The first DVD I ever bought was a copy of Akira. I bought it from a store, and it wasn’t cheap! However, it turns out that what I bought was a bootleg, and based on what I know today, it should’ve been obvious.
At the peak of DVD’s popularity, I had no issue sussing out a fake, even without popping it in my player. However, these days it seems bootleggers have become much better at making their fakes—and that’s a problem for a collector like me.
Fooling the enthusiasts
A few weeks before I wrote this, one of my favorite YouTubers ran a quick-and-dirty video on a secondary channel highlighting what he thought was a scummy new practice with modern reprints of DVD.
He bought a number of DVD box sets and noticed that the quality wasn’t what it should be. After some technical investigation, the reason for the lower quality was solved.
How the discs were downgraded
To understand how these new DVD releases have been downgraded, you need to know one or two things first. The most important is that DVDs largely come in two varieties: single-layer, and dual-layer. Dual-layer discs have a capacity of around 8.5GB and single-layer discs top out at 4.7GB. When DVD video is encoded, it’s done to provide the best quality at the target resolution. Usually 480 or 576 pixels high for NTSC and PAL regions, respectively. With the width varying between widescreen and 4:3 aspect ratio content.
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For movies, a single-layer disc is usually enough, though longer movies or those with lots of extra features might use a dual-layer disc. For TV series, however, it’s typical to use a dual-layer disc to get the most episodes on a disc as possible.
It’s mainly TV series that are in question here, because what was pointed out is that these discs single-layer now, whereas the original release was dual layer. The original DVD master has been re-encoded to fit into nearly half the space.
This is exactly what people who pirated DVDs back in the day used to do. Since blank dual-layer discs were rare and expensive. You would use special software to compress the video more so it would fit on a single-layer blank. You’d also usually strip out any special features to give the main content the most space possible, but clearly they can’t do that with an “official” reprint of a DVD series.
This leads to a version of the show or movie that’s visibly worse quality, as the bitrate takes a hit and the image holds less detail. Especially in motion.
It was piracy after all
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While this recompression technique was the hallmark of cheap bootleg DVDs back in the day, Alec Watson from Technology Connections didn’t think of that for a second, it seems. In the original video, he just assumes that these are legitimate releases, just later imprints. It’s only in a pinned comment on that video where he adds information saying that, yes, it turns out these are bootleg.
Now, what’s most striking about this is that Alec isn’t some spring chicken when it comes to physical media. He lived through the same DVD era I did, and obviously has plenty of experience with the easy-to-spot bootlegs of the past. The thing is, putting the bootleg side-by-side with the original doesn’t raise any alarm bells. The cases, the packaging, the printing, everything was apparently fine.
It’s a minefield out there
So, if like me, you’re looking to start or expand your physical media collection, then the presence of these high-quality fakes is a big problem. Honestly, I’m surprised the global DVD market is big enough to make it worth the effort for bootleggers, but then again, I suppose the production cost of such convincing fakes must now be low enough to make it worth it. Just not low enough to pay for that extra layer on a DVD. What makes it worse is that these discs aren’t being sold out of someone’s trunk or at a flea market. People are buying them from mainstream platforms like Amazon.
So how can you know if you bought a bootleg? First, you’ll have to research whether the legitimate release was dual-layer or not. If you already bought the DVD set, put a disc into your computer’s DVD drive (you do have one, right?) and then check its size. If it’s 4.7GB or less, that’s a single-layer disc, and you might still be able to return it to Amazon, and perhaps consider reporting it.
The main reason I haven’t been hit by this myself yet, is that I buy most of my DVDs used, and so they’re from earlier production runs when bootlegs weren’t this good. That’s also a viable strategy, if you’re OK with a little wear and tear on the packaging, though I never buy used discs with signs of damage. Regardless, don’t assume that because you bought a DVD (or Blu-ray) from a seemingly legitimate vendor that the media is guaranteed to be genuine.
