Pirated movie release types 1

Pirated movie release types

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

Background
Cam releases were the early attempts at movie piracy which were implemented by recording the on-screen projection
of a movie in a cinema. This enabled groups to pirate movies which were in their theatrical period (not released for
personal entertainment). But because these releases often suffered distinctly low quality and required undetected
videotaping in movie theaters, alternative methods were sought.
Beginning in 1998, feature films began to be released on the internet by warez groups prior to their theatrical release.
These pirated versions usually came in the form of VCD or SVCD. 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).[citation needed]
3. It was listed by the movie company as one of the reasons it released an Unrated DVD edition.[citation needed]
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 to be used for playback purposes,[citation needed] it also meant that one
could decode the content perfectly for ripping; combined with the DivX 3.11 Alpha codec released shortly after, the
new codec increased 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 a
standard and quickly became the most widely used format for the scene. With help from associates who either
worked for a movie theater, movie production company, or video rental company, groups were supplied with
massive amounts of material, and new releases began appearing at a very fast pace. When version 4.0 of DivX was
released, the codec went commercial and the need for a free codec, Xvid (then called "XviD", "DivX" backwards),
was created. Today, Xvid has replaced DivX almost entirely. Although the DivX codec has evolved from version 4
to 7.0 during this time, it is banned in the warez scene due to its commercial nature.
In February 2012, a consortium of popular piracy groups officially announced x264, the free H.264 codec, as the
new standard for releases, replacing the previous format, which was Xvid wrapped in an AVI container. The move to
H.264 also obsoletes AVI in favor of MP4 and Matroska, although AVI video is still very common.

Release formats
Below is a table of pirated movie release types along with respective sources, ranging from the lowest quality to the
highest. Scene rules define in which format and way each release type is to be packaged and distributed.
Pirated movie release types 2

Type Label Rarity

[2] CAMRip Common; Quality issues make this an

Cam
CAM unpopular format

A copy made in a cinema using a camcorder or mobile phone. The sound source is the camera microphone. Cam rips can quickly appear online after
the first preview or premiere of the film. The quality ranges from terrible to very good, depending on the group of persons performing the recording
and the resolution of the camera used. The main disadvantage of this is the sound quality. The microphone does not only record the sound from the
movie, but also the background sound in the cinema. The camera can also record movements and audio of the audience in the theater, for instance,
when someone stands up in front of the screen, or when the audience laughs at a funny moment in the movie.

Telesync TS Very common

TELESYNC
PDVD

A telesync (TS) is a bootleg recording of a film recorded in a movie theater, sometimes filmed using a professional camera on a tripod in the
projection booth. The main difference between a CAM and TS copy is that the audio of a TS is captured with a direct connection to the sound
source (often an FM microbroadcast provided for the hearing-impaired, or from a drive-in theater). Often, a cam is mislabeled as a telesync.
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. Low
quality CAM/TS releases in India are put on DVD and sold on the streets, which are then ripped by some release groups and released as PDVD-rips.
They are often mistaken for being DVD-rips, due to the name.

Workprint WP Very rare

WORKPRINT

A copy made from an unfinished version of a film produced by the studio. Typically a workprint has missing effects and overlays, and often differ
from 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. A
workprint might be an uncut version, and missing some material that would appear in the final movie.

Telecine TC Fairly rare; losing popularity due to R5

TELECINE releases

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 telecine
machines for making these prints were very costly and very large. However, they have recently become much more common. Telecine has basically
the same quality as DVD, since the technique is same as digitizing the actual film to DVD. However, the result is inferior since the source material
is usually a lower quality copy reel. Telecine machines usually cause a slight left-right jitter in the picture and have inferior color levels compared to
DVD.

Pay-Per-View Rip PPV Common

PPVRip

PPVRips come from Pay-Per-View sources. All the PPVRip releases are brand new movies which have not yet been released to Screener or DVD,
but are available for viewing by hotel customers.

