Be Aware of DVD-A discs (new still still Sealed stating Hong Kong) shipping from Taiwan

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Those Asian looking OBI DVD-A's have been around forever. They are legit as far as I know. Most of them are DualDisc-ish with the Stereo on one side and the surround on the other. I have had my Billy Cobham Spectrum for over ten years and as far as I know it sounds identical to any other DVD-A version out there.
 
Don't think Warner had a serious policy about how to release the DVD Audio, seems to me they tried all possible variations and never settled to one.
On the ones i have, NO asian stuff, and bought back in the right days,
- Spectrum is a double-side and it's the only one that way (AIX did some two-sided)
- Billion Dollar Babies has a green coating background and mimic the original WB label, as NY above mimic reprise label
- America Homecoming has a silver coating background nowhere to be found in the WB history
- Winelight has a goldish coating background (ditto above)
- Breezin has no coating at all
- Rumours has no coating at all
- Producer's cut has no coating at all

That's the ones i do remember well now...

For NY Harvest surely they were expecting better sales figures, it's the easier to find out brand new today even in Europe and at a decent price.
 
here's some Atlantic/Elektra/Warner/Rhino/Reprise DVD-Audio's in SJB+ cases, showing the variation in disc label appearance throughout the range over time.

816F2FB7-F00E-401D-9DA9-4FA903AD8352.jpeg


there are more, including WEA DVD-A DualDiscs and WEA DVD-A's in Digipakaging, (plus the "Taiwanese" Harvest!) but i couldn't fit anymore stuff on the bed, i had to get up on a stepladder to take the pic as it is!

anyway, as you can see the vast majority of discs had some form of silk-screen printing (59 out of 81).

interestingly there are only 3 flippers here (2.0 one side, 5.1 on the other) with no label markings on the disc faces of any kind, only scant info in the hub, all early ones (Doobies' Captain & Me, Billy Cobham's Spectrum and Hootie & The Blowfish Cracked Rear View).

well wasn't that fun 😂
 
here's some Atlantic/Elektra/Warner/Rhino/Reprise DVD-Audio's in SJB+ cases, showing the variation in disc label appearance throughout the range over time.

View attachment 51043

there are more, including WEA DVD-A DualDiscs and WEA DVD-A's in Digipakaging, (plus the "Taiwanese" Harvest!) but i couldn't fit anymore stuff on the bed, i had to get up on a stepladder to take the pic as it is!

anyway, as you can see the vast majority of discs had some form of silk-screen printing (59 out of 81).

interestingly there are only 3 flippers here (2.0 one side, 5.1 on the other) with no label markings on the disc faces of any kind, only scant info in the hub, all early ones (Doobies' Captain & Me, Billy Cobham's Spectrum and Hootie & The Blowfish Cracked Rear View).

well wasn't that fun 😂

since the pics get kinda squished and fuzzy when i upload em, here's a list of what's what (what! 🧐 🤣

top row, L to R;
Emmylou Harris, Yes Magnification, Hootie & Blowfish, Off Space, Nena Live, Trey Anastasio, Corrs, Nightfly, Seal Best, David Gray, Alanis Morrissette, Missy Elliott.

2nd row;
Randy Newman, Sasha Livebeats, Sinatra At Sands, Eagles, Doors, T-Rex, Bjork Vespertine, Kd Lang, Barenaked Ladies x 2.

3rd row;
Steely Dan EMG, Mana Unplugged, The Band Last Waltz, Tubular Bells 2003, Fleetwood Mac x 2, Jazz At The Movies, Take 6, Olu Dara, Fourplay.

4th row;
Steely Dan TAN, Mana Suenos Liquidos, Foreigner x 2, Doobies, Clapton Reptile, Crash Bang Boom!, Spectrum, Rat Pack, Bela Fleck.

5th row;
Alice Cooper BDB, America, Alice C WTMN, Linda Ronstadt, Luis Miguel, José Cura, Disturbed, Deep Purple, Flaming Lips, Brian Wilson Live at Roxy.

6th row;
Miles Davis Tutu, Artificial Intelligence OST, Winelight, Neil Young x 2, Faith Hill, Joni Mitchell, ELP, Seal IV, Natalie Merchant.

