Additional context from his pinned comment to that video:
I’ve been away from internet all day and it sounds like I got my hands on a couple of bootleg/counterfeit sets here! That’s neat. Love that. I’m going to leave this video up as it is because the overall lesson here remains mostly the same - but I am embarrassed this thought never occurred to me, especially with The Good Place Blu-rays. I honestly thought a Blu-ray release of that show would be niche enough that a run of pressed discs wouldn’t be justified and didn’t question it. I’ve not been paying attention to physical media for nearly a decade so I’ve missed some memos and made one too many assumptions!
Some “bootlegs” are licensed and sold in Amazon. Note the manufacturer.
Real
“Bootleg”
Holy shit it’s been awhile since I thought about Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe thing. We watched it as a family, I use to read the books a lot.
I really hate the collection cases some of the Blu-ray releases come in. I recently got the complete Blu-ray collection of Star Trek: Enterprise. All the discs are crammed in really tight in one single large plastic case; it feels like you’re going to risk breaking them just trying to get any of them out. The table of contents is printed on the inside of the case behind several discs so you have to take those discs out just to see the list.
I HAVE broken discs in similar sets (Mr. Robot, Planet of the Apes) taking them out of those awful cases, and also had them arrived scratched up. Definitely check them closely when they arrive so you don’t realize (like I have) when you get to disc six a month later and realize it won’t play past 40 minutes. So many cheap box sets now have the same horrible packaging that ruins the discs.
When possible with those kinds of cases, I just rip out the horrible center disc holders, put the discs in sleeves and then put those in the case.
I HAVE broken discs in similar sets (Mr. Robot, Planet of the Apes) taking them out of those awful cases
So someone actually came up with something worse than the Scanavo DVD cases (on the grounds that I never actually broke a disc taking it out of a Scanavo case, just thought I was going to)? That’s . . . brutal.
Those releases he is referring to are definitely bootlegs. He should get his movies from a more respectable outlet instead.
I imagine that he started collecting DVDs because it’s a cheap way to own a physical copy of your favorite shows…
But for the love of god just go hunt for cheap Blu-ray versions instead and leave DVDs in the past.
Unless you, for whatever reason, just must own a specific DVD release because it has otherwise unreleased extra content/commentary, or it never made it to Blu-ray.
I’m somewhat leaning towards DVD sometimes because you can reliably rip them and store the originals away. Blu-ray either works easily, or it’s a major pain that can only be done by peeking into the memory of a Windows Blu-ray player to extract the key.
I’ve never had a normal bluray that I couldn’t rip with MakeMKV. It’s the UHD blurays that are a pain to rip.
The only UHD disks that I have had problems ripping are brand new releases. Then I give it a few days and MakeMKV has no problem.
UHD is just a pain because it’s hard to find a compatible drive.
I have a few on my desk right now that won’t. Usually somewhat more obscure titles where nobody has ripped the key and shared it in the public
KEYDB.cfg. Like the Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (incidentally, one of the movies in there is public domain, and another will be on this coming Jan 1).Although I also have a copy of Deadpool, not UHD, that won’t rip, so it’s not always obscure titles, either.
Sure, but if the options are to watch something in low resolution or not at all, I’m picking up the novelisation instead.
So many of old analog film movies seem to be just the dvd ripped to bluray sadly, so there are no real advantage going high tech. Its not like they add more extras in the unused space either
Do you have any physical media outlets you recommend?
I am situated in Denmark and buy all my movies from laserdisken.dk. While by no means the cheapest option, I like supporting local businesses and doing what I can to incentivize new releases on physical media. They also have excellent support and movie knowledge to help you find what you are looking for.
Your local used movie place.
Good idea! How do I get past the boarded-up doors, though?
Crowbar?
What even would that be? Like a CeX in the UK?
My local charity shop has an arse load of DVDs.
I’m surprised this video is still up, since the entire premise is false. They are bootlegs he bought off ebay, not official releases.
This was posted to his low-effort second channel, he is probably leaving it up explicitly because people are using it to discuss ebay bootlegs in the comments.
He addresses that in the pinned comment
Well it doesnt matter, he acknowledged they are probably bootlegs in the comments and updated the title. People make mistakes, but its not a very big one here (was just something he didnt even consider) and the overall point of the video is still the same.
It’s a pretty big mistake, though given it’s his second (casual) channel it is very low stakes.
He can’t posit that re-releases are being done on single layer DVDs to save money, but use bootlegs as proof. Bootlegs aren’t a DVD release done by the distributor. That’s a pretty fatal flaw in logic.
It’s the equivalent of “Steam games are getting re-released in a weird way” and linking to Pirate Bay torrents, and the entire video is about how cheap games have gotten since they don’t have Steam features like achievements and cloud-save.
It’s really not a big deal lol. He already pointed out his error and leaving the video up is fine, it’s showing that you can make mistakes and hold accountability. But its a fucking DVD video, let’s not blow something so minor out of proportion for “drama” lmao
Also, that analogy couldnt be any more off the mark.
It’s not drama, I’m just surprised is all. He’s usually very good about his accuracy, so when the entire premise is wrong I would have expected him to retract the video instead of leaving a comment someone can miss.
Oh no.
I remember bootlegs being common for certain genres at used DVD stores back in the 2000s. I pointed some out once, and the clerk was like “whatever man.”
Back then it was anime and esoteric stuff. It makes sense to me that TV show box sets would be a target for bootlegs.
I just want to say the foil art on the old DS9 DVDs is way better than what’s available now. Wish I picked up a set back in the day.
I feel like it’s also probable that he didn’t do the exhaustive due diligence here because he was trying to get many videos out very quickly to coincide with the launch of the good store socks.
I could see being annoyed that this might be why an issue like this slipped through, but it’s a fund raiser for charity. So, uhh, y’know, let this slide.
He suggests that original releases often included more “Easter eggs” or hidden features that were omitted in later, re-released versions. This implies that while the physical cost of the DVD might not have changed significantly, the value or content provided in re-releases was reduced.
