I picked up a second used copy of Space Cowboys cheap, to give to my father-in-law. When I was checking condition side-by-side to decide which one to keep, I noticed there is considerable difference between these discs.

1) One has a silver color, the other has a gold color.

2) One has a satin-smooth label, the other has a textured appearance, almost like a very fine wire mesh.

I am not sure if one is a well-made copy, or perhaps one is a later pressing which was done on a different blank. It is a 2001 Warner release, and I know there was a problem with DVD rot in some of their releases around that time - IIRC the problematic dual-layer discs had a gold color.


All specs I see on winDVD are the same. Would a bootleg / burned copy still have macrovision encoding?

Any general ideas on spotting bootlegs would be appreciated.

it is certainly possible to bootleg a DVD and leave macrovision in tact

although, I'll add that this has to be one of the least likely titles to be found bootlegged

I would usually agree - but a few weeks back I bought a burned copy of an even cheaper disc from a pawn shop for $3 - The Philadelphia Experiment.

This was a very bad copy job - the audio was listed on the case as AC-3 5.1, it was really 2 channel PCM. The bitrate was locked at 6.4-6.5 Mb. Very poor video - looked worse than VHS. I took it back.