Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment/Summary

Background

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, the home entertainment division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Warner Bros. Discovery (formerly "Time Warner" and later "WarnerMedia"), first started off in 1980 as Warner Home Video (initially as "WCI Home Video"; "WCI" stood for "Warner Communications, Inc.") 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. In Australia, it was one of the Magnificent Seven home video distributors. Currently, they also serve distribution for television and/or movie products released by BBC (w/ 2 Entertain), Lifetime, Cartoon Network, Turner Entertainment Co., Viz Media, TruTV, TNT, National Geographic Society, and MGM in the United States, as well as sports products from the NBA, NFL, and NHL. It was one of the last major studios to offer new releases on the Betamax format, doing so until well into the mid-'90s. In 2005, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment was founded to bring together all of its parent company's businesses involved in the delivery of home entertainment content to consumers. The company structure includes subsidiaries such as Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. Digital and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In 2017, the Warner Home Video brand was made its in-name-only division. In January 2020, it was announced Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment would be partnering to form a 10-year joint venture, which will see new and library titles from both companies being released on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD under one entity; the venture launched in early 2021 under the name Studio Distribution Services.

Warner Home Video

1st Logo
(June 1980-January 1986)

Nicknames: "The Big \\'", "\\' Bros.", "Zooming \\'", "Worms"

Logo:

• June 1980-October 15, 1981: We start out with a very big \\' logo (that is white with a blue "tube") that fills the entire screen. It then zooms back slightly. Then above the logo, the words "WCI HOME VIDEO" between two horizontal lines appear, followed by a much smaller \\' logo besides the byline "A Warner Communications Company". The logo fades from black after the standard FBI Warning Screen and has a more-grainy film like quality to it. The \\' logo is slightly bigger than on the later version of the logo.
• July 1981-January 1986: Same as before, but now the logo is re-done with WARNER replacing WCI (in a smaller font to accompany the lengthier text), and the FBI Warning Screen now cuts directly to this logo. The \\' is a bit smaller as well, and the film scratches are gone.

Trivia: The logo is derived from Warner Cable's logo, which was used as early as 1975-76. A still version exists at the end of the Warner Cable game show How Do You Like Your Eggs? from 1977, which can be viewed here.

Variants:

• A variation exists in which the now-white logo is placed on a blue-purple background. The byline is in an alternate typeface as well. On Australian Warner Home Video releases of United Artists films, the \\' is even smaller and is shifted to the top half of the screen, and on the bottom half is the "WARNER HOME VIDEO" text. The logo is completely still this time.
• A Spanish version of this logo has the blue circle zoom away from the screen and each section of the "\\'" animates, larger than normal. An asterisk and the "WARNER HOME VIDEO" line appears (there is no fade in). The asterisk then refers to the phase: "Marca Registrada de Warner Communications Inc." (Registered Trademark of Warner Communications Inc.).
• A French version of the logo has the original animation intact, but the text "WARNER HOME VIDEO" is much smaller than normal and the byline (all in capital letters) is a bit larger. Also, both the text and byline are in an alternate font.
• On some rental-only copies of Rollover, the logo and preceding FBI warning screen are slightly shifted upwards.
• The logo can appear with a trademark symbol next to the "WARNER HOME VIDEO" text.
• Some Australian VHS tapes have a variant, where the warning screen fades into a smaller \\' logo, with the "WARNER HOME VIDEO" text not having the horizontal lines between them. The byline is not present in this version.
• Warner's now defunct music division used a special variant of this logo for their 1st logo, which can be viewed here.
• Warner Video News tapes from 1985 have the \\' in a white/blue gradient background, along with a black/blue gradient ground under it. This would wrap to the top right, showing the same frame again, with the text "WARNER HOME VIDEO PRÄSENTIERT" flying in with a trail.
• A trailer tape from June 1985 has a version exists where in an evening sky background, a white cube with titles and the \\' logo zooms towards us, spinning. After a while, it stops at the logo, and the background turns white. The "WARNER HOME VIDEO" text with the two lines zoom out to its position. The logo would break into a cyan background with the text "Coming Soon".
• Another variant exists in the same tape as the previous variant, where in a white background, the \\' emblem and the text quickly zooms to us, apart from each other.

