The Corner Penthouse

Within the past year, I have been in possession of several counterfeit DVD box sets: Game of Thrones: Seasons 1-7, Mama's Family: The Complete Series, and Tales From The Crypt: The Complete Series. Three different counterfeit Thrones sets were purchased on Amazon (two by me, one by a friend), while Mama and Crypt were both purchased on eBay at different times. Although it's tempting to call these sets "bootleg", that's a completely different thing. These are clearly counterfeit items, as they are designed to look as much like the legitimate box sets as possible. I felt it would be my civic duty to my fellow netizens to point out some ways in which you can identify a counterfeit DVD set from a legitimate one.

UPDATE - Since this has gotten to be a long article, it might be prudent to first give some quick advice on some ways to determine if an eBay (or Amazon Marketplace) seller is selling a legit DVD set before I get to the details.

1. How many do they have for sale? If it's one or two, it's likely legit. If they have a lot, and they're not Target, Best Buy, Deep Discount, or another known retailer, then it's likely counterfeit.

2. If the price is far cheaper then a known retailer, it's likely counterfeit.

3. Listings that use the same stock photos that are found in other listings (and all over the web) are likely counterfeits, though a listing with photos of a real item doesn't guarantee legitimacy.

4. Your best bet is to ask the seller these questions about a specific set: "How many of the [insert show title] Complete Series DVD sets do you have? Is it just the one, or can I buy a few of them. Where was it originally purchased?"

If the listing is using a photo of a real item, you should also ask: "Is the [insert show title] Complete Series DVD set that you're selling *exactly* the one pictured? I want to make sure that if I buy it, I'll receive that exact item, and that that isn't a stock photo."

Hopefully, the seller will give you honest answers. Save the replies they send you, as you can use it against them in an eBay/Amazon claim, if they lie and send you a counterfeit item.



If an online seller has their new sets priced substantially less than what it goes for at Best Buy, Walmart, Target, etc., then it's an immediate red flag of a counterfeit. However, there are other sellers who are charging more than the rest, and their higher prices make them seem more legit. For Game of Thrones, there are a dozen different listings on Amazon alone (let's not even look at eBay), each with several sellers with sets around $60 each. These are definitely counterfeits.


However, another listing shows sets priced from around $80 to $160.


The first set I bought at Amazon in May 2019 was priced at $82.90 and sold by "Amadeus-shop", with the order being Amazon-Fulfilled. I had false hope that being $20 more than the $60 price all of the others were listed for, and that it was being fulfilled by Amazon, that it would be a legitimate set. I was wrong. I left feedback on the seller's page informing others that they were selling counterfeit sets. Of course they didn't like this, and actually sent me an e-mail attempting to bribe me with $20 if I delete the feedback (which they called a "review").


After sending that set back to Amazon and getting my money refunded, I found another set on Amazon priced even higher. This second set was priced at $110.95, sold by "M. Genete4", and again was fulfilled by Amazon. Needless to say, it was yet another counterfeit, and was sent back and refunded. "M. Genete4" is now listing his counterfeit wares for $83.51, as seen in the second listing screenshot above. As my purchases of these sets confirm, a higher price, and being Amazon-Fulfilled do not guarantee a legit set.

Furthermore, "M. Genete4" sold me a set at a higher price than I found a legit set for on Walmart.


A too-good-to-be-true low price should have been the first red flag when I purchased Tales From The Crypt and Mama's Family, but the price I paid seemed fair in comparison to what Best Buy, Walmart, Target, etc. were charging at the time. I saw Crypt in physical stores for around $60, so the eBay listing for $40 didn't seem too suspicious at the time. Similarly, most listings for Mama had it around $55 to $60, so the $41.98 ($36.99 + $4.99 shipping) I paid to John Wentling Senior (eBay username "joh-wentl") in March 2019 seemed fair, and his listing showed an actual photo (not a stock photo) of what looked like a legit box set.


Here you see that the price for a legit set at Walmart was not much higher than John Wentling Senior's price.


