Quality of XviD piracy movies

[marantonis]

Cam (bootleg)

Cam or Camming (also "CAM" and meaning simply, Camera) is a specific method of motion picture copying, usually infringing upon a copyrighted work. Unlike the more common DVD rip or screener recording methods which involve the duplication of officially distributed media, "cam" versions are original clandestine recordings made in movie theaters.

Typically, the person filming the movie will smuggle a compact digital camcorder into the theater by hiding it in their clothing or in a bag such as a purse or backpack. For this reason, some establishments now ban customers from carrying bags or other containers into theaters. The filmer then records the movie using the camcorder as unobtrusively as possible. They may try to pick a seat as far back in the theater as possible to avoid the attention of other patrons or may choose sparsely attended showtimes. The filmer may also know employees of the cinema who deliberately overlook infringement activity. Sometimes cam versions are made by projectionists themselves, either for home use or to distribute it for profit. These versions can be recognised easily as the audio sounds to be 'original', not blurry, reverbed and noisy, because it's not recorded by the built-in microphone of the camera, rather by a direct electronic link into the stereo monitor output of the audio rack. This way the frame rate conversion can also be avoided as the projectionist can speed up the projector to 25 fps and then use a standard PAL camera.

Starting in 2001, many major motion pictures started to arrive at the theaters with unique patterns of tiny dots embedded throughout the film. If the cammer is unable to catch and blur all of these sequences, the studio will be able to determine at which theater the cam was recorded.

A cam uses audio recorded via the camera's microphone. Because of the nature of the audiovisual recording method, the audience can often be heard laughing, or silhouettes can be seen as people head for the restroom or concession stand.

The overall quality of cam bootlegs is highly dependent upon the quality of camera used, the skill of the operator in framing the screen, minimizing camera movement, and the method of encoding used before distribution (Which is most commonly XviD). Cams are generally considered to be the lowest fidelity method for duplicating video and film content, somewhat behind Telesync and markedly worse than DVD rips or screeners. For newly released films, however, cams are often the only copies available. One can often find these DVDs available from street vendors for prices equivalent to US$1-$2 (PPP) in the developing world.

Bootlegged copies of movies, normally taken using the cam method, can be found on the streets of almost any major city in the world.

 

A Cam Recording of "Wild Hogs" Some Cam recordings have a picture that is tilted, Also The picture can be at an angle. Sometimes a major part of a picture can be cut off, in this case a subtitle. In this case a whole line has been cut off, saying "On my Car insurance"

 

 

Telesync

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Telesync is one of the multiple terms used by movie bootleggers to describe the source material that was used to make bootlegged copies, normally distributed in Video CD, SVCD, KVCD, DVD, KDVD or DivX/XviD format.

Telesync means a copy which was shot in a cinema like a cam (often with a professional camera from the projection booth), and directly connected to the sound source (often FM audio provided for the hearing-impaired, or from a drive-in theatre). The audio is potentially better, having none of a cam's usual audience noise. Also if the telesync is shot from within the projection booth, there will be no distortion like there may be on a cam version.

Telesync, along with DVD-Rip, is a common form of bootlegged movie, usually one will be released a few days after the first cam versions. It is usually indicated with the letters "TS" in the movie's video file name.[citation needed]

 

 

Telecine (piracy)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about a type of pirated movie. For information on the device, see Telecine.

The term telecine is sometimes used to refer to a less common form of pirated copies of films created using a telecine machine, as opposed to recording the projected image with a video camera (the camera method with a direct audio source is called a telesync). Since this process requires both a print of the movie on film (which generally cannot be obtained legally by an individual) and expensive equipment, telecine bootlegs are less common than camera bootlegs. The studios have integrated security features, like Coded Anti-Piracy (CAP) to discourage, track and prosecute pirates.

The term is also often seen used as in the naming of pirate movie releases. A naming scheme would look something like this: Movie.title.year-of-production.TELECINE.Codec-Groupname. Alternatively some groups simply use the TC tag instead. The quality of a good telecine is generally comparable to a DVD without any post-processing. The number of pirate telecines released has dropped recently due to the difficulty of making them and the rise of R5 releases.

 

 

Workprint

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

 

 

A workprint copy of American Pie. Note the index timer below the video frame.

