Warner Home Video

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 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 in the U.S., and product from the NBA, NFL, and NHL.

====1st Logo (July 1980-Late 1985, 1987, August 1990, 1996)====

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 until it grows so much, it almost looks like a storm is coming over the horizon

Variants:
 * A full-screen version exists on VHS releases from late 1996, and full-screen DVD releases from 1997. 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. The shield is slightly smaller, but still big, the cloud background is a little different, and the clouds are more spread out, as 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 is seen during the year on home video releases and some trailers.
 * 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.
 * Some early releases in late 2001 with the AOL Time Warner byline have the byline sloppily chyroned in over the standard variant;, which is actually the 1997 widescreen variant with byline added 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 full screen DVDs from 2003-early 2004
 * On all Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and 2010-2017 DVD releases, the sky  background is zoomed in by 20%. For 2010-17 fullscreen releases, the Warner Home Video shield is zoomed out 10%. Some Blu-ray releases from 2006-2009 have the aspect ratio in 2:35.1.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: A simple, effective logo animation; nothing really cheesy except for the "wiping" on of the text. It is worth noting, however, that the logo still carries the word "VIDEO" to this day, despite the VHS format ceasing production years ago. As with the AOL Time Warner byline, not only was it badly introduced (being chyroned over the standard variant, as mentioned above), but the final version of the logo has something weird to it, as the version without the byline (plus the previously mentioned cheap variant) has the whole logo fading to black. But in the byline version, the shield and byline are seen fading out over the cloud background, and turn translucent as everything fades to black.

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, and 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 sides), 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 seen on the special features sides of films like 300, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Amadeus, Dirty Harry, and The Phantom of the Opera (the movie sides use 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 DVD's 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 1st film, which uses the acoustic strings, and the 2nd film, 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 the VHS and DVD releases of 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 the 2000 screer VHS of The Replacements, and the 1997 Warnervision Entertainment release of The Chain (1996), which Warner Home Video released, the 1996 full screen Warner Home Video logo is used with the low tone with acoustic strings.
 * On the 2003 DVD release of Dennis the Menace, the widescreen 2002 AOL Time Warner byline version uses the regular pitch from the 1996 version with acoustic strings.


 * On DVS VHS releases, a narrator is heard describing the logo saying "In a logo, clouds swirl in a  blue  sky. The letters WB appear in a golden shield. Warner Home Video." For DVS VHS's under the AOL Time Warner era, however, the narrator adds "An AOL Time Warner Company" to the description. Narrators describing the logo include Rena Baskin on the DVS VHS of Driving Miss Daisy, Wendie Sakakeeny on the DVS VHS of The Color Purple, Kria Sakakeeny on the DVS VHS of The Wizard of Oz, Pat Lentz on the DVS VHS of Two Weeks Notice, Nick Mills on the DVS VHS of Unforgiven, Peter Haydu on the DVS VHS of The Matrix, and Miles Neff on the DVS VHS's of Scooby-Doo and The Matrix Reloaded.


 * On the 2003 DVD of Caillou's Holiday Movie, the full screen AOL Time Warner variant also uses the regular pitch from the 1996 version, also with acoustic strings, at the beginning after the FBI Warning, and at the end after the Cinar logo.

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

Availability : 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). 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 Space Jam released on March 11, 1997, and the first DVDs from Warner Bros. (one of which was A Time to Kill), released on March 26, 1997. Surprisingly, this logo was seen at the end of a 1990 episode of Night Court on TV Land. It is possible that the episode was ripped from DVD (though at the time, the latest episode available on DVD was from 1988), and TV Land forgot to edit the logo out for broadcast. This is also the case with some episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway? on ABC Family. The version with the AOL Time Warner byline can be found on most tapes from 2002, but DVDs from 2002 still had the regular logo until January 28, 2003, when the AOL Time Warner variant was used on DVDs, including The Great Dictator and the 2003 Special Edition releases of Dennis the Menace, and Dennis the Menace Strikes Again. Strangely, this can also be seen on a "Now Available on DVD" trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which can be seen on the DVD of Shorts. It can also be seen on the UK release of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Don't expect to see this on anything from Viz Media as it just has a VIZ Media logo at the beginning.

Scare Factor : None. This is a clean logo.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
====1st Logo (March 14, 2017-)==== Nicknames: "CGI Invisible/Visible Shield II", "Cheesy Shield II"

Logo: Same as the 3rd Warner Home Video 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 3rd Warner Home Video logo.

Music/Sounds: Same as the AOL Time Warner variant of the previous logo, but distorted.

Availability: Brand new. The print logo first appeared on late 2016/early 2017 releases such as Storks, Sully, and Suicide Squad. The regular logo debuted on Collateral Beauty, The Jetsons vs. WWE RoboWrestleMania!, and CHiPs: The Complete Fifth Season.

Scare Factor: Same as the 3rd Warner Home Video logo.