Are Those Really Blu-Ray Discs In Bangladesh?
I’ve noticed for a while that there are Blu-Ray discs on shelf in movie stores such as Fahim Music Centre and others. For all intents and purpose, they come in the original Blu-Ray packaging. So, one day I asked the shopkeeper, “Are those really blu-ray discs?”. “Yes”, was the obvious reply. But surprising enough, he told me that these work in standard DVD players as well. Curious, I picked up a copy of Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen.
Back home, I put it my DVD drive and waited for it to load. And lo and behold the movie played back without a hitch. The image and sound quality was far better than any other DVD, but it still wasn’t hi-def. It didn’t take long for me to figure the whole thing out. I don’t know if you guys remember, but DVD-9s were sold in Bangladesh at around 200 TK a long time ago. These are dual layer discs which can hold around 8.5 GB of data (same as the Xbox 360 game discs). But these so called “Blu-Ray” discs with fancy packaging sell for typically 300-400 TK while they’re the same DVD-9 discs. The Transformers 2 Disc was at around 8 gigs. If you look carefully it has “DVD-9” written in small font on the spine of the box.
So, the next time you’re thinking about picking up one of these, point out those small letters to the shopkeeper. He’ll probably not care but hey you can still haggle and get a much lower price. I for one am happy with the picture quality, and won’t return to those boot-legged DVDs anymore.
Edit: As a user pointed out below, these are Blu-ray rips on DVD-9 discs. Forgot to mention that.
Nov 20th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Those are actually Blu ray rips on a DVD-9, which does not look good on beyond 24inch LCD screens !
Nov 20th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
@ Saad
Aye, they are. Forgot to mention that. 😳 Do you have HDMI out from your video card? I have my pc connected via HDMI to my 46inch Bravia and looks good IMO.
Nov 20th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
but in some stores in bashundhara city, the are selling so called blu-ray discs for around 5000 taka, are they real ? gaming wiz ?
Nov 20th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
@ Upol
If you’re taking about PS3 games, then yeah, they are original. But double check just to be sure. If they’re original blu-ray movies, you’ll need a blu-ray disc player to play ’em back. If the shopkeeper tells otherwise, it’s most likely DVD-9.
Nov 20th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
indeed, by the way hows ur xbox 360 doing gaming wiz ?
Nov 21st, 2009 at 9:10 am
@ Upol
Ah that’s doing good. Thnx for asking. My Live subscription expired and I haven’t got back to 360 gaming in a long time. Last I played was Dirt2 online. Anyway, its all Resident Evil 5 on the PC for me, and I’m highly enjoying it. 🙂
Dec 5th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
You buy DVD to watch a movie 😡 ? LoL no DVD is original in BD right? Well, when you’ve crossed the ethical boundaries why don’t you download them? 🙄 .DVD/Blue Ray Rip all available on the internet.
Dec 5th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
@ Dead Hasan
Aye, I do download most of em from the internet, but there was something about those shiny blue packets that I couldn’t resist. 😉
Dec 5th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Hey I am a new reader on this site. I want to ask Mushfiqur a question. I want to buy the PS3 slim later. What I want to know from you ( if you can answer it )
1) how much does the PS3 slim now cost in BD ?
2) What are the price of the original games of PS3?
3) does PSN work in BD and if so will a standard 128 kbs per second. Internet conncetion will work ?
Thanks 😆
Dec 5th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
@ Faiyaz
Hey there, welcome to the blog. 😀
To answer your questions,
1. Last time I checked at SOF, Kamal Ataturk Avenue, PS3 slim cost Tk 35,000
2. Around Tk 7,000 correct me if I’m wrong
3. Yes, it does. A 128 connection might be too low for online gaming though.
By the way, have you subscribed to the blog yet?
Dec 9th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
i hope the ps3 get modded very soon ! cus the price of the ps3 games r just KILLING me !
it takes me 3-4 months to buy a ps3 game…but well i dont give a shit if its avaiable in xbox 360….cus pirated 360 games r available in cheap prices…
but i’m talkin about the ps3 exclusives like infamous,uncharted 1 & 2,Metal Gear Solid 4….
they r just too much expensive…(also hope the blu-ray discs get a price drop in bd!)
Dec 10th, 2009 at 10:56 am
@ Sahil
I doubt whether the PS3 will be so easy to mod. I don’t mod my consoles anymore and play all original games on them since I bought 360 in 2006.
I buy all my games from amazon.com and ship them via myusabox.com which arrives within 3 days. The shipping is expensive though and I have to pay customs/duty charges as well. Stay tuned for a review of the service. 😀
Jan 20th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Having two consoles is a bless- one for PS 3 Exclusives- and the other one for cheap priced multi-platformed or even 360 ONLY exclusive games….