I also didn't notice the high quantity John Wentling Senior had for sale, which should have been another red flag. To be fair, a legit seller would also, likely, have a high quantity for sale, too. All listings for counterfeits will list them as "Brand New", but that's not to say that a duped buyer won't resell that counterfeit set later on, not even knowing that it's not legit. That said, you're more likely to get a legit set if you buy used than new on eBay.



Gone are the days when you can tell a counterfeit DVD from the outer packaging. Today's counterfeiters have gotten quite sophisticated. Not only do they shrink-wrap their products, but they often go so far as to reproduce the original marketing stickers on the outside of the packaging and even the security seals on the top of the case! If you've already purchased a set and want to know if it's legit or counterfeit just by looking at it, there are a few tells.

For Game of Thrones, I had three different counterfeit sets in my possession, but only one legitimate set. I noticed one thing on the sealed legit set that was not present on any of the counterfeits. Printed on the plastic wrap, on the bottom of the item, was the phrase "DISC MADE IN MEXICO". Assuming that the counterfeiters don't catch on to this, if you see that printed on bottom part of the plastic wrap, then you have a LEGITIMATE SET! Of course, I don't know if this is printed on all legit sets, so there may be sealed legit sets out there without this marking.


Once you remove that plastic wrap, a counterfeit is virtually indistinguishable from a legit set. The counterfeits will even have the proper embossing in the proper places. In the photo below, the legit set is on the left and the counterfeit is on the right. Can you tell them apart? The only differences I noticed was the imagery on the legit set was printed a tad darker, and the text on the counterfeit set was a very tiny bit thicker. Unless you have two sets to compare, you wouldn't know this as you can't see it on one set alone.


Pulling off the outer wraparound sleeve reveals a box underneath that holds the seven DVD cases. Here is where things get a bit tricky. The legit set has a hard paperboard inner box. (I assume all legit sets are like this.) Of the three counterfeit sets I had, only one was in a box like this, though the glossy paper on the outside of it was not glued on very well, thus making it look cheap and fake. I wish I would have thought to photograph that set before I sent it back to one of the two Amazon sellers. The other two counterfeit sets both were in cheap thin paperboard fold-up inner boxes. That kind of thing is hard to show in photos without completely unfolding the counterfeit box, and this is going to be a super image intensive article already, so let's just look at other details that are more photo friendly :-)

In the two photos below, the legit set is on the left and the counterfeit is on the right. If I consider the opened side (where the cases goes) as the "front", then as you can see, the legit set has the text "Game of Thrones - Seasons 1-7" on the right side (and the not pictured back side), while the left side is nearly blank (there's a tiny item number printed in the lower right corner of that side). The counterfeit set switches that, with the writing on the left and the right being blank.



For the rest of the packaging examination, I will be looking at the Season 1 set included inside the box set. Current copies of Season 1 are packaged in a standard-size plastic DVD case, both individually and as part of this box set. The original release of Season 1 was in completely different packaging. That release had the same five discs (but with the sigils printed on the faces, not plain white text on black as in the later re-release) in a thick fold-out Digipack with an Episode Guide that folds out into a map, along with a couple of inserts/advertisements. These are not included in the plastic case re-packaged version (what's included in the box set), which prints episode information on the inside of the case artwork. Since I have a copy of that original legit Season 1 set, too, I thought I'd take a picture of all three sets. The original Digipack is on the top, the legit re-issue is on the lower left, and the counterfeit is on the lower right. In this first photo, I have the outer box from the Digipack release on the top left, and the inner box with the fold-out Digipack slightly sticking out on the top right.


Here I've taken away the outer box from the Digipack release, and opened up that Digipack a little bit to show the pocket where the Episode Guide and inserts sit, and the first two panes that hold the first two discs. The right side of the Digipack is closed up, as it would have been too big for the photo if I opened it up fully. Again, the re-packaged legit set is in the bottom left, and the counterfeit is in the bottom right. I'll discuss them more after the photo.


Open up the plastic cases and you'll get your first DEFINITIVE sense of a counterfeit: the cases. As you can see in the photo below, the legit set (on top) has literature clips on the front, and all of the discs in the middle and back. The counterfeit on the bottom has two discs on the front, one disc on a page in the middle, and two on the back. The counterfeit cases also have a cheap feel to them. Trust me, once you feel it in your hand, you'll know that something isn't right even before you open it up.


