BigBill

Typically I buy my DVDs here or at a store. I decided to try ebay. These DVDs did not work on any of my DVD players. I think they were illiegal but I cannot tell. Is there a way of detecting what is legitimate and what is not by looking at the DVD?

Trigger

bootlegs are often region free and the artwork will sometimes lack a barcode or the barcode will be wrong. You can use half.com to check bar codes. Ebay is full of bootlegs and I don't like buying DVDs from there. Look for the studio logos on the DVD and the artwork as well. Another tell is when the label side of the DVD says "Memorex" on it.

paulringodaman

Put a picture of the DVD in question on this forum. If the post gets locked, it's a bootleg

NCYankee

I spotted a bootleg of Phantom Menace at Blockbuster - it was pretty obvious, since it claimed DTS and had a DVD-9 logo on it (a dead giveaway - to discern higher-quality dual-layer boots from single-layer DVD-5 boots or VCDs). Also, there was a typo on the back, "Phantim Menace" in the special features description.

I got a very badly made boot from a pawn shop once - it was encoded in PCM (like a CD) instead of Dolby and the bitrate was locked at 6.5 MBps, whereas a normal DVD will vary from 3-9 MBps. This was rather amusing, because it was a copy of a very cheap DVD (The Philadelphia Experiment) which I only paid $3 for, but returned anyway - it was almost unwatchable.

OldBoy

when you buy "The Incredibles" and the cover art of the disc is of "Finding Nemo", that might be an indication!

Mike Lowrey

If the DVD is of a movie that isn't even in theater yet, then it might be a bootleg.

BigBill

Thanks. I learned my lesson. Aside from the info you gave me, I found some other interesting things. One DVD had the title and illustrations glued on the DVD and on the back of another there was DVD-R on it. Boy do I feel stupid. If something looks to good to be true, it usually is.

chileorgullo

ask a lot of questions.

dsa_shea

What was the title of the dvd you purchased? Did you leave negative feedback for the scum that sold you someone else's work?

JM1

E bay are supposed to discourage people from selling pirates - in fact if you try to put something on it thinks is a pirate it warns you. Obviously people just ignore it.

Personally I would inform E Bay if I found a bootleg, make sure they know.

And you can bet that these same bootleggers have 100% good feedback - damn sure they get friends to do that for them. A great idea in theory, but don't think it works very well in practise.

BSpielbauer

Although the person who originated this thread has now identified his disc as a bootleg, I thought the following information might help others who are in the same boat.

IF you have a DVD-Rom drive or a DVD Burner attached to your PC (or if you have a friend who does), there is free software available (and also shareware) that can tell you instantly whether a disc is commerically pressed, or whether it was a burned DVD. It will identify the disc as a DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, a Video CD, etc. It will even identify the manufacturers, and the particular "Media Code" or line that was used.

If you have a need, do a Google search on the following names. Here are a few of the titles:

DVDInfoPro

DVD Identifier

DVD Media Inspector (MacOSX)

DVDDecrypter (this freeware will perform the above functions, but it is also a ripper and a burner).

Hope this helps someone,

-Bruce

ThatGuamGuy

Can you link to the auction? If I could see it, I could probably point out a few things to watch out for. But if it's against the rules to do so, I understand.

In general, you can go by (a) feedback [what JM1 says aside, I've never gotten a bootleg from anybody with 100% feedback, there's always at least one person who knows what's up], and, coupled with that, a *lot* of it ... if somebody has 100% but only sold 2, they may or may not be dependable ... (b) location; anybody in Asia is probably not worth taking the chance on ... (c) there are certain things which get put in, sometimes "Chinese language" (especially if it's on the cover), or "import" if they don't specify that it's not a bootleg (depends on where it's an import from, though) ... I mean, there are lots of little things. Sometimes, bootleggers will describe a disc as "Criterion" even though the movie was never released by Criterion.

cajun_junky

Can a bootleg dvd be pressed? I assume with as big a business as pirating is that they could press their boots. That might be alot more difficult to distinguish than say a real dvd versus a "burned" dvd.

chileorgullo

are all bi-lingual covers necesarilly boots?

Ephemeral_Life

"IF you have a DVD-Rom drive or a DVD Burner attached to your PC (or if you have a friend who does), there is free software available (and also shareware) that can tell you instantly whether a disc is commerically pressed, or whether it was a burned DVD. It will identify the disc as a DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, a Video CD, etc. It will even identify the manufacturers, and the particular "Media Code" or line that was used."

I burn all my DVD+Rs with the booktype set to DVD-ROM for compatibility reasons. If bootleggers do the same thing (which I assume they would), going by booktype alone won't help you identify whether or not the disc is genuine.

dsa_shea

Ebay doesnt do crap to discourage this activity. With every completed sale on their site all they hear is cha-ching. I think almost everything done on Ebay is automated and that there are actually very few people who work behind the scenes. When is that last time anyone has spoken to someone that works for Ebay?

majorjoe23

If your family tree is doesn't have any branches, you just might have a bootleg.

NCYankee

A few months ago I saw a guy with 100% on ~24 feedback who looked awfully suspicious - he was selling nothing but extremely rare DVDs, well below market - recalled Swamp Thing ($40), Blues Brothers ($25), Robocop Criterion ($30), Return of the Pink Panther ($20). He claimed to have bought 7,000 DVDs from a store going out of business, and was sorting through them and selling duplicates. I emailed him and he said they didn't have inserts (Red flag). Then I emailed again to ask him what the store was that he had bought out - he told me it was none of my business and to stop wasting his time (Red flag).

Here is his feedback now:

Ebay profile for Chevgg04

He's been BOOTED!!

chileorgullo

Positive feedback rating DVD is pirated but for the price, I've got no complaints.
Buyer dfchang ( 76Feedback score is 50 to 99) Jan-29-05 18:33 6361852143

snoopygirl

Good question. I checked some of my French-Canadian DVDs expecting to see a mix of French and English, but that happened on only one disc (The Barbarian Invasion). It was purchased from a legit Canadian retailer, so I'm sure it's not a boot. I expected to see more like that, but it looks like they create different packaging for the 2 languages for most discs.

chileorgullo

I bought the hulk
or le hulk... boot?

NCYankee

Many (if not most) Canadian releases have bi-lingual covers, and I think the legit Hong Kong Superbits do also, though I am not sure about that.

cultshock

Yes they can be. Some DVD pressing plants in Asia are notorious for letting bootleggers use their machines in the "off hours" (especially in countries with lax copyright laws, such as Thailand or China). Hell, that kind of thing happened years ago, when bootleggers pressed bootleg CDs too.

BenboC

Along with what everybody else said, it's a boot if it that has a Region 1 cover, but has a red DTS logo on a disc w/o DTS.

dsa_shea

Good for him. Sorry bootleggers need to get a real job and stop living off of other people.