[LINK] Copyright and DVDs

[Ash Nallawalla]

> From: Kevin Littlejohn

> Hrm.  Well, they're not VCD's - the quality difference is, um,
> noticeable.

Sure.  I was just saying that some cheap DVDs turn out to be VCDs.  A good
example are Star Wars DVDs - which to my knowledge have never been
officially released. At best, someone had copied Laser discs to DVD; at
worst, they are VCDs.

> I'm _very_ impressed/surprised if they're pirate copies - as I

Again, you may be lucky and they are legit.  They sound like Region 3, given
the subtitle languages. A silver is single-layer only and a long movie would
take two of these to copy, whereas the legit would be on one.  If the
original is on one disc then you'd need to look for other clues.

> my response to that is, I'd just about be willing to pay _extra_,

Search for "Malaysia" or "Bali" in Deja/Google to find discussion of prices
there.  Good, English-language DVDs are dearer there than the Aussie prices.

> So the answer is to buy you DVD player in New Zealand, buy your
> DVD's over the 'net

It is an art form.  aus.dvd is one of the busiest aussie newsgroups full of
opinions on this subject. Without a Region 1 player you are handicapped.
The cheapest outlets are in Canada, even given our lousy conversion rate.
Then again, some of these good outlets are bad when the product takes months
to ship or is stolen along the way...

- Ash