Buying Blu-Ray (HD) Movies in Vietnam [More on Piracy]

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Blu-Ray Disc logo

Image via Wikipedia

This blog has never been afraid to discuss piracy openly. (Notice I mention “this blog”. I, however, do not condone piracy in any way or fashion. “This blog” made me do it! I am innocent!)

Some examples: How to be a Digital Pirate in Vietnam, My Torrent Guide for You, The Escapist : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

Today, I want to share about the world of network media tanks, getting HD-quality movies on the cheap, and how to make this all happen. I won’t talk too much about the situation of piracy, having discussed those in detail in other articles. I also won’t get too technical about the discussion, just what 99% of the people reading this need to know to get things done.

The lowdown: getting HD movies in Vietnam can be quite affordable. Will these movies be the exact same quality as buying a Blu-Ray disc in the US? No. But pretty close for most concerning eyes (if you’re reading this article here of all places, you probably cannot tell the difference. I don’t even know if I can, for that matter, and I have a HD Player and Movies for my Xbox 360)

Getting movies basically gets down to getting a player for them (media tank), the movies (movie copy service), and of course, the TV.

Buying Movies:

3 Steps:

  1. Buy a Media Tank
  2. Buy a Hard Drive to Attach to Media Tank
  3. Buy Movies

Step 1, Buy a Media Tank:

A media tank is like a DVD Player or VCR. You connect it to your TV and it has the ability to play media. I have a WD TV hooked up to a Seagate 1.5 TB Drive. If you want to know more scroll to the bottom of post.

For a full list of Media Tanks available at Halo Shop in Saigon, see here: Media Tank List, Halo Shop. I generally recommend them for any purchases. They can speak English and they’re not so full of BS so you can take their advice for an easier process.

If you’re from Hanoi, sorry, I don’t know of any places in Hanoi, though I’m sure they exist- ask a local Home Theater shop, and they should be able to point you in the right direction.

A few more notes: Don’t bother getting HD movies unless you have an HDTV. There will be no benefit. Also, use an HDMI cable to connect the Media Tank to the HD TV. HDMI Cables should cost less than $10 USD- don’t be tricked into paying more. Lastly, if you’re not going to hook up a 5.1 (or 7.1/8.1/etc.) sound system to your TV, you should make sure the audio will be ok if you connect the Media Tank to your TV. Just ask “Can I use this Media Tank with my TV speakers?” With the WD TV, this isn’t a problem unless you are playing DTS movies, but scroll to the end of this post for more on that.

Step 2, Buy a Hard Drive to Attach to Media Tank:

You can buy these anywhere. I would suggest getting a package deal when you get your Media Tank, minimum 1TB Hard Drive, get 2TB if you can afford it. Remember, movies are 5-10 GB each, so a 1TB Hard Drive will store only 200 movies. Tank + Hard Drive may cost $400 to $500 depending on what you buy. Sounds expensive, but the movies themselves are extremely cheap.

Step 3, Buy Movies:

imageThere are basically 3 types of content: 480P (DVD quality), 720P (Hi Def), and 1080P (Bad ass Hi Def). You, for practical purposes, want 720P content. If you really think you need 1080P, read the section about buying a TV below. I do have a 32” 1080P TV, but I also sit less than 3 feet away from it.

One other thing to consider is that not that many movies are available in 1080P here, so not necessarily worth the extra cash.

There are two places that I consider:

  1. ChepPhim.Net: 199/19 Duong (Street) 3/2 F11 District 10, TPHCM. Movie List, ChepPhim.Net
  2. Halo Shop: 82 Pasteur, District 1, TPHCM. Movie List, Halo Shop

ChepPhim.net is cheap, fast, and has much more content available compared to Halo Shop. You can get 1TB copied for about $10 USD in less than two days. They update their movie list about twice a month and even have TV sets like Lost and Prison Break.

Buying a TV and Home Audio:

TV:

image I’ll make this simple- get a 720P TV. If you really think you may want a 1080P, read this article first: 1080p Does Matter – Here’s When (Screen Size vs. Viewing Distance vs. Resolution). If you have a family or plan to share the TV with someone else, unless you are just rich, get a 720P. A bonus about having a 1080P TV, though, is that you can use it as a 1920 x 1080 PC monitor.

