Karaoke Forums

Just a heads up for those that actually buy cdg's still.
I have had a run in with Amazon.com's Wherehouse karaoke out of Vista, California. I received a disc that was ..."to Me" obviously a Fake before I even opened it...which I did not do. I will be returning it.

I do own thousands of discs and I know what they should look like. The disc is sealed in plastic in a case but it is shrink wrapped not the normal seal that is on the discs. The label insert is very obviously printed on a computer. You can see the printer scan lines as well as the very grainy appearance of the printing. I will not open it and am attempting to receive a credit for the return, thus far, I have not received an answer from them.

They may not be liable for the Fake, but they are recieving fake product from their supplier.

This is not the first time I have come across this...A month ago I bought two discs from Urbankaraoke.com The discs were questionable as well, shrink wrapped and upon opening them, they were slikscreened discs BUT the labels did not look right. They were grainy scaned labels but silkscreened. The Disc case inserts were printed on Hp Photo paper. I put them in the cddcdb and nothing... there was no Hologram id other than memorex logo and disc #.
Again, urbankaraoke may not be at fault, but they are recieving fake product from their supplier as well. I was promised a credit if I returned the unwanted discs, but they
would not even address the fact that I mentioned the discs being fake or not.

Rick In Tulsa

Thanks for the heads up. As of yet, I have purchased very few CD+G's from 3rd party vendors or retailers. I buy straight from the Manu or in bulk from folks selling private collections. I have touched every singe disc I own to ensure that they aren't fakes.

Speaking of which (since this is related) Is there a history of high quality fakes on the karaoke market? I am talking about fakes that are hard to spot with just casual observation.

I know it has happened for traditional music from popular artists but I have never heard of it happening in the karaoke world.

-Chris

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-Chris

it depends, CB has put out discs that are burns. i got one and they confirmed for me that they are legit, SC newer discs are also burns and printer instead of screened, so they may be legit still.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

I just received the October, November, December disks from All Star Karaoke. Bought them from Karaoke.com. They had printed labels, and were burns. I called All Star Karaoke, and was informed that their new monthly disks were indeed burns, and were legal to use in shows. This apparently is the new format they're using. I guess it's a cost saving move.

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My first choice IS Sound Choice.

Seriously? The major manufacturer's are shipping burns? Things must really be tight then.

Since I have never seen a burned disc from a major manufacturer, how in the world are we expected to be able to tell the difference between real burns and fake burns?

-Chris

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-Chris

Now that the CD/DVD burners are so cheap, it's publish on demand..

I published CDs and DVDs for many years.. and had to stop because the week after I released a new disc, it showed up for sale all over..

(Go figure)

Of the two Karaoke shops in Vegas, one is all Filipino style discs, and most are inkjet printed.. (Along with the Asian pr0n)

I'll be in Vegas Monday for CES, and if anyone is there, I'm buyin'..

I have seen that all of Fast Trax and Quick Hitz are burns too, I own at least 8-9... burned on White printable discs, no lacquer, BUT they are legit and read in the cddb database when when looked up... these one I purchased are not readable in any cddb and the pathetic thing is that the Hologram disc id # is in reverse on the silk screened label, NOT burned into the disc itself
I should mention the fake discs were:
Pop Hits monthly 0701 - Wherehouse Karaoke
Monster Hits HRMH1158 - Urbankaraoke
Legends Series LG 176 - Urbankaraoke
Below is the mail and response..
*******************
Rick :
All We ask is for you to return the discs via regular mail ;
so we can return it to our supplier.
We will reverse your order charges ASAP

Mail to :
UrbanKaraoke.com
P.O Box 1191
Gardena CA 90249

thanks
Jeff

From: Rick Berry <rickberry_rse@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: order yhst-95870278943897-1291 from UrbanKaraoke.com ***AGAIN
To: sales@urbankaraoke.com
Date: Thursday, December 22, 2011, 1:27 PM