Cases like this are common among counterfeits. This is true for Mama's Family and Tales From The Crypt. Here we see the legit Season 1 and 2 sets for Mama's Family. Notice how both have the episode guide book neatly tucked away under the literature clips on the inside front, and all of the discs are in the middle and back?


Now let's take a look at the counterfeit versions of those same two sets. Look at that! There's a disc on the inside front, and the liner booklets are both just left floating around inside the cases (seen under the page in the middle). Tales From The Crypt featured these exact same black cases with episode guides floating around inside the cases, too. Cases like this are a sure sign of a counterfeit because, in my experience, major studio releases use multi-disc cases with no disc in the front (because that's where the booklet would go), one or two discs on the middle, and one disc on the back.


Another sign of a counterfeit - at least for Game of Thrones and Tales From The Crypt - is the quality of the printed materials. A close inspection of the text on the case artwork for both sets reveals fuzzy text and bleeding reds. Below is a comparison of the Bonus Features box on the back of the Thrones Season 1 set, with the legitimate on top and the counterfeit on the bottom. It may be hard to see the difference, so click to enlarge and see the original 300dpi scan. The Crypt set was even worse, but I did not photograph that set before giving it to Warner Brothers. (Note: This image was saved as a lossless jpeg so you could see it exactly the way it is printed. Also, both case liners were scanned together, which means that they were scanned under the exact same settings. I tell you this so you'll know that I didn't do any alterations to make one look better than the other.)


I do need to state that some counterfeits don't suffer from these poor print quality issues. Mama's Family was one of the most legitimate-looking counterfeits I have ever seen. The quality on the printed materials (case artwork, liner booklets, and disc faces) was excellent, on-par with what I would expect from a major studio release. All of the appropriate stickers were on the packaging, including the security seals on the tops and "First Time on DVD! 25 Original Broadcast Episodes on 4 DVDs" stickers on a few of the fronts. At first glance, this looks legitimate, wouldn't you agree?


It wasn't until I opened it up and saw those same cases from the counterfeit Tales From The Crypt set, also with loose liner booklets, that I knew for sure that - despite the marketing stickers and security seals, the high quality printing on everything, and the inclusion of liner booklets for all six seasons - Mama's Family was a true counterfeit.



Even if you manage to get a counterfeit set with high-quality printing, and you put the discs into proper cases, there is still one major reason to avoid counterfeits. This is the other DEFINITIVE way to tell a counterfeit DVD from a legitimate one. Upon checking out the counterfeit discs in my computer, I can see that they're single-layer and *NOT* CSS copy-protected. I have never known a major studio to release discs without copy-protection, and the studios will use dual-layer discs for maximum quality, instead of the lower capacity single-layer discs. Here we see the specs for Season 1, Disc 1 from the counterfeit and legitimate Game of Thrones sets (with arrows added by me).


The counterfeits are actual factory-pressed discs (not DVD-Rs) with disc artwork printed on them, which makes them visually indistinguishable from the legitimate discs. The only way to know for sure is to check the discs out in a computer and look at the specs.

The information provided in the screenshot(s) above are from an old shareware program called AnyDVD. You shouldn't need that in order to see if the discs are copy-protected and how many layers they contain. The freeware program Nero InfoTool v5.3.3.0 (1.7 Mb, Sept. 2008) will also get the job done. Just unzip and run; skip the drive tests, and click on the Disc tab when it loads. There's a newer version of this program, which requires an install and (from what I read) infects your computer with adware, so I hope that this old non-installable (adware free) version of the program will run on modern computers. Anyway, below is what it reports for counterfeit Thrones Season 1, Disc 1 (with arrows added by me).


I was asked about the Tales From The Crypt set. Below is the InfoTool report for a LEGITIMATE Tales From The Crypt: Season 1, Disc 1 DVD. As you can see, it is a dual-layer disc, with copy protection, and coded for regions 1 through 4. The other seasons should all be the same in regards to layers and copy-protection, though they may be region-coded differently.