I have a 32 inch HD Ready (1080P Native) Philips TV and an HDMI capable DVD player….that Blu-ray Rip-offs look better than traditional (originally 704X 576 or 480P encoded) DVDs in a slight margin-but for me it’s great.
This is because, actually the World cant understand much between an upscaled 1080P video file and a RAW 1080P MkV/MOV/MPEG-4/AVC/MPEG2 file.. 😛
To me , the main BEAUTY of Bluray is it is encoded in much brighter and contrast ratio images….
So a Transformers II Blu-ray Ripped off down to 720X576 resolution with huge bit-rates packed in 2 Dual Layer DVD 9 DVD Set under the name of BluRay (bought from Fahim Music) is BETTER than a traditional DVD movie…
And most probably I am one of the few peep last here who do not make his PC 24/7 running for the sake of downloading Gigas with KB speed… 😛 😛
Cuz I believe soon we’ll get huge speed that can well be utilized to download a Giga file within minutes….:)
Jan 21st, 2010 at 5:28 pm
@Reza
Cool set up. Blu-Ray rips are usually 1 GB and looks similar or better than those DVD-9 Blu-Ray discs in Bangladesh. I have a really old PC (a Pentium 4) that I leave on 24/7 for downloading stuff. 😉
Jan 21st, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Well, …thanks,…the TV is quite enough for HD or Upscaled Videos, and even with Xbox HD VGA @ 60 FPS, but it does suck with outputtin’ HDMI @ only 30 FPS….
God’s bless is OLED TVs are becomin available worldwide and Samsung BD brought some cool HD ones, those have HDMI @ 60, and 120 Hz.
Apart from TV Side, there are also some HDMI capable Monitors, UCC brought some Viewsonic Monitors at BCS City….
It’s sad PS 3’s GPU doesnt have the samrt EDID feature, whenever I plug ma X3 in to ma T190 Monitor it automatically detects whether it is DVI or VGA, PS 3sadly lacks this…
Jan 22nd, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Dude if you could just explain in some amount of detail how you order games off of the internet it would save me a considerable amount of effort and patience of having to either hunt down or wait for a game to arrive in our jolly land of Bangladesh.
I had to wait for nearly two months for GTA: Chinatown Wars [PSP] to be imported, shit like this takes it’s toll on a brother…
Also I plan on buying a Wii soon, but every shop that I find myself in only seems to sell jacked copies for modded Wiis (which I of course don’t plan on having my Wii to go through); what the fudge is up with that?
Jan 22nd, 2010 at 4:26 pm
@Jason K.
I know, waiting to import games suck big time. You can, however, read this article Reader Question: Where To Buy Original Games in Bangladesh @ http://www.gamersworldbd.com/2010/01/where-to-buy-original-games-in-bangladesh.html
I mostly order through Amazon and ship via FedEx/DHL. Hope that helps!
Feb 5th, 2010 at 11:44 am
I came across an amazing site where they supply original Latest Bluray Rips completely compatible on my PS3 and Xbox 360 at much lower prices than the shops. check it out folks :
http://www.clickbd.com/fixedprice/fixedprice.detail.php?itemNumber=125035
Trust me guys…this changed my whole movie experience! Previously i used to buy those crappy so called Bluray Movies from various shops…but those prints aren’t that great..but this site offers true Bluray Image Quality
Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
@S
You even don’t have to pay to download Blu-ray rips, if you know your way on the internet.
Feb 6th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
yeah…but most of the Bangladeshi’s dont have superfast net speed, so buying is the only best option. Besides, with average speeds like 32Kbps (on most Bangladeshi households)it is completely impossible to download a 720p 4.37GB movie without taking weeks to finish. So for those who are desperately wanting to experience ‘real Hi-Def latest & exclusives’ movies, I think the site i mentioned above is the perfect solution for them.
Mar 19th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Why they do not sell PC Games in DVD-9 discs rather then 2,3 Copies of normal discs? It would be more easier for us to install Games from one disk.
Apr 12th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Hellow Mushfiqur Rahman
Good day! Can you inform me, the DVD you are asking about (DVD-9) is it containing sweat able regulation for 40″ LCD TV. Like Sony Bravia 40″. I have a Sony DVD player alos have a Sony Bravia LCD 40″ but my CRT TV show me more beautiful picture quality then my LCD. I already visit Sony showroom for blue ray player. But they don’t have blu-ray home theater. They have only blu-ray player. Rangs Bangladesh doesn’t import blu-ray home theater. So could you brother tale me how can I get better regulation by this situation.
Thanking You
Muhammad M.Zaman Sohel