I'm curious as to why I have some Red Light District titles with a red disc and the hole in the back cover showing the red disc saying something along the line of "if it aint red, it aint red light," and some with normal colored disc and a sticker over the hole on the back cover.
Is this just because of them doing cheaper reprints or is a bootleg issue?
Simply the red DVDs were the first runs which can be a limit amount.
The normal colored disc and a sticker over the hole on the back cover that are produced are from production companies that received license permission from RLD to produce them. So they are legit.
Producing the DVDs in red a bit costly.
I usually get a couple of idiots on ADM.com that I've sold RDL to and I end up explaining this to them after being accused of selling them bootlegs, but they believe it and still they stick to the slogan of "if it ain't red, it ain't red light".
Here's a funny thing, most of the DVDs that RLD produced and released in red had playing issues like pixalating, and freezing, but the the legal normal DVD that are produced today, don't have any those issues as I have both the red and normal (ex. silver) to compare.
So the red DVDs are the first batch, and the normal colored disc are the later/today batch.
Oh that's interesting! I collect old DVDs and although I'm often happy to get a red copy because I know it's an original first run, I have had issues making ISO backups of the red disks more than once! Although they will play in a physical drive. It's frustrating though because I want to view them via my media app because it's 2023 now, not 2005.
Yup. I ended up accumulating THREE copies of the same RLD title from various American sellers trying to find a copy that would play smoothly (all red disks). No luck. Finally got a copy off Jeedoo produced on a normal silver disk by Platinum X Europe and it plays perfectly! I also finally just found a disk I've been searching for for years. and it's on a red disk. It hasn't arrived yet but I'm worried it will have issues. I hope not as it's a "holy grail" find for me. Every time I get a red disk I'm nervous.
The red ones are legit. Those glass masters are something DVD‑Rs can never replicate, and it's one of the easiest ways to spot a bootleg - you'll always see that burn ring on a real DVD‑R. The reflective matrix they have, which normally includes the title or plant code, is also impossible to fake because it only appears on pressed discs. So even though the red discs can look like bootlegs at first glance, if you look closely at the structure, they're actually legitimate pressed discs.I would check for a reflective matrix and look for a burn ring. There are DVD‑Rs that use red dye, so color alone isn't enough to tell - it could be a DVD‑R, but it could also be a legit pressed disc. You really have to check the structure. And if the color is ever blue or purple, that usually means the bootleggers aren't even trying to hide it.
I also personally have a few Re-prints/releases from Platinum X and I can confirm they are red and released under different SKU's.
I do agree with you - there are both buyers and sellers taking advantage of the confusion. Some buyers are getting refunds on legitimate pressed discs by claiming they're bootlegs, and some sellers are trying to pass off DVD‑Rs as "re‑releases" when the real re‑releases are still pressed discs with proper matrices. What I've noticed is the opposite of what people assume: I've seen many cases where the first prints were silver, and the later reprints used red polycarbonate. And in long‑running series, the early volumes were silver pressed while the later volumes switched to red. But even those red discs are still pressed - they have the matrix and the glass‑mastered pits - so they're legitimate despite the color change.
I don't really have an issue with the fact that bootlegs exist - the real problem is that almost all of the counterfeits use DVD‑Rs that are smaller than the original disc, and the quality is clearly reduced with lower bitrates. In my opinion, if someone is going to produce a counterfeit DVD, the very least they could do is use a disc that matches the original's capacity. Otherwise the buyer ends up with a version that looks worse than what you could find online, since even basic streaming clips often have a higher bitrate than these low‑grade DVD‑Rs.
Edited by - DVD-RSurprise on 3/19/2026 11:46:03 AM
Edited by - DVD-RSurprise on 3/19/2026 11:53:10 AM
