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My mate bought a Region 0 version of Shrek from a computer fair this weekend. The case and disc look good and the movie's pic is excellent with DD sound.
Are these discs Legitimate and legal? or are they pirated copies as i suspect.
He reckons he can get all the Star Wars films on these DVD's as well.
Bapapapa
15-10-2001, 18:18
Was the guy at the fair flogging moonshine as well?
Ben Martin
15-10-2001, 23:04
Originally posted by Lugsy
He reckons he can get all the Star Wars films on these DVD's as well.
case closed, i believe. as baps intimates above, all definitely very below board and dodgy as hell.
i went to my first computer fair two weeks ago (to buy quality, legit dvds from mr ringo (http://www.ringos.co.uk/)) and was amazed by the sheer amount of 'hot' stuff there was on sale. easily enough to have the organisers closed for good. but even more surprising was how blase they were about it, no 'under the counter' approach at all. £500 worth of photoshop for a skin diver and hundreds of the things all over a stall in clearly copied cases.
now, i don't want to sound like the kids in the F.A.S.T. ads ("hang on .... these are COPIES!!!" :D), but i think these guys are taking the ***** by selling this stuff - software or dvd. i wouldn't condemn anyone for downloading stuff for free that they want to try and blatantly can't afford. but traders lazily selling it on for a profit is another matter altogether. worst of all, it harms other legit traders at the same shows - who, it must be said, are vastly outnumbered!
They sound very dodgy. Unless they are from a reputable retailer, don't go anywhere near them.
Some Anchor Bay and Criterions are region 0 though.
In other words: If you see some at a computer fair or market, don't buy them. :)
Michael Brooke
16-10-2001, 09:25
As a general rule of thumb, if it's a major Hollywood title and it's not region-coded, the chances are pretty overwhelming that it's a pirate.
There are thousands of perfectly legitimate region-free discs out there, but they tend to be specialist/minority interest titles where there's no good reason for applying region coding - in fact, there's every reason <U>not</U> to, since these companies rarely own the world rights to their titles, so obviously aren't going to complain if people choose to import them to countries where they may not own the rights!
Interestingly enough, though, one company did get into trouble over this recently, by selling copies of the Russian Cinema Council's region-free disc of <I>Solaris</I>. Although a perfectly legitimate release in its country of origin, Criterion own the US rights and were none too happy about someone else selling <I>Solaris</I> DVDs over there. Confusingly, words like "pirate" and "bootleg" started doing the rounds, which was grossly unfair to Ruscico, whose disc is absolutely superb in terms of transfer quality and presentation.
Solaris is a film I want to see - but I don't want to pay £25 for the privelige.
I don't think it'd be up my street anyway.
EDIT - Wait a minute. Isn't the Rusisco disc in PAL format? I don't that'd work properly with the NTSC stuff over there.
I borrowed Jurassic Park 3, Driven and Planet of the Apes off my mate.
Picture quality was the same as all other DVD's (was very slightly darker, but that is my only grumble) and the sound was DD or DTS (Planet of the Apes).
The covers were a bit dodgy and there were not many extras on the actual disc.
They cost £10 by the way.
My Ghost In The Shell which i bought in HMV is r0 so i guess they are legit
No. Some region 0 discs are legit, if you buy them from a shop or a reputable retailer.
But the others are fakes which originate in the far East. Those are pirates.
As I complained a month or so ago, it was a rather hard job to get my hands on Solaris DVD over here in Latvia. However recently I visited one of local DVD outlet stores and there it was- ALL regions, PAL, packed in a transparent jewel box (as far as I remember I saw some of these being in London, and used to think they are a kind of R2 invention :) ) for a local equivalent of 30 $…
In Russia and ex-soviet countries this movie is released by Krupnij Plan (CP digital), fully remastered to 5.1 DD audio and remastered video – company did a brand new positive print on Kodak film and did some additional processing digitally afterwards. The picture is 16:9 enhanced and aspect ratio is approximately 1,85:1. There are russian subtitles and one audio track – russian. How it looks can be seen here:
http://www.dvdinfo.ru/disk.phtml?disk_id=1356
It seems the video used for the local release is the same as RUSCICO, however there is lack of language tracks, subtitles and other extras. As a matter of fact, the only one (included in RUSCICO release as well) is interview with N. Bondarchuk. Resume – overpriced barebones local release.
