pariahed blu ray dish

Hmmmn....Mugenfoo, what if you are wrong? Will you gladly pay the equivalent sum of all pirated stuff that you had? Surely then only can we consider it a fair wager.

You sound very agitated and angry. Why is that?

On the contrary ... i am revelling in the freedom of borderless information exchange!

Fight the Power ! Revolution !

GOD BLESS the Internet. AMEN !

Oooooh ... and what Pirated stuff might I actually be in posession with ? Easy come, easy go! (heh heh heh heh).

Besides, the very fact of having to PAY MORE for Legal copies but only to get INFERIOR Content (like missing audio tracks, features, etc) is a good enuff moral reason NOT to support the local distributors already.

Be careful what u want to wager....before you run the Gaunlet, suggest that you go compare a Pirated DVD vs one from say, Speedy Video aka "local legal copy".

Alright Mugen, you select the "dish" !!

Do I smell a challenge coming up here ? To lay out the details of the 'challenge', at least the following three needs to be determined/agreed upon.

1. What movie to use. How many ?
2. What are the stakes ?
3. When and where ?

1. We can shortlist 1 or 2 movies to use as the test. It will need to be some hollywood blockbuster with plenty of special effects and complex scenes. That is the best way to separate the men from the boys.

2. The stakes. It is unfair to call on one side only. So if say, the original DVDs win and mugenfoo has to pay for all of the pirated stuff he ever bought (but has he ever bought any ? He could be a damn rich barger who can afford to buy original Blu-Rays only and nothing else ? ), what about if the 'pariahed' DVD wins ? What would igmcheah do ? Pay mugenfoo the cost of all the -original- DVDs he has ever bought (question : have igmcheah bought any original DVDs ? ). It can't be one sided. This is a dirty trick used by 'challengers' which is very popular and I have seen it used to trick people many times. One of the golden rules in Art Of War - attack is the best mode of defense !! But it doesn't work here in our forum. The 'attacker' needs to bear the same stakes as the defender.

3. We can do this 'test' in the forthcoming H4S gathering. If it's held at our normal venue, we all know they have a killer AV system there. The judges will be everyone. It will be a majority decision. If it's a blind test, everyone should have the chance of participating and enjoying the test.

Yes, I wrote 'ENJOYING', because I expect it to be a friendly challenge. After the test, whoever wins and whoever loses, I expect igmcheah and mugenfoo to both kiss and make up !!

In the meantime, me and bassclucker will be sitting in the sidelines ensuring the tests are run fairly. After all, that is the job of a moderator right ?

... kiss and make up. like dire straits's brothers in arms

... or like brokeback mountain style?

it might end up ballsclucking

It's ok, WongKN can do all the kissing and batty-boy stuff with IGMcheah.

I'd rather be busy monitoring my .torrents ....
Gotta use every byte of that bandwidth u know ! ... dl'ing is hard work!

oh my... all the best to the listening/video tests. is boy george's

Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon mtv one of the selected/preferred videos? just curious

That's why bassraptor & me has to moderate the test properly, to make sure the participants don't get into anything 'physical'

OK, OK, enough silliness. Wonder why bassraptor is so quiet suddenly in this thread. Busy hiding his LPs and CDs (all originals of course) I think, just in case igmcheah manages to go visit him...

its ok, bassrappie smart .. he is probably busy making "digital backups" (ahem-ahem) of all his prized softwares while we are yakking here already.

Sure wongKN will gladly volunteer the use of his numerous "remote location data storage" facilities as a DR (disaster recovery) site, in case anything might happen to the originals. Just like financial/banking institution standards.

I just got back from watching the jazz festival at empire shopping gallery. Caught up with some old friends performing there. Good fun ...

I believe most of you knows that I am the kind who speaks my mind (though I try to be courteous about it), without fear or favour. So it is with this latest post, the latest development I have found in BluRays.

During lunch yesterday, I visited the Movie Magic shop at KLCC, something I do semi regularly, firstly to check on the availabilities of documentary and concert titles but also to monitor the state of the Blu-Ray market here in Malaysia, especially with regards to prices. Now, with Blu-Rays, Malaysia enjoys an advantage as we are classified into the same region as the U.S. This is unlike DVDs where we are Region-3 while US is Region-1. For DVDs meant for local consumptions are pressed in Region-3 which although in theory should be identical in quality to Region-1 DVDs meant for U.S., in practise, many people including myself sees a lot of picture quality degradation with Region-3 DVDs. With Blu-Rays, in theory we get the same discs as the americans.

The interesting development I found at Movie Magic yesterday was that prices of Blu-Rays have continued to come down. Previously many of the better importers are pricing at RM119, down from a super high or RM179 when they were first launched. Yesterday I was very pleased to find that there are a number of titles now selling at RM99, a few even going for RM79. There are also a series of titles on offer for RM89. Now, on first encounter, the cynical like me would straight accuse them of putting unwanted or unpopular titles in the RM89 offer. But when browsing through, titles such as Batman Begins, even the Dark Knight are being offered at RM89 now. Other titles includes the Lord of the Ring trilogy (a favourite amongst the movie buff collectors), the Harry Potter series (including Half Blood Prince) and several quite new/recent movies.

With this, it is highly likely that we will not save very much with importing original Blu-Rays from overseas, from places like Amazon. Perhaps when they themselves have massive discounts and we buy bulk, we might still get cheaper prices but I think it is highly unlikely that we can go below RM50 per Blu-Ray disc. If we have a choice of RM79 or RM89 for a local disc, especially with the offer of '1 week exchange warantty' for faulty disc (not an uncommon occurrence even with Blu-Rays), this latest development is very good for us as we now have the option to consider buying original Blu-Rays for SELECTED titles.

