New on DVD: The Awakening Land (1978)
I've always wanted to see the 1978 miniseries THE AWAKENING LAND, a pioneer tale starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Hal Holbrook, and Jane Seymour.The miniseries has just been released on DVD-R by the Warner Archive. The price is $24.95.
I'm delighted this miniseries is now available, but a word of caution regarding the Warner Archive DVDs. My father and I split an order prior to Christmas when the Archive was having a sale. Although the DVDs I ordered play fine on my equipment, three out of four of his Archive DVDs would not play in his DVD player. He tested them on an aquaintance's equipment and they would not play on most of those DVD players either -- the exception being an inexpensive Wal-Mart DVD player.
It might be that if he exchanged them the new copies would play fine...or maybe not. I'm going to be trying them on my DVD players soon.
This erratic DVD performance -- which has never been an issue with a "burned" DVD -- cannot be accepted by the Archive going forward, or those of us who would like to support the Archive will be extremely reluctant consumers.
The Archive needs to sell DVDs which will play reliably on any DVD players. Period.
Update: All 3 DVDs play fine on my DVD player. Very strange that their performance is so erratic.
posted by Laura @ 5:45 PM
4 Comments:
Hmmm...this is interesting; also worrying.
Has your dad written to Warner Archive about this issue?
Please keep us updated when anything transpires.
I've purchased roughly 40 titles from the WB Archive and I've had only ONE that had flaws in it. I called tehm and they IMMEDIATELY sent me a replacement.....(they even told me not to send the defective disc back; they would just replace it, sight unseen, which they did).....
BTW, it seems that Universal (NOT through TCM) has also recently jumpd on the "burn-on-deemand" bandwagon through (of ALL places!) Amazon.com! I just (yesterday) received a DVD of "The List Of Adrian Messenger"....it too looks and sounds terrific. Bare bones. No extras, just the film. But I'm glad to have it!!
Thanks for the feedback on your Archive experience. I'm glad to know they were so helpful. Not sure if I'm just going to hang on to these myself and let it go or give them a call...might not hurt!
To answer Mel's question, I do plan to give WB feedback one way or another about the problem.
Best wishes to you both,
Laura
Update: I have corresponded with Warner several times -- each time it takes several days to receive an email response -- and they have refused to exchange the Archive DVDs because a month passed since they were shipped to me in late December.
As I wrote back, of *course* a period slightly longer than a month passed -- the DVD-Rs were shipped to the other end of the country at Christmas and, as no problem was ever anticipated, weren't opened and played until the first half of January. By the time they were shipped back here and I tried them out as well, the 30-day "window" had closed.
I think it's a shame WB won't stand behind their Archive product. Several companies, including Amazon, have an extended return time for Christmas gifts, but not Warner.
Laura
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