Why should it matter if the counterfeits use single-layer discs instead of dual-layer discs? Well, in order fit the 7.7GB of content from the original legitimate dual-layer discs onto the 4.4GB capacity of the single-layer discs, the counterfeiters have to re-compress the material. As such, the counterfeits have poor video and audio quality compared to the legitimate discs. I noticed this right away on Game of Thrones. Scenes that my Blu-ray player upscaled beautifully to my HDTV were drab, lacked detail, and were full of compression artifacts on the counterfeit discs.

Below is a quick framegrab from Game of Thrones, Season 1, Episode 1 (timecode: 50:29) that I hope shows off what I'm talking about. There may be better examples, but I wanted to grab something quickly. I have left these images at the DVD base size of 720x480, and did not stretch them into the proper anamorphic size of 852x480, so you can see the effects of recompression exactly as they exist on the counterfeit disc. You'll notice a distinct lack of quality and a lot of fuzziness around people's faces and objects.





In conclusion, I was fortunate enough to get my money back on all of the counterfeit sets I bought by filing eBay claims or returning them to Amazon. Of course, eBay does nothing to stop the sellers of these counterfeits - John Wentling Senior is still selling his bogus wares - yet eBay will go out of their way to punish me for every little BS "this and that" they can think of as both a buyer and as a seller. But that's a rant for another day.

If you want to know where you can purchase guaranteed legitimate DVD box sets, the physical retail stores of the big name retailers - Best Buy, Walmart, and Target - are your best bests. Online, things are more of a crapshoot, but these are your safest bets:

Game of Thrones: Seasons 1-7 (DVD Box Set) (UPC: 883929618460)
• Walmart (only "sold & shipped by Walmart")
• Best Buy
• Deep Discount

Mama's Family: The Complete Collection (DVD Box Set)
(this is the set with separate season cases, not the "all discs in one case" re-release)
• Amazon ("Washington Blvd Sales" sells legit)
• Walmart (only "sold & shipped by Walmart", says 24-disc but it's the 22-disc release)

Tales From The Crypt: The Complete Series (DVD Box Set)
• Walmart (only "sold & shipped by Walmart")
• Target
• Best Buy
• Deep Discount

If you wish to learn more about counterfeit DVD sets, Shout Factory has a FAQ posted that is worth reading.


UPDATE - 4/24/2020

Some people have posted comments asking if the sets they bought are legit or not. Obviously, I can't answer that without having the set in my own hands. What I can do is show you examples of factory-pressed discs and recorded discs, which make also help you to figure out what you have.

Look at the underside/bottom of the disc. Traditional factory-pressed CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays are usually silver (early dual-layer discs were gold). Recordable discs usually have a light-green (CD) or purple (DVD, Blu-ray) tint to them.



There are exceptions, of course. As previously stated, dual-layer discs released in the late 1990s/early 2000s by the major studios have a gold tint to them. Adult entertainment company Red Light District releases factory-pressed DVDs with a red tint to them (in keeping with their company name). PlayStation 1 discs (which are CD-ROM data discs) have a black bottom. So, I can't generalize and state that "all colored discs are recorded discs". In general, though, light-green and purple and the colors of recorded discs.


UPDATE - 8/31/2020

Thanks to Dan's comment in the comments section below, I realize that I neglected to mention "MANUFACTURED ON DEMAND" (abbreviated as "MOD") releases. These are OFFICIAL CD, DVD, and Blu-ray releases that are PRODUCED ON RECORDABLE MEDIA with good-quality artwork. They are NOT factory-pressed discs with high-quality artwork, as the other official releases that I've written about are. Amazon and Warner Archive are the biggest companies to make them, but Dan's comment points out that Walmart.com is doing them, too. There are too many MOD releases to mention here, so I'm just going to point out one of each that I have personally purchased from Amazon: WWE The Music, Vol. 10: A New Day (Audio CD), Munsters Rarities (DVD), and A Fairly OddParents Movie: Grow Up Timmy Turner (Blu-ray). Amazon used to put up a notice that said, "DVD-R Note: This product is manufactured on demand when ordered from Amazon.com."