Screener SCR Very Common

SCREENER
DVDSCR
DVDSCREENER
BDSCR

These are early DVD or BD releases of the theatrical version of a film, typically sent to movie reviewers, Academy members, and executives for
review purposes. A screener normally has a message overlaid on its picture, with wording similar to: "The film you are watching is a promotional
copy. 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 their
screeners 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 mislabled 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 a
DVD-Rip (even if the screener in question was sourced from a DVD).

Digital Distribution Copy or DDC Common

Downloadable/Direct Digital Content
Pirated movie release types 3

A digital distribution copy (DDC) is basically the same as a Screener, but sent digitally (FTP, HTTP, etc.) to companies instead of via the postal
system. This makes distribution cheaper. Its quality is lower than one of a R5, but higher than a Cam or Telesync.
In the warez scene DDC refers to Downloadable/Direct Digital Content which is not freely available.

R5 R5 Very common
R5.LINE
R5.AC3.5.1.HQ

The R5 is a retail DVD from region 5. Region 5 consists of the Indian subcontinent, most of Africa, North Korea, Russia and Mongolia. R5 releases
differ from 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
an English-language audio track, the R5 video is synced to a previously released English audio track. Then a LiNE tag is added. This means that the
sound often is not as good as DVD-Rips. To account for the lesser audio quality typically present in R5 releases, some release groups take the high
quality Russian or Ukrainian 5.1 channel audio track included with the R5 DVD and modify it with audio editing software. They remove the
non-English spoken portion of the audio and sync the remaining portion, which contains high quality sound effects and music with a previously
recorded source of English vocals usually taken from a LiNE tagged release. The result of this process is an almost retail DVD quality surround
sound audio track which is included in the movie release. Releases of this type are normally tagged AC3.5.1.HQ and details about what was done to
the audio track as well as the video are present in the release notes accompanying the pirated movie.
The other regions are:

• R0 No Region Coding
• R1 United States of America, Canada
• R2 Europe, including Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan, Israel and South Africa
• R3 Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo and Indonesia
• R4 Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America
• R5 India, Africa (except Egypt, South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho), Russia and former USSR countries
• R6 Peoples Republic of China
• R7 Reserved for future use, MPAA-related DVDs and "media copies" of pre-releases in Asia
• R8 Airlines/Cruise Ships
• R9 Expansion (often used as region free)
R1 and R2 are considered the best quality.

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 a
high-quality DVD-Rip, the "race" to release that film will stop. The release is an AVI file and uses the Xvid codec (earlier DivX) for video, and
mp3 or AC3 for audio. Because of their high quality, DVD-Rips generally replace any earlier copies that may already have been circulating.
Widescreen DVDs used to be indicated as WS.DVDRip.

DVD-R [3] Very common

DVDR, DVD-Full, Full-Rip, ISO rip, lossless
rip, untouched rip, DVD-5/DVD-9

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-9
format, however, extras might be removed and/or the video re-encoded to make the image fit the less expensive for burning and quicker to
download 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 GiB
provided 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 or
changed, though often the definition is lightened to include DVDs which have not been transcoded, and no features were removed from the user's
perspective, removing only restrictions and possible nuisances such as copyright warnings and movie previews.

HDTV or DS Rip DSR Very common

DSRip
DTHRip
DVBRip
HDTV
PDTV
TVRip
HDTVRip
Pirated movie release types 4

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 sometimes even 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 multiple
resolutions such as 640×352 (360p), 960×528 (540p), and 1280×720 (720p) at various file sizes for pirated releases. They can be progressive scan
captured or not (480i digital transmission).