For the record, I have a 32” 1080P from LG, and like I said before, I have to sit less than 3 feet away from it to take full advantage of 1080p movies, of which there are few. Most video games also max out at 720P.

Retailers:

Home Audio:

This one’s a bit tougher. I can’t really help here in terms of where to buy in Vietnam or what to buy. Try HD Vietnam if you can read Vietnamese. Otherwise, stick with the stereo TV speakers.

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About the Western Digital WD TV: [Quick Review and Tips]

I have the WD TV, the original version.

image

Some notes on it:

  • It’s cheap. I expect the original can be had for about $100 USD now in Vietnam. I don’t think the WD TV is sold at Halo Shop anymore.
  • Supports most video formats, but surprisingly, not .FLV or .WMV. I don’t use it for audio or pictures.
  • Overall, it’s okay. Not great. But a solid value for $100. The HDMI connection on mine is a bit loose, so sometimes there’s no signal, and the remote can be frustratingly spotty. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the machine won’t turn on or off, even when the remove is right next to the sensor. Once the machine starts recognizing the remote that particular day, everything is great.
  • Getting the new version (Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player) or the original (WD TV Live) is fine for most purposes. The 2 main additions in the WD TV Live are 1) DTS support and 2) Networking support. Networking support means you can hook it up to another computer and stream stuff rather than have to connect a Hard Drive to it. The DTS support, for me, is a bit more important, because many movies that I’ve purchased here are DTS-only and therefore result in no audio when using the original WD TV. There is a fix – you’ll need this to convert those movies with the PopCorn MKV AudioConverter (along with Tutorial for converting audio tracks with HeartWare MKV Audio Converter).
  • There’s an issue with some 1080P movies on the WD TV with movies that have too many Reference (Ref) frames. This is where we get a bit technical. If you run into this issue, you’ll have to re-encode the entire movie, which is a two day process. If you get a 1080P movie that seems to stutter, try to find a 720P version. Or get a different media tank. If you really need help with this, you can find the solution on forums online. My hint: I used a combination of MediaInfo and RipBot264 to fix The Dark Knight. I haven’t fixed any other movies yet.

Links:

  • Official Firmware: WD TV Product Update – you can probably ask whomever you buy this from to install it for you if you are non-technical, but it also isn’t so difficult.
  • Unofficial Firmware: B-RAD (Don’t worry about using this unless you want to spend a lot of time on techie stuff. A note about the unofficial firmware is that I still can’t it to work right with all the extra functionality people have developed for it)
  • More talk about Firmware and Stuff: WDTV Forum Homebrew / Custom Firmware

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Sorry if this post got a bit crazy, but hopefully it’s useful to someone out there. If you have any questions or want to send in your own recommendations and tips, please leave a comment!

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09.02.2010 Movies, Reviews, Tech, Vietnam No Comments

The Escapist : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
New Logo of the PlayStation 3 after the relaun...

Image via Wikipedia

The Escapist : News : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

This reminds me of Sony trying to sell legit DVDs and Blu-Rays in Vietnam. Sony is trying to sell Blu-Rays for the normal full price in the US (Over $30 USD per movie) in a country where you can have 2TB of HD-quality Movies (average movie is 5GB, so that’s 400 movies!) transferred to a hard drive for less than $20 USD.

So, unsurprisingly, it’s already cheaper to buy imported Sony game consoles than waiting for the “officially authorized” machines.

