Fudging the Force: A Look at a Pirate Episode I DVD

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Fudging the Force:
A Look at a Pirate
Episode I DVD

Well, it's happened once again. Home video pirates, operating out of Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, have once again struck DVD. We've seen this before, with the Titanic bootleg, with Disney animated bootleg discs, and others. Surprisingly, these pirates aren't bothering to make digital copies of actual legal studio DVDs. Rather, the pirates are going after titles that we are all dying to own on DVD, but that haven't yet been released by the studios on the format (or weren't at the time the film was pirated on DVD). These pirates have cleverly realized that they can make the most money where there is an unmet demand for product. So they simply purchase legal laserdisc copies of the wanted films (or find some other source), and use that to master illegal DVDs. And many consumers, knowing that they're illegal or not, are buying such discs over the Internet, from street vendors, and less-than-honest retailers in the States and abroad (who get them direct from the pirates themselves). The quality is generally fairly low, but when can buy Fantasia on DVD for under $20 (U.S.), most people aren't complaining. I first became aware of these Episode I bootlegs a few weeks ago, when Bits readers began e-mailing me to say that they'd seen or purchased them. Certainly, I think it's safe to say that there are no films that anyone wants on DVD more than the Star Wars saga. And now that George Lucas himself has weighed in on the issue, saying during interviews that he intends to wait until ALL SIX of the films are done before releasing them to DVD (that's 2006, folks!), demand for illegal DVD versions of the films has skyrocketed. So it's no surprise that there are MULTIPLE unauthorized versions of Episode I on DVD - I know of at least three. A reader recently sent us a copy of one of them, so that we could give all of you a closer look. As with the other bootlegs we've examined here at the Bits in the past, we'll be bringing this one to the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) so that they can investigate as well. We'll bring you their comments soon. Here's a disclaimer: it's not our intention to promote the manufacture, sale or purchase of these discs, so we can't tell you where to get them. But plenty have been made available on auction sites like Ebay, and all you need is a good search engine and some patience to find a number of sites online, that are selling such discs for as low as $10 each. The MPAA has told us quite frankly, that these discs wouldn't be such a problem if the studios would become more active in releasing authorized copies of highly sought-after titles on DVD. This is simply an important issue that we feel needs to be addressed. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at the disc that was made available to us...
Wow! The Star Wars Trilogy available on DVD? Well... bootleg DVD anyway. Made in China, and sold on Ebay.
A bootleg Episode I DVD. Notice the poor-quality screen printing on the disc.	Let's start with the physical disc itself. Upon initial inspection, the disc appears to be of much lower quality that others we've seen. This is clearly a case of an illegal manufacturing plant trying to churn out as many copies as possible, as quickly as possible. The data side of the disc is more silver in color, not the deep gold all the Disney bootlegs we've seen (deep gold color being a possible indication of DVD-R media). It appears to be a standard DVD-5 disc (single sided and single layered). The screen printing that appears on the disc is also of lower quality than we've seen previously. It contains spelling errors and inaccurate information about the disc's content. It's also one-color only (the greenish-yellow color of the lettering you see is simply the upper surface of the disc).

It's interesting to note that the disc's surface labeling doesn't include any kind of studio or copyright markings. Previously, we had seen such things as the wrong studio credited for the disc. All you get here are the Dolby Digital logo, and a mark that indicates "AC-3 5.1" audio (despite the fact that the disc is in 2.0 stereo only). The film's title is incorrectly spelled "STAR-WARS EPISODI" and on a second line (in smaller print which is hidden by the inner boundary area of the disc) "THE THANTDM MENACE". There is also a great deal of what appears to be Chinese writing (I can't say for sure), and official looking numbers: "ISRC CN-C18-99-0227-0/V.J9 (DC-0227)" and the like. The disc comes in a standard Alpha or Amaray keep case, with a very high-quality glossy insert (click here for a much closer look at the insert and the disc itself). The front of the insert includes more Chinese symbols, along with the DVD-Video logo, the Fox logo, and the correctly spelled title "EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE". The full-color artwork that appears here, appears to be an odd combination of images: a publicity still of Natalie Portman in costume, a section of the Star Wars: Special Edition one sheet artwork, and an image that I believe at one time appeared on the official Star Wars website.
Great features right? None of them are actually on the disc, except Chapter Search.	Turning the case over, you get more Chinese and English writing, and more pictures from the film. A set of Special Features is said to include Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, a French language track, Dolby Surround, a theatrical trailer and chapter search capabilities. None of them are actually on the disc except the chapter search function (more on that in a minute). The disc also claims that the film has been formatted to fit your TV (at least that's what I think they meant - it's misspelled), but it's actually in letterboxed widescreen on the disc. And the disc is all region, not Region 6 only as is specified on the back.
Still more errors. No, the film hasn't been formatted to fit your "TO HT YOUR SCREEN". And it isn't Region 6 either - it can be played anywhere, on any player. Somehow I don't see Fox or Lucasfilm putting their stamp of approval on this.

