kvrdave

I see these on Ebay and wonder if there is any real disadvantage to them. Sure they have different writing on the covers, but they are in english and can turn the subtitles off (at least according to the ebay descriptions). It seems like a good way to catch some huge box sets that I have never seen, like Babylon 5, etc. Any reason why I shouldn't do this?

clckworang

It varies from title to title. Some Asian DVDs might be really good, others might have poor transfers. Some good references to compare titles are dvdcompare.net and dvdbeaver.com.

kvrdave

Looking at dvdcompare, they don't seem to show an asian version. Are these all just illegal copies or something?

alessandro

I think they must be illegal because I've seen some "asian" Criterion dvd's (new ones) going for as little as $5.

phr33k

I doubt they are illegal, because most of the asians dvds have DTS track and about 7 different subtitles what idiot would do that to an illegal copy?

kvrdave

Well, I am going to try it out. All 5 seasons of Babylon 5 (never even seen one episode, but I hear they are good) for only $90 delivered from and Ebayer with nearly 1,000 positive feedback.

Not much to lose.

van

I have also been looking at these on eBay and wondering about them.
There are many for under $5 write now, a couple for $5, +
$8 shipping of course, for some great Criterion DVDs which
cost $50+ and list at $80 at Amazon, eg.

What is the deal with these, for those who know what I'm talking
about.

e.g., look at the Criterion DVD of 4 disk and 6 disk DVD of Bergman films
for $5 and even $1.

I would like to hear from anyone who has ordered and received these.
It seems too good to be true.

But I am going to do it as I can afford $10 to find out.

Van

van

These DVDs I spoke of in my post above are from Chinese sellers.
Does that mean HK. If so, I wish they would stop calling themself
China. Anyway, I look at recomendations, and many are "power
seller", well known, some are new with now recomendations.

I wonder how much weight I should give to eBays recomendations.

I would stick to US sellers, but these prices are too good to ignore.

Van

GHackmann

There's a reason it sounds too good to be true. The vast, vast majority of Chinese/HK DVDs on eBay are bootlegs.

There are of course exceptions (e.g. there are many legitimate HK copies of Hero on eBay) but Chinese versions of anything produced outside China selling massively below U.S. prices are almost guaranteed to boots.

I'm not sure how some of those sellers manage to rack up 1000+ in feedback, but I suspect most of their customers either don't know or don't care that they're getting illegal copies.

kvrdave

That is the crap of it. I don't want to buy something illegal. But I don't mind buying something legal at a lot less because we sell it to them for a lot less. At least I don't mind not having to pay some subsidized price for the same thing.

Anyway to tell if they are boots once I get them? I know it is too late by then, but I would like to know so that I don't resell them.

These also get sold through Amazon.com on their "buy used".

Maybe I am naive, but I would like to think that at least Amazon would keep an eye on what is being sold if it is not legit. I don't really expect ebay to be able to, but they should.

van

This must be answer. I just returned to eBay to find that either they had all been
purchased or withdrawn--they are gone for now in any case.

Thanks for your prompt reply.

Jackskeleton

Cause they are bootlegs.

kvrdave

Do American companies sell any of these to Asia, or are they all bootlegs?

How does one find out?

Josh Z

Any American movie or TV show advertised as being a "region free" or "all region" Asian disc is most likely a bootleg. The American studios insist on enforcing region coding when they license their titles to foreign markets.

American TV show box sets sold on eBay in Asian versions priced much much lower than the US versions are all bootlegs. Every last one of them.

marty888

Well put - that pretty much sums it up.

Yes, there are legit Asian releases of U.S. titles - but virtually all of them will be coded Region 3.

kvrdave

Well crap.

chemosh6969

I've bought anime that was cheaper than in the US and it wasn't a bootleg.

Wannabe

Putting aside ethical, economic, and moral issues: Generally, how's the quality of these so-called Asian DVDs?

van

Yes. I would be interested in this too. I would pay more for quality, and
I want everyone to get what's due them, but I'm poor, have an old 1 coax
cable in TV with cheap ($30) ESA DVD player, and wonder what bootleg
would be like on this, if I quite my morals enough and convince myself
that its OK to do this.

brilk

Putting all of that aside, you're still not allowed to discuss the quality of bootlegs on this forum.

Brent L

This topic makes my head hurts.

If you want the seasons, sets, etc... then save money, trade, or do something to buy the real deal. There are a million reasons why this type of crap on eBay is so cheap.

Just because someone has a lot of positive feedback doesn't mean anything when it comes to items like this. When they list something, and say that it's from Asia, has Asian characters on the DVD set, etc... the buyer knows what they are getting, thus no reason for any negative feedback. They see it, think golly gee what a bargain, and buy it anyway not knowing what they are doing.

Don't buy the crap, you'll more than likely regret it.

I didn't even think this was allowed to be discussed here. I can't believe that a member of DVDTalk had to start this topic, no offense.

raytrade

Please don't support these pirates! This is the reason we overpay for box sets, cause the studios lose too much from pirates selling Star Trek seasons for $25 on Ebay & Amazon Marketplace. As noted by others, if it is "REGION FREE" and is a major release, you can be pretty assured it is a bootleg. This is especially true for box sets. I go to Hong Kong several times a year and shop at HMV and Tower Records there, so I know what is out for real versus what has to be a bootleg. BTW, both those chains primarily carry US Region 1 imports for all those box sets. There is no Asian edition for China/Hong Kong!

chemosh6969

I find it hard to believe that there are Japanese versions of something yet not a Chinese version.

Not all asian dvds are bootlegs.

Wannabe

I'm not advocating piracy; however, I think your statment is completely turned around. Piracy happens when the price is too high - pirates see that they still have room to make money, even selling at their low low prices. You don't typically see pirated versions of films in the sub $10 range.

van

Responses like these show why I think that this idea that one shouldn't talk about
something because its something you don't approve of, are wrong.
Its always best to let people talk about whatever they want, and all they want,
even if you are part of the DVD selling industry, its best to gain knowledge and
perspective on these things.

Because of the responses I have seen here,
I have decided I am not going to invest in bootleg (I didn't realize they were bootleg
till I talked about it here).