Ho Chi Minh City (TPHCM/Saigon), Halo Shop:

  • Playstation 3: 6,750,000 VND ($360 USD compared to $532.57 from Sony)
  • Playstation 2: 3,200,000 VND (longer, full coverage warranty from shop) / 2,700,000 VND ($172 or $145 compared to $239.37 from Sony)
  • Playstation Portable: 5,000,000 VND (longer, full coverage warranty from shop) / 4,600,000 VND ($270 or $194 compared to $319.33 from Sony))

Hanoi, XGame:

  • Playstation 3: 6.499.000 VND ($350 USD compared to $532.57 from Sony)
  • Playstation 2: 2.499.000 VND ($134 USD compared to $239.37 from Sony)
  • Playstation Portable: 3.899.000 VND – 4.099.000 VND (colors) ($210 – $216 compared to $319.33 from Sony)

A friend made the point that people will pay more for officially authorized products, for support and warranty reasons. This is possible, however:

  • You’re looking at 50-80% premiums from buying something new (gray market imported from another country) for the same thing, also new, just officially authorized.
  • You cannot pirate games for the PS3, so you would be buying real games and therefore, a warranty claim is legit. However, if you have a PSP or PS2, there is no one here, absolutely no one, who is buying legitimate software for those consoles. So if you’re hacking your console, you will have invalidated your warranty anyway. Even rich people (I know of some) will just pirate- and why wouldn’t you?
  • The most popular, trustworthy shops who are selling these modded systems and pirated software also do repairs themselves, and are quite experienced at it.
  • Sony sells authorized DVDs and Blu-Rays, but they’re extremely difficult to find, either in terms of information online, and in shops. I only know of one place that sells them here, and I just saw them by chance. Sony obviously won’t let a Halo Shop or XGame sell authorized consoles next to imported ones and pirated game discs, so where are you going to find these systems?
  • If they’re selling games, they’re going to sell non-localized games? Most Vietnamese do not read or understand spoken English that well (couldn’t handle a Final Fantasy game, for example), so non-localized games makes the value of buying legit even lower.

The reason why XBox’s and Wii’s are not officially sold here is because you can easily pirates games for those two systems. Microsoft (maybe not at this point in the product cycle, I guess) takes a loss on each system sold, trying to make it back through software, so if all software is pirated, not such a big reason to sell it officially here. I don’t even know of any places to buy legitimate 360 software. The Wii is profitable on the hardware, but overall, Vietnam is not such a big market for video games (consoles) as it is for PC games, in which companies make money off online games in which they can restrict piracy.

PC games are much more accessible to the normal Vietnamese youngster because the cost to play is so much lower. Players can rent a seat at an Internet cafe and play free games, paying only for microtransactions while a console + accessories investment is well over an average Vietnamese monthly income, perhaps even double the monthly income.

Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

Greg Tito posted on 20 January 2010 1:09 am

image

Sony announced that it is now selling its PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2 and 3 consoles in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

As of January 16th, 2010, citizens of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam will be able to purchase Sony videogame consoles in their country. Vietnam is now the eighth Asian nation in which Sony sells its videogame hardware. PlayStation Portable is 5,990,000 Vietnamese Dong or US $319.33. The PlayStation 2 will retail for 4,490,000 Vietnamese Dong (US $239.37), while the PlayStation 3 is being sold for 9,990,000 Dong ($532.57). Any way you cut it, that’s a lot of Dong.

The PlayStation 3 model being sold in Vietnam is the “slim” model with a 120gb hard drive which was released last year. “While inheriting the sleek curved body design of the original model,” Sony said. “The form factor of the new PS3 system features a new meticulous design with textured surface finish, giving an all new impression and a casual look.”

Previously, if you wanted a PlayStation in Vietnam, you were forced to import it yourself. There is no mention as to why Sony did not sell its consoles in the country before, or why the sales are now allowed in the Socialist nation.

The Escapist : News : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

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21.01.2010 Video Games, Vietnam No Comments

Insult from a White Man (Eating at Thai Express in Hanoi)

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

image

Ate at Thai Express a couple of weeks ago with Ha.

As we were eating, a middle aged white couple who had been sitting near us finished, got up from the table, and dropped their loyalty voucher (one of those buy X meals, get one free things) and said, “you could use this” and walked off.

The first thought that came to my mind was, “wtf!”

“W-T-F”

So I’m thinking that guy must think I’m local Vietnamese. (I was speaking Vietnamese to Ha) But even then, Thai Express is NOT for local people. It is by no means affordable. It’s right in the middle of downtown. Yet, with some poor local guy, how offensive is that to just drop something on someone else’s table and just walk off?

“(You look poor) you could use this.”

