As I read it in the VHS days (I think it was about Hollywood VHSs): With time, copyrights expire but can be renewed. It costs to renew, of course. As time goes by, copyright holders don't find it their worthwhile to renew their copyright and then the material is considered in public domain, until someone obtains copyright again.

Business people are always on the lookout for public domain stuff. They spend resources and when they discover a public domain item, they not necessarily declare it to the world. They mass produce and market it before anyone catches up. After all, if it's in public domain, someone can even copy their work and market it. Its free for all.

On the other hand, if owner of material (say a film) keeps all his prints locked up and safe, whether it's copyrighted or not, no one can copy it.

Moreover, illegal in one country does not necessarily make it illegal in other countries. For example, all US satellite broadcasts in US can be captured in Canada or Mexico, and courts don't consider it illegal (you must know the code though).

Film: Raja Saab

CC 4670 meters (170 min)

Shemaroo DVD 146 min (152 min @ 4% speed up)

Video Sound DVD: Had an old copy of this release but has rotten in the 2nd layer (infamous Media Dimension replicated). It's 135 min (140 min @ 4% speed up). Whatever it plays, somehow print is better than Shemaroo.

(Film is similar to Jab Jab Phool Khile: visually, leads pair, music etc)

I have the video sound dvd and if it is better then I will not get the shemaroo version. And thanks for the info.
PS I got a pirated copy of Shemaroo's Khanaiya bur print is bas ; Is the original better.. Thanks

Film: Kanhaiya (1950s)

1982 CC: 3886 meters (142 min)

Shemaroo DVD: 99 min only (103 min @ 4% speed up). Extremely bad print (video & audio are both bad) and 39 out of 142 min of 1982 print cut. Orig 1950s print might be even longer.

This is a good candidate to dig up old VHS and restore to DVD.

Is this a joke? Why does Shemaroo screw up covers by replacing the Dolby Digital symbol with the 5.1 Surround sticker??

And why the heck can't they use the proper DVD symbol instead of the text Digital Versatile Disc' ??

LOL!
Ragz, you are quoting a very old post. Had you quoted this post then, the most important question would have been: Do the discs Play ??

Any and all Shemaroo discs I bought in those days, all were rotten, or rotted a few days later, in the 2nd layer. I stopped buying Shemaroo, Retailers stopped ordering. Over the Yrs, some of those titles got released on better discs.

Firstly, hi there! I missed you! Its been a week since we've posted interesting stuff. Zulm was really boring last week

Freezing problems have decreased since Shemaroo got their DVDs replicated at Sony, which mostly uses GOLD media, so layer rot chances are less.

Earlier, as I remember, all their discs were mostly SILVER media, replicated at KRCD, Jet Speed, Futuristic, Anant, etc. All this was mostly from 2005 onwards (before that, I was not in Hosh-O-Hawas)

And if you see the latest silver screen titles, the discs are mostly single layered, hence, less chances of rotting and freezing. (If the discs also read Silver Screen, you'd have the single layered ones, otherwise, they provide discs from older stocks which may be Dual layered, silver media).

I have Chashme Buddoor and the cover was labelled silver screen. But the disc was of the older stock, NOT reading Silver screen and luckily Gold Media. It works cool till now.

I also had Pakeezah, which said 'Manufactured at Sony'. But the disc was Dual Layered on SILVER media. The rim made it evident that it was replicated at JET SPEED!!!

It freezes now!! BADLY!!

I also had No Entry by Shemaroo. It was Dual layered on gold media. But manufactured by JET SPEED!! It never played. On another player it does, but I can only watch the first few minutes

I think 'Shahjahan (1930s) was also done by S'maroo.
'Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya Hai' is an excellent song (K. L. Saigal - the maestro).

BTW, is the print of 'Chupke Se' any good??

I had the Venus version which was as good as a DEI transfer (guys, don't kill me). Except from chroma-lag and 2x non-smoothness, it was excellent. The film was crap, though

Shah Jehan was a 1940's movie - I think released in 1946. I have the VHS of it, which is probably a more complete version then the Shemaroo version as they tend to have chopped down prints of the really old movies.

^ Oh! My bad!

I e-mailed them regarding this and they don't just seem to reply.

I will soon write to them asking what kind of a customer service it is and I'll fry them.

They normally blame the original owners of the film for the chopping business.

By mistake, is there a 100% pure progressive DVD of Shemaroo??

When Shemaroo uses NTSC telecinès, why don't they encode the DVD progressive NTSC??

What makes the DVD become Pseudo Progressive??

Firstly, "Pseudo-Progressive" perhaps is not a correct term. It's just what I or a few others at zulm started using this term.

Film to NTSC/ Pseudo-Prog/ Progressive DVD: 24 film frames are recorded as 24 video frames or 48 video fields. (two video fields makes one video frame; odd numbered scan lines in one field and even numbered scan lines in the 2nd video field). As North American standard frequency is 60 Hz, some video fields/ frames are shown twice and some are shown three times. Film to NTSC telecine recorded on tape will be "1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2B repeat". If a DVD encoding has the same "1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2B repeat" recorded, smart decoders can detect the repeated field pattern and throw the repeated field out, and recreate original 24 film frames. If there is a 2-3 pattern visible, we have been calling it Pseudo-Prog or direct film to NTSC. Depending on noise in the recording or it's copies, 2-3 detectors may or may not detect this 2-3 pattern.

In 24 fps progressive DVD, 24 film frames are recorded and the field/ frame that's supposed to be repeated (NTSC) is not recorded just instructed (flagged) to the player to repeat it. If you advance the Prog film DVD, you'll notice 24 steps per sec and not 30 like in non-Prog DVDs.

Why to waste recording the un-necessary field ?? By not recording the un-necessary field, you save 25% bit space. Why most Indian DVDs are not Progressive is because they are just converting video tape into DVD. And the video tape contains the repeated field.

For Film to PAL, 24 film frames per sec are recorded as 48 (instead of 50) fields. As each film frame is in two fields, there is no need to detect the repeat pattern. Combining two fields gives you one film frame. But, you do get 4% speed up unless you repeat every 24th frame. Experts had deduced this as un-necessary.