FX/SFX: The "zooming out" of the logo, not to mention the film scratches on the WCI version.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over Variants:

• On the 1985 VHS of The Exorcist, the film's opening music starts to play as the logo fades out.
• A Canadian VHS of Casablanca has the second half of the United Artists "Turning UA" music playing over the logo.
• On some UK tapes with previews, the logo has music and a stoic, oddly American-accented male voiceover. Before the first trailer, the announcer says "Some other great titles from the small screen. From Warner Home Video." After the last one, he says "The titles you have just seen are available on VHS and Betamax. Ask your local stockists for details. Warner...Home Video.".
• On a German Warner Video News VHS release, we can hear a wavy synth sound, accompanied with an announcer saying "Warner Home Video präsentiert!"

Availability: Used on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, and CED releases at the time.

• Early releases (from 1979-80) went straight from the warning screen to the movie with the Warner Bros., Orion, or First Artists logo in use at the time, and tapes that actually have this logo are long out of print. It first appeared on Bullitt, and would appear on all WCI releases beginning in the fall of 1980, including Every Which Way But Loose and Gilda Live.
• The first WCI releases included Blazing Saddles, The Green Berets, The Wild Bunch, and Dirty Harry. Some WCI releases are also packaged in WHV packaging, with WHV labels during a short 1980 transitional period. Caddyshack, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Just Tell Me What You Want, Magnum Force, and The Great Santini are a few videos known to have this variation. Its last appearance was on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
• The 1981-1985 variant first appeared on Die Laughing and is available on Deal of the Century, The Road Warrior (a.k.a. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior), Death Race 2000, THX-1138, The Amityville Horror, Any Which Way You Can, The Great Race, The Man With Two Brains, Gremlins, National Lampoon's Vacation, Fandango, Vision Quest, A Fistful of Dollars (original rental-only UK release), the James Bond franchise up to Octopussy (international home media releases), the first two Police Academy movies, and the Kung Fu pilot movie. The last tape to use this logo officially was the 1986 reprint of Just Tell Me What You Want, though the logo later made a surprise appearance on the 1987 Canadian VHS of Them!, a 1988 VHS reprint of Rio Bravo, a 1991 VHS reprint of Ensign Pulver, and a 1987 reissue of Call of the Wild from MPI Home Video. It also made a surprise appearance on both the 2000 and 2002 prints of The Gumball Rally as well as a 1998 print of Night Shift.
• The variant with music and the announcer was seen on the original UK VHS of Risky Business. The small text variant of the logo is seen on a 1985 French VHS release of National Lampoon's Vacation.
• Some tapes have the next print logo on the cover but have this logo on the tape, such as Gremlins, Vision Quest, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, early prints of Lost in America, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Omega Man, Ladyhawke, and Pale Rider. Oddly enough, it and the preceding warning scroll plaster the United Artists logo but keep its original music on a Canadian VHS release of Casablanca.
• German Warner Video News releases from early 1985 include this logo, with or without the German voiceover.

Editor's Note: Although it's not a terrible logo by any means, there isn't any story to it at all.

2nd Logo
(December 1985-1999)

Nicknames: "The Cheesy Shield", "CGI WB Shield", "Bombastic WB", "Primitive Shield"

Logo: Over a time-lapsed animation of clouds, the camera zooms out between the tops of some gold-colored letters and the bottom of a gold plank. The camera then zooms out and the logo turns towards us, revealing that it is the words "WARNER HOME VIDEO", with two lines above it and two lines below it. It then zooms out to the bottom of the screen, followed by a giant WB Shield logo appearing from the top of the screen, slightly tilted to the bottom, then rotating to face us. The Warner byline fades in at the bottom of the screen. "Sparkles" appear and white "reflections" appear on the logo.

