I've noticed that EBay tends to get flooded with lower-priced "Asian edition" DVD's that mimic if not completely duplicate an original US release. Examples are the Killer Criterion and X-Files season sets.

What's the deal with these? Are they pirated or legal? Is there any hard-and-fast way to tell? Is their quality generally less than the original or are subtitle options and the few Asian characters on the case the only major difference?

Pirated and I'm sure the quality is awful.

Criterions are north american ONLY. There are no foreign versions, no region 2-6 versions, they are all NTSC and they are mostly quite expensive.

Check feedback on sellers to make sure you're not being burned. It's funny when you see negative feedback, and the seller's comment is "It is not a bootleg!!!!!! It is an IMPORT!!!!!! Because you left negative feedback I will not let you return it!!!!!!!!"

Sad, really.

Now the season sets - I know asian versions of some TV sets exist (Band Of Brothers has a NOICE one), but be careful.

Ah no. Some of the early Criterions are Region 0...including Seven Samurai and others.

Don't even think about those Asian X-Files sets. They are cheap for a reason. They have no menus, or extras. I'm not sure if they are real releases or bootlegs but either way they are inferior to the US releases. Plus, the covers are ugly with the Chinese writing on them.

I haven't actually seen them. I just tried to research them and find out what they were. I say bootlegs.

That's what he said. There are no regions 2-6 just Region 1 and 0 and all NTSC.

If you have any question s as to if an "asian" dvd listed on ebay is real or not, check out some of the legit asian websites such as yesasia.com and dddhouse.com to name a few.

Well there are no legit Asian Criterion dvds.

but there are legit Asian releases of many things. Most of the ones on ebay are probably bootlegs though, so be careful. You can always check a legit Asian dvd etailer to see if what is being sold on ebay is the same as the legit release.

I can understand if the DVD's are bootlegs more over those Bootlegs are actually illegal...

But it seems that you're trying to say that even the real releases (Originals) of Asian DVD's are inferior in quality than the US Release ones... If this is the case than it means that those American Companies through their distributors in Asia is commiting a serious crime under the Consumer Protection Law (at least in my country). The prices of these Original Asian Release DVD's (my country comes under Region 3) are about US$15 per DVD so I don't see much difference in their price in regards to the US Release ones.

Anyway do you have any research materials which leads to the proof that the original Asian Releases DVD's are inferior in quality than the US Release ones ???

Did I stutter?

What I said:

"Criterions are north american ONLY. There are no foreign versions, no region 2-6 versions, they are all NTSC and they are mostly quite expensive."