Please HELP me regarding cheap-arse Chinese DVDs...

Does anyone out there know where one can buy said cheap-arse DVDs produced in China, other than via people reselling them on eBay. The sort of thing I'm talking about are like this: http://detail.en.china.cn/provide/detail,1074448850.html

It's a "dropship" 24-disc complete THE WIRE. There seem to be heaps of these sets available for various UK/US TV shows. What's the legality/copyright status of them? I assume it's dubious.

Other than ebay? Dunno.

I got a box of Beatles stuff (Anthology, Help, YSub, and others, 9DVDs), a few years ago, quality is pretty good.

China's copyright presumably makes them 'fair game' but illegal to sell 'here' as such.

In short, dunno.

This kind of thing is discussed on this thread: is this legit?

In short, it would seem: Caveat emptor...

I've bought quite a few cds/dvds in China (or HK) and the quality is almost always good, but you do get the occasional dud. I got a set of the Larry Sanders Show and about 80% played fine - but as it was only about £15 I'm not complaining. I've always assumed selling them here would be illegal.

I got a Woody Allen box set from ebay which had everything from What's New Pussycat to Match Point for about £45. Quality was fine, though how they differed from regular releases I don't know as Allen films aren't renowned for their bonus features.

Um, should be 'What's up, Tiger Lily?'.

most of what you buy from established HK retailers will be legit copies, purchasing them isn't "illegal" it's more like gray market trade and nobody's going to hassle you for it. that said, that wire box set looks like a bootleg.

haven't bought from them lately but I've used ddd house for years
http://www.dddhouse.com/

they have a number of TV season sets available under 'western tv dramas', no wire tho

you could also try asking the folks at dvdtalk.com or hometheaterforum.com

Cheers, all: I might be careful and actually spend the money to get a proper version then.