Bylines:

• December 1985-1990: "A Subsidiary of Warner Bros. Inc. A Warner Communications Company" (in two lines, with "A Subsidiary of Warner Bros. Inc." on top of "A Warner Communications Company")
• December 27, 1990-March 31, 1993: "A Subsidiary of Warner Bros. Inc. A Time Warner Company" (same vein as the Warner Communications byline, except that the byline "A Time Warner Company" is in place of the old byline "A Warner Communications Company")
• April 14, 1993-February 1997: "A Time Warner Entertainment Company" (This byline is in an alternate typeface.)
• A version of the Time Warner Entertainment variant sometimes has the byline slightly smaller, using a font similar to the first two bylines. This was used from 1993-1997.
• The Time Warner Entertainment byline faded in at the last note of the theme. The Warner Communications and Time Warner bylines faded in as the shield rotated to its final position.
• Most releases outside of the United States, including United Artists films such as A Fistful of Dollars, some very early releases, and some domestic releases during the Time Warner merger, including Lorimar-Telepictures releases such as The Sacketts, didn't have a byline.

Variants:

• There exists a rare still version of the logo, which can be found on certain Kidsongs videos and Batman Returns (though the UK release of the latter used the normal bylineless logo).
• On some UK rental tapes, when the logo animation is finished, the logo splits in two horizontally down the middle, then the two sides compress up and down, respectively, revealing a blue background with the yellow words "COMING SOON". This is seen on the rental tapes of Lost in America and Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment.
• There is an extended version of the logo in which the shield remains in place for a few seconds longer before swinging towards the camera and tilting forwards as it does so. A slightly longer version of this variant exists on German Warner Video News tapes. Stills of this extended version would later appear on Warner Bros. trailers, plastering the Warner Bros. Pictures logo.
• Sometimes, on trailers, the finished logo and the cloud footage starts where it ended on the regular logo. This cloud background is, in fact, additional footage from the regular version.
• There is a very rare promo variant where the giant WB shield rises up from the top and rotates to face forward, then zooms out slightly. In this version, there is no company name or byline. A version of this exists where the shield zooms out and disappears into the clouds. Warner Video News tapes have a copyright stamp placed over the latter version of this.
• On Australian videos from the 1980s, the logo fades away to a different cloud background. It has "At Home With The Hits" in cursive and arched, with the words "PREVIEW ATTRACTION" squeezed between sets of two lines. All are gold and the cloud background eases back. On one occasion, this variant faded off before the words could fade in.
• A black-and-white version can be found on B&W releases, such as VHS tapes of Days of Wine and Roses and the TV series Maverick.
• On Mexican tapes of Doc Hollywood, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, and Space Jam, we see the finished logo (with the Time Warner byline, strange for the last film), except the shield animates like the extended variant.
• A CGI demo reel from 1997 shows a shiny version of the shield on a dark marble background. The words flip into place from the sides and center, and then the lines slide in from the sides.
• Sometimes, in Warner Video News VHS releases, footage of movies appear in front of the WB shield, or promotional text in gold appear over the logo.
• A rare trailer tape variant exists, where a blue and white shield, which coincidentally makes it look similar to the future 2019 shield, spins around in a black background.
• One trailer variant featured the white text "Cinecom Pictures Video Presentation" chyroned-in below the shield; this showed up on a trailer for Miles from Home, which appeared on a VHS of Stealing Home.
• A trailer tape has the last few seconds of the animation with the text "NEXT YEAR WE MEAN BUSINESS" in red appear under the "WARNER HOME VIDEO" text.
• Some Polish releases distributed by ITI have a variant with a text "iti proponuje" flashing throughout the logo.
• Some Polish promos have the WB Shield in orange zoom towards us in a black background.
• Polish tapes have a print logo slowly moving above the screen.
• Argentinian tapes have a variant where in a grey and blue gradient background, we see the WB shield in blue zooming out and four searchlights and the text "PROXIMOS VIDEO ESTRENOS A.V.H" in yellow.
• On French promos, the bylineless logo is off-center, and as soon as the logo finishes animating, the shield turns shinier than normal. On very rare cases, at the end of the promo, the variant is reversed.
• Sometimes, before promos, on French releases, we see the logo do a trail-effect around the screen, while the words "PROCHAINES SORTIES LOCATIONS" move from right to left. Eventually, the logo returns back to normal, with the text.
• A Hebrew "Coming Soon" text variant exists.
• On the Greek VHS release of Little Giants, Greek text is seen while the logo is playing.

FX/SFX: The "time-lapse" cloud animation, the WB shield rotating into place.

