sldvd

In early September, I bought a pre-order of "The Big Bang Theory Season 7" DVD set on Ebay. The seller said it would ship on or before 9/16 and I should receive it by 9/18. Over 400 people bought this, and I didn't receive it until 9/26. Quite a few people complained about not receiving it by 9/18 in the seller's feedback, and the seller said it was an issue with his supplier.

When I received it, it was shrinkwrapped and even had a red sticker on the lower left corner on the front saying something like "Watch BBT on Mondays on CBS". Inside the case, it even had an insert with some pictures and a short summary of each episode.

But a few things make me wonder if I might have received a counterfeit set.

1) I took a close look at the front and back of the DVD box. On the front I can see a grid pattern in the lower left corner. You can see a photo of it here:

http://i.imgur.com/kh7vV7Y.jpg

On the back, the bars in the UPC code have jagged edges. You can see a photo of it here:

http://i.imgur.com/QUJOrbJ.png

I went to Best Buy and looked at their DVD. Their front did NOT have the grid pattern in the lower left corner. Also, their back had perfectly straight lines in the UPC code - they were not jagged like mine.

2) The printing on top of my discs looks horrible. Here's a photo of one of them:

http://i.imgur.com/l1c16Wy.png

Now compare that to a photo of someone else's disc I found, which looks so much better:

http://i.imgur.com/MZ02aom.jpg

Could these be counterfeit? Besides the grid pattern on the front and the jagged UPC lines on the back, the DVD box looks just like the box at Best Buy. It says Region 1 and doesn't have any Asian characters on it. Also, the bottom of the discs look just like real DVDs - they aren't DVD-Rs. Here's a photo of the bottom of one of the discs:

http://i.imgur.com/HyNwBrh.png

If these are counterfeit, they seem like damn good counterfeits.

Also, the video quality is not that good, but I don't think DVDs are supposed to look good on a LCD TV.

triste realtà

There are many counterfeit tv show dvds on ebay. A good indicator is if they are selling for a low price or low start bids. I bought a munsters complete set on ebay and noticed the dvds were single layer and looked like crap. They were compressed with dvdfab which is the provider id I saw using software.

Stick it in your computer and if it is 4.xx GB and is supposed to be dual layer, it's a counterfeit for sure.

edit: I just looked on amazon and it says dual layer but the picture you provided is single. Counterfeit for sure, file a claim.

Also that seller's feedback is horrendous, pay attention to negative in the future. Any negative claiming counterfeit is a red flag.

SterlingBen

This seems pretty conclusive to me. You could also contact CBS or whoever the regular DVD author and they can verify.

And after a further couple of seconds with google, yes, yours is fake.



&

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAP...ms=negative_30

sldvd

What software do you use?

Yes, it said 4.5GB.

How can you tell by the photo that it's single layer?

Most of his negatives came in after 9/18 when it took him over a week to ship. Didn't really see any red flags before 9/18.

EdTheRipper

With dvd sets on eBay, if the price is too good to be true, it probably is. Especially if they are either collectible, or pre-orders.

Texan26

I bought a Chuck season set a few years ago that had the same issues as your set. It also had the sticker like yours on the shrinkwrap that made it seem legit. It was also for a real good "buy it now" price of $9 when it was selling everywhere for over $20. I only planned on watching it once and it looked good so it wasn't a big deal for me. I'm not 100% sure it was a counterfeit but I later sold it at a movie trade in store. All they do is scan the UPC and check the discs for scratches.

triste realtà

I use pgcedit, which is free but has a 15 sec nag screen now, and when you open the disc, in the title bar the last part names the provider. If it is ripped with a dvd ripping program and shrunk to single layer the program's name will probably be there. My munsters discs said dvdfab.

A single layer disc only has one layer id number, while a dual layer has two concentric id numbers and bar codes for each layer. Last paragraph, section one: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD

Anyway the quality of the printing on the disc and box screams counterfeit. The one I got was almost flawless except for some blank white blotches that happened when they ripped the inner plastic off the original box they scanned.

edit: I should add when I contacted my seller the first time I said these were single layer but are supposed to be dual and he said Universal switched them to single because of some compatibility complaints. Then the second time I said hey these say dvdfab and are counterfeits and he immediately issued a refund and that was the end. He had broken english and I left a positive feedback before I realized it was a bootleg but added that it was counterfeit to the positive feedback.

