I bought a couple of DVDs on eBay and had them shipped to my friend as a present. She has two DVD players and a computer with a DVD drive. She says they will all start to play the DVDs but will all stop at different places. It just seems like the drives cannot read the DVDs well. There are no region issues. The seller says the DVDs are legit and my friend says they came packed in what appear to be original cases.
At this point it seems there is going to be no pleasant way out of this because the seller says they have never had any problems. I do not know what solution to ask for but once I start paying for shipping the whole thing will not be worth it and I may be better off just resigning myself to having lost the original money.
It would help if I could know if the DVDs are original (pressed) or if they are recorded (burnt in a drive). How can I find out?
What DVDs are we talking about? If it’s something you can buy at any Blockbuster or Best Buy, I doubt that they’d be bootlegs. If they’re something obscure or hard-to-find, it’s entirely possible that they are. As netscape 6 asked, what color are they?
Generally speaking you should look firstly at where the seller is registered. If it’s in Hong Kong or Singapore, be suspicious. Another primary way of telling non-genuine ebay tat is that it has just chinese and English subtitles. If you’re buying subtitled anime (which is where most of the HK bootlegging comes in since it’s often stuff that hasn’t had a commercial release elsewhere in the world) then it’s fairly unlikely that a Japanese company is going to release a Japanese language DVD (Region 2) with Cantonese subtitles (which is Region 4).
Secondly, look at the price (if it’s claimed that it’s new). If they’re selling it for tuppence, then be suspicious. Go and see if the DVD has even been released as well. Most anime stuff like the Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochii Guu OAV is being flogged for about USD 3 on ebay, but the DVDs aren’t even out yet! So obviously that’s not genuine, despite what the seller claims.
Thirdly, if the DVD has been released, look at the box-art. There were some Japanese Gravitation DVDs on ebay that looked the business, until I checked the cover art against the retail release - nothing like each other.
That’s how I deal with it anyway. If you aren’t certain about it, then just don’t bid because as you’ve found out, pressed DVDs are not that reliable. And also don’t risk it for all the moral outrage! These people are taking the work of Japanese artists and making money of it. I don’t really agree with how the US licensing companies make their money either but at least the rights-buying gives incentives to the Japanese studios to employ these people again, to produce more stuff.
Generally speaking you should look firstly at where the seller is registered. If it’s in Hong Kong or Singapore, be suspicious. Another primary way of telling non-genuine ebay tat is that it has just chinese and English subtitles. If you’re buying subtitled anime (which is where most of the HK bootlegging comes in since it’s often stuff that hasn’t had a commercial release elsewhere in the world) then it’s fairly unlikely that a Japanese company is going to release a Japanese language DVD (Region 2) with Cantonese subtitles (which is Region 4).
Secondly, look at the price (if it’s claimed that it’s new). If they’re selling it for tuppence, then be suspicious. Go and see if the DVD has even been released as well. Most anime stuff like the Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochii Guu OAV is being flogged for about USD 3 on ebay, but the DVDs aren’t even out yet! So obviously that’s not genuine, despite what the seller claims.
Thirdly, if the DVD has been released, look at the box-art. There were some Japanese Gravitation DVDs on ebay that looked the business, until I checked the cover art against the retail release - nothing like each other.
That’s how I deal with it anyway. If you aren’t certain about it, then just don’t bid because as you’ve found out, copied DVDs are not that reliable. And also don’t risk it for all the moral outrage! These people are taking the work of Japanese artists and making money of it. I don’t really agree with how the US licensing companies make their money either but at least the rights-buying gives incentives to the Japanese studios to employ these people again, to produce more stuff.
“She has two DVD players and a computer with a DVD drive.”
One possible way to find out if they are originals is put them on your computer & try to copy the contents of it to your HD. If they won’t copy to HD, then they are probably originals as thats the digital CSS copy protection. Notice from what I wrote you can’t copy an original so Im not saying people should be out copying them.
well you can copy them with right software, i backed up my dvds that way. i have lost a few disks (fell on the floor and horribly scratched), but i still have my movies. however becouse of the free speech violating, against the Constitution dmca posting it here would illegal. i still have the scratched disks though. proof i bought 'em.
I will ask my friend. Can you explain what colors I should be looking for? What is good and what is bad?
Registered in Canada but shipping from Shanghai, China. My guess is the seller is actually in China but has a friend who opened the account in Canada.
I am not sure I understand this. Could you expand on that? They are two Chinese movies by Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Hero and Happy Time) Here is what the eBay page lists for one of them:
About $22 for both including shipping
I have no idea where to look.
Well my friend says it looks like a “real” DVD but that’s not saying much and I do not want to put pressure on her to become a DVD detective.
