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Shout! Factory's article on how to detect a bootleg release... (1 Viewer)

BobO'Link

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The good part about that process is *Amazon* is the one who ultimately "makes good" on such orders. If there's a issue of *any type* Amazon will issue the refund and process the return. No hassle from a 3rd party about return shipping costs or product issues due to incorrect/improper listings. I take that route any time there's a "Fulfilled by Amazon" item at a price I like.
 

TV_Fan

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No. Third party sellers can ship their stock to Amazon and have Amazon fill their orders from their inventory originally sent to Amazon. It costs the seller to have their inventory stored at an Amazon fulfillment center, but several do just that. Plus it saves them the hassle of packaging and shipping the product themselves.

Ah interesting I never knew that. I rarely buy from third party sellers anyway. Thanks.
 

Pathfiner

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you can always tell the difference anyway

if it's a illegal to be frowned upon 'bootleg' - it's a show you really wanted out on DVD and the picture quality is o.k. at least 'watchable', and you can often find ALL the episodes

where as with an 'official' release - it is either of a show you're not that bothered about of if not then there's a problem with the entire batch re 'fuzzy' substandard picture quality, episodes are edited down, or it is missing any songs or it has quite awful 'replaced' totally inappropriate music...and the show's release stalls, often at season one, or with one final season left outstanding...for years !

of course decent complete 'official' releases are what we all want - which would then put the bootleggers OUT of business !
 
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Radioman970

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Oh no.. i bought Maude cheap off ebay! God got me for that! :( will check the discs later and see. definitely will trash that and rebuy. This happened with Dark Shadows off ebay years back. That set looked like the right thing but it had Barnabas Rollins and not Collins. :p joking, but the new wore off so fast on it when the packaging began to fall apart. Lucky got refund and I'm enjoying the real deal passed 500 episodes with only one that had some odd digital squares for a few second but played fine after. The visual difference was noticable and I was noticing Maude didn't look as good as hoped. It looked compressed. :(
 
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Regulus

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About a year before Batman FINALLY got its official release Ronald Epstein comment about bootlegs (In particular those sets people would like to buy but the studios refuse to release saying;
.
"The bootleg market is booming...this is what eventually happens when a product is held up by red tape and withheld from consumers".
 

AndyMcKinney

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Besides putting the discs in your computer to confirm single or dual layer, wouldn't the obvious "tell" of a bootleg be if the recording surface is "blue" rather than "clear", or are some of the bootleggers actually going to the trouble of pressing discs (albeit on single layer) rather than using the tell-tale burnt discs?
 

Peter Apruzzese

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Besides putting the discs in your computer to confirm single or dual layer, wouldn't the obvious "tell" of a bootleg be if the recording surface is "blue" rather than "clear", or are some of the bootleggers actually going to the trouble of pressing discs (albeit on single layer) rather than using the tell-tale burnt discs?

I've come across both types in researching bootlegs/pirated versions.
 

Ron Lee Green

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The outer cardboard box that holds my Facts of Life complete series is splitting at the seams! When I first got it, I thought it was sturdy but now its starting to fall apart at the bottom. I wondered if it might be a bootleg, so I checked the discs in my computer hard drive and they are over 6 GB so I'm pretty sure it's legit. It came with the booklet, and the cases are the clear kind (so you can see the reverse side of the insert art). Just the box is poorly made. Anyone else have this problem? You might want to check it out if you haven't pulled it out lately.
 

AndrewCrossett

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With Amazon-fulfillment, buyers who have Prime can also get free two-day shipping, so many Prime members (like me) will prefer to buy from third-party sellers with that arrangement. Also, if there's a problem you can deal with Amazon directly rather than having to fight with the seller.
 

Tony Bensley

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The outer cardboard box that holds my Facts of Life complete series is splitting at the seams! When I first got it, I thought it was sturdy but now its starting to fall apart at the bottom. I wondered if it might be a bootleg, so I checked the discs in my computer hard drive and they are over 6 GB so I'm pretty sure it's legit. It came with the booklet, and the cases are the clear kind (so you can see the reverse side of the insert art). Just the box is poorly made. Anyone else have this problem? You might want to check it out if you haven't pulled it out lately.
I don't suspect that many pirates would go to the expense of using dual layered DVDs (They are expensive!), although I suppose that anything is possible.