However, I don't see that notice placed anywhere on Amazon anymore. Click on the screenshot above to go to that product page, and you won't see that yellow-boxed notice anymore. In fact, it seems that Amazon doesn't give you any indication that the product you're buying is being produced on recordable media. That has got to piss off a lot of people, and lead to a lot of returns, since recordable discs may not play in some players.

Dan's comment mentioned the Last Man Standing: The Complete Seventh Season DVD set at Walmart.com. While there is no mention of "DVD-R" or "Manufactured On Demand" on the page or in the product title, if you look carefully, you can see a small - COMPLETELY MISSABLE IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS - hint that this is being produced on recordable media: The studio & production company is listed as "Fox Mod". The "Mod" here should be in all caps to better demonstrate that it stands for "manufactured on demand". If there were any doubts as to what type of product this is, the reviews at Amazon will enlighten you (specifically the review attached to the image gallery displayed above the customer reviews).

I completely understand that there are some titles that the studios want to make available to fans, but which are not "high profile" enough to warrant a proper production run on actual factory-pressed discs. That's why these official CD-R, DVD-R, and BD-R releases exist. I own a few because there is no other way to own certain albums and videos in studio quality. That doesn't mean that I like this type of release. To me, these Manufactured On Demand releases are just one step above bootleg and counterfeit.


UPDATE - 1/31/2022

I didn't think I needed to write another update for this very long article, but I acquired two more counterfeit DVDs, and how I got them, really changes everything. You see, all of the counterfeits I wrote about so far were being sold online as "new" product. One of these new counterfeits was sold as a new product in a major physical retail store, and the other was purchased used on eBay from a dealer of second-hand goods. As if that wasn't odd enough, neither of these are box sets; they're individual movie DVDs that aren't out-of-print, or even incredibly popular.

• SOLD AS NEW PRODUCT IN A MAJOR PHYSICAL RETAIL STORE - I purchased two Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2011) DVDs from two different Rite Aid stores here in New York over the course of a year or two. When I purchased the second one during the 75% off clearance sale in July 2021, I had no idea that I had previously bought a copy (which I had never played). That's the downside to having thousands of videos in my collection. Both DVDs were "factory sealed" in plastic and were distributed by Dynamic Disc Distributors. You can recognize the product they release on the bargain market by the yellow price stickers with their name on it.


My first sign that something was amiss was that both DVDs had reproduced artwork. It's not something that's easy to see under shrink-wrap on a store shelf, but it's quite obvious when you take the paper liner out of the case and look at it under normal light. Interestingly, the reproduced artwork lists special features that are not on either disc. These discs are "movie only" with the usual boot-up ads and FBI warnings. The regular individual DVD has all of the special features that were listed on the back of the reproduced artwork, which makes me think that this disc originated as part of a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack. With that in mind, it's understandable that a legit disc taken from a combo pack would have reproduced artwork when redistributed as an individual DVD.

As I stated elsewhere in this article, reproduced artwork doesn't guarantee that the disc is a counterfeit. In this case, that's very true. ONE OF THESE DVDS IS A LEGITIMATE DUAL-LAYER DISC, AND THE OTHER IS A RECOMPRESSED SINGLE-LAYER COUNTERFEIT! Can you tell them apart? (Yes, I wrote "movie only" on both of them.)


The legit disc is on the left, the counterfeit is on the right. I put a dot on the counterfeit. As you can see, on the surface they are 100% identical. When I went to play them, they both started off with the same boot-up ads and FBI warnings. My only clue that something was "different" about the two discs was the poor image quality, and the fact that I could skip the boot-up ads and fast forward through the FBI warning. I couldn't do either of those things on the legitimate disc.

In the comments below, Tina Wildcat brought up another method for telling counterfeits from legit discs.


Look on the shiny underside of the disc near the hole. There will be random holographic numbers and letters going around, On authentic DVDs, it will be random letters and numbers. If you see the name of the movie or television series written out, then it is likely a counterfeit. This is because the counterfeiters need to write out the name of the movie/show so they can keep track of what they are copying.


