Warner Bros. Home Entertainment/Summary

Background
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (formerly "WCI Home Video"; the word "WCI" for "Warner Communications, Inc.", and "Warner Home Video", and also known as "Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc." and "Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group") is the home entertainment unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner), founded in 1978 to distribute on video the film and television library of Warner Bros. Studios, and when Time Warner acquired them, programs from other Time Warner companies. Currently, they also serve distributor for television and/or movie product released by BBC (w/ 2 Entertain), Lifetime, Cartoon Network, Turner Entertainment Co., Viz Media, TruTV (formerly "Court TV"), TNT, National Geographic Society (now a part of the Disney family) in the U.S., and product from the NBA, NFL, and NHL.

Warner Home Video
===1st Logo (June 1980-January 1986)===

Nicknames : "CGI Invisible/Visible Shield", "Boring Shield", "Shield of Boredom", "WB Shield II", "The Boring WB Shield"

Logo : Against a backdrop of clouds, a clear WB shield with a wordless banner slowly fades into view. Then the words "WARNER HOME VIDEO" are wiped onto the banner as the colors slowly appear on the shield.

Byline : From 2002-2003, the byline "An AOL Time Warner Company" was seen below the logo. The shield is a lot smaller in this version. The clouds toss about, and grow bigger as the shield brightens until it grows so much, it almost looks like a storm is coming over the horizon. Strangely, Scooby-Doo, A Walk to Remember, Ocean's Eleven, Feardotcom, and The Powerpuff Girls Movie only use this variant on their VHS releases, while their DVD counterparts have the standard logo.

Variants :
 * A full-screen version exists on VHS releases from late 1996, and full-screen DVD releases from 1997 through mid 2010. The clouds toss about, just like the AOL Time Warner version, and as the shield brightens, it completely covers the clouds, and the shield is gigantic.
 * A widescreen version exists on widescreen DVDs starting in 1997 through mid 2010. The shield is slightly smaller, but still big, the cloud background is a little different, and the clouds are more spread out, and as the shield brightens, they pass by and get puffier.
 * In 1998, as with other Warner labels, a 75th Anniversary version was used. This contained a smaller shield with the banner reading "WARNER BROS.", and featured a giant "75" behind it. "YEARS ENTERTAINING THE WORLD" is seen below with "YEARS" a bit bigger and in spaced-out letters. This logo appeared at the front of tapes from the year and some home video trailers (after the previews, the regular logo was used).
 * A rare version had a still logo in the style of the 1992 WB logo with the Warner Home Video banner replacing the Warner Bros Pictures banner and the Time Warner Entertainment byline below that. It appeared on an ad for Cats Don't Dance which was used on the VHS releases of Shiloh and The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain and was never used as a real logo.
 * On some late-2000s home video trailers, a similar variant to the above was used, with the 2003 Time Warner byline, the actual WHV logo, and a darker version of the 1998 Warner Bros. Pictures logo's cloud background.
 * A home video trailer for Body of Lies features the original trailer's variation, but with the banner instead reading "WARNER HOME VIDEO."
 * Some early releases in late 2001 with the AOL Time Warner byline have the byline sloppily chyroned in over the standard variant (this is actually the 1997 widescreen variant with a byline added). Also, the byline's fade out is also out-of-sync with that of the video behind it in this version. This can be seen on Uprising.
 * There is a full screen version of the AOL Time Warner variant, with wide angle lens, which can be spotted on the 2004 DVD of Leapfrog Math Circus, as well as VHS releases.
 * A widescreen version with AOL Time Warner byline can be seen on widescreen DVDs from 2003-early 2004.
 * Another full screen AOL Time Warner variant had the logo cropped to 16:9 then 4:3, seen on many fullscreen DVDs from 2003-early 2004.
 * On all Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and 2010-17 DVD releases, the sky  background is zoomed in by 20%. For Blu-ray, HD-DVD, as well as 2010- fullscreen DVDs, the Warner Home Video shield is zoomed out 10% and as with the full-screen open matte version of the logo (the one used on the AOL Time Warner years but without the byline), it has not appeared on any of the 2010-17 DVD releases. Most Blu-ray releases from 2006-09 have the aspect ratio in 2:35:1.
 * On some retailer promo reels, the logo is superimposed over a random shot from any movie in a given promotion. For example, on the 2000 demo VHS of Liberty Heights, the "Warner Power Lease June" promo features the logo superimposed over a prison shot from The Green Mile, which was being advertised in the reel. (The standard logo appears twice throughout the reel.)
 * On a home video trailer for Constantine, the logo is tinted in dark orange.
 * On a home video trailer for Matchstick Men, which can be found on the 2004 VHS of Grind, the AOL Time Warner variant is presented in scope. It then peels away.

FX/SFX : A simple, effective logo animation.

