Warner Home Video

Background
In 1980, amid the growth of the home video industry, WCI Home Video was renamed Warner Home Video 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. Internationally, it distributed the titles from Weintraub Entertainment Group and Cannon Films. During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, it distributed titles from Cannon Video and MGM/UA Home Video. 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. The line was dissolved in 2017, with WBHE being used as the standard.

1st Logo (July 1981-January 1986)
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Logo: Same as the WCI Home Video logo, but redone with "WARNER" replacing "WCI" (in a smaller font to accompany the lengthier text).

Variants:
 * Most, if not all, US releases have the logo cutting in from the FBI warning screen. However, at least a few UK VHS releases have the logo fading in from black, like the WCI Home Video logo.
 * 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.
 * A still variant exists.
 * An abbreviated version that starts when the text fades in exists.
 * On Australian Warner Home Video releases of United Artists films, the \\' is 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.
 * 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 that 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 zooms 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 on a white background, the \\' emblem and the text quickly zoom to us, apart from each other.
 * On a V2000 (Video 2000) trailer tape, a variant appears, when after the logo finishes forming, it transitions to a colored V2000 logo.

Technique: Cel animation.

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 by an announcer saying "Warner Home Video präsentiert!"

Availability: Used on VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, and CED releases at the time.
 * The logo itself first appeared on ''Die Laughing'.
 * 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.
 * The abbreviated version can be found on the 1984 LaserDisc release of Camelot.
 * Some tapes have the next print logo on the cover but have this logo on the tape, such as Gremlins, 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.

Legacy: Considered to be a favorite to many VHS collectors, especially to those who collect \\' clamshell tapes.

2nd Logo (December 1985-March 1999 (2007 in Argentina))
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Logo: On 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 (in the style of the 1953 movie print 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: Technique:
 * 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 Batman Returns used the normal bylineless logo).
 * 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.
 * A black-and-white version can be found on B&W releases, such as VHS tapes of the TV series Maverick.
 * On Mexican Spanish-dubbed tapes of 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 reversed promo 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.
 * 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".
 * 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.
 * One trailer variant featured the white text "Cinecom Pictures Video Presentation" chyroned-in below the shield.
 * Sometimes, on trailers, the finished logo and the cloud footage start where they 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.
 * Sometimes, in Warner Video News VHS releases, footage of movies appear in front of the WB shield, or promotional text in gold appears over the logo.
 * A Warner Video News VHS release has the logo flying in a city, whilst turning and swerving.
 * 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. Another version of this has it spinning in a static background.
 * A trailer tape has the last few seconds of the animation with the text "NEXT YEAR WE MEAN BUSINESS" in red appearing under the "WARNER HOME VIDEO" text.
 * Some Polish releases distributed by ITI have a variant with the text "iti proponuje" flashing throughout the logo.
 * Some Polish promos have the WB Shield in orange zoom towards us on 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. In 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.
 * On a Swedish trailer tape, the logo plays out normally, but at the end, the name of a month appears in Swedish, after which the month text fades out and the logo dissappears with a fold out-like transition.
 * A cropped variant of the logo appears on Amazon Prime Video prints of the pilot for the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective animated series.
 * Originally, a mix of live-action and CGI.
 * 2D animation for the UK "COMING SOON" and the Australian "At Home With The Hits" variants.
 * CGI for the spinning shield variants, the disappearing shield variant, the Warner Video News city variant, as well as the Polish orange shield variant.
 * Analog computer effects for most of the text variants,.
 * Scanimation for the French "PROCHAINES SORTIES LOCATIONS" variant.

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

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On the 1990 LaserDisc of S.O.B., the logo is silent.
 * On German Warner Video News releases, there is different background music, accompanied by an announcer saying "Warner Home Video präsentiert.", and sometimes "Warner Video News."
 * The French promo variant has a French announcer saying "Warner Home Video vous présente, ses collections prestigiuses plus de 200 films, pour tous." (roughly translated to "Warner Home Video presents, its prestigious collections more than 200 films, for everyone.")
 * The "PROCHAINES SORTIES LOCATIONS" variant has a French announcer, that says "Warner Home Video vous presenté, une seléction de ses prochaines sorties location." (roughly translated to "Warner Home Video presents a selection of its upcoming rental releases."), while the logo is silent.

