Is DVDrare.com selling bootlegs or "test releases"?
May 9, 2010 4:33 PM Subscribe
I was trying to find out when the legitimate release of The Larry Sanders Show on DVD was dropping, when I came across a site that already had the show for sale. I assumed this was just a bootleg (since Shout! Factory has the actual home video rights), but I came across something odd...
The Wikipedia page for The Larry Sanders Show describes this as "an advance release" to test the North American market. Similar notes have been added to the pages for Summerland and the cartoon I Am Weasel. This is bullshit, right? These are just bootlegs and someone is putting these notes on Wikipedia to make them look like legitimate releases and grab some sales, right?
The Wikipedia page for The Larry Sanders Show describes this as "an advance release" to test the North American market. Similar notes have been added to the pages for Summerland and the cartoon I Am Weasel. This is bullshit, right? These are just bootlegs and someone is putting these notes on Wikipedia to make them look like legitimate releases and grab some sales, right?
Best answer: Yeah, those are bootleg. I've never heard of an "advance release to test the North American market" for DVDs. Once you go through all the work of converting the video, creating the menus, doing the subtitles, gathering the DVD extras, and QCing the disc, you've already decided you're going to release it. And if Shout! Factory wanted to do such a thing, they'd surely sell it through their own online store.
posted by sharkfu at 5:02 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by sharkfu at 5:02 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]
Netflix has the Larry Sanders show right now (in fact I rented in a few weeks ago). Is that somehow not an "official" or "legitimate" release?
posted by crapples at 5:35 PM on May 9, 2010
posted by crapples at 5:35 PM on May 9, 2010
Best answer: crapples: Netflix has the "Not Just the Very Best of the Larry Sanders Show". Lentroamsanin I believe is looking for a whole 89 episodes.
I recently watched the 4 disk "Not Just..." via Netflix and loved it. I see that 36 episodes are on Hulu right now so I might go watch those.
(Lentroamsanin, it seems that blurb about advance release to test the North American market on wikipedia has been deleted. DVDRare.com looks as legit as the guy selling DVDs down the street from a blanket on the sidewalk)
posted by birdherder at 5:47 PM on May 9, 2010 [2 favorites]
I recently watched the 4 disk "Not Just..." via Netflix and loved it. I see that 36 episodes are on Hulu right now so I might go watch those.
(Lentroamsanin, it seems that blurb about advance release to test the North American market on wikipedia has been deleted. DVDRare.com looks as legit as the guy selling DVDs down the street from a blanket on the sidewalk)
posted by birdherder at 5:47 PM on May 9, 2010 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Cool, that's what I thought. I'd never encountered this particular strategy for trying to make a fake product look legit before.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:59 PM on May 9, 2010
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:59 PM on May 9, 2010
Best answer: I find TV Shows on DVD to be a generally good site for information on Region 1 releases (except for anime, which they specifically exclude from their listings). Their page on The Larry Sanders Show mentions nothing about an "advance release."
In addition, the site offers a bootleg site search which reports that dvdrare.com is a known bootleg site.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:57 AM on May 10, 2010
In addition, the site offers a bootleg site search which reports that dvdrare.com is a known bootleg site.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:57 AM on May 10, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks, DevilsAdvocate. I knew them as a good site for show news, but I didn't know about the bootlegger search!
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:28 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:28 PM on May 12, 2010
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posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:34 PM on May 9, 2010