Music/Sounds : A quiet piano tune with two instrument ending types:
 * Acoustic strings: This is used for all VHS releases as well as Laserdiscs and UMD Video releases. It was used on most stereo DVDs, but some 5.1 DVDs like Scooby-Doo (2002) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone use this variant. It also appeared on television releases like DVDs of all six seasons of The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, and Ben 10. It also appears on certain PBS Kids VHS and DVD releases, as well as the earliest Peanuts DVDs released under Warner. Some DVDs of vintage movies, like Hero At Large, Deliverance, Blood Sport, Fingers, True Romance (movie and special features discs), and Bronco Billy use this variant, though some vintage films like Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, and The Wizard of Oz use the synth strings variant. The acoustic strings version can also be heard on the special features discs of films like 300, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Amadeus, Dirty Harry, The Phantom of the Opera, and Natural Born Killers: The Director's Cut (the movie discs use the synth strings version), though on the 2005 release of Heat and more recent 2-disc releases such as Mad Max: Fury Road and Creed, both discs feature the synth strings version. The acoustic strings version can also be seen on some DVDs of Hanna-Barbera TV movies like Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, and A Flintstones Christmas Carol.
 * Synth strings: All 5.1 DVDs and Blu-ray releases use this variant. On North American releases, it sounds more dual. The dual is sometimes used on DVD's that have the format screen after the logo. The dual synth strings version appears on Harry Potter DVDs (except The Sorcerer's Stone, which uses the acoustic strings, and The Chamber of Secrets, which uses the low tone AOL Time Warner Company acoustic strings) and can also be seen on titles such as The Polar Express, The Phantom of the Opera, 300, March of the Penguins, The Ant Bully, Happy Feet, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Clifford's Really Big Movie, some DVDs of Hanna-Barbera TV movies like Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, Scooby-Doo Pirates Ahoy, Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster, and Chill Out Scooby-Doo!, 2001: A Space Odyssey, later DVDs of Peanuts, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo, as well as the Blu-ray complete series set of Friends, and the DVD release of Friends: The One with All the Parties.

Music/Sounds Variants :
 * Sometimes on the NTSC AOL Time Warner version, the acoustic strings theme is in a lower pitch. This can be found on such VHS and DVD releases as Uprising, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, A Walk to Remember (VHS only), Scooby-Doo (VHS only), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, A Mighty Wind, Space Jam (2003 DVD only; retained on a 2010 reprint), Kangaroo Jack, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, South Park: The Original Unaired Pilot, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as well as the first Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set and Looney Tunes: Stranger Than Fiction, and some PBS Kids releases like Teletubbies: Silly Songs and Funny Dances, Caillou: At His Best, Caillou: Big Brother Caillou, and all Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat releases, which is immediately followed by the "kidsvideo" variant of the PBS Kids logo.
 * On screener tapes of The Replacements and Mickey Blue Eyes, and the 1997 Warnervision Entertainment release of The Chain (1996), which Warner Home Video released, the full screen logo is used with the low tone acoustic strings theme.
 * On the 2003 DVD release of Dennis the Menace, the widescreen 2002 AOL Time Warner byline version uses the regular pitched acoustic strings theme.
 * On the 2003 DVD of Caillou's Holiday Movie, the full screen AOL Time Warner variant also uses the regular pitch acoustic strings version, at the beginning after the FBI warning, and at the end after the Cinar logo.
 * On a small number of Blu-rays, such as Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange, and Contact, the theme is off-sync. It's also like this on the 2007 "Complete Collector's Edition" Blu-ray of Blade Runner, where discs 2 ("Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner") and 4 ("Enhancement Archive") feature an off-sync theme as well. Coincidentally, both discs are DVDs, featuring bonus material. (The other three discs, all Blu-ray discs featuring different versions of the movie, have the theme play normally.)
 * On the 2004 BBC Video release of A Room With a View, the acoustic strings theme warps in the last second.
 * A silent version appears on the DVD release of The Big Red One (exact version unknown).
 * On an European DVD of Friday After Next, the music appears to be a hybrid of acoustic and synth strings.

Music/Sounds Trivia : The music was originally written by Egg Chair Music.

Descriptive Video Service VHS Voiceover Variants:
 * A DVS narrator describes the logo: "In a logo, clouds swirl in a blue  sky. The letters WB appear in a golden shield. Warner Home Video."
 * For AOL Time Warner era releases, however, the narrator adds "An AOL Time Warner Company" to the description.
 * Examples include Rena Baskin on Driving Miss Daisy, Kria Sakakeeny on The Wizard of Oz, Peter Haydu on The Matrix, Nick Mills on Unforgiven, Miles Neff on Scooby-Doo, The Matrix Reloaded, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Wendie Sakakeeny on The Color Purple, and Pat Lentz on Two Weeks Notice.