Availability:
 * Seen on every Warner Home Video release from the era, beginning with the 1985 clamshell release of Cheyenne Autumn.
 * Notice that the current print logo is seen on 1996-1997 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.
 * Extended variant: This is a very rare variant, and it can be seen on a demo VHS release of The Best of John Belushi and German Warner Video News VHS releases from 1987.
 * 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 with the exception of the international VHS 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 logo also 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).
 * The logo also later appeared on the Blu-ray release of the first episode of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (the animated series).
 * In the United States and the UK, respectively, WHV stopped using this logo in 1997 with the sell-through release of the aforementioned Eraser in 1997, while some countries (mainly in Asia) continued until 1999.
 * The French promotional variants can be found on various French VHS releases.
 * The disappearing shield variant 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 the demo tape of said film.
 * An example of the UK rental "COMING SOON" variant can be seen on rental tapes of Lost in America and Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment.
 * The Cinecom Video Presentation variant showed up on a trailer for Miles from Home, which appeared on a VHS release of Stealing Home.
 * The "logo floating in a city" variant can be found on Warner Video News releases from July to September 1988.

Legacy: It's fondly remembered and noted by many for its music and animation. It has been nicknamed "The Cheesy Shield" due to its CGI.

3rd Logo (December 20, 1996-February 12, 2019)
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Logo: Against a backdrop of clouds, a clear WB shield with a wordless banner slowly fades into view. Then the words "Times New Roman" are wiped onto the banner as the colors slowly appear on the shield.

Bylines:
 * The 1992 WB-styled version (described below) used the Time Warner Entertainment byline.
 * There's another byline from 2002-2004, where the byline "Times New Roman" was seen below the logo. The shield is a lot smaller in this version. Some films' DVD releases, such as Scooby-Doo, A Walk to Remember, Ocean's Eleven, Feardotcom, and The Powerpuff Girls Movie use the regular variant, even though their VHS releases use this variant. A prototype version had the shield exactly the same size as the original bylineless version.

Variants:
 * In 1998, like other Warner labels, a 75th Anniversary version was made. This used a smaller shield with the banner reading "Times New Roman", and featured a giant "Times New Roman" behind it. "Times New Roman" is seen below with "Times New Roman" a bit bigger and in spaced-out letters. This logo is seen during the year at the beginning of home video releases before the trailers, such as Lethal Weapon 4, The Outsiders, Trojan War, and some trailers. At the end of the trailers on VHS releases, the normal variant can be seen.
 * A rare version had a still logo in the style of the 1992 version of the 1984 theatrical logo with the Warner Home Video banner replacing the Warner Bros. Pictures banner and the Time Warner Entertainment byline below that which also exists.
 * A silent version with a previously-formed shield appears at the start of the featurette Bruce Lee: In His Own Words on the 1998 VHS release of Enter the Dragon.
 * On a French 1999 VHS release of The Iron Giant, a darker/high contrast version of the logo is seen.
 * Some early tapes with the AOL Time Warner byline have the byline sloppily chyroned in over the standard variant; 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 4:3 version of the AOL Time Warner byline variant that is rendered with wide angle lens. It is also videotaped without the byline in place. This has also appeared without the byline on several Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo DVD releases.
 * On all Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and the 2010-2018 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 the full-screen open matte version of the logo (the one used on the AOL Time Warner years but without the byline) has not appeared on any of the 2010-2018 DVD releases. Some Blu-ray releases from 2006-2009 have the aspect ratio in 2:35.1.
 * French VHS tapes from the early 2000s have a weird variant, where it starts on a messy view of the logo. Eventually, the camera pans to the center of the messy part and zooms out, revealing a still version with the text "PROCHAINES SORTIES LOCATIONS" (roughly translating to "UPCOMING RENTAL RELEASES") in grey. Another variant, also seen on tapes, has a CGI clapperboard superimposed over the logo, stating "APRÈS CE FILM, DECOUVREZ D'AUTRES BANDES ANNONCES LOCATION WARNER HOME VIDEO" (roughly translating to "After the film, check out other Warner Home Video rental trailers") in a white Clarendon font, with a Warner Home Video logo under the text.
 * On some promos and TV spots, the logo is superimposed.
 * An extremely rare variant appeared on a TV spot for the DVD release of Nancy Drew in which the Warner Home Video banner from the print logo is chryoned onto the then-current logo's shield, and portions of the "W" and "B" can be seen above it. The TimeWarner byline can be seen below.

Technique: Live action for the background, and 2D CGI for the shield.

Music/Sounds: A quiet piano tune with two ending types:
 * A calm string theme, used since 1996. This is used for all VHS, LaserDisc and UMD Video releases and Stereo and Mono DVD releases. A few 5.1 DVD releases from 1999-2005 also use this tune. You can also hear it on many DVD and Blu-ray releases if you select a different language on your player and the specific language track is only presented in stereo or mono such as Beetlejuice.
 * A synthesized version of the tune, introduced in 1997. All 5.1 DVDs and Blu-ray releases use this variant. The piano section pans from the left channel to the right. On NTSC releases, it is dual, though this does not occur on 4:3 DVDs (DVDs that have the "This film has been modified..." notice after the logo). However, it is unknown if this can also be heard on many LaserDisc releases if the AC-3 (analog right) track is selected.

