Blank-DiscI was at the barber shop the other day and one of the many bootleggers in my area happen to be there. If you don’t know what I mean about bootlegger, they are the people that are always selling bootleg DVD movies and sometimes music. Sometimes out of their car, sometimes in barber shops. You see them from time to time peddling their low quality first run movies.

This bootlegger had a customer in the shop trying to get a refund because one of the movies didn’t work once he got home and tried to watch it. I happen to look over at the DVD and noticed that it was just a plain ole DVD-R with the tittle of the movie written on it with a sharpie. Im guessing that they bittorrented the movie and burned it to a dvd, made copies and started selling them.

Seeing that reminded me of those people that make copies of rented or borrowed DVD movies (me personally, I don’t see a point in collecting copies of movies unless they are the original DVD). I get a lot of questions asking why a movie that they copied didn’t work, or stuttering, or whatever little glitch you run across when trying to burn DVDs. Its funny, I don’t know about you, but burning DVD has always seem to be a crapshoot with me. Seems like it depends on the burner, what software you use, the blank DVD media. Thats not to mention that some DVD players have varying results with all those combinations. Its a crapshoot, not a sure thing.

So thinking about my experiences with burning DVD’s and the questions Ive gotten from others burning DVD’s, I was thinking that the Bootlegger’s job is one job that I definitely do not want. you’d have to think that most people buying those movies are most likely not that computer literate or they would just bittorrent the movies themselves. Not knowing how unreliable burned DVD movies can be could get quite annoying when you get a couple of people always complaining that a movie doesn’t work, asking for refunds, probably thinking the bootlegger is trying to rip them off.

Explaining how to copy DVD movies is something that gets asked a lot. The simple answer is

  • Anydvd
  • Nero
  • DVDshrink

Well that was the method I have used a while ago, and I’m guessing it still works, except for the fact that DVDshrink is outdated and really hard to find now. There are a lot of options out there as far as software. The one thing Ive found, if someone that knows very little about computers ask you how to burn DVD’s, its probably better to just say you don’t know.