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Harry Potter Films Re-Released on 7/25/16 (1 Viewer)

BobO'Link

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The 16 disc region free Blu-ray box set is up for pre-order from Amazon UK. It's currently £34.99 (£29.16 after VAT is removed) + shipping for a £32.24 total.

You'll probably have to copy/paste the following link due to referal link-jacking taking you to a totally different product at Amazon US.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01C45OD6K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2 discs for each film. Does anyone know what special features are on these other than this:

- The complete 8-part documentary series - ‘Creating the World of Harry Potter’
- Additional scenes
- Interviews with J.K. Rowling and the filmmakers
- Tours of Hogwarts Secrets
- Moviemaking Magic Uncovered
- Warner Bros. Maximum Movie Mode
 
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BobO'Link

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After doing more reading about the individual releases it seems that the second disc of each film has *one* part of the documentary (8 movies, 8 discs) and the other bonus features for that particular film.

I did a spot check of my "Socerer's Stone" DVD a couple of days ago to see how it looks on my new set. Pretty good but there *is* a bit of noise and possible softness to the image. My UK BR set has shipped so I'll know in a week or so if the BR is a good upgrade or not. Either way I'm happy as the total cost - set + shipping + ForEx fee (1%) will work out to ~$5.50 per film (~$44 for the set, shipped to the US). That's what I paid for a new bare-bones DVD set of the films for my daughter a couple of years ago.
 

Darby67

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After doing more reading about the individual releases it seems that the second disc of each film has *one* part of the documentary (8 movies, 8 discs) and the other bonus features for that particular film.

I did a spot check of my "Socerer's Stone" DVD a couple of days ago to see how it looks on my new set. Pretty good but there *is* a bit of noise and possible softness to the image. My UK BR set has shipped so I'll know in a week or so if the BR is a good upgrade or not. Either way I'm happy as the total cost - set + shipping + ForEx fee (1%) will work out to ~$5.50 per film (~$44 for the set, shipped to the US). That's what I paid for a new bare-bones DVD set of the films for my daughter a couple of years ago.

Thanks for the update, Howie.
 

Darby67

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I am hoping the Warner Brothers does a similar set of rereleases in Region 1 when they finally lift the moratorium on Harry Potter home video releases which I would expect to coincide with the theatrical release of Fantastic Beasts. I previously purchased DVD versions of the Ultimate Editions for years 1-6 but did not purchase the Ultimate Edition for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 and 2 because Warners only released it as a Blu-ray combo version that has DVDs of the movies but no DVDs of the bonus features (including the final installments, parts 7 and 8, of the wonderful Creating the World of Harry Potter documentary).

Since I have neither a Blu-ray player nor a region-free DVD player (which I know is sacrilegious to many home video enthusiasts ;)), I really hope Warner Brothers puts out the same set of UK individual and box set releases here in Region 1.
 
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BobO'Link

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Since I have neither a Blu-ray player nor a region-free DVD player (which I know is sacrilegious to many home video enthusiasts ;)), I really hope Warner Brothers puts out the same set of UK individual and box set releases here in Region 1.
Don't feel bad. I was gifted a Blu-ray player (so old it has component/composite outputs *and* HDMI) about 9 months ago and my daughter gave me a HDTV for Christmas last year. If not for those I'd still be watching with my standard DVD player on my 32" CRT (both work so why replace them?). I've not gone "region free" as I know as soon as I do the DVD player will break and it'll be too expensive to replace leaving me "stuck" with a bunch of discs I can no longer view. I'd love to get something like the OPPO everyone talks about but I just can't justify that much for a disc player when my "el-cheapo" plays discs just fine.

I purchased the Blu-ray set from Amazon UK because it's region free so I don't have to have anything special to play it, and it was *very* inexpensive! I've been purchasing *lots* of region free UK Blu-ray releases lately as they're far less expensive than US versions, even with shipping and forex fees.

From what I've seen, especially those Target releases, I'd expect full sets to also receive US releases.
 

BobO'Link

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My UK BR set arrived yesterday and so far I've watched the first two films.

PQ is excellent on both. I compared those two to the DVDs after the viewings. While the DVDs look quite good, the Blu-rays look far better. They appear cleaner, sharper/crisper, with better contrast and color. Audio is also good.

I was surprised that there are only English subtitle options. With most UK releases, even the Region Free ones, there are far more subtitle options than is typical on US releases. That leads me to believe these are the exact same pressings as used for the new US releases with possibly different silkscreening on the discs (mainly for the UK specific rating codes, etc.). These have non-descript, rather plain, disc "art" with just "Harry Potter," the movie title (at least in the proper fonts), and other basic information "cut through" (as in that area of the disc has no color and you see the disc underneath) a teal colored background. I'd have thought they might carry the new sleeve artwork over to the discs but that is not the case.

My *only* gripe so far is the packaging. I expected each of the movies to be in a Blu-ray slim case inside a paperboard outer case. Instead, the discs are grouped in movie pairs with 4 discs per *paperboard* sleeve/case. There are 2 slots on the inside front and inside back of these sleeves which hold the discs in a overlapping fashion. At least the discs are not tight in the slots *but* they move freely enough that they can easily fall out if care is not taken when removing them from the outer case. The artwork is on the outside front and back of this sleeve holder with artwork for one movie on front, the other on the back. The art looks *very* nice (the link in post 1 takes you to a site to see that) but suffers in presentation due to the poor packaging (basically for the even numbered films you have to look at the back of the "cases." There are 4 of these sleeve combos each holding 2 movie discs and the bonus disc for each movie (the bonus discs *are* Blu-ray). They slide into a thicker paperboard case (which *is* nice and sturdy as expected) that's about 1 1/4" thick. There is *no* booklet of any kind, just the UV code (which is for the UK but I've read where people have contacted Warner CS and gotten a region override for this) on a slip of paper inside the outer slip case. There's a review on Amazon which has photos of the sleeves and case (the link is to that review).