You'll notice that the dual-layer (5.23GB of content) legit DVD on the left has a pair of codes (DVDL-3281660A1 and DVDL-3281660B1), likely one for each layer of data. The single-layer (4.20GB of content) counterfeit on the right has the name of the movie written there ("Dont be afraid").

• PURCHASED USED ON EBAY FROM A DEALER OF SECOND-HAND GOODS - The Mack (1973) is an old Blaxsploitation film that New Line Cinema (Warner Brothers) released on DVD in 2002 as part of their Platinum Series. A copy of that disc was later included in the 4 Film Favorites: Richard Pryor set, which reproduced that disc as one side of a new dual-sided disc. (The other side reproduced Warners' old Uptown Saturday Night DVD.) Over the past year, I have had to replace nearly all of my Warner Brothers "4 Film Favorites" DVD sets with either Blu-rays of the movies, or the individual DVD releases, because most of my Warner Brothers DVDs manufactured circa 2008 to 2013 have gone bad. Although the discs still look absolutely flawless, they will either not play at all, or they will glitch and freeze at some point during the movie or special features. In it my understanding that Warner Brothers was using a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania at the time who produced shotty discs. They worked fine at the time, but due to being manufactured incorrectly, they "time bomb" and become corrupt. (Discs that are now manufactured in Mexico do not have this problem.) I needed to replace the discs in the 4 Film Favorites: Richard Pryor set, and that lead me to eBay to pick up a cheap used copy of The Mack.


In the interest of fairness, I will not mention the eBay seller I bought this disc from. Since it was being sold as "used", and most counterfeiters sell as "new", I suspect that the seller didn't even know that she had a counterfeit DVD. I wonder when she originally bought it and who duped her. This is another problem with counterfeit DVDs. They are made well enough to fool the casual seller/buyer. No one running a thrift store is going to examine a DVD with a fine-tooth comb to see if it's legitimate or not. They will simply toss it in with all of the others they have for sale. Looking at the seller's photo in the listing (see above), there is no way that I could tell that it was a counterfeit. Heck, even with the product in hand, it was very convincing.


The counterfeiter even reproduced the insert card (on good quality card stock, no less), and the print quality on the artwork and insert was high-quality laser printing. It looks exactly like the print job you'd get from a Warner Brothers manufacture-on-demand disc. This isn't a MOD disc, though. Just like Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, the movie title ("TheMack6623") is printed on the underside of the disc.


Also, just like Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, the image quality of the menu, movie, and special features is very poor because 7.17GB of content from the original Region 1 dual-layer disc was recompressed down to 4.20GB on this Region ALL single-layer disc.

What is most perplexing is that I can't fathom why anyone would want to counterfeit these two movies. I can't imagine there being a high demand for them.

Unfortunately, the "name on underside of disc" isn't a foolproof method for identifying a counterfeit. Some lesser DVD manufacturers, like the ones who use to clutter the Dollar stores with Public Domain DVDs 20 years ago, DO put the movie/show titles on the underside of discs. Here are two legitimate DVDs from low-end "studios". This Jaws: The Revenge (1987) DVD was released in 2001 by Goodtimes Entertainment (licensed from Universal) and the Splat! [aka In Your Face] (2002) DVD was released in 2004 by MTI Home Video.


The underside of Jaws: The Revenge says "JAWS 4" next to a code number, with another code number in lighter "print" to the right of that one.


The underside of Splat says "SPLAT (FULL VERSION)" two times, with no code numbers at all.


So, a name printed in holographic lettering around the hole on the underside of a disc means that the disc is likely a counterfeit, but not a guarantee of it being one.


UPDATE - 8/13/2022

Just when I think I have all of the answers, they change the questions... I purchased a Let's Do It Again (1975) DVD from eBay seller "BigAlOneShop1" for $11.99 + $1.03 tax ($13.02 total). I will admit that I didn't notice that he had already sold 56 copies of this DVD before my purchase on August 5th, which should have been a big red flag, but he didn't list it as being a "new, factory-sealed item", so I had no reason to look at that.