Music/Sounds: A proud, bombastic synthesized rendition of the 1937 Warner Bros. fanfare, which really fits the logo. Also, there is a brief gust of wind when the camera zooms out from the logo as the logo turns towards us. Silent for the still version.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• On the 1990 LaserDisc of S.O.B., it is silent.
• Home video trailers have their own audio playing over it.
• On a 1994 French Canadian VHS of Creepshow, the movie's opening theme plays over the logo.

Availability: Common. Seen on every Warner Home Video release from the era, beginning with the 1985 clamshell release of Cheyenne Autumn.

• Notice that the 1996 print logo is seen on 1996-97 tapes, but still uses this logo, however it also still uses the commonly seen "DIGITALLY PROCESSED" text on the side of the packaging, so this logo is an easy find. However, certain tapes with this logo on the box and the current print logo on the label may still have the next logo.
• Another easy way to find this logo is to look for the WB shield on the front of the tape.
• 1985 variant: The Warner Communications byline variant is seen on Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Goonies, Spies Like Us, Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, The Color Purple, National Lampoon's European Vacation, Beetlejuice, The Lost Boys, Innerspace, Vision Quest, Under the Cherry Moon, Heartbreak Ridge, The Witches of Eastwick, Empire of the Sun, the first two Lethal Weapon movies, and Batman. Despite the Time Warner byline appearing on the packaging, this variant still appeared on the 1990 VHS releases of Driving Miss Daisy, Joe Versus the Volcano, Tango & Cash, Next of Kin, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Camelot, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, plus the 1991 VHS of The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
• 1990 variant: The Time Warner byline variant is a tough find, but it appeared on My Blue Heaven, Presumed Innocent, Memphis Belle, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Rookie, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, GoodFellas, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, Defending Your Life, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Out for Justice, Rover Dangerfield, Curly Sue, Batman Returns, Lethal Weapon 3, Stay Tuned, Under Siege, and Blade Runner: The Director's Cut (only the Japanese-subtitled VHS; the American release uses the Time Warner Entertainment byline). This variant is surprisingly retained on the 1997-98 reissues of Curly Sue, My Blue Heaven, and Taste the Blood of Dracula (all of which have the next logo on the packaging and labels). This can also be found on the German-dubbed release of Akira and later copies of the 1985 VHS of Gremlins and reissues of Risky Business, The Man With Two Brains and National Lampoon's Vacation (all of which come in the 1986 packaging).
• 1993 variant: The Time Warner Entertainment byline appeared during the waning days of the logo, and appeared on Demolition Man, The Fugitive, Dennis the Menace, It Takes Two, The Bodyguard, Batman Forever, both Ace Ventura movies, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Animaniacs Sing-Along: Yakko's World, among others. Among the last tapes to use this logo were Eraser (pan-and-scan VHS only; the letterboxed edition uses the next logo), Twister (pan-and-scan and letterboxed versions), Joe's Apartment, Tin Cup, Carpool, and the demo VHS of Bogus. This also replaces the Warner Communications variant on later copies of the 1991 VHS reissues of Beetlejuice, Caddyshack and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. This was also retained on a 1998 Warner Bros HITS reissue of Disclosure. This variant makes a surprise appearance at the beginning of the Blu-ray and TubiTV prints of "The Reindeer Hunter," the pilot episode of the Ace Ventura animated series.
• Extended variant: This is a very rare variant, and it can be seen on a demo VHS of The Best of John Belushi and German Warner Video News VHS releases from 1987.
• Disappearing shield variant: this can be found in multiple promotional VHS tapes, such as a June 1989 dealer preview tape, a promotional feature on Batman Forever for its upcoming VHS release in October 1995, a promo for Clint Eastwood movies on the original VHS release of The Dead Pool, and on a promotional trailer for Black Beauty (1994) on its demo tape.
• Warner Home Video handled worldwide distribution of MGM product from 1991-2000; however, this logo does not appear on most MGM/UA videos from the time period. One exception are international VHS prints of Thelma and Louise, which used the bylineless version. Warner movies, however, did get previewed on MGM/UA tapes (and vice versa) on a surprisingly frequent basis, and there are plenty of previews that included this logo.
• This makes a very strange appearance on the Hong Kong Tai Seng/Megastar DVD of The Protector, after the 1st Media Asia logo and before the 1984 Warner Bros. logo of the time (this is likely because it uses the American version of the film, which appears to be taken from a Laserdisc source, being it has this logo on it).
• From 1996-1997, this logo was used concurrently with the next. In the United States, WHV stopped using this logo in 1997 with the sell-through release of Eraser in 1997, while some countries (mainly in Asia) continued until 1999. It made a strange appearance on a 2004 Telemundo broadcast of Razorback, as well as the 2009 VCD of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, likely due in both cases to using old video masters. It also appeared on a TNT Film (Germany) broadcast of Hearts of Fire and a Czech television broadcast of Dennis the Menace as well.
• Strangely, VHS releases in Argentina continued to use the 1992 byline version until 2007.
• The bylineless version oddly shows up on an early 1990s American VHS of Journey Back to Oz from UAV Corporation (perhaps it was taken from a foreign master), which strangely enough, didn't even feature UAV's logo!
• The French promotional variants can be found on various French VHS releases. The reversed version has been spotted in the French VHS of Looney Tunes, fin années 80 (Collection "Les Grands Dessins Animés Warner Bros.").
• The logo made surprise appearances in its bylineless form on a 1995 Israel Channel 4 airing of Batman and a 2000 New Zealand VHS of Excalibur.