7th row;
Chicago x 2, Westernhagen, Philip Glass, Stone Temple Pilots, Staind, Metallica, Yes Fragile, REM Reveal, Linkin' Park.

8th row;
George Benson, Buena Vista Social Club, Paul Simon, Grateful Dead x 2, Pat Metheny, REM AFTP, REM Best Of, Kamakiriad.
 
ooh! found another one! 🎊🎉

REM's "Automatic For The People"

(which according to my notes, i got new and sealed in September 2014 for the earthly sum of £17)

560412F1-E93E-40A8-BC5A-44D1140DCBD4.jpeg


825ACD0E-E9D8-491C-A17D-FCD62D074643.jpeg


so in amongst all the blurb, we have a url for 華納音樂台灣官方網站

(Warner Music Taiwan)

also, details for "King's International Multimedia Co. Ltd", which i presume either made or distributed these discs? 🤷‍♀️
 
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ooh! found another one! 🎊🎉

REM's "Automatic For The People"

(which according to my notes, i got new and sealed in September 2014 for the earthly sum of £17)

View attachment 51046

View attachment 51047

so in amongst all the blurb, we have a url for 華納音樂台灣官方網站

(Warner Music Taiwan)

also, details for "King's International Multimedia Co. Ltd", which i presume either made or distributed these discs? 🤷‍♀️
Hey Freddie , baby...so , are these, what one might consider, DUPLICATES of the DVD-A release??? I mean , do they have the copy protection and play without any issues????
 
Hey Freddie , baby...so , are these, what one might consider, DUPLICATES of the DVD-A release??? I mean , do they have the copy protection and play without any issues????

my Taiwanese Harvest (sounds like a movie) ripped in DVDAE no problem, i played around with the files to try and make sense of the mix, then gave up and did something more fruitful instead!

from what i can remember i only played this REM one "straight", i don't have it on the computer or any backups anyway so its just the disc or bust. that said, i have the CD + DVD-A digipak European set just in case this is phoney.

tbh i'm not that big on ripping, i like the ritual of getting the disc out and giving it a spin, so to speak, so as long as it does that i'm a happy chappy 😋
 
ooh! found another one! 🎊🎉

REM's "Automatic For The People"

(which according to my notes, i got new and sealed in September 2014 for the earthly sum of £17)

View attachment 51046

View attachment 51047

so in amongst all the blurb, we have a url for 華納音樂台灣官方網站

(Warner Music Taiwan)

also, details for "King's International Multimedia Co. Ltd", which i presume either made or distributed these discs? 🤷‍♀️
I'm curious as to why they want you to cut out the Barcode; some kind of gift club for "Bootlegger's Publishers Clearing Wu"...?
Personally, I'd never buy this stuff, for various reasons.
 
I'm curious as to why they want you to cut out the Barcode; some kind of gift club for "Bootlegger's Publishers Clearing Wu"...?
Personally, I'd never buy this stuff, for various reasons.

who knows..? its all rather baffling.
i bought them in good faith many years ago believing they were genuine product that had been on sale in some Asian territory at some point and were 'new old stock' or whatever, i never considered them to be bootlegs at the time at all.
 
I'm not following the angst here guys? why is it not possible that these are just new old unsold stock? we have a well respected member here who was rooting around in a chinese warehouse district last year and finding loads of stuff. I bought a marley BD from him with the chinese/japanese obi thingy on it and it is perfectly legit, not a copy of any sort.
 
Giveaway that these are unauthorized bootleg crap?

R.E.M. left WB in 2015. Worldwide rights for all of their albums changed over to Concord records

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/warner-just-lost-rem-to-concord/

what's the implication if they're unsold old stock of something made in the same timeframe as the U.S. & European versions? circa 2002-4 i guess?
i got Harvest in 2012 and REM in 2014 both sealed but they could've been made many years prior to that.. or they could've been made the week before i bought them! i'm not endorsing these products at all, caveat emptor as always and all that.
i don't remember seeing anybody discussing these online in the previous 6-8 years or i would've knowingly avoided buying them back then if i'd known they were bootlegs, naturally.
 
