What the heck....Ben-Hur on a DVD-9? (1 Viewer)

[Frank@N]

Was at one of my used DVD haunts today and snagged a copy of Ben-Hur for $5. Not bad...

Odd thing it's -not- in a snapper and the slipcover has a hologram sticker that says: "THX Superbit DTS DVD-9".

The slipcover looks totally legit and is marked R1, but includes a broader than usual list of subtitles (Chinese, Thai, Korean, Malay).

I've seen bootlegs before, but the slipcovers always look very phony (this slipcover is glossy on the back, usually meaning it's legit).

I assume DVD-9 means it's a standard dual-layer single-sided disc (the disc has cover art), whereas the snapper release was a flipper.

Amazingly enough, everything seems to be on the disc, although I thought the documentary had chapters...

The disc does display a Chinese warning screen at boot.

The Warner catalog number on the spine is MQ65506.

I guess I'll keep it, but I'm kind of puzzled by this disc's origins.

 

[PaulP]

Well that was a perfectly wasted five bucks, sorry. WB is coming out with a massive 4-disc edition later this year.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yup!

 

[Damin J Toell]

That hologram sticker is a dead giveaway that it's a bootleg.

DJ

 

[Frank@N]

I believe the product many have Asian origins (despite the packaging being all in English).

It is odd.

 

[Frank@N]

Reading some fine print on the back of the case next to the big WB logo:

"For sale or rental only by authorized sublicensees of Warner Home Video in Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand"

The back bottom also has an R1 logo (Globe with 1 in it).

Not sure why Warner would sell R1 discs in those areas.

I remember reading that studios were trying to combat bootlegging in Asia with cheap authentic releases.

Maybe they're formatting them in R1, I don't know.

 

[Frank@N]

There is, however, one problem...

The DVD-18 contained four layers (three for the movie and one for the Doc).

The DVD-9 release only has two layers, so the compression must be much greater.

I have a 7-day return window, so I guess I'll take a look at it.

 

[David Allen]

That's definitly not a US release. Very possibly a bootleg. The packaging logos/artwork are usually a dead giveaway. Unless of course, Superbit and THX have different logos in Asia. Also, why would they put DVD-9 on the cover? Who cares? I just bought a copy of Napoleon Dynamite off eBay and it turned up with the same type of cover. I returned it ASAP.

 

[Frank@N]

Typically, but the print quality of this slipcover is absolutely top notch.

Based on the print quality, I believe this is a legitimate product, mastered in R1, but intended for Asia (if that makes any sense).

I suspect the content was reauthored using more recent advances to fit onto a DVD-9.

This may actually be a selling point for those familiar with the older (flipper) release and is probably cheaper to manufacture.

 

[Damin J Toell]

A "DVD-9" hologram sticker is a classic element of an Asian bootleg. It's really that simple, and it answers every question you have about this release. That's why it says THX despite the disc not being THX-certified. That's why it says Superbit despite Superbit being a Columbia trademark and not a Warner trademark. That's why it is an R1 disc despite originating from Asia. If it actually has a DTS track, that's an even bigger clue that it's not an official Warner release. If it doesn't have a DTS track, the fact that the cover lies about it is still another big hint.

It is not a cheap authentic release. It isn't a disc manufactured in the US for the Asian market (if it was, it certainly wouldn't be R1 - that would defeat the purpose).

Stop scratching your head over it. Don't bother theorizing. It's a bootleg.

DJ

 

[Holadem]

To steal from an older thread on a similar topic:



--
H

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I love how bootleggers love throwing various HT buzzwords on disccs as selling points, despite having little clue what they mean...

THX!
DTS!
SDDS!
SUPERBIT!
CRITERION!
ULTIMATE EDITION!
ANTHROPOMORPHIC!
DVD-9
OOP

etc
lol

 

[Patrick McCart]

It looks legit to me...

[url=http://img266.echo.cx/img266/7807/benhur2zp.jpg] [/url]

 

[CraigF]

You know, I used to say that any R1 disc with mainly Chinese writing on the cover was a bootleg, that was a dead giveaway, besides all the other BS on the covers (like, there's no such thing as a THX Superbit). But I've seen them for sale in the local Wal-Mart, for some recent releases, for the large Chinese-speaking community.

[Not saying the disc in question is legit, I'm positive it's not.]

 

[Mark_TS]

I have plenty of major label discs from Amazon.uk and KoreanDVDs.com that have the hologram sticker-and they aint boots...

I had a (2004) R0 disc from S.Korea of THE GRADUATE 16:9 that was from Universal/Studio Canal, with a sticker that read "for sale in South America, SE Asia, and the United States" so maybe these discs are for the growing Asian population here on the east Pacific rim...it had non- removable Korean/Thai/Spanish subs, unless you had a region-free player.
--------
As for Wal-Mart- they may very well be legit under NAFTA-there was a recent PBS Frontline program about Wal Mart, and how they practically own a huge seaport city in China, (forgot the name)as most of its workforce is devoted to making things for them-in fact WM has one of their HQs there-curiously, the program hinted that when Walmart bigwigs tell China to "Jump!" -in regards to custom manufacturing-Chinese Officals reply "How high?"

 

[Jeff_HR]

I love those kind of DVDs!!!!

 

[Patrick Soucy]

Mouhahahahaha PatrickMcCart!

That's a good one!

 

[Kevin M]

.....I hate it when my dvd's start hitting me up for money and the car keys....plus they scream a lot when you put them into the player....stupid sentient dvd's....