I was talking to a coworker recently about DVDs and it came up that he and a large group of people at work were busily trading ripped movies from the local library and burning them to the existing DVD+R. I don't have any burnt movies in my collection and I explained to him that I've acquired a sizable collection of authentic DVDs (400+) over the years.

He then tried to explain to me how he also had a rather large collection of movies burnt to disc and how I had spent thousands of dollars "unnecessarily" on buying movies. He said rather than buy everything he only bought the movies he "really liked". I tried to tell him that using methods like Share the love and Columbia House buying legitimate discs while never as cheap as free/pirated provided a reasonable alternative to buying store prices. He looked at this as money wasted.

Help me understand this mindset..

It's a valuation of money over time.

They will spend countless hours ripping/downloading/getting the discs, but don't want to spend the few dollars to get a high quality "real" dvd - because they think what they rip IS high quality.

It's a sense of accomplishment to rip off someone, even though the time spent doing so is probably more than the value of the dvd itself.

I think that morality enters into it a little bit too . . .

So I guess this means he's busy burning and building up a collection of movies he doesn't "really like" .... bizarre.

Something for nothing-- what's not to understand?

(For the record, I have 300 or so bought DVDs but only 3 burned ones).

I have a DVD burner, and use it fairly often, but never once have I burned a DVD and considered it a part of "my collection." I only consider my collection the 250 legitimate DVDs I've bought at the store. My main reasoning for this (aside from the moral dilemma) is that I don't want to screw up my good collection with fakes; it cheapens everything.

What I use my burner for is stuff that I can't obtain through legal means (like non-region 1 movies, or unavailable MST3K episodes), or stuff that I've seen in the theater, and would like to see again - I currently have Matrix Revolutions on disc, but I consider it a temp disc until the real DVD comes out.

I personally don't own any burned DVD. I can't see spending thousands on my HT gear and then using crappy quality sound and picture on it. What's the point?

It's not always that way. I have burned discs that are exact dupes. Probably 150 of them. But I also have about 200+ that are bought and legit.

Who really cares.

I would only go that route for titles that are otherwise totally unavailable, for example, like caiman mentioned, unavailable MST3K episodes. In the old days, I had a bunch of "grey market" videos of titles that I couldn't otherwise get because they were PAL or Secam format or even just because they were foreign releases (back then, importing videos wasn't anywhere nearly as easy as importing foreign DVDs today).

For some people now, I guess the mindset is getting something for (almost) nothing.

Sean Astin cares . . . haven't you seen the commercial?

I was talking tonight to somebody about Pirates of the Caribbean and how I want to get it when it comes out and what a great DVD it will be and all, and of course it will probably be 14.99 or 15.99 when it comes out. He said, as if he was proud, that he already downloaded it and burned it and watched it. I know that copy cannot be as good as the DVD I will get Dec 1st, that it has to be a rip of a bootleg copy, and I know the quality has got to suck. Or at least not be that great. But I didn't even comment on the quality of bootlegs issue, I simply pointed out that he didn't get the great bonus features that will be on the DVD, not to mention the contents of the second disc. He just stated again that he already watched it and I guess that was enough for him.

My posistion on doing this kind of thing is that I don't really see a point if the DVD will come out soon enough as it is. Why waste time downloading it and burning it when it will be on DVD in a better version in just a couple weeks? I know somebody who got a bootleg copy of Kill Bill and asked me if I wanted one and I was like, "Why? It's coming on DVD in a couple months?" Does he think he did something good by getting the bootleg? He wasted $20.00 in my estimation, a HUGE waste of money for an inferior copy and no bonus features. And what gets me he is the kind of person that will whine when studios release bare bones DVDs at a lower price.

Will I ever understand the mindset of DVD pirates? No, probably not. I don't have a burner, but if I did, I would probably use it like I use my VCR, to record shows on DVD when I am not home and watch them later. Maybe I would record shows to save on DVD, but I would rather own the good quality season sets when they come out later on.

I'm going to guess the studios care.