RE:my last mail concerning "fake" Legends disc,

I sent the last mail before I opened the Monster Hits disc because it looked authentic from the outside ...I have now opened the Monster Hits disc..It is also a "Fake". !! It was sealed, however; it is a silkscreened "copy". The Cd inserts are are done on Photo paper. The disc label is "white" where there should be Siver showing through. There is ZERO hoologram id markings. hmmmmm I am very confused. I have only ever come across "fake" disc like these maybe 3 times in my 20 years of doing this. Please respond and let me know what your stand is on this issue.
Rick Berry
Facebook @ Tulsakaraoke Rick Berry

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I received the order today. Thanks for the fast shipping. I have one concern tho.
This is not an actual authentic Legends CDG. I understand and acknowledge that you may not be at fault here and may have received the item unknowingly from your source; however this disc IS an illegal copy.

The legends CDG purchased appears to be a "burned" copy. The label is silkcreened BUT I own many many (over 40) of these and the disc you sent looks nothing like the ones I already own. On the disc you sent me, the label is washed out and grainy from a poor scan, the center of the disc is "white" instead of clear plastic, which is also indicitive of a "burned" disc. As well as there being ZERO hollogram ID marking as to the disc id, Tho on the printed label you can see the "id markings" in reverse PRINTED onto the disc from the scanned label.

Can you fill me in here? I ordered in good faith that I would recieve an authentic Legends disc from you, which this is not. I am a professional KJ and I cannot use this in my business. I have over 3,000 authentic cdg discs and strive beyond compare to remain LEGAL.

I would really like to resolve this as I have been very happy buying from you in the past and would like to continue doing so. I can send this "new" disc back to you for replacement and swap an actual real Legends disc.
Thanks,
Rick Berry
Facebook @ Tulsakaraoke Rick Berry

Chris,

Chartbuster started sending out CDR's rather than pressed discs about 4 years ago. The first one I got was one of their Country Disc of the Month discs. When I called them about it, I was told the disc was legit and that that's how they were going to start releasing their discs that way. After that you never knew from one month to the next if it would be a burn or pressed disc.

One of the problems I've seen from this is that a number of older players hated CDR's and you would end up with garbage covering the screen halfway through the song even on a brand new disc. This is the reason CB now includes the disclaimer that some discs may not play in some machines.

I think the thing that bugs me the most though is that by using burns rather than pressed discs the manu's have managed to reduce the potential lifespan of your disc from years to as little as a few weeks, given how easy it is to damage a CDR while still charging full price. Then adding insult to injury, any "legit" KJ who tries to protect their investment by using backups or a computer has to worry about a lawsuit by the same manu who sold them a physical product that is quite frankly "junk" (not the word I wanted to use but this is a public board).

Sorry about the rant.

As disc hosts, we have noticed the decline in quality and will get jumbling discs within weeks. People have said it must be the player or we aren't taking good care of our discs but we have some 10 year old discs that still play perfectly.

A PC host will not have those issues, all you need is to extract the digital data into a wave+g or bin and you're done! You can also take the time to normalize some of the tracks or remastered some of them if necessary, that's the beauty of digital

A disk host will have to play the disk as is, will need to rely on the cd player correction and most of these cdg player have a lower grade D/A converters compared to the latest USB audio device

a lot of the jvc players and others need the gain turned up on the lasers to make them read cdr's properly.

over the years i have adjusted several units for hosts in my area using backup disc's and the crap manu's are putting out now....

so if your having issues with your player playing the disc's i would recommend taking it to an Audio repair shop with some disc's that your having issues with, and see if they will adjust the gain on the laser to fix your problem.

shouldn't cost more than an hours labor, but only take them 15-30 minutes to actually adjust the gain.

i don't recommend doing this yourself, if you increase the gain to much you can burn out the laser. take it to someone that know what he's doing.

i'm a component level technician that's been doing computer/ electronics repair since 1987.

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It's all good!