Editor's Note: This is a home video logo both fondly remembered and noted by many for its bombastic music, animation, and cheesiness, hence the nicknames.

3rd Logo (1995, December 20, 1996-November 6, 2018, February 12, 2019)

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

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 2002-2004, 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, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, and a few PBS Kids releases like Teletubbies: Silly Songs and Funny Dances, Teletubbies: Look, and Teletubbies: What's That only use this variant on their VHS releases, while all of their DVD counterparts have the standard logo. This variant also made a surprise appearance on the 2005 Canadian DVD of The Wedding Date, co-released with Equinoxe Films.

Variants:

• A full-screen version exists on VHS releases from late 1996 through 2006, and full-screen DVD releases from 1997 through mid 2010. The clouds toss about, just like on 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 (except for Tango & Cash, which uses the 4:3 variant on both its full-screen and widescreen sides). 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, though What's Up, Doc? only used the 75th Anniversary variation).
• 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 also seen on the trailers on the VHS releases of Lone Star, The Spitfire Grill, and Extreme Measures.
• 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 presents: 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. It was also spotted only on one 2002 DVD release, the Family Edited Version of A Walk to Remember.
• 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 2010-17 fullscreen DVDs, the Warner Home Video shield is zoomed out 10%. 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.
• On a home video trailer for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the logo is tinted in aquamarine.
• On the 2001 demo VHS of In the Arms of Strangers, as well as a home video trailer for Million Dollar Baby, the logo is in black and white.
• On a home video trailer for Mama's Boy, the logo is set against a black background.
• On a home video trailer for Batman Begins, the logo is tinted in brown.

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 Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, Ben 10: Alien Swarm, Scooby-Doo (2002), and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone use this variant. It also appeared on television releases like DVDs of The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Ben 10, Chowder, The Secret Saturdays, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Ben 10: Alien Force, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Total Drama Island, Generator Rex, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, among others. 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, Bloodsport, 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: Director's Cut, 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. It also was found on all four Atomic Betty volume DVDs, released in 2005 as well.
• 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 fullscreen DVDs. 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 and Looney Tunes, the Blu-ray of Ben 10: Alien Swarm (the DVD uses the acoustic strings), 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 (VHS only), A Walk to Remember (VHS and "Family Edited Version" DVD only), Scooby-Doo (VHS only), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, A Mighty Wind, Space Jam: Two-Disc Special Edition, Kangaroo Jack, The Best of Dr. Seuss, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, South Park: The Original Unaired Pilot (a bonus disc included with Best Buy copies of the original release of South Park: The Complete Second Season), 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 VHS releases like Teletubbies: Silly Songs and Funny Dances, Caillou: At His Best, Caillou: Big Brother Caillou, and all Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat VHS releases, which are immediately followed by the "kidsvideo" variant of the PBS Kids logo. The PBS Kids DVD releases (including the Sagwa, Teletubbies, and Caillou DVDs from 2003) still use the regular variant without the byline however, but the open matte version with AOL Time Warner byline and low tone music has been spotted on the 2003 screener DVD release of Grow with Us. More info on the open matte version can be seen on the availability section.
• On screener tapes of The Iron Giant, 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: The Reconstruction.
• 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.
• In an odd occurrence, both music endings appear on the 1997 DVD of Demolition Man, with the synth strings variant being used on the full-screen side and the acoustic strings variant being used on the widescreen side.