As for the poorly made box for your THE FACTS OF LIFE series set, that seems to be pretty commonplace in legit video releases. Some companies have used really dumb non storage friendly designs over the years!

CHEERS! :)
 

MatthewA

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"5. Poor Video and Audio Quality"

There are times when this applied to the legitimate releases.
 

Tony Bensley

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"5. Poor Video and Audio Quality"

There are times when this applied to the legitimate releases.
I agree in a general sense that the above isn't a 100% reliable gauge in determining legitimacy, at least not without cross referencing via Reviews, Forums and Message Boards, the results of which may vary. The terminology is too subjective, for starters!

CHEERS! :)
 

bmasters9

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As for the poorly made box for your THE FACTS OF LIFE series set, that seems to be pretty commonplace in legit video releases. Some companies have used really dumb non storage friendly designs over the years!

CBS being the worst, especially on MacGyver, The Brady Bunch, and Hogan's Heroes (all three of those got better-designed condensed releases later, though).
 

bigshot

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I don't suspect that many pirates would go to the expense of using dual layered DVDs (They are expensive!), although I suppose that anything is possible.

The difference in price is almost nothing. I doubt that a pirate would go to the trouble of re-encoding to save a few pennies.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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The difference in price is almost nothing. I doubt that a pirate would go to the trouble of re-encoding to save a few pennies.

It costs about 30 cents more per unit for a DVD-9 in a short (500-1000 piece) replication run.

If simply burning bootlegs, DL discs can cost at least 2-3 times as much as single layer DVD-R and can take 4 times as long to burn.

So, yes, the pirates generally will spend an hour re-encoding authentic DVD-9 into their DVD-5 bootleg.
 

Kasey

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The outer cardboard box that holds my Facts of Life complete series is splitting at the seams! When I first got it, I thought it was sturdy but now its starting to fall apart at the bottom. I wondered if it might be a bootleg, so I checked the discs in my computer hard drive and they are over 6 GB so I'm pretty sure it's legit. It came with the booklet, and the cases are the clear kind (so you can see the reverse side of the insert art). Just the box is poorly made. Anyone else have this problem? You might want to check it out if you haven't pulled it out lately.
With my Shout box sets (and others with similiar outer cases) I carefully used a box cutter to slit the shrink wrap just enough to remove the interior cases so mine still looks sturdy enough.
 

classicmovieguy

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Besides putting the discs in your computer to confirm single or dual layer, wouldn't the obvious "tell" of a bootleg be if the recording surface is "blue" rather than "clear", or are some of the bootleggers actually going to the trouble of pressing discs (albeit on single layer) rather than using the tell-tale burnt discs?
Another way to tell if a disc is dual-layer is to see if there are 2 sets of numbers and 'barcode' type things printed on the play-side.
 

AndyMcKinney

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I've come across both types in researching bootlegs/pirated versions.


So, does that mean some bootleggers are actually pressing/replicating some of their wares, or has burning technology changed in the last few years to where the telltale blue dye is no longer an easy way to identify discs which are burnt?

I'm not questioning legitimacy, just whether bootleggers have gotten sophisticated enough that they're actually using replication in some cases as opposed to simply burning.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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So, does that mean some bootleggers are actually pressing/replicating some of their wares, or has burning technology changed in the last few years to where the telltale blue dye is no longer an easy way to identify discs which are burnt?

I'm not questioning legitimacy, just whether bootleggers have gotten sophisticated enough that they're actually using replication in some cases as opposed to simply burning.

Unfortunately, there are replicators out there who will press just about anything as long as you sign a paper claiming ownership and you're not sending them Star Wars or Game of Thrones. But I think many of the pressed bootlegs are sourced from overseas manufacturers, where there is even less control.

I haven't come across any DVD-R's without the blue/purple dye color.
 

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