PhantomStranger

Given your pictures, that set is almost certainly a bootleg set. The Asian bootleggers absolutely love making bootleg television DVDs, it's far worse on eBay for television sets than it is for anything else other than Disney movies. Since most newer television product from the studios often sells at a premium, they manufacture a 1000 bootleg sets and undercut legitimate copies on eBay.

I got duped by an Elementary set and I know exactly what to look for as the signs. Only a computer scan of the discs confirmed my eBay set was a fake. This was from a supposedly reputable seller with over 4000 positive feedback.

Unless it is from an individual seller with one copy, I avoid all television DVD product on eBay.

Alan Smithee

I see a LOT of Asian bootleg TV show sets at thrift stores- a number of them actually use pressed dual-layer discs, though I've never picked up any to see if the actual content is the same as the legit discs. I almost bought an Asian Sopranos set at Rasputin (local record store chain) just because it was cheap and I thought it was a legit Region 3 release from China- they had it in a plastic security holder so I couldn't open it, but I looked at it closer before checking out and it said "All Region" on the back which is a dead giveaway.

sldvd

Thanks for confirming it's a counterfeit, everyone. I have to say they did a pretty good job faking it, what with the shrinkwrap, sticker on the shrinkwrap, insert inside the case, and real DVDs instead of DVD-Rs. If it weren't for my OCD tendencies, I wouldn't have thought much about the bad printing on the discs and wouldn't have bothered taking a real close look at the box. They fooled almost everyone - only one of the seller's negative feedback said it was a bootleg, all the other negs were about the shipping delay.

This is disappointing and has me wondering about the other DVDs I've bought from Ebay and other stores (is MovieMars legit?).

Wezzo

MovieMars are legit, as far as I know; I've bought probably a hundred titles from them and all have been genuine.

DVD Josh

Stop going to thrift stores.

JZ1276

One thing not mentioned was the A/V quality? If you got this set at a cheap enough price and the audio and video quality are good then who cares if its a fake?

sldvd

The quality is not good. You can see pixelation, typical of trying to squeeze 8GB of data onto a single layer disc.

Texan26

I'm not the OP, but it's hard to resell it if it's fake. Like I mentioned, a Chuck season set that had good A/V quality that I bought was probably counterfeit. I buy a lot of TV show sets that I only watch once and then resell on eBay or half.com. I wouldnt want to be accused of selling bootlegs. I could not resell it on those sites like usual, but instead took it to a movie trade in store that gave me much less than I would have gotten on eBay.

Heat

This, and I go one step further and only buy used DVDs.

Think about it - this guy is claiming he has 300 or 400 copies of Season 7 of Big Bang Theory? Where were you thinking he got them?

ntnon

...wholesale?

That'sAllFolks

Though not conclusive, these are the guidelines I use to determine if something is a bootleg.
1) LOTS of 1 -3 day auctions for the same group of items -- usually with free shipping and starting at .99.
2) Disney and TV shows are the most likely to be bootlegged.
3) Items that are several years old look fresh and hot off the presses. I bought a full set of Medium a couple of years after the series had ended. The early season packaging looked pristine.
4) Contact the seller. If you bought it, most of the time they will just refund your money or allow you to return it. Push for return postage. If you haven't bought it first, alot of times they will discourage the purchase.

Feedback will be of little use since the general public will think that the copies are legitimate and even if they aren't they still play OK. I remember some bootlegs I got for Planet Earth. To me they were obvious fakes because the packages were discolored, but the sellers got alot of positives.

You can use www.toolhaus.org to weed through the feedback to see if anyone complained about bootlegs, but at most I only found 1 or 2 people out of hundreds that even recognized them.

Things that might be indicators that they are NOT bootlegs:
1) A lot of times, companies will dump their overstock and alot of the same resellers get the same stuff: Clover Media, Newbury, etc. Even if stuff is really cheap it is "probably" OK, if these resellers are listing the same items.
2) Contact the seller and ask him to verify that they are "legitimate region 1 DVDs". If they say yes, then it's probably OK. If they answer vaguely or not at all, run away.
3) Another thing in the same vein, is if they are specific in the listing that they are authentic region 1 DVDs, then it's probably OK.