Oh, and free fucking shipping. It's been awhile since I've seen Tango, since the old DVD was pan and scan, but I will soon be experiencing it in 1080p, in all of it's seismically overblown stupidity.

[otherbill]

Thank you so much for posting this. I just grabbed HELLBOY, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, and HALLOWEEN on blu, so those dvds will become AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, KISS KISS BANG BANG, and PAN'S LABYRINTH. I'm sure I can find two others to switch out for RIO BRAVO and THE WILD BUNCH.

Query: I adore ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES but have heard that the blu has some major image issues. Can anyone confirm or deny?

[Glenn Kenny]

@otherbill: The image quality of "Jesse James" is considered problematic by many, despite the fact that, according to a source at Warner's I spoke to about it, the studio did nothing to alter the digital master in the process of making the DVD (the film was shot digitally). It's a puzzler, to be sure, but it's also pretty certain that an "improved" disc is not in the offing.

[Gordon Osse]

I did "A History of Violence", "Constantine", and "A Scanner Darkly" -- all of which are quite nice on blu ray. The "scanner" image is particularly intense, and the standard one was no slouch.

wish i could do this with my other discs.

[lazarus]

Thanks for the tip, Glenn. I had seen this before but good to know about the looser trading rules. Now i they can only widen their catalogue...

This is my haul:

An American in Paris
The Aviator
Assassination James/Ford
A Clockwork Orange
2001
Dark City
L.A. Confidential

I didn't see The Shining for some reason; would have picked that instead of the Proyas. I guess there's always next time.

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

Thought I'd already posted to this, but ASSASSINATION was shot on 35mm anamorphic.

[Glenn Kenny]

@ Jeffrey Allen Rydell: Really. Well, don't tell me, because I can't do a thing about it. Get in touch with Ned Price, Warner's Vice President of Mastering, who I brought up the issue with and who made that claim to me.

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

Oops - it wasn't anamorphically-originated . It is film, though. Outside of Pixar consultation, Roger Deakins has only shot film for features.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443680/technical

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

Oh - and I totally expect you to do a thing about it.

Waiting!

[Glenn Kenny]

@ Jeffrey Allen Rydell: Yes, I looked at that precious imdb page you link to, which contains another interesting bit of information: "Cinematographic process:Digital Intermediate (4K) (master format)"

When I spoke to Ned Price about the "Doctor Zhivago" Blu-ray, I brought up the "Jesse James" controversy after I had switched off the tape recorder and he was a little bemused about it, as he claimed that his department hadn't touched it. He seemed to have believed that it was shot digitally, and maybe it was and maybe it wasn't (the imdb pages being potentially unreliable, except when they're telling you what you want to hear so you can lord it over some blogger, maybe), but he did insist that it hadn't been subjected to any edge enhancement or digital noise reduction or any such thing by his department and that they put on the Blu-ray what they had been handed by the filmmakers.

I couldn't tell if your last comment was a joke or not. If it was, your sense of humor is a trifle drier than that which I normally enjoy. If it wasn't, you're one of the reasons I'm such an angry, bitter person.

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

Yes, joking.

Fuck, you're defensive about this. You've no reason to be, you know.

As far as links you might better rate:

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/October2007/QAWithDeakins/page1.php

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

'lord it over some blogger'

Ack - not the intention. Backing away slowly before more buttons are inadvertently pushed here...

[Glenn Kenny]

Defensive? Moi?

But you're right—it's not YOUR fault that I don't know who the heck to believe about this debacle of the "James" Blu-ray. What I am reasonably sure of is that nothing is actually going to be done about it in the foreseeable future, which is terribly frustrating, because it's a film I'd really like to have a good home version of.

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

Me too.

Sorry for any hackles I raised, Glenn.

[Glenn Kenny]

And I'm sorry I reverted to default Defensive Dick Default mode. And now, like the Bonzo Dog Band said, let's make up and be friendly...

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

K - I like friendly!

Also, I'm most always a trifle drier than many will prefer. But, I gotta be me and stuff.

And then apologize.

[Thomas D.]

Regarding JESSE JAMES, could it be that the digital master used for the blu-ray was "struck" for digital projection, and not necessarily meant for blu-ray? It sounds like there might have been some confusion, that the digital intermediate was in effect treated as the negative for the transfer, but may in fact been intended to be an intermediate between 35mm negative and 1k digital projection. Just a guess. I saw it on film and watched the DVD, and it was clearly shot on 35MM and not digital.

There are some cases where a movie is shot on film, but it is digitized before the final cut is completed, rendering the "negative" a digital file, even though it started out on 35mm. This is usually done to lessen the expense of CGI (JASON X was, I believe, the first film to do this). However, I don't remember noticing any digital effects or enhancements of any sort on JESSE JAMES. Besides, Roger Deakins doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would shoot 35MM and then do a digital altering of the picture in post (a la the FRENCH CONNECTION blu).

Either way, I don't own the Jesse James DVD, and this is the best version available (at least region 1), so, in the end, I'll take what I can get :)