Fake DVD movies - an extremely dumb question

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geekIT

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#56550 16-Jan-2010 12:17

Here's another very dumb question - I specialize in 'em, actually :-)

Bought some DVDs on Trademe coupla days ago then started to wonder: How to tell if a DVD is a pirated copy? Now, I don't mean some scratchy, grainy mess that's been taken with a hand-held camera in a Karachi movie theatre. I'm talking about a highly professional copy with multi-channel sound and maybe even disc and label holograms.

I found heaps of tips online, ranging from the silly ('very cheap price') to the sensible ('if you can you smudge the disc label with a damp finger, it's not screen-printed). But there was little of a definitive nature.

Then I thought: Why not try a media identifier, like DVDInfo Pro? So I did this and it seemed to give me a clear result. Under 'Media code/Manufacturer ID' it said; 'N/A Pressed DVD'.

Which I took to mean that the disc had been stamped from a glass master, as I'd expect from a commercial product.

My question (finally): Is this an acid test for DVD movies? Would the 'Pressed DVD' notation be 100% reliable when trying to spot a fake?

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boby55

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#290508 16-Jan-2010 12:21

Generally if you look at the bottom, and it doesn't have the burn mark on it, nor is it purple for DVD and has a high quality printing on the top of the disc, its genuine

richms

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#290593 16-Jan-2010 19:19

not true, I have many many pressed ones from asia that are fake and have pretty good screen printing on them. Certainly better than a lot I have seen at the warehouse in the cheap crap bins.

They normally come without an amaray case, just the insert for the case in a plastic back. The dead give away is the copy on the sleeve being full of chinglish, sometimes with synopsyses from other movies, telling you about performances of actors that are not in the movie. Also they often have DTS all over the sleeve but disappoint with only AC3 since they are mostly single layer re-codes.

Richard rich.ms

Kyanar

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#290652 17-Jan-2010 08:08

Another thing to check for is that there is a barcode printed into the innermost ring of the underside of the disc. You should also see a long string of letters and numbers. Sometimes also the name of the duplicators (SSD for example). You probably have to look at it from an angle to see it properly.

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geekIT

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#290659 17-Jan-2010 09:21

Well, that's what I was asking about, actually. Is there any computer software that can analyze that sort of coded info?

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xpd

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#290661 17-Jan-2010 09:30

There is software packages out there for DVD collectors etc that can read in a barcode and tell you what the film is via the barcode... in my experience, if its a dodgy movie, quite often itll come up as something else in that software.
ie: DVD says its Lion King, but when checking the barcode it comes up as Little Nicky - but obviously if someone entered the wrong details int he first place (such as many ppl do on CDDB) its not going to help...

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

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geekIT

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#290666 17-Jan-2010 09:45

Thanks XPD. Any idea of the name of the software?

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Kyanar

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#290695 17-Jan-2010 13:21

xpd, are you referring to the tiny barcode on the underside of the disc or the EAN printed on the packaging? I was referring to the code on the underside of the disc. To be honest, the EAN is pretty dodgy anyway - the number of discs I've scanned into my collection to have them read as something completely different is astonishing - and that's using Amazon as the source!

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xpd

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#290723 17-Jan-2010 16:30

Kyanar :
Yeah the EAN.... most of mine have come up OK when I did it few years ago, but did have a couple of dodgy types that someone gave us after a trip to Singapore :-p
They came up as some odd movies ;)

geekIT:
http://www.collectorz.com/movie/

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

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