How offended would you be if you were in the US, and some random guy dropped his coupon on your table on his way out and walked off. That would be a big slap in the face. There’s no way that guy dropped the coupon thinking I was an expat. I cannot imagine a culture in which that would be considered normal.

Again, “W-T-F”.

Regarding Thai Express, it sucks. Value is terrible. Service is what you expect in Hanoi (eh). Food is average, and quantity isn’t there either. In fact, if you ever ate at Bun Ta (Thai Express took over the Bun Ta location at the Ho Guom/Ho Hoang Kiem), you’re getting the exact same experience: overrated, overpriced generic food.

I think we ended up spending $10 USD per person. I’d never been to any Thai Express locations in Vietnam before (I get a bad feeling when “express” is connected to food, even though I enjoy fast food as much as everyone else) and definitely have no plans to return.

Here’s the info for Thai Express anyway: (image above thanks to New Hanoian)

Floor 2, 7th Dinh Tien Hoang St,
Hoan Kiem District,
Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +844 62 822 822

www.thaiexpress.vn

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23.09.2009 Food, Reviews 4 Comments

GI Joe Promotions at Megastar, Hanoi [And Movie Review]

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

For the launch of GI Joe in Vietnam (Friday, August 14). Megastar hired models dressed as the characters to pose on stands at the theater. They had to hold their poses for 10-15 minutes a time, like statues, great for people to take pictures. It was a pretty unique promotion, I haven’t really seen anything like it where the models (also called PGs/Program Girls- PBs for guys I guess) stay still instead of interact with the crowd. I saw GI Joe at Vincom yesterday with Jimmy and Ha, and while Jimmy liked it, I thought the second half of the movie was just boring. I can’t imagine wanting to see sequels of this, and I’m disappointed how Destro and Cobra Commander came out. Even the movie’s special effects weren’t so good- I’m not sure if I’ve just become eagle eyed over the last few months but bad special effects or green screen work is becoming so obvious and annoying to me now.

Anyway, I thought GI Joe was a 5/10. Strangely though, while Jimmy liked GI Joe, Jimmy hated Transformers 2 (like most people). I actually enjoyed it more than the first one, so I am no judge on quality either.

To see all the pictures, visit my album on Smugmug. (Thanks to Ha for the pictures.)

    

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16.08.2009 Movies, Vietnam No Comments

A Whole Lot of Rain

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

When there’s a big thunderstorm in Hanoi, it’s seriously time to watch out.

The sewage system here is such that after 15 minutes of heavy rain, you can go from one street that’s definitely wet and a little big submerged, and walk to another street and then see a car stopped because the street is 3 feet deep in water, no exaggeration.

Tonight was one such day, only it rained for 5 hours straight.

Actually, it’s still raining now, but at a more manageable level.

It started raining during the afternoon, when 6PM came, no one at the office wanted to go home, partly people prefer to wait the rain out if possible, and also, as it turned out, the street was submerged. If you drove your motorbike into the street, it’d simply die.

I, however, live 7 minutes walk away from the office and normally don’t drive to work, so walking home for me was no big deal.

IF, the way home wasn’t flooded.

Which of course it was. Knees kind of flooded form what I could tell. Did not want to jump in and find out, but let’s just say I didn’t see any motorbikes trying to come through either.

Thankfully, there was another way around, twice as long, but not so flooded, so I went home that way, with heaving raining pouring on my head and backpack (with expensive laptop inside).

When I got home, I noticed that the neighborhood seemed especially dark. I didn’t think much of it until I hit the switch.

Darkness. Pitch black. So I cussed a little bit, turned on the light to my cell phone, went upstairs to my room, lit up some candles and didn’t do too much for a couple of hours while the electricity was off.

I kind of wished I’d had my camera with me, and could have taken pictures during the day, definitely something somewhat commonplace here that would rarely happen in the US (California).

Now I’m kind of wondering, as this was suggested to me by a coworker because Hanoi has a ton of lakes and heavy flooding means a lake could become one with the sidewalk, what happens if you’re just walking along in flooded water along the sidewalk, and then you find yourself swimming in a lake suddenly?