The DVD I received was actually not in "Like New" condition, but in "Brand New" condition. The item was sealed in plastic with the stickers across the top and side edges. I was pleasantly surprised, and thought that I had received something in even better condition. I should point out that this DVD was originally released by Warner Brothers in 2003 in one of their much-hated snapper cases. They used these cases for their releases from 1997 to 2004, but have since re-released some of them in standard plastic cases. I thought this was one of the plastic case re-releases, so the fact that it wasn't in a snapper case wasn't a worry. What did worry me was when I opened it up and instantly noticed that the case artwork and insert card were reproductions. I was instantly worried that this was a counterfeit, so I flipped the disc over and saw this:


PHEW! A actual code number and not the movie title. As we learned in Point #5, this is usually a good sign of a legitimate disc... or is it? Nero InfoTool told a different story.

InfoTool reported the DVD as single-layer, region-free, and NOT CSS copy-protected. I have a hard time believing that a legitimate Warner Brothers disc would NOT be copy-protected. Furthermore, the report listed Nero Burning ROM as the application that produced the disc.


Let's Do It Again is the second film in a trilogy of films starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. For comparison, let's see what InfoTool reports for the other two films, Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and A Piece of the Action (1977), which I own legitimate DVDs of.


Well, look at that! Both legit discs are CSS/CPPM copy-protected, locked to Regions 1 and 4, and list "Warner Home Video" as the Publisher. The fact that the Let's Do It Again DVD I bought from "BigAlOneShop1" differs in all three aspects tells me that - despite having a code number printed underneath, instead of the movie title - it IS a counterfeit. The only positive is that I don't believe that it's been recompressed. Since all that's on the disc is the 110-minute movie with several audio tracks (one is a commentary) and several subtitle streams, I don't believe that the original was a dual-layer disc - despite the back of the case saying otherwise. (For what it's worth, the back of the Uptown Saturday Night case also says "dual-layer format", even though the disc is clearly a single-layer. This "dual-layer format" text is just part of the template WB uses/used.)


And that is that. Yet another counterfeit disc that I really didn't think there was enough demand for people to make counterfeits of. I think the original is out of print, so maybe that's why the counterfeiters decided to reproduce it. I wonder how many more counterfeit movie DVDs are out there. I really hope that I don't continue to find out first-hand :-(


UPDATE - 3/11/2023

Just when I thought I've seen everything in regards to counterfeits, I find something that changes all of the rules. In two different thrift stores, I found counterfeit Disney DVD sets: Peter Pan (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) and Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (Gold Collection). (Those Amazon links are supposed to be for the legit DVD sets, but the Peter Pan listing uses a scan of the counterfeit front and back cover.) In the store, these phony sets looked legit. Of course, under the store's harsh fluorescent lighting, and without my glasses on, it's hard to examine them with a fine-tooth comb to spot the little details that reveal them as fakes.

Both Peter Pan and Pocahontas II have fancy embossed slipcovers and feature text and artwork that, off-hand, looks legitimate. It's when you look at it extremely closely - and even more when you compare it to a legit release - do you notice the flaws. For the sake of this comparison, I grab some images off eBay of a legit Pocahontas II DVD. That one will be on the left, while the counterfeit will be on the right.


Before I point out the subtle differences, let's look at the two back covers. Again, the legit is on the left, the counterfeit is on the right.


Even side-by-side, you could be easily fooled by the counterfeit. All of the proper logos are there, even the Disney Movie Rewards stuff. The devil is in the details, as they say, and upon closer inspection, you will notice that the counterfeit uses different (but very similar) fonts. (Legit on top or left, counterfeit on bottom or right.)


The counterfeit is also prone to typographical errors. On Peter Pan (not pictured), the teal box on the bottom of the back cover that said "Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix" on the legit product, said random text (something like "Home Theater NTSC") on the counterfeit. On Pocahontas II, we see how the counterfeiters butchered the "Canada Home Video" logo. What used to read "Canada Home Video Rating" now reads "canadisc home video Raing".