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 retail 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, and the last tape overall to use it is Must Love Dogs, released on December 20, 2005.
• Surprisingly, this logo was seen at the end of some episodes of Whose Line is It Anyway? on ABC Family (now Freeform), a 1990 episode of Night Court on TV Land, some A&E airings of The Outsiders on A&E, a Czech Nova TV airing of What a Girl Wants, an episode of Veronica Mars on Hulu, and a 2006 Cartoon Network CEE airing of Tom & Jerry: Blast Off to Mars. 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. It also makes a surprise appearance on HBO Home Video's 2001 demo VHS of Wit, alongside their warning and modified screen.
• The version with the AOL Time Warner byline can be found on most tapes and DVDs from 2002-04, including Ghost Ship, Femme Fatale (the first two DVDs to use it on a regular basis), The Great Dictator, Dennis the Menace: Special Edition, Wait Until Dark, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Soylent Green, The Haunting, and To Have and Have Not. 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. Surprisingly, this variant was also spotted on a circa 2003 pressing of The Great Santini in place of the standard version, despite nothing on the packaging indicating it being a reprint.
• As for the wide angle full-screen version of the byline variant on DVD, it has been spotted on 3 DVDs, including the 2004 DVD prints of Leapfrog: Math Circus, and Leapfrog: Talking Words Factory 2, The Code Word Caper, and even the 2003 screener DVD of Grow With Us'.
• 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).
• The AOL Time Warner variant was also spotted in the 2006 PlayArts DVD of Caillou's Holiday Movie, but in a lower quality due to being sourced from a poor video master. It earlier appeared, in open matte, with the same quality on the VCD release of Two Weeks Notice.
• Don't expect to find this on releases from Viz Media or 2013-17 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). It also doesn't appear on Warner Archive Collection DVDs, such as One Sunday Afternoon, Mitchell, The Pack, and Gaslight, which cut right to the main menu.
• 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 the trailers on the 1997 VHS releases of The Spitfire Grill, Lone Star, and 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 DVD releases of the era such as 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 their releases of material from Big Idea Productions, the only time it appeared was on VeggieTales: 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 was also seen on Warner's earliest 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays, from 2016.
• Strangely, this logo appears at the end of the season 4 The Parent 'Hood episode "Money Shot" on Max, despite none of its four seasons ever having been released on DVD.

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

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

(March 14, 2017-)

Nicknames: "CGI Invisible/Visible Shield II", "CGI WB Shield III", "WB Shield III", "Shield of Steel 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: A "remastered" version of the AOL Time Warner variant of the previous logo's music.

Music/Sounds Variant: On the 2019 Blu-ray of Aquaman, the music is off-sync, starting a couple seconds before the actual logo fades in.

Availability: Current. Seen on most DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD releases starting in March 2017.

• The print logo first appeared on late 2016 to early 2017 releases such as Storks, Sully and Suicide Squad, all which have the previous logo on the discs themselves.
• The logo itself 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, Sesame Workshop, or MGM/Orion Pictures releases.
• It also appears at the beginning of the direct-to-video movies A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish and Cats & Dogs: Paws Unite!.
• Despite Warner Bros. Pictures debuting a brand new logo in 2020 (as well as a print logo on newly-released material), this oddly continues to be used as the primary home media logo, even on releases that contain the studio's "WB 100" print packaging in 2023.

Editor's Note: Although not a terrible logo, it was initially thought to be a fan-made project (disappointing a lot of logo fans when it was eventually proven real). It's also very outdated, as Warner Bros. introduced a new logo on its films and print packaging since 2020, and still continue to use this.