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18.06.2008 Vietnam 1 Comment

Hot Girls of Hanoi Strike Back!

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Some things in life are self explanatory. (this is a big post btw, lot of large images)

Take, for example, this Miss Hanoi pageant, sponsored by my buddies at Cyworld Vietnam.

If you’re reading this and in Hanoi, come out this Saturday to Dai Hoc Hanoi, 05/31.

Just print this ticket out and get in:

Back to the ladies, here are some of the hottest young things in Hanoi:

(For much, much more hotness, visit www.cyworld.vn/misshanu, the official site for the pageant, or you can check out my pics)

Click on the pics for the full size versions.

Ao Dai Competition/Evening Gown:


Community Outreach:

Talent Show:

Swimsuit Competition:

Other:

Videos:



I’ll be amazed if you actually got this far down and decided to read my text for the rest of the post, but having a chance to observe some of the competition behind the scenes, what I really like about this pageant is that it’s made up of a lot of “girl next door” types, people who are just normal girls. No one’s really a professional circuit girl, most of them are just “oh, there’s a pageant, sure!”

You could really see this in the talent show. I remember expecting some run of the mill American-style crap, but they really showed me something new, for good and bad.

The winner of Miss Hanu gets $5K USD if I remember correctly. Cyworld’s also giving out a scholarship to the Internet’s choice, so feel free to register and help a girl out.

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30.05.2008 Vietnam 1 Comment

Bring Out the Hot Girls of Hanoi

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Going to be a lot of pictures and videos coming up from the various stages of the contest coming to its Myhome soon.

I “have” to head over to Hanoi University tomorrow to check out the interview portion of the contest. Time to meet some pretty girls.

http://www.cyworld.vn/misshanu

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10.05.2008 Vietnam, Work No Comments

Fireworks from Ho Tay for Lunar New Year (Tet)

Monday, February 11th, 2008

More New Year’s stuff in Hanoi, a video from Ho Tay and fireworks.

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11.02.2008 Videos, Vietnam No Comments

Happy Tet (Lunar New Year!)

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

Went out with [[Jimmy]], Thuy, Hai, and Hung for New Year’s Eve (Giao Thua in Vietnamese) here last night, first stopping by Hai’s for Texas Hold Em (I played for the first time and got lucky enough to earn 200K VND net on my 100K VND initial buy-in) and then later going off to Ho Tay for fireworks.

The fireworks view was pretty awesome; we ended up almost directly under them. Debris from them actually landed on me a few times (very small bits, don’t worry), definitely the closet and best view of fireworks I have ever had.

Go Vietnam!

Now, for the next few days, Rock Band, video gaming, and rides around the empty streets of Hanoi. I’m off for 6 days.

Pics:



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07.02.2008 Photos, Vietnam No Comments

I had Like a Million Shots of Hanoi Vodka

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

I did another temperature/wind chill calculation, these last couple days have definitely hit a low. The result?

18.3 degrees F. (25 MPH windchill + 42 degrees temp) And that’s with me driving slower than before. What the hell! Hanoi is a tropical….winterland? Last winter, Hanoi was 65 degrees F with little rain for 4 straight months.

So so cold.

But that was after the food and the Hanoi vodka.

The premise: my company wanted to kickoff massive amounts of hard work soon to be had because of soon to be deadlines of major crazy project with a massive amount of fun.

Bowling at Star Bowl (which I like and I have been to a few times) and Dinner.

Bowling, I missed. Came a little late after I went home to put on 2 extra layers (including leather jacket) up top for the motorbike ride. Those 4 total layers were not even close to being enough. And I don’t even gloves, and your hands feel the cold the most when you’re riding.

Made it for dinner. We went all the way up to Ho Tay to have dinner at a nice lau place. Loaded up on shots of 40% alcohol Hanoi Vokda while inhaling pho cuon, fries, and corn.

Then came lau (hot pot), more shots, and even more shots.

At least 12 shots in all, though, it was probably more like 9 shots, and here I am at 11:42 PM writing about it, not even drunk. I don’t even know how this is possible other than guessing massive inhalation of food is helping me stay good.

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31.01.2008 Food, Vietnam No Comments