Originally posted by Michael Brooke
Interestingly enough, though, one company did get into trouble over this recently, by selling copies of the Russian Cinema Council's region-free disc of <I>Solaris</I>. <skip> Confusingly, words like "pirate" and "bootleg" started doing the rounds, which was grossly unfair to Ruscico, whose disc is absolutely superb in terms of transfer quality and presentation.
ive borrowed evolution, p/o/apes,american p2, kiss of the dragon
shrek. fast + furious,scary movie2. jeepers creepers. r/hour2
driven. american outlaws,h/breakers rockstar. the score. p/harb
croc dun3, amec pie2 tomb raider.swordfish m/rouge freddy got fingered ,dr dool,mike bass, osmos jones ,star wars t/p/m
brid jones lord/rings, atlantis, parole off,A.I, capt correli, f/fantasy,leg blonde , ghost /mars, the others, theres more all on sale at the market the bloke has got his own dvd silvers chart most are exel copies (sorry backups) i sometimes buy one £8/10 and take it back the next week choose another title and pay £2 its better than Blockbusters there`s loads sites selling them, if i really like them i buy real things when available
How are these films such a good quality with DD or DTS Sound?
Naim, what Lord of the Rings were you on about? The animated version?
What sites sell these DVD's as it could save me a trip to the computer fair!!
Michael Brooke
21-10-2001, 11:05
<B>In Russia and ex-soviet countries this movie is released by Krupnij Plan (CP digital), fully remastered to 5.1 DD audio and remastered video – company did a brand new positive print on Kodak film and did some additional processing digitally afterwards. The picture is 16:9 enhanced and aspect ratio is approximately 1,85:1.</B>
Is that the actual aspect ratio or the one advertised on the box? I only ask because my edition claims that it's 1.85:1 on the box, but the DVD itself is very definitely anamorphic 2.35:1, as it should be.
And to answer Paul490, Ruscico discs are available in both PAL and NTSC, with artwork and labelling available in Russian, English and French - when I subscribed, I had to tick various boxes describing my personal preference. For the record, all the Ruscico DVDs I review will be of the PAL versions, so bear that in mind when ordering those discs distributed in the US by Kino and Image, as they might not be identical (and I've heard complaints about the NTSC <I>Solaris</I> that I can't match to my PAL copy).
It was actually quite amusing when trading standards raided the Whitchurch Computer fair about a month ago.
However saying that there has been a fair since, and everyone was back to their old ways......
Sad really. You think they'd learn.....
I'd actually really like to get Solaris. I'll probably just buy the UK Artificial Eye disc coming up soon.
If there was a very easy way to buy that disc, I would, but I don't want to use a French supplier or buy 119 other DVDs with it! :)
Funny you should mention this I went into an electronic duty free shop today with the intention of buying a multi-region player. After trying to communicate with a salesperson about region codes he looked at me blankly when I said to him that the machine he was trying to demonstrate had a sticker on saying region 3 and that I wanted a multi-region machine. Eventually a English speaking salesman was found and he explained that it was illegal to advertise them as Multi-region so they sticker them up as region 3 (normally china and south east asia) "region free" I found it quite amusing really. :)
Originally posted by Michael Brooke
And to answer Paul490, Ruscico discs are available in both PAL and NTSC, with artwork and labelling available in Russian, English and French
And spanish (http://www.mundolaser.com/ruso.htm) ;) , but the 3 I ordered from them was with english cover, but I think it was because of troubles to get the DVD's from the spanish distribuator.
Originally posted by Michael Brooke
Is that the actual aspect ratio or the one advertised on the box? I only ask because my edition claims that it's 1.85:1 on the box, but the DVD itself is very definitely anamorphic 2.35:1, as it should be.
It is how it looks on my WS TV set. On the box there is just "Widescreen 16:9" what doesn't carry any information about AR of the movie. As 1,78:1 fills my TV completely and on Solaris there are a half an inch black bars, but noticeably thinner than in 2,35:1 case, I presume that the movie is presented in appr. 1,85:1 AR. Well, when it would be possible, I'll do a comparision with Ruscico release, if I get one.
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