problem?
I returned to Europe from Canada and since the Buffy seasons were so cheap in Canada I just couldn’t resist buying them. In Europe I bought a season for 110 Euro (ca. 180 Can$) and over there they were at 40 Can$. Now that I am back in Europe the price dropped to 60 Euro per season, but the price I paid in Canada is still way better than that.
The only problem I have is that the quality of the DVDs seems to be worse than the DVDs I bought in Europe. Every few seconds the picture gets blurry for a splitsecond, which is pretty irritating. Wah!
I do hope it’s not a general problem, but that it’s merely in the first few seasons, but I’m not holding my breath…
Are you sure this isn’t a DVD region issue? Or a NTSC vs. PAL issue?
It’s definitely not a region code issue. It might be a pal thing, but then again, the dvds were blurry on my laptop as well (plus, I recall that the macross+ dvds I bought a couple of years back were playing a-ok).
I just picked up DVDs of THE WEST WING’s first two seasons at a flea market (in the U.S.) and was disappointed to find that some episodes (not most) seem to put themselves into “freezeframe” mode all by themselves.
I’m wondering if I got bootlegged DVDs (they appear not to be–very professional shrinkrap, etc.) or if my DVD player is messed up, or if the DVD is scratched in those episodes or what. It’s pretty consistent–the same episodes freeze in the same places.
Now another episode (2 out of the 20 I’ve seen so far) have this incessant pausing. Is the DVD dirty? Wold that affect it in this way? How would I clean it? Or is it something else?
One quick test that would tell you if they are bootlegged (but not rule it out) is to check if the printing on the DVD’s is ink jet printed. Simply wet your finger and wipe it across the printing. If it smudges, it’s not screen printed and most likely bootleg.
[slight hijack]
My boss recently got some “really cheap” Norton SystemWorks CDs off eBay. :smack:
He asked me for help installing one of them. Huh? That should be well within his capabilities. He then explained that they wouldn’t register with Symantec. I immediately figured bootleg. He then said that the CD’s “looked right.” They did look good, but I did the wet finger test on the printing and got a big smudge. I then showed him a real Symantec CD, which was screen printed and does not smudge. We reformated the drive in case the bootleggers included any type of trojan or key logger.
[/slight hijack]
Well, in my case I rule out bootlegs, as I doubt HMV in Ottawa is selling bootlegged stuff.
I’ve had some problems buying previously viewed DVDs (the whole freezing thing), to the point that I would not recommend doing that.
Possibly. You clean DVDs the same way as you would a CD.
Anyone can imitate a professional shrinkwrap job with a shrinkwrap machine and a hairdryer.
Oh shoot! That reminds me, I need to cut the grass with my blowtorch…