Shanghai Expat

Media-Books Music Movies - Gave You a Chance Warner Brothers...
Magnolia - Nov 14, 2005 - 10:01 AM
Post subject: Gave You a Chance Warner Brothers...
Went with Lucar to Carrefour yesterday. While there, saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the new one). Since I hadn't seen it yet, decided to pick it up, even though I know that RMB32 is way more expensive than the RMB18 you can pay for the same DVD9 on any street in Shanghai. It's there, it's easy. Plus, I had a momentary sense of "johnny depp probably deserves these royalties"

Bring it home and pop it in. It doesn't play! Why not? Obviously I am not going to go all the way back to Carrefour to return or exchange it. But I also will not be making any future purchase of genuine DVD's in the near future.

Warner Brothers is making a huge effort to reduce pirated DVD's by having inexpensive genuine versions on the market within a few weeks of the theatre release. Kudos to that. But how can the darn thing not work??? If anything, it reinforces the ilegal versions. Easier, cheaper and they at least play.

Maddening.
AlliX - Nov 14, 2005 - 10:26 AM
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That sucks! I was thinking of buying a real copy too, since the fake I bought has very dull colours and I thought the movie deserved to be seen in all it's Wonkaland glory.

But do you think it has to do with the region the tape is set to? If your dvd player is from another country, then the default will be to play only those region dvds. The fake ones I think usually are created to be played in all regions for when the tourists take them home. And is it a V-CD or a DVD (although I can't figure out what is the real difference anyway)?
bellabella - Nov 14, 2005 - 11:29 AM
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That sucks Magnolia! I'll bring you my copy tomorrow - remind me!

Allix - the difference between DVDs and VCDs is the memory. a VCD is a film burned onto just a regular cd which is why you normally get 2 cds for one film. and a dvd has more memory and i think is better quality.
GoPlayer - Nov 14, 2005 - 11:30 AM
Post subject:
Yes, this is certainly due to region settings. Have you tried it on your computer? Usually, the computer automatically switches to the correct region (but I was warned that there is a limitation on the number of switches, so it will only work a few times).
Even buying a multizone DVD player may not solve your problem, I had one that was able to read Asian and US DVDs, but European DVDs did not work.

Why RMB 18 for a DVD9? Because there are 2 discs?
AlliX - Nov 14, 2005 - 12:15 PM
Post subject:
bellabella wrote:
That sucks Magnolia! I'll bring you my copy tomorrow - remind me!

Allix - the difference between DVDs and VCDs is the memory. a VCD is a film burned onto just a regular cd which is why you normally get 2 cds for one film. and a dvd has more memory and i think is better quality.



Ahh, thanks! My husband has loads of those VCDs from Hong Kong and I don't know what but they always annoyed me - like not quite big and bold enough to be a VHS but too bulky to be a DVD. ha ha
Magnolia - Nov 14, 2005 - 12:29 PM
Post subject:
It's a China-purchased DVD player and a China-purchased DVD. Haven't had a problem playing any other genuine DVD's purchased in China on it. Just this one. Don't think it's a region thing because when I do put a regional DVD in, it will give me a message that the DVD is for another zone. Didn't get that message... in fact, the DVD didn't do anything! Didn't even try to read the disk. Didn't even get the "check disk" message. Arrrrggghhhh! Frustration!!!

Ironically, there were two versions of the film at Carrfour. One was less expensive, both were DVD9's. The more expensive version had English, while the other was only in Chinese.

Am not going to try it on my computer because it only lets you have four different zones and the fourth one becomes the permanant setting (even if you start at zone 1, use a zone 2 disk and then back to a zone 1... that counts as three zones! Don't like to watch films on the computer much too.

Not sure how much I pay for a pirated DVD9 ... seems to range from RMB12 to RMB20 depending on the place.

Thanks Bellabella! I shall remind you before you leave for work!
The_Meanderer - Nov 14, 2005 - 01:24 PM
Post subject:
For region free DVD playing on your computer, AnyDVD is a small piece of software that will unlock your player. I am sure you can find one here (use the search option)

http://www.ddl2.com

If anyone needs this software and cannot find it, let me know and I will get it for you.
ChunLi - Nov 14, 2005 - 06:05 PM
Post subject:
That's pretty funny. Ironic.

