DVDs in China I would like to give you a basic knowledge on DVDs in China, as they are everywhere, easy and cheap to buy, but often fail to work when put in our player.
Let’s start by a fact that made me search the reason for a long time: have you noticed that many DVDs have a kind of small melted spot on the silver side, close to the middle ring?
— photo to come —
Why?
The reason is because those DVDs we buy between 5 (DVD 5) and 13 rmb (DVD 9) on the street, are illegal. The machines burning those discs are sometimes very official machines used to burn legal ones. They have a serial number which is printed on the back of the DVDs they make, which can lead the police back to them. So they intentionally melt the plastic in that spot where the serial number is printed.
What does that mean?
– First, that the machine is probably a good one, so the DVD.
– Second, that if the serial number was burned out without care, the melted spot could create a small bump which could bother the disc’s lecture. You can scrape of the asperities with a sharpt knife if that’s the case, to flaten the surface.
– Third, that DVDs without that hollow spot are burned on machines with no serial number, which again means that those machines are pirate ones, used only for illegal burning. The quality can still be good, though.
Now, le’ts speak about difference between DVD 5 and 9. A DVD 5 is printed once, whereas a DVD 9 is twice, once in the usual direction, and then another time in the other. The information is burned twice, making it deeply fixed on the surface of the DVD, so the resulting quality is much higher.
How to recognize a DVD 9, without relying on the seller’s word, or the (rather false) information on the cases? Check the middle ring on the back (silver) side of the disc. There should be some information written there, around the center ring. If it’s a DVD 9, that information is printed twice. ALL information will be printed twice! Check it by yourself, under a light if possible, as the writing is small and the surface very shiny.
Last, a few tricks to check a DVD quality. You should know that a DVD or CD is made of two halves glued together, you can even see it under some light by looking at the side of the outside ring. Whatever the machine used to burn, or the kind of disc it is (5 or 9), pass your finger through the middle ring, turn the DVD around it, and feel if the inside border is smooth or rough. Do the same with the outside border. If it’s rough, just don’t buy it, as it means that the two halves of the discs were not well glued together.
Another useful trick, is to use toothpaste to repair a broken DVD. Just spread a bit of toopaste on the silver side, let it rest for 5 minutes, then rinse with water. Once it’s dry, try it again. Toothpaste gets in the invisible cracks and imperfections of the disc, fills them, and can save your evening.
And finally, the best advice I can give you, is to buy a good Chinese DVD player. Most are made to read those badly burned discs you find on markets, and would succeed where a western player would fail. Some brands are especially efficient for that, ask one of those geeky electronic salesmen in supermarket, I’m sure they could recommend you a good one. Prices are really low anyway, around 300 rmb. Playing DVDs on your laptop or computer is not a good idea, as the hardware will get tired really fast trying to get through all the surface disc errors, and you’ll soon have them break or malfunction.