I don't think I would introduce any dupes into my collection I've lovingly built over the last five years. Not really a moral thing with me. I'm not one of these people who HAVE to buy every DVD that comes out every week. I pick and choose, so that it's possible and affordable to buy what I really want.

The only one I ever owned was a FOTR screener copy. I figure New Line would forgive me since I bought both the regular Dvd and the extended edition of it plus saw the movie 3 times in the theater.

I will not own a copy as the primary version of a movie. If I like it i will buy the dvd and support the actors and studio. If I do not like it then why bother at all.

The only copy i have ever considered owning as a primary version were the original versions of Star Wars since Lucas said he will never release them so I can buy it

As far as why people do it?

cheap or value of their time is small or they think they are sticking it to big companies who are or have screwed them in the past or ???

It's easy.

For the price of one legal DVD you can get 10 DVD+Rs. As for quality, they can be 1:1.

So $20 for one movie, or $20 for 10 movies? Then $40 for 2 movies, or for 20 movies?

It's pure selfishness.

They want it, so they take it, and have no consideration for the consequences of their action (which are felt by others and not themselves, so why should they care?)

Its true a buddy of mine asked if he could borrow my 400+ collection over time to burn them. He uses good quality ripping programs and they are virtually identical. He figures he is not going to have anything more than a 27 incher set for a few yrs so even if the copy is slightly lower quality he won't notice on a set that small. Hell we have compared on my 65 incher and even i being picky really cannot tell.

For me i have invested too much and to far in the game to start burning but if I just started perhaps with no HT at all i probably would also.

I'm curious to the downloading vs. renting idea. Does Blockbuster pay a royality to the respective studio each time a movie is rented from them? I know from the legal point of view, they have permisson to rent, however it would seem like they are hurting the DVD business as much as the downloaders. Whats the difference if someone pays $5 to rent a dvd from blockbuster to view once or downloads to dvd-rw to watch once, both seem to hurt the DVD business as you are not buying their dvd.
I support buying DVDs and have over 460 dvds in my collection, however I have bought some really crappy titles, (non-anamorphic, bad quality picture, sound) that I may have not bought otherwise if I had seen it first. Johnny Mneumonic is a perfect example as the back cover of the DVD says that it is 1.85:1 Widescreen and Full Frame, but when you play the movie its only Full Frame with no option to change to Widescreen.

403 DVDs and 0 burned.

It's a very costly habit but it's certainly worth rewarding a great company with my hard earned cash. Years ago when New Line starting making great DVDs I kept on buying them as did many others. Now look at the stuff they produce:



It was worth supporting them when they first started making DVDs.

I really wanted a DVD burner with my last computer just because it would of been handy to have but I just knew that if I had one and talked about all my DVDs.....someone would assume that I burned them. That's how strongly I feel about piracy.

I'm proud of my collection and also proud that I work hard enough to be able to afford them.

It's the same mindset as people who steal cable TV.

They have all kinds of "reasons" but basically they are thieves and would probably steal from a bank (and you) if they were guaranteed that they'd get away with it.

I own more than 400 DVD's and they are all originals. I support the studios and the actors and the crew when they work on something I enjoy because then they will continue to release movies or shows I enjoy. I've only considered buying bootlegs on a couple of occasions when it was a movie that was not available but I always end up walking away. As for these people's mindset - it comes down to morality.

Let's keep things in perspective here. The only "moral" issue with copying discs is that it is illegal. And as such, the morality of following the law is the same as obeying the legal speed limit.

There is a difference between physical theft and electronic theft.

Just because someone will download a movie off the internet doesn't mean they would steal from a bank. It's not a matter of "getting away" with it many times, it's more a matter of the idea that when you're downloading, you aren't "taking" anything away.

That file you download, it's still there after it's on your hard drive. You take a CD or a DVD from a store, and that disc is gone. And it's that actual physical presence that changes people's minds about theft.

Piracy isn't really "theft" in many people's eyes, it's copying. It may be defined as theft, in law, but it's not the same as going to a store and ripping it off the shelf.