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

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Sometimes on the NTSC AOL Time Warner version, the regular string theme is in a lower pitch.
 * On the screener VHS release of The Replacements and Mickey Blue Eyes, several DVD releases of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo which feature it in open matte.
 * On a 2006 TV Land airing of Night Court, the beginning of the logo uses the closing theme to the show (plastering the 1984 WBTV logo, while omitting the Starry Night Productions logo), while the rest is silent.
 * A silent variation can be seen on the DVD copy of The Big Red One.
 * Strangely, on the Bugs Bunny's Wildlife Series including the 1998 VHS release of Bugs Bunny's Silly Seals, the widescreen variant is used despite being squeezed in 4:3.
 * On the 2003 Special Edition DVD release of Dennis the Menace and Caillou's Holiday Movie, the NTSC AOL Time Warner byline version has the regular tone acoustic strings.
 * On the 2003 European PAL DVD release of Friday After Next (2002), the AOL Time Warner byline version is used as always, but the synthesized strings are used instead.
 * The messy French variant has the same announcer from the 2nd logo's "PROCHAINES SORTIES LOCATIONS" variant, with an added whoosh-like sound. The clapperboard variant also has the announcer saying what's on the clapperboard.
 * A PAL-pitched version of the acoustic strings variant also exists, which was spotted on the Hong Kong VHS release of Space Jam.
 * A mono version of the acoustic strings variant also exists and can be seen on DVD releases that only include a mono soundtrack such as Casablanca, Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988) and King Kong (1933), among others.

Availability: Very common.
 * The print version of this logo was introduced on April 23, 1996; however, the logo appeared earlier on an extremely rare promotional video in 1995.
 * This was used concurrently with the previous logo on 1996-1997 WHV tapes. Tapes that are marked as "DIGITALLY PROCESSED" carry the previous logo.
 * This logo is used, ala the 1998 MGM DVD logo, on certain Warner Archive DVD releases that are simply repackaged versions of previous WHV releases that became out of print.
 * This logo was still used in conjunction with the next logo until Late 2018.
 * The first products to have this logo were in Japan, with Warner's first four Japanese DVD releases in the country on December 20, 1996. In the U.S., the 1996 rental VHS release of A Time to Kill was the first to include the logo, released ten days later on December 30, 1996, as well the VHS of Bogus, released on February 4, 1997, and the first DVDs from Warner Bros. (two of which were A Time to Kill and Twister), released on March 24, 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, with Must Love Dogs being the last retail VHS tape to use this logo released on December 20, 2005 and Harry Potter and the Goblet Fire being the last DVS VHS tape to use this logo released on March 7, 2006.
 * The version with the regular string theme is very common. It can be found on VHS releases and DVD releases in stereo or mono.
 * The version with the AOL Time Warner byline can be found on most tapes and DVDs from 2002-2004.
 * As for the wide angle full-screen version of the byline variant on DVD, it has been spotted on the two Leapfrog DVD releases of Math Circus and Talking Words Factory 2: Code Word Caper, and The NBA's 100 Greatest Plays released by Warner.
 * The still logo with the Time Warner Entertainment byline is extremely rare and was only seen on a few trailers from 1996-1997.
 * PBS Home Video DVD and VHS releases from 1997 to 2004 had this logo.
 * After Warner aquired the pre-1986 MGM catalog from Turner in 1999, they reissued all 1997-1998 MGM DVDs of titles from the pre-1986 MGM library with this replacing both the 1993 MGM/UA Home Video and 1998 MGM DVD logos.
 * This was also seen on 2016 and early 2017 UHD 4K Blu-rays that Warner released.
 * The messy French variant can be seen in French VHS releases from the time.
 * This logo was surprisingly spotted on a TV spot for the VHS release of Batman Forever.
 * The last (known) release to use this logo is the Tom and Jerry: Cute & Cuddly DVD which was released in 2018, however it makes a surprise appearance on Ben 10: Out to Launch, released on February 12, 2019.
 * It does not appear on releases from BBC Video/2 Entertain releases beginning from 2007 to 2017, MGM/UA Home Video in the 1990s, Sesame Workshop, Viz Media, Lightyear Video, Warner Archive DVD releases, the Paramount DVD releases that were reprinted by Warner Home Video (which contained the print logo on the back cover and sometimes, especially in the case of Paramount, the spine) and on most Walt Disney Home Video/Buena Vista Home Video DVD releases they distributed in Australia and Europe from 1999 to 2001 even though the logo can be seen on the back cover, but they would use their own logos, respectively (earlier Disney/Buena Vista DVD releases only credit Warner Home Video in text).

Legacy: This is another fondly remembered logo for its animation and music.