A workprint is a rough version of a motion picture, used by the film editor(s) during the editing process. Such copies generally contain original recorded sound that will later be re-dubbed, stock footage as placeholders for missing shots or special effects, and animation tests for in-production animated shots or sequences.

For most of the first century of filmmaking, workprints were done using second-generation prints from the original negatives. After the editor and director approved of the final edit of the workprint, the same edits were made to the negative. Modern-day workprints are often created on a Non-linear editing system using digitized footage from the original film or video sources; these early versions of films have sometimes been bootlegged and made available on the Internet.

There are also Director's Cut versions of films that are only available on bootleg; for example, the workprint version of Richard Williams' The Thief and the Cobbler. Although movie studios generally do not make full-length workprints readily available to the public, there are exceptions; for example, the "Work-In-Progress" version of Beauty and the Beast.

An initial release of Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (2005) was taken from a very late workprint. The release actually made it onto the internet before the movie hit theaters. Speculation was that someone inside Lucasfilm had leaked the film.

 

 

R5 (bootleg)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

R5 refers to a specific format of DVD released in the former Soviet Union, which is in DVD Region 5, and bootlegged copies of these releases that are distributed on the Internet. In an effort to compete with movie piracy, the movie industry chose to create a new format for DVD releases that could be produced more quickly and less expensively than traditional DVD releases. R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are usually a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing common on DVD releases, and without any special features. This allows the film to be released for sale at the same time that DVD Screeners are released. Since DVD Screeners are the chief source of high-quality pre-DVD release pirated movies, this allows the movie studios to beat the pirates to market. In some cases, R5 DVDs may be released without an English audio track, requiring pirates to use the direct line audio from the film's theatrical release. In this case, the pirated release should be tagged with ".LINE" to distinguish it from a release with a DVD audio track.

The image quality of an R5 release is generally comparable to a DVD Screener release, except without the added scrolling text and black and white scenes that serve to distinguish screeners from commercial DVD releases. The quality is better than Telecine transfers produced by movie pirates because the transfer is performed using professional-grade film scanning equipment.

Because there is no scene release standard for pirated R5 releases, they were variably tagged as Telecines, DVD Screeners, or even DVD rips. In late 2006, several release groups such as DREAMLiGHT, mVs, and PUKKA began tagging R5 releases with ".R5" or r5 line (the line meaning it has direct english line audio) and suggesting that other groups do the same. Yet many groups still fight over these releases and there has been no officially adopted standard for releasing them.

 

 

Screener

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article does not cite any references or sources.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)

Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time.

This article has been tagged since March 2007.

 

 

A screener copy of She's All That

A screener is an advance video or DVD copy of a film sent to critics, awards voters, video stores (for their manager and employees), and other film industry professionals, including producers and distributors. Often, each individual screener is sent out with distinct markings, which allow copies of a screener to be tracked to their source.

In 2003 the MPAA announced that they would be ceasing distribution of screeners to Academy members, citing fears of piracy. A group of independent film makers sued and won a decision against the MPAA. The MPAA later reinstated the screeners with the implementation of a new policy requiring recipients to sign a binding contract that they would not share the screeners with others.

In January 2004, Academy member Carmine Caridi was announced as a "person of interest" in an ongoing FBI investigation into video piracy. He was subsequently expelled from the Academy after he was found to have sent a contact in Illinois close to 300 screeners over a five year period.

A Screener with a large marking, notice how it makes the text in the picture hard to read.

 

 

 

 

Ripping

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For the process of sawing wood along the grain, see Rip saw.

Ripping (also referred to as digital audio extraction) is the process of copying the audio or video data from one media form, such as DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray or CD, to a hard disk. While the original media is typically digital, the extraction of analog media such as VHS video or vinyl records to a digital format can also be referred to as "ripping". To conserve storage space, the copied data is usually encoded in a compressed format such as MP3, WMA, FLAC or Ogg Vorbis for audio, or MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD or Ogg Theora for video.

The term has been adopted to refer to audio extraction/duplication, though this use of the term is less common.