Beyond that, even the argument that piracy is killing the studios is not one without problems. Just because someone downloads a movie doesn't mean they would buy it. Many people would go without if they couldn't get it for free or at a steep discount.

I know I wouldn't have half the DVD's I have if I didn't get a real good price on them. I like Bedazzled, but I wasn't going to pay $19.99 to add it to my collection. I did without, and bought it when the price went down and I got it for $5. Surely someone must have lost money on the deal, right?

That being said, I don't have any interest in downloading movies. Not because of morals, or fear of being caught or anything like that. I buy them because I want the whole package. I want the movie, I want the artwork on the discs. I want the case, the covert art, and of course the insert.

I would never burn a copy of a DVD that is available to buy. I wouldn't want something that is inferior and that would cheapen my collection. Instead of spending money on blank DVDs I choose to spend money through CH & others to get them for cheap. Then this gives me the opportunity down the line to sell them if a better version comes out or when the next format arrives. Unless you can find some fools to buy a bootleg DVD you will ultimately be operating at a loss. While I choose to continue operating legally and at a gain.

There's a phenomenal difference between the quality of discs people 'back up' from original sources and the famous "Bali R0's" you're most likely referring to. It all comes down to where the copy originates.

For example, I've seen R1 discs like "Wrong Turn" and "Phone Booth" in which the Widescreen version has been under 4.7gig [putting it in the 'single layer' category] and allowing people with burners to make a 1:1 copy of it.

Secondly, discs that are dual layered can be compressed / re-encoded to be "Movie Only" discs [to try and avoid lowering the bit-rate of the film's transfer] or have the resolution slightly lowered. To this day, I've never seen a copy with a truly significant and distracting difference to the original master, some of which have been compressed up to 30%! Also, I'll point out that when programs are compressed, it is ONLY the 'Video' quality that is lowered, the Audio still remains intact with it's full 2.0, 5.1 or even 6.1 DD or DTS grunt. I have a component Sony 5.1 setup with capabilities for both sound types as well as a widescreen television, so I would like to think that I could make such statements with some authority.
However, as yet I haven't tested any burnt DVDs on any plasma / 'hi-def' televisions [and probably never will - see below], and to be honest - I would expect the difference to probably be more noticeable.

When I got my burner the best part of a year ago, I was somewhat like a "Kid with a new Toy", basically trying it on everything I could. With that said, after a small period of time the novelty truly did begin to wear off, and now I honestly can't remember the last time I burnt something without thinking long and hard.
More so, in regards to the 20 or so DVDs I have burnt over my time - I've since replaced them with their original releases, NOT because of audio / video issues [as I said, they're fine] but due to the fact that at the end of the day, I'm a sucker for proper covers / cases and don't like the tacky look of 'blank white discs with black felt tip'. [Where's the pride in that?!!]
Call it part 'stroking', call it the collector in me, but having long lost interest in burning DVDs, I've gone and replaced everything I once copied with originals [and those 4-5 that I didn't want, I have tossed out with the rest].

In regards to this thread, I couldn't help but reply to this because there seems to be the aroma of hypocrisy (and Bull****) in the air. Reading all these replies that are either ill-informed about DVD burning or just spouting self-righteous garble (the Morality of it, they do it because they can 'get away with it', etc), I ask these very people - Have you ever downloaded a solitary mp3 without paying for it? Honestly? If the answer is no, then you're a league above the rest and are truly your brother's keeper. If not; get off your high horse.

Having said all this, I don't mean to cause offence towards anyone that has posted before me, nor do I want people to think I'm some sort of "aficionado" [far from it, I reckon!] or pompous jerk [not so far from it!]. I just wanted to say the things no one else had said thus far but warranted a mention in light of the thread's context.

A guy i work with gave me a burned dvd once in a plastic sleeve with the name of the movie scribbled in marker on the disc and it sat on top on my dvds for awhile then eventually i threw it out cuz it looked ugly