When you put the disc in your player, and actually start to play it, the Dolby Digital "City" trailer appears, in pristine quality, and in full 5.1 surround sound. I can only assume that this was lifted from an unencrypted digital source, due to the high quality.

After the Dolby Digital trailer, you see an equally high quality 20th Century Fox logo, which also appears to have been lifted from a good digital source. Curiously, the Lucasfilm logo has been cut from the presentation, as are the words "A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away..."

As soon as the Fox trailer finishes, you get to the disc's main menu screen. Or perhaps I should say, its ONLY menu screen. There are a couple of title graphics, and six labeled buttons, superimposed over a poor quality snapshot which has been taken from the film. The six buttons correspond with the disc's six (and ONLY) chapter stops, placed at roughly 30 minute intervals.

Once you select one of the buttons, and press your remote's "Enter" button, you're taken to that section of the film, which begins playing.

As for the quality of the picture and sound, I would have to like it to a second-generation VHS dub. It's very soft and dim, with a tremendous lack of detail, and occasionally inaccurate color (over or undersaturated). The sound is 2.0 stereo only, and it's at times distorted sounding.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd have to say that this DVD was made using an analog video master, taken from a poor-quality transfer of an Asian exhibition print of the film. There are two sets of subtitles that appear on the video - neither can be turned off. One appears to be actually burned onto the film print itself, and a second set appears in yellow, in the bottom black bar that makes up the letterbox (note: I've been told that one is Malay, and the other is Mandarin Chinese).

This is clearly an exhibition print - all kinds of reel change marks and other artifacts appear during the course of the program. And it's a much-used print as well. There are several instances where entire lines of dialogue are missing, no doubt due to print damage that necessitated actually cutting and resplicing the print itself. And there are plenty of scratches to the emulsion, and lots of dust and dirt visible in the picture.

It might be easy to get the idea that this disc looks better than it does, based on the screenshots you see here. But let me tell you first-hand, that Adobe Photoshop did a kindness to these images when I reduced them in size - lots of the imperfections were simply (and unavoidably) smoothed away in the process of preparing the images for the web. Still, I can't lie to you - the picture, while bad compared to DVD, laserdisc and even high-quality VHS standards, is still entirely watchable. The audio, while only a muffled stereo, is likewise easy to forgive. And I'm told that at least one of the other bootleg versions of this film features laserdisc-quality audio, and full 5.1 surround sound.

Note the film makings of an exhibition print

Two sets of subtitles appear on the video.

Once again, keep in mind that this is only one of at least three different and unauthorized versions of Star Wars: Episode I on DVD (you can see a close-up scan of the cover and disc of yet another version by clicking here). And remember that the main reason that they exist at all, is due to the fact that good-intentioned consumers CAN'T BUY AN AUTHORIZED DVD OF THIS FILM NOW. I sincerely hope that 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm jointly decide to curb this problem as soon as possible. But I believe the ONLY way they will be able to effectively do so, would be to release high-quality, official DVD versions of these films at once.

I can understand that George Lucas would like to wait until all 6 films are done, so that he can release a deluxe, special edition boxed set of them on DVD. But why not release even basic editions on DVD now? 2006 is a LONG way off - far too long for most fans to have to wait. Lucas could easily authorize the release of the special edition versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi now, as basic movie-only DVDs (with maybe a theatrical trailer, anamorphic widescreen video, and 5.1 surround sound). Many industry analysis believe the Lucasfilm and Fox will release Episode I to video sometime in the first half of 2000. What better way to build demand and awareness could there be, than to release the original films on DVD, a month at a time leading up to the home video (and DVD) debut of the latest chapter in the saga?

Let's face it - if Warner can ship a million copies of The Matrix on DVD, how many millions of people would pony up $30 each for the Star Wars films? And would that prevent anyone from buying a $300 6-film special edition boxed set in 2006? Are you kidding - diehard fans of this series have been buying multiple copies of these films for years. They aren't about to stop now, trust me. And if they can't get legal DVDs, it's hard to blame them for paying $10 for a poor-quality bootleg disc in the meantime. Somebody is going to make a lot of money here. It might as well be Lucasfilm and Fox, instead of video pirates, right? Come on, George... get with the program. Let's have the Force on DVD where it belongs, in the kind of quality it deserves.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Bill Hunt, Editor
The Digital Bits
billhunt@thedigitalbits.com