Nope, you're confusing the two, Rik. ;-)
The VCD set with adverts is NOT the one with LAKE OF SHARKS. The VCD set covers only the TV series. 21 disks (one for each episode), and the packaging has all its bona fides delivered correctly, so much that I'd be flabbergasted to discover it was pirated. (
See my post in the thread "Legitimacy of the Malaysian Tintin VCD set" for "excruciating" detail on all that.)
VCDs never much caught on in the West (save as bootlegs) but in the East the format overtook VHS some years ago, and constitutes thousands of official releases. In re Tintin: Since the VCD set predates any DVD release I've ever heard of, and presents the stories as separate (rather than conjoined) episodes, my guess is, it conforms to the earlier Virgin VHS releases of the animated series. Indeed, a great many official pre-2001 VCD releases are derived from VHS masters, and virtually all official VCDs I've ever encountered conform to VHS versions. (VCD quality is about on par with VHS, too.)
It is, rather, the Chinese DVD set I described that contains LAKE OF SHARKS. And that's the one of which the packaging -- far more meticulous than on most bootlegs -- is ultimately doubtful. As I wrote in another thread: "[The] box says '2 adventures intergrales' -- as if it were a single disk release -- when it should say '21' ... The Ellipse logo, though expertly rendered, says 'Eilipse' ... and the small print around the bottom circumference of each disk is a not quite sensible English language reference to 'USA Home Entertainment' in which the words are broken up oddly."
Either of these sets aside, though, "totally different company" doesn't necessarily matter where foreign rights are concerned. Let's say Western company "A" controls US/UK distribution of one movie and Western company "B" the US/UK distribution of another, even though both movies feature the same character. If Eastern company "C" works out a licensing deal for both, nothing prevents the Eastern company from releasing the films together in a box set (unless some specifically negotiated clause forbids it).
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Moderator note: Tintinologists, please try and not stray from the topic. Further comments on the Malaysian VCD set should be posted in
this thread. Thanks for helping to keep the forums tidy!
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