As my satellite TV reception is a bit unstable this weekend I decided to buy some DVDs to pass the time. I picked up four titles for the grand sum of 64 RMB, that’s about US $8.30 for the lot. (And I’m sure a lot of locals could get them for even cheaper.) Of course they are all fakes. One of the movies I got, Casino Royale, was available here one month before the scheduled release date. Apparently about 95% of the DVD market here is fake. As for me, I wouldn’t mind paying a little more to get original DVDs. But where? Every DVD store I’ve ever been into around here basically only deals in fakes. And the quality of these fakes is actually quite good, especially if you wait for a few weeks after it first becomes available. I know a few of the studios are trying to fight piracy by releasing authentic versions of movies quickly after their release in movie theaters and making them relatively affordable at prices competitive with the fakes. I hope they succeed and I hope they work on the distribution model otherwise people like myself, who would be happy to pay a little more for a non-pirated version, will continue to be stuck supporting pirates.
Saturday, March 17th, 2007 Archives
My brother has put his house (or condo or whatever you want to call it) up for sale. Here’s a video tour complete with cheesy background music.
You can find out more about it at 78chandon.com.
(Hope he doesn’t mind me borrowing his video…the other purpose of this post was to try embedding video in a blog post.
I really enjoy visiting the Newport Beach and Laguna Beach area. It is an area that makes me think I would actually like to live back in the US sometime. Of course I could barely afford to buy a home there, but still it is a really beautiful area.
Here’s a picture of Laguna Beach from my last visit.