The disc face also has a few typos. Let's see if you can find them. (Note: I wrote "Dual-Layer Counterfeit" on the disc.)


Did you miss it? Here, take a close look...


Maybe the disc was manufactured in Italy, or maybe it was made in the mystical town of Butrbank in California.

I'd like to point out another quirk I noticed with both counterfeit Disney sets. The artwork on the counterfeit is either redrawn or has outlines added to it. We see the latter in this drawing on the Pocahontas II back cover. Notice the heavy black outlining on the counterfeit that isn't there on the legit product?


Now, here is where things get really strange. All of the counterfeits that I've examined thus far have been single-layer discs that recompress the video from a dual-layer original. Pocahontas II is the first fake that is authored as a dual-layer disc! You can get a hint of this by looking around the hole on the underside of the disc, where you will see two rows of "bar codes". You'll also notice that this is A COUNTERFEIT DISC THAT HAS A CODE NUMBER WRITTEN IN THAT AREA AND *NOT* THE NAME OF THE MOVIE. So, we can't trust that as a fool-proof method of determining a fake.


True enough, Nero InfoTool shows the disc to have two layers with a capacity of 6.35 GB, which is more than a single-layer disc would hold.


However, the program shows us several more details that confirm this to be a counterfeit. For starters, the disc is NOT copy-protected. Disney would never release an unprotected DVD. Also, the disc label is a bunch of random gibberish ("FZQY 2"). While I don't have a legit disc for comparison, I would think that it would be labeled something like "POCAHONTAS II". Finally, the lack of publisher information, and that it doesn't appear to be region-locked, is also suspect.

I'm not going to include updates if I find any more counterfeit Disney DVDs. I'm sure that everything I wrote here will, generally, apply to most of them... and I'd really prefer not to waste money (no matter how little) on any more of these pieces of junk.


UPDATE - 1/14/2025

Well, I guess I lied to myself when I said that there would not be anymore updates. Since the last update nearly two years ago, I found a counterfeit Mister Ed: The Complete Series DVD set in a record store. It wasn't worth making an update for. However, the counterfeit The Sopranos: The Complete Series DVD set I bought for $35 on January 12, 2025 (at the Antique Thrift Shop Flea Market in Valley Stream, New York) is worth writing about.

Although I didn't fully inspect the set outside at the thrift store, when I took it home and fully opened it, it was quite obvious that it was a poorly-produced fake. Each disc is in its own little baggie and is meant to go "inside" the pages (see this Amazon listing's third photo), but due to the shitty glue the counterfeiters used, there is nothing for them to stay inside of. I don't have the real set - now repackaged in plastic cases - but I'm sure that it doesn't have each disc in a little plastic bag.


Unless you look carefully at the packaging, it would be easy to miss the poor print quality of the disc-holding "pages" and in the Episode Guide book. The poor print quality on the disc faces is extremely easy to spot. Did the counterfeiters actually think people would be fooled into thinking the discs below were legitimate? I bet you can't even see that it says "Bonus Features" under the show title on the last disc.


Of course, once you look at the underside of the disc, you notice that it says "THE SOPRANOS SEASON ONE DISC ONE" (and so on) around the inner circle. I don't have the legitimate set, but I'm sure it has a code number.


There was no need to even run the disc through Nero InfoTool to find out that it was recompressed to a single layer and was not copy-protected, but I did it anyway.


While I didn't get a chance to properly examine the entire set at the thrift store, I did notice one thing about it that the seller didn't, which makes it worth way more than the $35 I paid for it: The episode guide book (also a counterfeit) has FIVE LEGITIMATE CAST AUTOGRAPHS IN IT! It was signed by John Ventimiglia (Artie Bucco) on one page; and by Tony Sirico (Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri), Vincent Curatola (Johnny 'Sack' Sacramoni), Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Jennifer Melfi), and Rob Margott? on another page. (I can't find any cast members listed on IMDB that match the last signature.)


Yeah, it would have been great if James Gandolfini and Edie Falco (the two leads) would have signed it, but I'm not complaining. The book itself is a counterfeit, but the signatures on it are real. No one would bother to fake them.