I bought Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last week off the street for 7rmb and it didn't work. That means I can buy 4.5 more of these discs and have them fail to equal the value of your loss.
aquagirl - Nov 14, 2005 - 06:31 PM
Post subject:
mine was 8 rmb and it worked.

i have the same problem a lot though. I have a chinese DVD player and sometimes the discs just won't play, or something will come up and tell me that the player is locked and requires a password. i have no idea what this code could be. it tends to happen more on the DVD9s, or the older better quality ones. strange. any suggestions? (and, no i don't have the DVD player box or instructions. it is second hand)
dfoo - Nov 14, 2005 - 07:07 PM
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My local guy always takes the busted disks back and gives me a replacement. And he's easier to get to than Carrefore Smile
Snippets - Nov 14, 2005 - 08:23 PM
Post subject:
mmmmmmmmmmmm Chocolate!!

...maybe a little Johnny Depp fondue might take your minds off the DVD problems Smile
The_Meanderer - Nov 14, 2005 - 09:51 PM
Post subject:
I bought my DVD player at Carrefour.
I don't like shop assistants when they are over helpful.
The assistant at Carrefour reccomended our DVD player (phillips) so I took her advice.
Then she got a new one in a box for us and proceeded to open it up.
'No, don't do that, it's ok' I protested.
But she would have none of it.
She plugged it in and got it showing on one of their screens.
'Great, yeah, I can see it works, thanks, ok!' I said, hoping this was the end.
But no, she would not give me the remote and didn't want to put it away.
She fiddled with it for a bit, very intently.
Fiddle fiddle fiddle.
By which point another assistant had come over as well.
Great, my lucky day. Two unwanted helpers. Brilliant.
They briefly spoke.
'Chinese chinese?' 'Chinese chinese chinese chinese'
Then the new guy turned to me.
'She has put in the code, so you can play any DVD on it. USA, China, UK, all work ok.'

An angel sent from above to help miserable, ungrateful, undeserving me.

Thank you Carrefour DVD assistant, wherever you may be
nouveauradical - Dec 24, 2005 - 12:38 AM
Post subject:
Today I was wondering to buy some dvds, but on the cover of some of them it was written zone 1. I live in Japan, zone 2, and I don't know if the dvd solded on the streets here in Shanghai are only for region 1 or they actually can be used in every other zone. Thanks a lot.
sinned69 - Dec 24, 2005 - 09:16 AM
Post subject:
Quote:
It's a China-purchased DVD player and a China-purchased DVD. Haven't had a problem playing any other genuine DVD's purchased in China on it. Just this one. Don't think it's a region thing because when I do put a regional DVD in, it will give me a message that the DVD is for another zone. Didn't get that message... in fact, the DVD didn't do anything! Didn't even try to read the disk. Didn't even get the "check disk" message. Arrrrggghhhh! Frustration!!!

Ironically, there were two versions of the film at Carrfour. One was less expensive, both were DVD9's. The more expensive version had English, while the other was only in Chinese.

Am not going to try it on my computer because it only lets you have four different zones and the fourth one becomes the permanant setting (even if you start at zone 1, use a zone 2 disk and then back to a zone 1... that counts as three zones! Don't like to watch films on the computer much too.

Not sure how much I pay for a pirated DVD9 ... seems to range from RMB12 to RMB20 depending on the place.


you may have a dud DVD, or their maybe some inherent faults with it being bi-lingual etc. also it could be that the lense of your DVD simply can't read the burnt in tracks on the DVD platter -so you might find that it works on another DVD player without any trouble... however there is software that can test the DVD... though none that i can think of for free... but looking on doom9 might help (see below)

dvd9 street vendor price 7-8rmb each.

to use software that emulates any regional code get DVD region + CSS free which is free and can be found on www.doom9.com

please at least return your DVD, you paid enough for it, but more importantly, failing to do so just reinforces the lack of a service mentality and after sales service still very much lacking in this country. your failing to return the DVD no matter what you paid for it, is an all to common approach taken on by a majority of the chinese... which is in part why the service standard and consumer protectionism is far behind what most of us "westerners" are used to...
imafan2 - Mar 05, 2006 - 09:15 AM
Post subject:
Trying to find out what we can expect to pay for DVD9 and DVD5 on average in Shanghai. There is this huge DVD/Video factory outside of where we live....close to Century Park, by JinSong Road and YingChung Road off of FangDian Rd. Their prices for DVD5 were 10RMB a pop, and for DVD9 it was 25RMB minimum. Considering this was contrary to the prices we had been given to understand, we walked back home, and the on the way picked up a couple of cheap DVD5s for 5RMB a pop. They both work fine, or at least so far they do....we haven't seen the whole movies yet.

We like the selections at the large store, but trying to find out if there's such as thing as a "list price" for the DVD9s.

Not keen on doing the street thing, as the selections are abysmal.....we'd rather pick them up at a store with a sizeable # of DVDs. And if the price we have to pay for doing that is 25RMB for DVD9, that's fine....just making sure ....

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