A slight question about taking DVDs home.

[Shuai Ge]

Hi, I'll be going back to Nevernever-land from Beijing via Tokyo.

I'm going to drop by Tokyo for a day or two, and then head out.

I've bought various DVDs, and I'm sure that a bunch of them are pirated.

(They all looked kosher when I bought them, but who knows...)

I was wondering if anybody knows what the current situation on this is.

[self-taught-mba]

Brought home 50 last time. No problems.

Friends do the same.

[roddy]

Never heard of anything worse than DVDs being confiscated, and even that is very rare. As long as you aren't giving any cause for suspicion that you are actually trading them (ie, having 20 copies of the latest blockbuster still in the wrapping) you should be fine.

[rüdiger]

Put them between your dirty underwear

If they all look like originals then it shouldn't be a problem. In the unlikely case that your luggage is checked. They probably won't notice. In the end they want to find people which are smuggling and not Joe Average who carries some items for his own use.

[Lu]

A classmate of mine had his whole collection confiscated and he had to pay a fine. (edit: This was in Amsterdam.) But he had I think hunderds of DVDs. If you bring 20-50 it shouldn't be hard to take them along, just put them between your clothes.

Alternatively: send home a lot of stuff in a big box. Fill the box at home, put the DVDs somewhere in the middle. Bring the whole thing to the post office, if it's big and full enough the fuwuyuan there can't be bothered to make you unpack it all, and you can send it without them knowing.

[Shuai Ge]

Well, I have a little less than a hundred.

Maybe like a hundred if I include the CDs I brought with me from back home.

It's basically 2 DVD carry cases, so I think I'll put them in my check in luggage inbetween my clothes or something.

[doumeizhen]

If they are in carrying cases you should be fine. I shipped the cd cases separately from the dvd cases and had no problems. If you already have them in cases don't worry, if you are still sorting, why not just stick the paper/plastic cases in a small box and ship. It'll be a miniscule charge.

[onebir]

A classmate of mine had his DVDs in hand luggage as he went through amsterdam to london. Because they were in hand luggage, the customs guys found them. Result - confiscation + 250 euro fine... Not sure about other countries, but Netherlands seems to be tough...

[shdwsclan]

There usually shouldn't be any customs problems.

It usually depends. If your traveling to a country that respects the new EU law, then its gonna be EU$ 5000 per incident[meaning disk], especially if interpol is involved.

Many in airport security are basically blind, so DONT put them on a carryon and you should be fine.

As for the technical aspect. Make sure that the disks are region 0 and are not css.

There are a few bootleggers in china that try to completely duplicate the disk, minus region coding. Basically, it will play on a legacy drive, but will give you a fatal error on a computer drive because of improper bitsetting on the toc.

Just make sure that the video system and region are either 0 or the same as your. Same thing with video system..as in ntsc-vs-pal.

A VERY good dvd player is Cyberhome DVD 300

http://www.cyberhome.com/products.asp?Product=300

It is the best selling dvd player in many countries because it is software locked, cheap, multisystem, multivoltage, progressive scan, dolby and pcm decode...etc...

Basically, all you do is enter an unlock code VIA remote which can be found on google, and it will play anything. NTSC on PAL and PAL on NTSC, full color and progressive, it will also be region free.

It is also capable of 100-240v natively, so all you need is RCA cable, power adapter and scart adapter....and you can plug it in anywhere you travel.

[Dave]

I just got in from china with my whole collection, 100dvd.

Walked passed customs with no problem.

I had them in my lugage checked-in saying "FRAGILE"

Just be cool if you do get caught and hassled just tell them "This was my life in China"

good luck

[chengdude]

It is the best selling dvd player in many countries because it is software locked, cheap, multisystem, multivoltage, progressive scan, dolby and pcm decode...etc...

One reason they're so cheap might be that Cyberhome apparently has trouble understanding the whole system of licensing and royalties...not unlike the makers of the pirated discs they play so well:

Don't forget to pay your bills

[Qcash3]

I bought home about 25 DVD's from Beijing with no problem, I put them in my carry on and that was that. I don't know if the customs agents will actually care, but to be safe you should probably put them in your luggage, maybe I was lucky. Unfortunately when I got home only a few of the DVD's actually worked:evil:, which resulted in me watching the last Samurai about 50 times. Perhaps it is because the DVD player in my room is not a big name brand, I was able to play more of the DVD's on another DVD player but not all of them. Also watch out for quality, alot of the DVD's that I could play looked like they were filmed using a cheap camcorder:cry:.