pirated DVds are not macrovisioned

I expected that the DVDs sold for one to a few dollars in Bangkok and
Saigon would be exact copies (with copy-protection) but in fact they
are not. I have imported into my SONY digital (mini-DV) camcorder and
imported to imovie with no problems. Now to see whether I will be able
to import directly from my DVD reader superdrive on my laptop. Anyone
done that? The key factor here is that I am not dealing with industry
standard issue, but rather pirated versions.

BTW, only the big studios, and not even all of their movies, are
macrovisioned. I have copied from various smaller companies with no
problem.

Warning: A minority of pirated DVDS are very poor quality, and many
are missing all the features (Director's commentaries etc). The
Chinese (Taiwanese?) ones are the worse and often they have no English
language subtitle option. A very few are filmed in cinemas! Most are
every bit as good as the ones you pay ten to twenty times more for.

How does this industry work anyway? Do they employ hackers who know
how to access internet versions?

P.S. Is it true that the world centres of pirated DVds are in fact
malaysia and China?

Marian

On 15 Jun 2004 18:18:58 -0700, (Marian) wrote:

>How does this industry work anyway? Do they employ hackers who know
>how to access internet versions?

For new movies not yet legally released in video, 9 out of 10 times,
movies are from video camera smuggled in a movie theater. Quality is
usually poor with lots of flickering, bad cropping, occasional head
bobbing along the bottom of the video and flickerings. 1 out of 10
times it's from a screener (like a preview video) and generally are
much better quality but may contain rough or unfinished special
effects.

For movies that are already released on DVD, anyone with a computer
that has DVD-ROM can rip the movie off the DVD and burn them onto
DVD-R or DVD+R. Because commercial DVD are usually 9GB while DVD
burner are limited to 4.7GB, many features are often sacrificed like
the director's commentary, extra subtitle and language tracks, etc and
even the quality of the movie reduced a bit.

Since it only takes a few minutes or so to burn a DVD and they usually
sell well on the black market because they are *cheap*, these people
generally don't care much for quality.

Don't support them, don't buy DVD if you think they may not be legal
release. Ripping DVD to make a backup copy is fine if you want to
protect against (for example) a 5 year old stuffing DVD in a toaster.
But to make profit is usually good for a few years in the slammer plus
restitution.
--
To reply, replace digi.mon with tds.net

Impmon

> Ripping DVD to make a backup copy is fine if you want to
>protect against (for example) a 5 year old stuffing DVD in a toaster.

heck, my legitimite studio bought dvd season set had problems with it skipping
a portion of the show.

And it was indeed the disc and not my dvd player, since I tried it on a bunch
of different dvd players at my house.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to exchange it for another copy of the exact same
disc.

therefore, making me unfortunately stuck wwith it.

Some studio releases are as bad or even worse than the pirate versions.

(going by the descriptions given in this newsgroup thread). I have never ever
bought a pirate dvd. I have only bought legitimate studio releases, and every
singtle one of my dvd's are legitimate studio dvd releases.

Waterperson77

in those regions they actually sell 'illegal' dvds on the streets which they
don't in Europe... unless you know people or something... that's the only
difference really....
"Marian" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> I expected that the DVDs sold for one to a few dollars in Bangkok and
> Saigon would be exact copies (with copy-protection) but in fact they
> are not. I have imported into my SONY digital (mini-DV) camcorder and
> imported to imovie with no problems. Now to see whether I will be able
> to import directly from my DVD reader superdrive on my laptop. Anyone
> done that? The key factor here is that I am not dealing with industry
> standard issue, but rather pirated versions.
>
> BTW, only the big studios, and not even all of their movies, are
> macrovisioned. I have copied from various smaller companies with no
> problem.
>
> Warning: A minority of pirated DVDS are very poor quality, and many
> are missing all the features (Director's commentaries etc). The
> Chinese (Taiwanese?) ones are the worse and often they have no English
> language subtitle option. A very few are filmed in cinemas! Most are
> every bit as good as the ones you pay ten to twenty times more for.
>
> How does this industry work anyway? Do they employ hackers who know
> how to access internet versions?
>
> P.S. Is it true that the world centres of pirated DVds are in fact
> malaysia and China?

Nick Legrand

"Waterperson77" <> wrote in message
news:...
> heck, my legitimite studio bought dvd season set had problems with it
skipping
> a portion of the show.
>
> And it was indeed the disc and not my dvd player, since I tried it on a
bunch
> of different dvd players at my house.
>
> Unfortunately, I wasn't able to exchange it for another copy of the exact
same
> disc.
>
> therefore, making me unfortunately stuck wwith it.
>

Why couldnt you exchange it? If the retailer was out of that title, he
should have ordered another for you right on the spot. If you were dealing
with eBay, or some other private seller, thats your problem.

Biz

>Why couldnt you exchange it? If the retailer was out of that title, he
>should have ordered another for you right on the spot

It was one of the season sets of "Friends" released by Warner Brothers. And by
the time I got to that partuicular disc that skipped, it was past the "10 day
limit" to be able to return it for an exchange at the store.

I can't watch all the discs in one day, you know.

I bought two season sets at the same time, so y the time I got to the skipping
disc, it was past the store's "10 day limit for dvd exchanges".

Waterperson77

actually, I bought 2 season sets one day and then another 2 season sets a few
days later, so with all of those discs to watch, by the time I got to the
skipping disc, (it skipped on ALL dvd players I tried), it was past the store's
10 day time limit for exchanges of dvd's.

Waterperson77

Waterperson77 wrote:
>> Why couldnt you exchange it? If the retailer was out of that title,
>> he should have ordered another for you right on the spot
>
> It was one of the season sets of "Friends" released by Warner
> Brothers. And by the time I got to that partuicular disc that
> skipped, it was past the "10 day limit" to be able to return it for
> an exchange at the store.
>
> I can't watch all the discs in one day, you know.
>
> I bought two season sets at the same time, so y the time I got to the
> skipping disc, it was past the store's "10 day limit for dvd
> exchanges".

What retailer only allows 10 days for an exchange for a
defective DVD? Every retailer around in my area is at least
30 days.

And "Friends"... dude, you really got no taste now do you?

Demolition Man

Brian The Demolition Man Little