I'm not following the angst here guys? why is it not possible that these are just new old unsold stock? we have a well respected member here who was rooting around in a chinese warehouse district last year and finding loads of stuff. I bought a marley BD from him with the chinese/japanese obi thingy on it and it is perfectly legit, not a copy of any sort.

no idea, this is one of the strangest discussions i've seen in a while.. who in their right mind knowingly supports bootleggers.. unless its bathtub gin, then i'm in! 🤪🍾
 
what's the implication if they're unsold old stock of something made in the same timeframe as the U.S. & European versions? circa 2002-4 i guess?
i got Harvest in 2012 and REM in 2014 both sealed but they could've been made many years prior to that.. or they could've been made the week before i bought them! i'm not endorsing these products at all, caveat emptor as always and all that.
i don't remember seeing anybody discussing these online in the previous 6-8 years or i would've knowingly avoided buying them back then if i'd known they were bootlegs, naturally.
Absolutely my point, and I'm pretty sure that Adam would be able to tell if it was a boot within oh maybe 30 seconds, I've got Tutu coming and I'm confident it's real, but I will pop it in and let you know cuz if it's a boot I'll be able to tell in about 30 seconds
 
I'm not following the angst here guys? why is it not possible that these are just new old unsold stock? we have a well respected member here who was rooting around in a chinese warehouse district last year and finding loads of stuff. I bought a marley BD from him with the chinese/japanese obi thingy on it and it is perfectly legit, not a copy of any sort.
I suppose those of you that bought these would want to know definitively if these are legitimate Warner / Taiwan titles. Don't know how you could know for sure, except to contact Warner directly for info. And even then it could possibly be a bootleg from a legit Warner Taiwan?
 
what's the implication if they're unsold old stock of something made in the same timeframe as the U.S. & European versions? circa 2002-4 i guess?
i got Harvest in 2012 and REM in 2014 both sealed but they could've been made many years prior to that.. or they could've been made the week before i bought them! i'm not endorsing these products at all, caveat emptor as always and all that.
i don't remember seeing anybody discussing these online in the previous 6-8 years or i would've knowingly avoided buying them back then if i'd known they were bootlegs, naturally.

I really wouldn't feel a bit guilty, Adam, about buying those 'bootlegs' since the ORIGINAL DVD~As were produced in SEEMINGLY SMALL QUANTITIES, without much fanfare [read advertising]. As IF, everyone knew about them. As we know from reading QQ Forum, MOST surround discs produced even today are in smallish quantities and if you don't bite within those first 6 months, or LESS, of release......PUFF ... they disappear. Since almost ALL audio rags never took surround seriously...and still DON'T, and many worldwide audio buffs are discovering surround for the first time, these Asian knock~offs are perhaps the only viable means of acquiring them. I'm NOT condoning their illegal practices, but if the majors were more forthcoming in replenishing older stock THEMSELVES, like MOST of the Classical SACD labels DO, there really wouldn't be a need for counterfeit knock~offs ....now would there?
 
I don't know about all that J, I would just let my ears tell me if it's real, in the first place why would someone go to all that work to make a perfectly legit looking presentation of a disc with all the packaging and inserts for something that barely sells anywhere to anybody but crazy fucks like us, for $30 us which is what like $25 Eu, seems like lot of work for nothing to me. anyways I will absolutely Know if it is a boot right away. I was watching the Tutu disc for a couple of months and the seller had 2 and sold none of them
 
Absolutely my point, and I'm pretty sure that Adam would be able to tell if it was a boot within oh maybe 30 seconds, I've got Tutu coming and I'm confident it's real, but I will pop it in and let you know cuz if it's a boot I'll be able to tell in about 30 seconds

oh i don't know if they are legit product or not at all, i just never suspected them of being anything other than genuine at the time.

look forward to your thoughts when you receive yours (personally i haven't looked back since i first tried a dodgy tutu! 😂
 
I suppose those of you that bought these would want to know definitively if these are legitimate Warner / Taiwan titles. Don't know how you could know for sure, except to contact Warner directly for info. And even then it could possibly be a bootleg from a legit Warner Taiwan?

its always good to know! 👍
 
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