Pirated movie release types 1

Pirated movie release typesWith regard to warez groups or organized piracy groups, a movie is usually released in several formats and differentversions because the primary sources used by a group for a particular movie may vary. Pirated movies are primarilyreleased by these organized groups, commonly referred to as scene groups or warez groups. The first release of amovie is usually of a lower quality (due to a lack of sources), and is eventually replaced with higher-quality releasesas better sources become available.

BackgroundCam releases were the early attempts at movie piracy which are implemented by taping the on-screen projection of amovie in a cinema. This enabled groups to pirate movies which were in their theatrical period (not released forpersonal entertainment). But because these releases often suffered distinctly low quality and it hard to do becausepeople may notice, alternative methods were sought.A prime example was the release of American Pie.[1] This is notable for three reasons:1. It was released in an uncensored workprint format. The later theatrical release was cut down by several minutes

and had scenes reworked to avoid nudity to pass MPAA guidelines.2. It was released nearly two months prior to its release in theaters (CNN Headline News reported on its early

release).3. It was listed by the movie company as one of the reasons it released an Unrated DVD edition.In October 1999, DeCSS was released. This program allowed anyone to remove the CSS encryption on a DVD.Although its authors only intended the software be used for playback purposes, it also meant that one could decodethe content perfectly for ripping; combined with the DivX 3.11 Alpha codec released shortly after, the new codecincreased video quality from near VHS to almost DVD quality when encoding from a DVD source.The early DivX releases were mostly internal for group use, but once the codec spread, it became accepted as astandard and quickly became the most widely used format for the scene. With help from associates who eitherworked for a movie theater, movie production company, or video rental company, groups were supplied withmassive amounts of material, and new releases began appearing at a very fast pace. When a new release of DivXcame out (Version 4.0), the codec went commercial and the need for a free codec Xvid emerged. Today, Xvid hasreplaced DivX almost entirely. Although the DivX codec has evolved from version 4 to 7.0 during this time, it isbanned[2] in the warez scene due to the commercial nature of the codec.

Release formatsBelow is a table of pirated movie release types along with respective sources, ranging from the lowest quality to thehighest. Scene rules define in which format and way each release type is to be packaged and distributed.[3]

Pirated movie release types 2

Type Label Rarity

Cam[4] CAMRipCAM

Common; Quality issues make this anunpopular format

A copy made in a cinema using a camcorder, possibly mounted on a tripod. The sound source is the camera microphone. Cam rips can quicklyappear online after the first preview or premiere of the film. The quality ranges from terrible to very good, depending on the group of personsperforming the recording and the resolution of the camera used. The main disadvantage of this is the sound quality. The microphone does not onlyrecord the sound from the movie, but also the background sound in the cinema. The camera can also record movements of the audience in thetheater, for instance, when someone stands up in front of the screen.

Telesync[4] TSTELESYNC

PDVD

Very common

Contrary to popular belief, the video quality of a TS is not necessarily better than a cam. The term Telesync does not indicate better video qualitybut better audio quality. The CAM source is then synchronized with a secondary audio recording, either done with a professional microphone in anempty cinema (even though by Scene Rules this would be nuked since the audio is not direct, they are hard to tell the difference), fed directly fromthe cinema's sound system, or captured from an FM radio transmission intended for hearing-impaired customers. Often, a cam is mislabeled as atelesync.

PDVD, also known as Pre-DVD, is a release type found mostly in India and/or for Indian movies, with Hollywood movies being the majority. Lowquality CAM/TS releases in India put on a DVD and sold on the streets, which are ripped by some release groups and released as PDVD-rips. Theyare often mistaken for being DVD-rips, due to the name.

Workprint[4] WP[5]

WORKPRINT

Very rare

A copy made from an unfinished version of a film produced by the studio. Typically a workprint has missing effects and overlays, and often differfrom its theatrical release. Some workprints have a time index marker running in a corner or on the top edge; some may also include a watermark. Aworkprint might be an uncut version, and missing some material that would appear in the final movie.

Telecine[4] TCTELECINE

Fairly rare; losing popularity due to R5releases

A copy captured from a film print using a machine that transfers the movie from its analog reel to digital format. These were rare because telecinemachines for making these prints were very costly and very large, however, recently they have become much more common. Telecine has basicallythe same quality as DVD, since the technique is same as digitizing the actual film to DVD. However, the result is inferior since the source materialis usually a lower quality copy reel. Telecine machines usually cause a slight left-right jitter in the picture and have inferior color levels compared toDVD.

