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Import DVD help


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ThatMatt



Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 162
PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 8:51 pm Reply with quote
I recently bought an Import DVD of Bleach (all legal, I may add), and it says on the box that it is for all regions. However, I tried playing it in my DVD player, and after it read the disc it came to a screen that simply said "cannot play". I also tried playing it in my Playstation 2, but it did the same thing, but after reading the disc it said something like "TV does not match system". Am I looking at a region code problem, or something else?
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Nerv1



Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 601
PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 9:14 pm Reply with quote
It probably was an illegal bootleg. "Import" dvd's that have problems like this are usually bootlegs. Bootleg sellers like to claim that their import products are legal, but they're are actually illegal. Anime dvd's that have region 0 are bootlegs most of the time. One question, can you tell me the place where you bought it for me to determine if the dvd's are legit or not?
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dormcat
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Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 9:54 pm Reply with quote
ThatMatt wrote:
I recently bought an Import DVD of Bleach (all legal, I may add)

How do you know? Who's the licensor and where did you buy it? Care to share a few pictures?
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6902
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 10:46 pm Reply with quote
Read this thread and its associated links, and see if anything looks familiar to you:

animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5401
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angel_lover



Joined: 22 Apr 2005
Posts: 645
Location: UK
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:59 am Reply with quote
Bootleg issues apart, the problem you're having sounds more like it's a PAL/NTSC issue than a region issue. Hong Kong (a notorious source of bootlegs) uses PAL, and therefore encodes its DVDs with 625 lines at 50 fields per second. American video equipment is expecting 525 lines at 60 fields per second - some DVD players can do the conversion automatically, some have to have a menu option set, but others just can't do it at all.

Conversely, if you're in Europe and not the Americas, substitute "Taiwan" for "Hong Kong", and swap all references to PAL and NTSC Surprised
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dormcat
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Joined: 08 Dec 2003
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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 10:42 am Reply with quote
Since angel_lover has mentioned R3HK and R3TW*, allow me to introduce them:

R3HK:


R3TW*:


Both are licensed by MediaLink Animation International Limited from Dentsu and sublicensed to Asia Video Publishing and Hi-Yu International, respectively. The TW version is in fact R0, similar to some titles released by CPM.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:55 am Reply with quote
For the original technical question, could it be a PAL vs. NTSC issue? I'm not familiar with how all that works or which regions use which, but I thought it could be a possibility.
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ThatMatt



Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 162
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 1:40 pm Reply with quote
Ok, so I may have been fooled into buying a bootleg from eBay (I apologize for being naive if it was the case), but it still says NTSC on the back cover. Could it be that its an HD DVD?
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 3:28 pm Reply with quote
Are there any company names or logos on the case?
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dormcat
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Joined: 08 Dec 2003
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Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 7:29 pm Reply with quote
ThatMatt wrote:
Ok, so I may have been fooled into buying a bootleg from eBay (I apologize for being naive if it was the case), but it still says NTSC on the back cover. Could it be that its an HD DVD?

1. As far as I know, Bleach does not have HD DVD / Blu-ray version yet, even in Japan. What is the color of the reflective layer of the disc?

2. Bootleggers can write whatever they want; some even wrote the name of the official licensor / distributor on the back cover, like this Haibane Renmei bootleg in Singapore.

3. As many people have mentioned, the best way would be providing company and disc info on the box, preferably with a photograph. Do you have any image acquisition device, such as a digital camera (standalone or embedded on a cell phone, notebook computer, etc.) or a scanner?
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ThatMatt



Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 162
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 8:56 pm Reply with quote
http://cgi.ebay.com/BLEACH-The-Sealed-Sword-Frenzy-The-Movie-OAV_W0QQitemZ190110400255QQihZ009QQcategoryZ617QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem < There it is right there. More and more I think about it, more and more I think I was duped. I regret not being educated enough to tell the difference, but whats done is done, and I just wanna watch the DVD. The color of the bottom has a goldish tint to it just FYI.
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frentymon
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Joined: 27 Nov 2005
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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:04 pm Reply with quote
AFAIK a legitimate release would not have both English and Chinese subs, meaning if I haven't got my facts mixed up this is probably a bootleg.

ThatMatt wrote:
but whats done is done, and I just wanna watch the DVD.


If it's a bootleg chances are it will never play. Back when I didn't know any better, I bought some bootlegs, and out of all 10 or so that I bought, only one worked, and that one suffered some serious quality issues.
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Nerv1



Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 601
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:09 pm Reply with quote
ThatMatt wrote:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BLEACH-The-Sealed-Sword-Frenzy-The-Movie-OAV_W0QQitemZ190110400255QQihZ009QQcategoryZ617QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem < There it is right there. More and more I think about it, more and more I think I was duped. I regret not being educated enough to tell the difference, but whats done is done, and I just wanna watch the DVD. The color of the bottom has a goldish tint to it just FYI.


The DVD labeling on the disc is a dead give away that it's a bootleg.
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LuckySleven



Joined: 13 Mar 2007
Posts: 426
Location: Refer to page 2
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:19 pm Reply with quote
There is also one thing I want to point out.Bootleg merchandise and authentic merchandise have different smells. You can probably distinguish quality plastic and cheap plastic if you know what they already smell like. If you think it smells funny, put it down and walk away as fast as you can.

Now I remember what I have to add to my shelf! BLEACH~! :3
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dormcat
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Joined: 08 Dec 2003
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Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 10:40 pm Reply with quote
ThatMatt wrote:
There it is right there. More and more I think about it, more and more I think I was duped.

I'm sorry to tell you but, yes, you bought a bootleg. Another giveaway that no one has pointed out yet is its bright yet strangely tinted, montaged cover art, with characters randomly clipped from various scenes.

However, after reading the entire eBay entry of it I found something interesting: its "Original Seal and authentication from Malaysia Government." If you (or anyone who has been following this thread) had followed the link in my previous post, you'd know that Singaporean government cares more about video contents (followed by censoring) than piracy. I don't know how things works in Malaysia, but judging from its political history I would make an educated guess that its government would take a similar route. Any Malaysian ANNer cares to verify this?

ThatMatt wrote:
I regret not being educated enough to tell the difference, but whats done is done, and I just wanna watch the DVD. The color of the bottom has a goldish tint to it just FYI.

Like frentymon said, the quality of bootlegged discs vary significantly: while some are almost as good as legit products (very rare though), most of them are terrible in audio/video quality, and some of them are not even playable. You might want to try different DVD players to see if any one of them can read your disc properly, but there is no guarantee.

By the way, The Sealed Sword Frenzy, as well as Memories in the Rain, were released at Jump Festa (2005 and 2004, respectively) and are rarely available outside Japan. Be VERY careful when you see dealers claiming they are "imports."
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