I just received 3 DVD's which I ordered from Amazon:

Khamoshi - The musical
Mr & Mrs 55
Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam

They all appear to be originals -one produced by Spark Worldwide, and two by Moser Baer India Ltd.

The quality of the picture is extremely poor, and the Moser Baer one's also state that "this DVD can only be played back on with players and systems with MPEG card interactive with version 2.0 players/MPEG card only.

Any advice, comments appreciated. I'm interested in older Hindi films, any ideas how to source good quality films?

If this is the quality I'm getting by buying 'proper' copies, then I might as well head for Southal Broadway and get a pirated copy... (so much for anti-piracy).

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Zulm!

Unfortunately, this is indeed the kind of quality you'll have to expect from older (and even many newer) Hindi films on DVD. Despite being official releases, they often look no better than a pirated copy.

There are some available of decent quality, however, if you know which ones to look out for. Thankfully, you're at the right place - search this forum for the movies you're interested in and you'll surely find several posts with screenshots from the DVD.

Some discs that I'd recommend of 50s/60s/70s films are...

Shree 420 (Shemaroo) - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1309
Naya Daur, B&W version - (Shemaroo)
Jewel Thief (Shemaroo) - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4429
Caravan (Eros) - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4483
Johny Mera Naam (Eros) - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4418
Dharmatma (Eros) - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10583
Amar Akbar Anthony (Shemaroo) - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7701

Thanks for the reply.

I guess there's more to buying good quality Bollywood DVD's than just getting hold of non-pirated originals.

Trouble with online buying is that there is very little description on the quality of the print.

Would it be reasonable to assume that Eros and Shemaroo would generally be better quality than others?

I remember watching Mahal on Channel 4 about 6 years ago, and it was very good quality. Perhaps the high quality prints used for TV screening are nevel released to the public....?

I'll try and do some screenshots using VLC - not sure where to upload them though.

No, both labels have also released plenty of very poor DVDs - Eros in particular. The good ones appear to be random. DEI/Bollywood Entertainment are one of the few labels that consistantly release discs of reasonable quality, but they have problems too (poor colour rendition).

You're correct in your theory that many of the high quality prints we see of Indian films on TV don't get used on DVD. I've little idea why this is. Rights issues perhaps.

okay, it seems that I better do a lot more homework before purchasing next time.

Maybe buy from sellers who promise to return or exchange for a better quality version if the one sold turns out to be a poor print....

Have you tried www.induna.com
Need to buy at least 14 dvds to get reasonable shipping.Lots of Shemaroo Titles for 2.74 USD

I jut bought Amar Akbar Anthony (Shemaroo) today. It doesn't play, though. Another crappy disc.