Pay-Per-View Rip[6] PPVPPVRip

Common

PPVRips come from Pay-Per-View sources, all the PPVRip releases are brand new movies which have not yet been released to Screener or DVDbut are available to view by Hotel customers. Usually released by a release group called IFLIX. http:/ / www. rlslog. net

Screener[4] SCRSCREENER

DVDSCRDVDSCREENER

BDSCR

Very Common

These are early DVD or BD releases of the theatrical version of a film, typically sent to movie reviewers, Academy members, and executives forreview purposes. A screener normally has a message overlaid on its picture, with wording similar to: "The film you are watching is a promotionalcopy, if you purchased this film at a retail store please contact 1-800-NO-COPIES to report it." Apart from this, some movie studios release theirscreeners with a number of scenes of varying duration shown in black-and-white. Aside from this message, and the occasional B&W scenes,screeners are normally of only slightly lower quality than a retail DVD-Rip, due to the smaller investment in DVD mastering for the limited run.Some screener rips with the overlay message get cropped to remove the message and get released misslabled as DVD-Rips.

Note: Screeners make a small exception here, since the content may differ from a retail version, it can be considered as lower quality than aDVD-Rip (even if the screener in question was sourced from a DVD).

Digital Distribution Copy DDC Extremely Rare

Pirated movie release types 3

DDC is basically the same as a Screener, but sent digitally (email/ftp/http/etc.) to companies instead of via the postal system. This makesdistribution cheaper. Its quality is lower than one of a R5 but higher than a Cam or a Telesync.

R5[7] R5 Very common

The R5 is a retail DVD from region 5. Region 5 consists of the Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea,Russia and Mongolia. R5 releases differfrom normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing. If the DVD does not contain anEnglish-language audio track, the R5 video is synced to a previously released English audio track. Then a LiNE tag is added.[8] This means that thesound often is not as good as DVD-Rips.

DVD-Rip DVDRip Very common

A final retail version of a film, typically released before it is available outside its originating region. Often after one group of pirates releases ahigh-quality DVD-Rip, the "race" to release that film will stop. Because of their high quality, DVD-Rips generally replace any earlier copies thatmay already have been circulating.

DVD-R DVDR,[9] DVD-Full, Full-Rip, ISO rip, losslessrip, untouched rip, DVD-5/DVD-9

Very common

A final retail version of a film in DVD format, generally a complete copy from the original DVD. If the original DVD is released in the DVD-9format, however, extras might be removed and/or the video re-encoded to make the image fit the less expensive for burning and quicker todownload DVD-5 format. DVD-R releases often accompany DVD-Rips. DVD-R rips are larger in size, generally filling up the 4.37 or 7.95 GiBprovided by DVD-5 and DVD-9 respectively. Untouched or lossless rips in the strictest sense are 1:1 rips of the source, with nothing removed orchanged, though often the definition is lightened to include DVDs which have not been transcoded, and no features were removed from the user'sperspective, removing only restrictions and possible nuisances such as copyright warnings and movie previews.

HDTV or DS Rip[10] TVRipDSR

PDTVHDTV

DVBRipDTHRip

Very common

TVRip is a capture source from an analog capture card (coaxial/composite/s-video connection)Digital satellite rip (DSR) is a rip that is captured from a non standard definition digital source like satellite.HDTV or PDTV or DTH (Direct To Home) rips often come from Over-the-Air transmissions. With an HDTV source, the quality can sometimeseven surpass DVD. Movies in this format are starting to grow in popularity.Analog, DSR, and PDTV sources are often re-encoded to 512×384 if fullscreen, 640×352 if widescreen. HDTV sources are re-encoded to multipleresolutions such as 640×352 (360p), 960×528 (540p), 1280×720 (720p) at various file sizes for pirated releases. They can be progressive scancaptured or not (480i digital transmission).