As I have indicated, the alternatives - those 'unofficial' Blu-Rays are currently still in single layer 25GB BD-ROMs which entails a loss of picture quality. However, I have been told of actual proper 'unofficial' dual-layer full spec Blu-Rays going for RM40+ per disc at Kota Damansara but I have never really found them yet so I don't know of their quality. Again, if they are RM45 or above and the originals are offered at RM79 or RM89, it might be worth considering the originals, DEPENDING on the individual of course since originals I can pay using credit card while those I need to pay using cash and I usually do not prefer to carry lots of cash around, not with the state of safety nowadays.

Unfortunately the situation with DVDs, at least those Region-1 imported DVDs do not seem to be improving. With chinese movies however, I notice they are now starting to remaster some classics (such as Twinkle-Twinkle Little Stars as shown on TV3 yesterday night) in a lot better quality and now available as original DVD for less than RM40. This is something worth considering. Hopefully this situation improves a lot more in the near future. For a fact, certain 'unofficial' DVDs totally whacks any original DVDs in terms of picture quality, so those official DVD manufacturers needs to do more a lot more homework.

In the end, you know that the wise saying can never be wrong, that competition helps the market vitality and choice gives consumers power. If not for the pirates, I doubt if any of the manufacturers or importers would bother to give us better deals, or better quality.

Like I said, I do not hold back my words for certain topics and so there, this is the latest development.

Pirated DVD buyers guilty, too
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/27/nation/7306032&sec=nation

"Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry deputy secretary-general Datuk Daud Tahir said currently a person could be held liable of infringement if he or she kept three or more pirated DVDs or CDs deemed for commercial purposes, unless proven otherwise.

“We are studying whether to hold a person liable of infringement if he or she has in possession just a single disc that is deemed to be for commercial purposes,” he told reporters at a forum, themed Contraband/Counter­feit Issue: A Worrisome Trend Affecting Foreign Investor Confidence in Malaysia, organised by the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) here yesterday."

I wonder how the "study" to ascertain commercial from personal use will be established.

Aiyah, you know la, the right type and amount of 'contribution' will certify all of them as 'of no commercial value'.

As another annecdote, I bought an original DVD of the chinese movie 'Aftershock', the award winning movie about the Tangshang earthquake that killed lots of people in China. Fully original, from 1-U, complete with sticker from Ministry of Trade. Price ? All of RM19.90 !!! For an award winning movie ! Only difference from other blockbuster movie is that the movie rights belongs to China.

To me, that simply proves two things. How ECONOMY manufacturing of original DVDs can be. And don't tell me china don't take royalties for their movies. So it also clearly shows HOW MUCH we pay for the so-called royalties. You can see the discrepancy as an original region-3 DVD of Iron-Man was selling at RM59.90. Ironic right, that just a shelf away, a BLU-RAY of a slightly older blockbuster movie can had for RM79.90, just RM20 more. For several times higher quality picture.

It's true that Bluray prices have come down around the globe even in Bolehland. Speedy is also selling some SELECTED titles from RM79, 90, 110 etc. But I dun understand why there are few titles with "Imported" sticker that sells more than RM120. Aren't they are supposed to be imported since all are in Region A?

In the area of car modification, we have the phenomenon of 'sticker power'. If you are buying anything from Honda, the seller, be it potong shop owner, or speedshop owner, etc will tell you 'this part is Type-R part la'. And that statement is meant to mark up the price by 100%. For BMW, it's 'M sport'. For Mercedes, it's AMG. For Nissan, NISMO. For Toyota, TRD. And so forth.

Therefore, in the area of Blu-Rays, the 'IMPORTED' sticker is just a god-given right, to the dealers to mark up the price of their Blu-Rays !!

Actually I think it is packaging. Eventhough our Region is the same as U.S., a Blu-Ray meant for ASEAN is packaged differently to one meant for U.S. E.g. number and type of audio tracks. So main track say English, then alternates would be Thai, Indonesian, Chinese, and so froth for ASEAN, but for U.S. packaging, it would be main track, then Spanish, and so forth. Similar for the subtitles as well. It might not be place of manufacture. If a Region-A BR for ASEAN is manufactured in China for e.g., chances are very high the Region-A BR for U.S. is also manufactured there as well.

I am really not sure if the picture and sound quality are different or not. Maybe someone who is an A/V NUTCASE can test for us and tell us the assessment.

To me, I am so far, still suspicious that all the price difference is a result of pure greed on the part of the manufacturers.

To add along but nothing in relation to this topic but the greed that prevails in bolehland ......

Got a branded Watch from overseas for less then RM2 hundred but the same model is sold in MY at at an eye popping price . And the watch is a product of Japan.

The business decision taken by the local manufacturer / distributor / importer / retailer have driven consumers to shop down south or elsewhere or from the WEB.

cheers

WongKN wrote:In the area of car modification, we have the phenomenon of 'sticker power'. If you are buying anything from Honda, the seller, be it potong shop owner, or speedshop owner, etc will tell you 'this part is Type-R part la'. And that statement is meant to mark up the price by 100%. For BMW, it's 'M sport'. For Mercedes, it's AMG. For Nissan, NISMO. For Toyota, TRD. And so forth.

Ah, so Mugen is also marked up 100% ...?

more like 250%

but TRD would be 600% .