Availability : Very common. This was used concurrently with the previous logo on 1996-1997 WHV tapes (on a side note, the print version of this logo was introduced in mid-1996, and those tapes contain the previous logo, but you should also expect the "DIGITALLY PROCESSED" text on the side of its packaging, so the previous logo is an easy find). As of June 2017, it is also used in conjunction with the next logo below as this is still seen on Warner Archive DVD and Blu-ray releases.
 * The first products to have this logo include the 1996 rental VHS release of A Time to Kill, released on December 30, 1996; the VHS of Bogus, released on February 4, 1997, and the first DVDs from Warner Bros. (one of which was A Time to Kill), released on March 26, 1997.
 * Some of the last films to use this logo on VHS were the 2005 releases of The Aviator, Racing Stripes, and The Polar Express.
 * Surprisingly, this logo was seen at the end of some episodes of Whose Line is It Anyway? on ABC Family, a 1990 episode of Night Court on TV Land, and certain broadcasts of the 1983 movie The Outsiders on A&E. It is possible that the programs (at least what was available on disc at the time) were DVD rips, and those networks forgot to edit the logo out for broadcast.
 * The version with the AOL Time Warner byline can be found on most tapes and DVDs from 2002-04, including The Great Dictator and the 2003 Special Edition release of Dennis the Menace. This can be found at the end of Caillou's Holiday Movie after the Cinar logo, but on TV airings of the movie, it and the Cinar logo are plastered by the Cookie Jar logo. The 2006 PlayArts DVD retains this, albeit in subpar quality.
 * As for the wide angle full-screen version of the byline variant on DVD, it has been spotted on the 2004 DVD print of Leapfrog: Math Circus.
 * It can also be seen on international home video releases of Warner Bros. films that are distributed internationally, such as South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Beowulf, and Interstellar (all of which are distributed domestically by Paramount Pictures).
 * Don't expect to find this on releases from Viz Media or Warner reprints of Paramount titles (which contained the print logo on the back cover and sometimes, especially in the case of Paramount, the spine). This also goes for Sesame Street DVDs that were released by the company. The same applies for most MGM video releases from 1996-2000. Some later reprints of MGM/UA Home Video releases from the early '90s used the Warner Home Video print logo on the tape label or the packaging, but all were of the Turner library and used either this logo or an MGM/UA logo (examples which used this logo include a 2000 tape of the colorized version of Arsenic and Old Lace, which had a Warner label and used the 1992 MGM/UA box, and a 1999 tape of Casablanca, which used the 1994 MGM/UA box and had a later MGM label).
 * The still logo with the Time Warner Entertainment byline is extremely rare and was only seen on a few trailers from 1996-97. Examples include the "Reel Rentals" trailer seen on the demo VHS of Kingpin, an ad for Cats Don't Dance on the VHS releases of Shiloh and The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain, and trailers for The Spitfire Grill and Lone Star on a 1997 VHS of Extreme Measures from, ironically, Columbia TriStar Home Video (the latter three titles are from Castle Rock Entertainment, and it is possible that Warner handled sales and marketing for these titles). The late 2000s variant with the later Time Warner byline is just as rare, being available on trailers on the DVD releases of Michael Clayton, He's Just Not That Into You, and Gran Torino.
 * PBS Home Video DVD and VHS releases from 1997 to 2004 had this logo, among them Barney: Families are Special (despite carrying a Turner logo on the packaging).
 * On Warner-distributed VeggieTales VHS and DVD releases, its only actual appearance was on The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's.
 * This is also seen at the beginning of the Direct-To-Video movie A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits.
 * This also appeared on 4K UHD Blu-rays from 2016, such as Suicide Squad.

Editor's Note : While a nice effort from Warner, it may annoy fans of the previous logos.

(March 14, 2017-2020)
Nicknames : "CGI Invisible/Visible Shield II", "Cheesy Shield II", "CGI WB Shield III", "WB Shield III"

Logo : Same as the previous logo, except the sky background is different, and the logo seems to be in a more 3D look with the colors more solid along with the text on the banner being replaced with "HOME ENTERTAINMENT".

FX/SFX : Same as the previous logo.

Music/Sounds : Same as the previous logo.

Music/Sounds Variants :
 * Early titles used a "remastered" version of the AOL Time Warner variant of the previous logo's music.
 * On the 2019 Blu-ray of Aquaman, the music is off-sync, starting a couple seconds before the actual logo fades in.

Availability : Current. The print logo first appeared on late 2016/early 2017 releases such as Storks, Sully, and Suicide Squad. The logo proper debuted on the March 14, 2017 releases of Collateral Beauty, The Jetsons & WWE: RoboWrestleMania!, and CHiPs: The Complete Fifth Season. Again, this doesn't appear on any Viz Media or Sesame Workshop releases. Following WB's logo design change, the logo's days might be numbered. It also appears at the beginning of the direct-to-video movie, A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish.

Editor's Note : Although not a horrible logo, it was initially thought to be a fan-made project due to its shinier nature. Disappointment across the logo community followed when it was discovered that it was indeed real.