I've been watching Bollywood films for years, but now that so many are subtitled and on DVD, I've wanted to buy more to add to my collection. The question I have is, what distributors should I stay away from? Are there some that are notorious for their poor quality? Just browsing this board I've noticed that Sky isn't too preferred. But why? I mean, what exactly are the problems involving the quality? Is the footage grainy, blurry, dark, etc.? I was looking on a site called DVD Dhamaka and they had several old Sanjay Dutt films I'd like to see (I'm a HUGE fan) but the DVDs were only like $3.99 and $5.99 which immediately made me suspicious. They WERE subtitled though, which is what I'm looking for.

Also, is there a particular website you commonly purchase DVDs from?

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Saajan, welcome to Zulm!

http://www.indiaweekly.com and http://www.nehaflix.com are normally recommended on this site! Certain brands like Sky, Spark, Videosound are subject to freezing problems, and their prints are not normally good either... Even more reputable brands like Eros and Yash Raj often have disappointing prints, but their DVDs don't normally freeze... Yash Raj is normally very expensive! DEI/BEI have the best prints and value for money... You may want to consider pirates too, as they offer good value for money....

yup, some distributors quality is going to be not better than pirated ones. But well, only choice there you will have is to buy original or pirated and for what price, since that's the only distributor

Sometimes there is choice, for instance, when one title is released by two or more brands. Best to consult for Zulm for screenshots to compare prints in such cases!!

In my options, if your main concerns are video quality and sound quality, only DEI/BEI and some of Ayngaran DVDs are worth putting into collection. Occasionally, some DVDs are distributed by some Hollywood distributor like Colombia Tristar, Sony. They are of course good. Eros' DVD usually has a poor or OK video quality. Personally, I'm not going to buy any more Eros' DVD until they start caring about their DVD's video quality. On the another hand, Eros's DVDs are still better than some other brands. Let me tell you why. Eros's DVD usually have good sound quality(I say good, not great); Songs have subtitles; DVDs usually don't have media problem. So Eros's DVDs are good for rental.

Sound is hard to mess up when u just have to directly convert an already 5.1 digitally mixed track onto Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD. Still, Eros has pulled some unforgivable tricks in the past like stating 5.1 on the jackets of mono DVDs like Jungle and Josh (the theatrical releases had great 5.1 DTS audio) . Eros completely lost me then.

Saajan
As ppl have rightly pointed do the following :-
1.) If you find any C-Tristar dvds (except the Satyajit Ray Trilogy), then grab them

2.) Almost all DEI/BEI dvds are good . However, beware of the $2.99/$3.99 sales thare are going on in most sites these days (Indiaweekly included). Those dvds will invariably fail. Buy those dvds and make backups of them instantly

3.) The same goes with Ayngaran's new movies as well as IDream's Telugu DVD's. All these dvds are generally progressive in nature

4.) For all the rest, the best thing would be to rent the dvds for $1.00 and then copy them on your blank dvd's. Use DVDfab Do not waste your money on these *hit companies and their distasteful products !