How To Spot A Fake LG DVD And Home Theater

Here is yet another post to prevent you from wasting your hard earned money on fake LG products that have flooded the market. The other post on Televisions earned me some enemies in the name of vendors but lets agree to disagree. The ultimate winner is the end consumer.

This post also applies to HiFis too, especially the product code part. Now to the tips.

Common Traits of Fake LG products

If a DVD player or Home Theater has the following traits then its a fake product with just an LG logo.

1. If it has a “Super LG” logo its a fake product. Super LG products are not from LG Electronics

2.If the Logo is embossed on the top cover like this then its a fake

3. If it has a switch at the back

LG products come with only a standby power switch at the front of the machine. Two switches is a sign you have a fake product. LG machines have only a standby button at the front therefore in order to switch an LG product off completely you need to unplug it from the mains.

4. If it has two power supply sources (DC and AC) then its a fake. Its always nice to own an electronic device that can be powered by the mains electricity as well as a car battery. But when it comes to LG products they only have one power supply source.

LG DVD players and Blu-ray players have only one type of power supply. Its either AC or DC but not a combination of the two.

5.nIf the logo seems to read LGT instead of LG

6. And lastly GLD is not a subsidiary of LG so all GLD branded products are not LG.

Product Code

Now there is another category of LG products that are not fake. In fact they are very original but they do not have any warranty in Kenya.

Its very hard to distinguish between the warranty and non warranty products using the physical appearance. The surest way is to check the product code at the back of the unit or on the packaging itself.

LG Products without warranty have a region 2 code instead of region 5. Region codes were introduced into the world of electronics to stop movie piracy. For example if a movie has been released in the US and someone traveled with it to Africa, there is a chance of the disc being copied and sold even before the movie is released in Africa.

Region codes block any other region DVD disc from playing except the region code printed at the back. So in the above example the region 2 disc would not read at all on any region 5 device. Kenya belongs to region 5 when it comes to LG or any other products so if you find a region 2 device do not buy it.

Original LG Devices With 2 Years Warranty have the following features

• Region 5 label
• BKENHL or AKENHL region code (anything esle does not have a waranty)
• Warranty card with Kenya listed as one of the countries
• A seller or dealer stamp to make the warranty card official

Products without Kenyan warranty work too. Their advantage is that they are much cheaper than their counterparts with a warranty. Can you risk buying one?