Note to Mods: I understand I’m coming dangerously close to a taboo topic here. I’m not looking for suggestions on how to scam, though, I’m legitimately worried. But if you feel that this topic is just too over the line, or becomes that way, please close it. Thank you.
I see a lot of DVDs for good prices on Ebay, but I’m getting worried about all this piracy I hear about. I personally am an “Intellectual Property Nazi”, so obviously I don’t want to be supporting this. I’m also worried a pirated DVD could somehow do something bad to my machine. So how can I tell the difference between a good copy and a pirate before I make a purchase?
That doesn’t work on eBay though, does it? The price isn’t determined by the seller, but by the bidders based on what they think the seller is selling.
A pirated/bootlegged DVD, if improperly manufactured, can freeze or lock up your player but won’t cause any kind of damage. You’ll just have to unplug the player, plug it back in, power up and press eject before it has the chance to read again. Then take the disc and throw it in the trash. Your player will be fine.
As far as Ebay goes, it’s sometimes difficult to ascertain wether you’re getting legit DVD’s or not. Check the seller’s feedback. I wouldn’t bother asking him, because if he’s selling a bootleg he’s not going to tell you up front. He’ll play dumb, and if you have a problem with the DVD, he’ll either say he had no idea it was a bootleg (“The wholesaler I buy from must have ripped me off!”) or just ignore your complaints.
A good tip though: quite a few sellers located in Southeast Asian counties like Thailand, Laos, and Singapore sell absolutely nothing but bootlegs.
Also, do a little research on the DVD specs. A lot of Asian DVD pirates will take 5.1 audio tracks and screw with them so that players will read them as a DTS track. They’ll then proudly sell the disc as “DTS! Not available in America!” So look up the specs on Amazon.com or some other place that lists them…if there’s no DTS track listed on a legit website’s details, then 9 times out of 10 the person who claims to be selling a DTS version is selling a bootleg.
One thing though: if you wind up receiving a bootleg, don’t waste any time informing Ebay about it. They might not do anything based on one complaint, but it never hurts to put your 2 cents in.
There are Bios update dvds that can do stuff to your dvd player bios, but I don’t think anyone would sell one of those masked as a dvd flick. Even then if you look at the bottom surface of your dvd, a bios dvd would only write about 1-5 megs on it & you’d know it wasn’t a film.