Oh well... at least it was very inexpensive when I ordered my copy from Amazon UK, but would it have killed them to make a more protective, and sturdier, package?

I wish they'd have included the "extended" versions of the movies which have had such a release but they did not. This could have been done via seamless branching so both versions could have existed on one disc. Those scenes are included as the "Deleted/Extended Scenes" special feature so you can still see them, just not integrated.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the set, packaging notwithstanding, especially at the price I paid.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I wish they'd have included the "extended" versions of the movies which have had such a release but they did not. This could have been done via seamless branching so both versions could have existed on one disc.

Only the first two movies (Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets) have extended versions; they were included via seamless branching on the U.S. deluxe editions a few years ago, so they are out there.
 

David Norman

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The theat and extended editions of HP 1 and 2 (seamless branching) are on the new current Target Exclusive Bluray (I assume DVD too) releases as well, just not on the UK versions.

The current 8 new releases contain 2 BD ea and are the same discs that came with the Ult Editions and the Hogwarts/Wizards big-box sets
 

BobO'Link

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The theat and extended editions of HP 1 and 2 (seamless branching) are on the new current Target Exclusive Bluray (I assume DVD too) releases as well, just not on the UK versions.

The current 8 new releases contain 2 BD ea and are the same discs that came with the Ult Editions and the Hogwarts/Wizards big-box sets
That's interesting. I wonder why they left them off the UK releases?
 

Darby67

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The theat and extended editions of HP 1 and 2 (seamless branching) are on the new current Target Exclusive Bluray (I assume DVD too) releases as well, just not on the UK versions.

The current 8 new releases contain 2 BD ea and are the same discs that came with the Ult Editions and the Hogwarts/Wizards big-box sets

I bought the Target Exclusive DVD versions of all 8 films so i will check to see of the extended versions of the Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets are on the DVDs and will report back.
 

Darby67

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The Target Exclusive DVD version of the Sorcerer's Stone does not include the extended version of the films but the scenes are included as "deleted scenes" on Disc #2 (the special features disc). I check the Chamber of Secrets DVD next but assume it will be a similar situation.
 

David Norman

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That's interesting. I wonder why they left them off the UK releases?

They were wondering the same thing -- and not happy about it either. It's interesting the DVD do not include both cuts at least of HP1.

I looked at my Bluray UE of HP 1 and 2 and and interesting thing is that the DVD contained only has the Theatrical cut. The DVD Ultimate had 4 DVD with a separate disc for the theatrical and extended editions, plus 2 discs of bonus material. The BD Ultimate had 2 BD (2 movies on D1 and Bonus on D2 plus the single DVD)

Does the new DVD release have only one of the Bonus discs as well or does it have 2 Bonus discs?
 
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Darby67

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They were wondering the same thing -- and not happy about it either. It's interesting the DVD do not include both cuts at least of HP1.

I looked at my Bluray UE of HP 1 and 2 and and interesting thing is that the DVD contained only has the Theatrical cut. The DVD Ultimate had 4 DVD with a separate disc for the theatrical and extended editions, plus 2 discs of bonus material. The BD Ultimate had 2 BD (2 movies on D1 and Bonus on D2 plus the single DVD)

Does the new DVD release have only one of the Bonus discs as well or does it have 2 Bonus discs?

David:

The new DVD releases all have just two discs: one disc for the theatrical feature and one disc for bonus features.
 

BobO'Link

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They were wondering the same thing -- and not happy about it either. It's interesting the DVD do not include both cuts at least of HP1.

I looked at my Bluray UE of HP 1 and 2 and and interesting thing is that the DVD contained only has the Theatrical cut. The DVD Ultimate had 4 DVD with a separate disc for the theatrical and extended editions, plus 2 discs of bonus material. The BD Ultimate had 2 BD (2 movies on D1 and Bonus on D2 plus the single DVD)

Does the new DVD release have only one of the Bonus discs as well or does it have 2 Bonus discs?
That begs the question: "Will they offer a replacement program for corrected discs?"
 

David Norman

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I not sure they consider it a defect, but on top of the atrocious packaging for the UK 8 Movie set they didn't include the extended.
Several of the UK member already returned their sets and reconsidered the Hogwarts set which had a lot more from about the same price or less or are considering import the US discs and just living with the ridiculous title change for HP1
 

David Norman

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FWIW -- Target.com and stores still have both DVD and Bluray;s for sale.

Walmart.com and stores apparently have the new Moments DVD covers for sale listed as Walmart Exclusives now

Best Buy has preorders up for October
 

Darby67

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The Target Exclusive DVD version of the Chamber of Secrets not only does not include the extended version of the films but the scenes are not even included as "deleted scenes" on Disc #2 (the special features disc) :(.
 

Vincent Fernandes

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Hey guys,

I'm glad I found this site and have a question about the new DVD releases. It's really ridiculous that I can't find the answer online, but anyway.

Could anyone tell me whether the first three films on this new DVD set have audio description? In the past, only films 4-8 had AD, but now apparently all of them do, though I can't find any reliable confirmation anywhere.

Best wishes, Vincent
 

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