Contents[hide]· 1 Purpose· 2 Problems o 2.1 Legal problems and status· 3 Process and history o 3.1 Ripping speed· 4 See also· 5 References· 6 External links

[edit] Purpose

For consumers of digital content, there are a number of practical uses for ripping. Many digital camcorders now write directly to DVD. Ripping is required to extract that content onto a computer for editing, storage, duplication or backup purposes. Another is to allow the owners of CDs or DVDs to listen to or view that content in a more flexible way. For example, ripping can allow users to listen to music from a number of different albums without having to change discs and make customized playlists of the music. Ripping can also be used to allow music to be played on portable digital audio players.

[edit] Problems

Ripping may not capture all data on an audio CD. CD-Text may be captured, but additional CD+G data such as lyrics and graphics present on some CDs may be ignored by ripping software, preventing an identical backup and recreation of the original CD.

[edit] Legal problems and status

Ripping also allows content to be losslessly copied for a very low or essentially zero cost and given to those who did not purchase it, possibly substituting for sales of content. Hence it has aroused fierce opposition by the recording industry, who view it as theft.

Since the music or video is transferred to a data file, the files can be shared with other computer users over the Internet.

Although it is legal in the United States to make backup copies of software, the legality of ripping music for personal use without the permission of the copyright holder is controversial. Historically, copying media for personal use has been deemed "fair use," however the RIAA, which represents many music copyright holders has argued that copying rights have not been granted to end users. Selling software to circumvent copy-protection in commercial DVDs is illegal [1]. In countries such as Spain, anyone is allowed to make a private copy of a copyrighted material for oneself and the source copy does not even have to be legal. Making copies for other people, however, is forbidden if done for profit. In the United Kingdom, making a private copy of copyrighted media without the copyright owner's consent is illegal: this includes ripping music from a CD to a computer or digital music player [2][3] The development of radio music ripping may fuel further legal debates on the topic.

[edit] Process and history

[edit] Ripping speed

The speed at which a CD or DVD can be ripped is often expressed as a multiplier, such as 12X (means 12 times faster than standard playing speed). Important in estimating ripping speeds are:

· the media-player's speed: a CD has a maximum rotation speed and as the media players get closer and closer to that limit (e.g., a player that can read a CD at 60x the normal speed). It is also important where the laser head is. It starts reading closest to the center (lowest bitrate for a given rotation speed) and goes to the border of the CD (highest bitrate)

· the interface between the player and the encoding device: this might be extremely fast (SCSI) to very slow (USB 1.1 or even over an Ethernet network)

· the encoding device (in most cases a PC) will encode the digital input to a compressed format. This is a highly CPU-intensive task, so various factors such as the CPU's clock speed, architecture, and design affect encoding speed.

· the encoding algorithm/quality: 64 kbit/s encoding might be faster/slower than 192 kbit/s[citation needed]

· the compressed file is then written to a disk. Again this might be very fast (SCSI or FireWire) or rather slow (over 10 Mbit/s Ethernet or to a flash card)

· Physical condition of the original media and read errors may affect ripping speed negatively by requiring repeated reads, or its accuracy, by ignoring read errors upon the user's request.

· Some rippers, like Exact Audio Copy, will rip multiple times and compare the result to make sure that the ripped file is accurate. This slows down the ripping but will make sure that the output is an accurate copy, and let the user know if the output has any faults.

The combination of these elements will define what the maximum ripping speed is.

 

 

 

HDTV-Rip

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

HDTV-Rip is a method of copying video that involves recording television shows or movies broadcast in high definition quality, often with 5.1 surround sound. The recording can either be done directly through a PC video capture device, or via a networked digital video recorder box. Either during or after recording, the video may be compressed using a variety of codecs, such as MPEG-4.

In the United States, fair use doctrine ensures the legality of the practice of making backup copies for personal use, especially when time shifting. Similar laws exist in other countries. Despite this, the most common use of the term 'HDTV-Rip' itself is in the context of copyright infringement, where it is used to indicate the video quality of bootleg content. The product of an HDTV-rip is often distributed through Internet file sharing or hard copy DVDs or VCDs. Because of this, content rights-holders have endorsed the implementation of a broadcast flag in order to help prevent this method of piracy.

In Europe, DVB-rip is a method for recording from satellite decoders like SKY. They can be HDTV captured or not (480i digital transmission)