How to spot a bootleg DVD question
 

Somebody here had a link in their sig to a guide on how to spot bootlegs. Does anybody here know who that was, or anywhere to go to have a good idea how to spot bootlegs?

Thanks

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/waskydiver/
It was Wasky Driver

things to notice and raise your eyebrow at:

Region 0
in anime it says ANIME on the cover

Another thing to notice:
No Insert

not all dvds have inserts, thats not really a big deal.

Photocopied covers is a dead give away. If a film just came out in theaters, assume all it's dvd formats are bootlegs unless it is a screener.

If it says "Bootleg" on the cover
If you buy it in an alley
If you download it


All these are signs of it being a bootleg.

I notice bootlegs have a DTS symbol when I know for a fact that it doesn't have a DTS track.

other giveaways

1. the cover says dvd9 (most genuine dvds are dvd9s and don't need to advertise it)

2. the cover has square edges - most R1 dvd covers i've seen have rounded corners

3. the cover has the old AC3 logo ( a series of square in a semi circle) this is an old dolby surround sound logo and they no longer use it

duz:
 

Out of over 600 DVDs, the only ones that didn't have an insert were cheap ones (Laserlight, Madacy, etc.). I'm mostly asking for the purpose of disks that typically get bootleged on eBay, etc, which are mostly Criterions and similar releases. If it says "no insert" on a Criterion disc, they can sell it to somebody else, cause until proven otherwise, it's bootleg in my mind.

All of my R1 new releases came with inserts. About 50% of my catalog titles from major studios (not Madacy, Diamond, Laserlight) did not. 90% of my R2 discs (that are not bootlegs) did not come with an insert, none of my R0 HK discs that are legit came with inserts. This is out of about 350 discs.

The SE of Almost Famous is an exception to this.

Biggest source of bootlegs has to be Scarface. Since it went out of print there have been so many different variations of the film. I got sucked into buying a version which I thought was legit for $40. Turns out it's an import with no insert, scratched ID numbers, and no"Making Of". On the plus side I got anamorphic picture and DD 5.1 & DTS sound. So it wasn't all that big of a loss.
Another dead giveaway for a bootleg/import is the cover art. Often times it will have a cheap "photo copied" quality to it. Another is if the CD itself looks like it's been slapped on with logos. Usually big companies do a good job meshing the art with the disc, but most bootleggers haven't got it down right, and you can tell.

Another thing, make sure you are getting the disc from a reliable source. Do a background check by asking around from other buyers, or check the EXACT specs on the product beforeyou buy it and compare it to what the studio released. It all depends on the movie though. Like I said, it looks like Scarface has the biggest following of bootlegs out there.

And Army of Darkness and the upcoming Empire Records DVD also.

Incorrectly spelled words are also a giveaway. My Lady and the Tramp DVD had Disney spelled incorrectly on the DVD (D-I-S-N-A-Y).

Also, the photo art on the DVD itself was horrible, and the company information that circles the outer part of the DVD was truncated and started and ended at odd places.

Bad cover art
Ridiculous use of DTS
DVD9 Logo
Region 0 (90% of the time)
OOP films (i.e. Bond, Criterion, Disney)
Films that haven't been released (Star Wars, Indy, some bootlegs of BTTF, ET, and Godfather still around)
Crap cases used.

I'm not sure if you meant the box itself or the cover art. But I've noticed that, on Criterion DVDs, the the cover art insert (behind the plastic) sometimes has rounded corners, and sometimes has square corners. I've even noticed multiple (real, not bootleg) copies of the same movie, some with rounded corners, and some with square. "And God Created Woman" was one of these.

I don't know what this means, if anything. But square corners on the cover insert don't always mean the disc's a bootleg. (And I know you did say "most" -- just expanding on that idea...)

This question comes up a lot. Aside from obvious, glaring differences on a DVD's cover, I would think there is another fool-proof way to spot a bootleg which I've never seen mentioned.

First, if you put the DVD into your PC, click "My Computer," then click your player's drive, it will give you the size of the disc. Assuming you know whether the movie is supposed to be single layer or double layer, there should be close to 5 GB used on a single layer or more on a double layer. (This is only a generalization of course, since it varies depending on the film's running time.)

If it passes this test, you can then go through Windows Explorer and right click on various files stored on the DVD to check its properties. This will give you the creation date. Obviously, this date will need to be something reasonable. If the DVD is out of print, and the date is (for instance) this year, I would say this is a dead giveaway that it's a bootleg.

I'm very leery of any OOP DVD sold on Ebay and don't like getting ripped off. So if there are ways bootlegs can circumvent these tests please let me know.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work. I can point you to hundreds of major studio releases that are nowhere near 5 GB. Running time really doesn't seem to be an indicator either. On bootlegs, the file sizes will usually be identical to the legit version since they are usually copying the exact files. On the Criterion SALO bootleg for example, the files sizes are identical.

Again, this doesn't really mean anything since if they are copying the exact files, the date isn't going to change.

I'd say the best indicators are on the jacket. Bootlegs still seem to use lower quality jacket art. Most of the time, this is the easiest way to tell, presuming you know what the original jacket art looks like.

This means nothing. Different production runs of different titles can have different corners. This is by no means proof of anything.

You can't really tell from this either. There are thousands of legit titles that are coded Region 0. Even major studio product from Korea is often coded Region 0. I have the 3-disc Black Hawk Down set from Columbia in Korea and it is Region 0. Same thing with the Korean version of Pulp Fiction. It's Region 0 (and blows away the U.S. version in terms of picture quality).

Thanks for clearing that up Truffaut Fan. Like I said, I never heard anyone mention these methods before, so I guess they are not as good indicators as I thought. That being said, I've admittedly bought DVDs before where the case looks legit, the file sizes/properties checked out on the PC, but the top label on the disc was questionable. Some of these guys are better than I thought. (And after a couple of negative experiences, I think the only home video format I'm going to buy anymore off Ebay is laserdiscs!)

not necessarly. i can get full retail dvd's that way

I'm not aware of a single company that sells full retail dvds for download. If it's downloaded, it's not legal data . . .

i never said it was legal. but its not a bootleg. its the exact same dvd you can buy in the store

An exact copy of a retail disc is still a bootleg. Bootlegs aren't necessary subpar in quality as compared to official releases. Any unauthorized distribution, reproduction, etc., is a bootleg.

DJ

if you buy "Toy Story" and pop it in and it plays "The Incredibles" i think you might have a bootleg...not positive though.