Region Free DVDs

[mcooper]

Hello

I have been thinking about starting to buy the B5 DVD sets for some time. While checking the web for prices I came across Region Free sets from China/Hong Kong on eBay for prices that seem to good to be true.

I have been searching but I haven't been able to find any comments about these sets (good or bad). Now I do not want want pirated copies nor do I want to support some sort of piracy ring operating in Asia.

So I am looking for any comments or opinions on these products.

Thanks

 

[anlashok1]

MC these are pirated DVDs. I bought a copy of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring on ebay and it was of very bad quality. I destroyed it and now I always purchase the authorized versions, even though the price is higher.

 

[Sigma]

to answer subject only, according to Alpha1 at firstones.com forums, the b5:movies dvd's have the Regionalcodes 1,2,3,4.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The rule of thumb is that anything coming out of Asia with a "region 0" setting (especially if it is being sold via eBay) is bootlegged. Almost the only "legit" commercial releases that are Region 0 are a) porn* or b) films old enough to be in the public domain.

Also it is still the case that many "DVDs" sold on eBay are, in fact, Video CDs. By the time you get them and find out what they are, the "seller" has opened a new account under a different name and you're basically screwed.

Regards,

Joe

* according to an article I read somewhere. Seriously.

 

[zantarous]

There are actually a lot of legit DVDs that come out of Asia as region 0. These however are not US films but Asians productions such as Infernal Affairs and Shaolin Soccer the list is endless and some of them has real good AV. You really need to know your DVD stuff if you are buying of ebay as a lot of it does tend to be VCD’s.

 

[sleepy_shadow]

Big studios, especially those from Hollywood (especially members of DVDCCA)... generally region-code their disks.

Smaller ones... may be less interested in artificially limiting their market (or annoying customers by forcing them to employ circumvention technologies).

Consequently, since Warner is among the former... said disks are with high probability pirated. I would recommend legal disks, and instead using a DVD player with region protection (or region change counters) disabled.

 

[Sindatur]

Regarding Ebay purchases (Big Ebay-addict here), the most important thing to do before bidding on something is to check the user's feedback profile and how long they've been a User (You can also see if they've changed their name recently). This will help you avoid things like getting bad quality pirated materials, and Joe's scenario of someone skipping out on their Username and recreating a new one. If it seems to good to be true or legit, it probably is. You can always email and ask them questions before bidding. Also, if the bidder's identity is protected, it's a good chance that the seller doesn't want anyone to be capable of contacting bidders, to ask questions and compare notes. I can't think of any reason that a seller "protecting the bidder's identity" benefits the bidder, but it does make it more difficult for a potential bidder to fully investigate the seller (there are other ways of getting around people who go after the same stuff as you, who take to shopping off a list of what you are bidding on)

 

[zantarous]

I forgot to mention that when the DVD spec was drawn up region coding was only supposed to be for new films the back catalogue was to be issued without region coding, looks as though Hollywood forgot that one, but you would be surprised by the about of legit films that come out of the US that are coded for more then one region.