BD/BR Rip BDRipBRRip

Blu-Ray / BluRay / BLURAYBDR[11]

BD5/BD9

Common

Similar to DVD-Rip, only the source is a Blu-ray Disc. A BD/BR Rip in DVD-Rip size often looks better than a same-size DVD rip becauseencoders have better source material. What is commonly misunderstood among downloaders is that a BDRip and a BRRip is exactly the same. ABDRip comes directly from the Blu-ray source, and BRRip is encoded from a pre-release, usually from a 1080p BDRip from another group. BDRips are available in DVD-Rip sized releases (commonly 700MB and 1.4GB) encoded in XviD as well as larger DVD5 or DVD9 (often 4.5gb orlarger, depending on length and quality) sized releases encoded in x264. BD5 or BD9 are also available, which are slightly smaller than theircounterpart DVD5/DVD9 releases, are AVCHD compatible using the BD Folder structure and are intended to be burnt onto DVDs to play inAVCHD compatible Blu-ray players. More recent types, probably associated with the use of newsgroups and cheaper storage at home, are completeBlu-ray copies(images). Commonly referred to as BD25 or BD50 and may or may not be re-mixed (but not transcoded).

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Pirated movie release types 4

References[1] "Video CD: American Pie" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20050211094807/ http:/ / www. theisonews. com/ release. php?releaseid=4262).

Archived from the original (http:/ / www. theisonews. com/ release. php?releaseid=4262) on 2005-02-11. . iSONews.[2] "The XviD Releasing Standards 2005" (http:/ / scenerules. irc. gs/ t. html?id=2005_XViD. nfo). .[3] "How To Interpret Video File Names?" (http:/ / xick. blogspot. com/ 2009/ 04/ how-to-interpret-video-file-names. html). .[4] VCDQuality Terms (http:/ / www. vcdq. com/ faq) - Lists recent video releases in the warez scene.[5] "What does "WP" mean?" (http:/ / scenelingo. wordpress. com/ 2008/ 07/ 16/ what-does-wp-mean/ ). . Retrieved 2009-11-02.[6] "What is PPVRip?" (http:/ / r5dvd. com/ 2009/ 05/ 14/ what-is-ppvrip/ ). .[7] Wes Finley-Price -- CNN.com Webmaster (2009-11-09). "Pirated copy of District 9 posted online" (http:/ / scitech. blogs. cnn. com/ 2009/

09/ 09/ pirated-copy-of-district-9-posted-online/ ). scitech.blogs.cnn.com. . Retrieved 2009-11-02.[8] "What does "R5" mean?" (http:/ / scenelingo. wordpress. com/ 2008/ 07/ 29/ what-does-r5-mean/ ). . Retrieved 2009-11-02.[9] "The 2009 DVDR releasing standards" (http:/ / rules. nukenet. info/ t. html?id=2009_DVDR. nfo). .

THE.2009.DVDR.RELEASING.STANDARDS-TDRS2K9[10] "TV release rules v1.5 (2002-11-16)" (http:/ / rules. nukenet. info/ t. html?id=2002_TV. nfo). .[11] "The BDR releasing standards" (http:/ / scenerules. irc. gs/ t. html?id=2010_BDr. nfo). . THE.2010.BDR.RELEASING.STANDARDS

Article Sources and Contributors 5

Article Sources and ContributorsPirated movie release types  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=440907708  Contributors: ACookr, Aalaap, Alereon, Alexgt, Andy5421, Angr, Astanhope, Bbennett712, Bkell,Burton3660, ChrisDrinkwater, Ckatz, ClonedPickle, Crossmr, Danhash, Deathwitafireinside, Demize, Der ohne Benutzername, Didimos, Downloadmeh, DustWolf, Esanchez7587, Extransit,Falcon9x5, Firsfron, Fluffy McNutter, GoingBatty, Groggy Dice, Grumpyyoungman01, HappyInGeneral, Haseo9999, HeinzzzderMannn, J.smith, Jahiegel, JamesBurns, Jhawkinson, JustinRossi,KJS77, Kollision, LilHelpa, Longhair, MBisanz, Miro modo, Mr Messiah, Muddar, Neolucifer, Noformation, Ondertitel, PaddyMcDonald, Radagast83, Rettetast, Righttovanish1, Rjwilmsi,Rmeyers, Royly Fernando, Rurik, S33k3r, ST47, Sharebay, Simplymoody, TinFoil, Wai Wai, WatchAndObserve, Whpq, Wiki alf, WissensDürster, X-Fi6, Xeryus, Zache, 129 anonymous edits

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