You mean “recorded”? In any case, it’s too late now as I already bought them. At this point what I would like is a way to be certain so I could go back to the seller and tell them I want my money back. I have a serious suspicion but I need to be certain before I do anything. (And even once I am certain, what can I do?)
BTW, I just took a legit DVD and copied a file to the hard disk so I guess not all are protected and that is not a certain test.
Take a look at the center of the disk, right near the open hole. Right around there you should see some writing, for instance, Disney disks are stamped by Technicolor, so you would see that around the inside. Check the name there online against blank DVD-R manufacturers or against the website for the original product.
Check the disk itself to see if the art on it is painted on or is a sticker. A sticker will be heaver and thicker than a normal disk.
I have the Hero DVD which I bought in Hong Kong. Excellent movie by the way. If the DVD you ordered says it is region 0, it is likely a fake. Mine is region 3.
Hero will be released to theatres later this year to the North American market so I doubt that they would release the movie on DVD to the american market so soon.
Even though the seller insists they are legit I am quite suspicious but I need some incontrovertible evidence which I could submit to eBay. How could I find the copyright holder and ask?
A side point: Kiseki and many other companies release Region 0 DVDs which are legit. It’s only an indiciator it may be (since copiers prefer Region 0 to any other as they can be played world wide… greater target audience) and won’t do as proof.
GZ Beauty I’ve never heard of. If the anti-piracy people won’t help you (since it’s not a US film) your best bet for giving Ebay incontovertible proof is to look for the very small text around the center hole as suggested. If that is a DVD-R and not a DVD then you have proof that it’s a copy not a pressed DVD. You still don’t have proof that GZ Beauty don’t have the rights though, so you’d have to then email the production company that made the film and ask if GZ Beauty does indeed have the rights to sell DVDs of that movie. They will say no, if this person is to be breaking the law.
That’s what it’d take I think for you to establish that the seller is breaking the law. I doubt you’ll be able to get your money back but you should be able to get their account suspended. (Chances are though that he’ll just get another friend to register again for him.)
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My point about subtitles: It depends on the movie. If you’ve bought a chinese movie, then this point should not be applied, since it’s far more reasonable to expect a chinese movie to have chinese and English subtitles.
The point is this. Search for ‘anime DVD’. Find an entry selling something like ‘eps 1-24’. (that is, a whole series of some anime cartoon.) Some will be Americans selling whole sets bought in the high street. But you’ll then notice that some of the entries are shipping from HK and say ‘Cantonese and English subtitles’ on ‘genuine’ DVDs. The problem is as follows: No Japanese firm is going to put Cantonese subtitles on a DVD, since there’s no need to go to the expense of hiring a translator to do that for DVDs which can only be sold in Japan. (Japanese DVDs will play in Europe and Japan, as per Region 2 coding. But they won’t play in China, which is Region 4. Therefore, it’s hard to see who’s going to be in Japan reading a Japanese DVD in Chinese. Certainly there won’t be many people. They’d be better off doing Japanese subtitles for deaf people before doing chinese. It’s obviously being produced by someone for a specifically non-Japanese market. And the only people who do that, legally, are the US or European firms who have bought the rights. And I seriously doubt HK ebay sellers buy the rights or could afford them.)
But with a Chinese movie, then you have a different kettle of fish, since Chinese and English are the most commonly spoken languages, and the film is in Chinese. It’s perfectly logical to expect both languages to appear as subtitles. But if you ever buy an American film or Japanese animation, then the point is valid. Beware English/Cantonese. But disregard it for this occasion.
I have looked at several discs and that have a bunch of alphanumeric characters but how can I know if it is a DVD or a DVDR? How can I interpret them? That certainly would be a major argument as it shows inferior quality even if they have the rights.
Well, I think that’s more trouble than I am willing to go through but, in any case, I paid for the movies and they don’t work so I will demand to get my money back and see what happens. The problem is they will ask me to return them and pay for shipping and that’s throwing good money after bad.
Forgot to mention, my DVD of Hero has 2 DVD’s. One is the movie and one is a special features disc. You can ask your friend if hers comes with 2.
I have also bought legitimate DVD’s with region 0 encoding (hopefully legit - they came from HMV in Hong Kong), but these were older movies (Requiem for a Dream and Memento). I would be suspicious a movie like Hero would be region 0 so quickly.
peterW, I have seen the 2 DVD Hero but there are also one DVD versions.
I do not know what to think
The small characters near the center of the discs are:
Happy Time: ISRC-CN-G08-01-0045-0/V.J9
Hero: ISRC CN-F28-02-0196-0/V.J9 (DVD5)
Those codes are mentioned in the eBay page too. How can I interpret them to know if these are pressed or recorded? Not knowing anything I am inclined to think they are an indication of being pressed.