VODRip VODRip Common, becoming more common

VODR

VODRip stands for Video-On-Demand Rip. This can be done by recording or capturing a video/movie from an On-Demand service such as through
a cable or satellite TV service. Most services will state that ripping or capturing films is a breach of their use policy, but it is becoming more and
more popular as it requires little technology or setup. There are many online On-Demand services that would not require one to connect their TV
and computer. It can be done by using software to identify the video source address and downloading it as a video file which is often the method
that bears the best quality end result. However, some people have used screen cams which effectively record, like a video camera, what is on a
certain part of the computer screen, but does so internally, making the quality not of HD quality, but nevertheless significantly better than a Cam or
Telesync version filmed from a cinema, TV or computer screen.

BD/BRRip Very Common, becoming even more

BDRip
common
BRRip
Blu-Ray / BluRay / BLURAY
[4]
BDR
BD5/BD9 (also known as BD25/BD50)

Similar to DVD-Rip, only the source is a Blu-ray Disc. A BD/BRRip in DVD-Rip size often looks better than a same-size DVD rip because
encoders have better source material. A common misconception among downloaders is that BDRip and BRRip are the same thing. They differ in
that a BDRip comes directly from the Blu-ray source, while a BRRip is encoded from a pre-release, usually from a 1080p BDRip from another
group. BDRips are available in DVD-Rip sized releases (commonly 700 MB and 1.4 GB) encoded in Xvid, as well as larger DVD5 or DVD9 (often
4.5 GB or larger, depending on length and quality) sized releases encoded in x264.

BD5 or BD9 are also available, which are slightly smaller than their counterpart DVD5/DVD9 releases. They are AVCHD compatible using the BD
folder structure, and are intended to be burnt onto DVDs to play in AVCHD compatible Blu-ray players. More recent types, probably associated
with the use of newsgroups and cheaper storage at home, are complete Blu-ray copies (images). They are commonly referred to as BD25 or BD50
and may or may not be remixed (but not transcoded). (Remixing is keeping the original video, but eliminating audio tracks, and/or adding audio
tracks in other languages.)
BD/BRRips come in various versions: the m-720p (or mini 720p), which is a compressed version of a 720p and usually weighs around 2–3 GB; the
720p, which usually weighs around 4–7 GB and is the most downloaded form of BDRip; the m-1080p (or mini 1080p), which usually weighs a
little bit more than 720p; and the 1080p, which can weigh from 8 GB to sizes as big as 40–60 GB. There are also mHD (or mini HD) versions
available, which are encoded in lower resolution and are smaller in size.

WEB Rip WEB-Rip Common, WEB-DL is preferred

WEBRIP
WEB Rip

This is a rip by capturing a movie from a screen using a service like Hulu. For this reason the quality is often not optimal, but still suitable for small
screen devices and often comparable with low quality XVID movies.

WEB-DL WEBDL Common, becoming more common

WEB DL
WEB-DL

This is a movie or TV show downloaded via an on-line distribution website (web download) like Amazon or iTunes. The quality is quite good since
they are not re-encoded. The video (H264) and audio (AC3/ACC) streams are usually extracted from the iTunes or Amazon file and then remixed
into a MKV file. An advantage with these releases is that they mostly have no logos in screen, just like BD/DVDRips.
Pirated movie release types 5

References
[1] iSONews.
[2] VCDQuality Terms (http:/ / www. vcdq. com/ faq) – Lists recent video releases in the warez scene.
[3] THE.2009.DVDR.RELEASING.STANDARDS-TDRS2K9
[4] THE.2010.BDR.RELEASING.STANDARDS
Article Sources and Contributors 6

Article Sources and Contributors

Pirated movie release types  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=576019851  Contributors: ACookr, ARMSidewinder, Aalaap, Alereon, Alexgt, Andy5421, Angr, Astanhope,
Bbennett712, Bkell, Brfsa, Burton3660, ChrisDrinkwater, Ckatz, ClonedPickle, Coolio5462, Crossmr, Danhash, Daniel Deega, Davidhorman, Deathwitafireinside, Demize, Der ohne
Benutzername, Didimos, Downloadmeh, Drbogdan, DustWolf, Esanchez7587, Extransit, Falcon9x5, Firsfron, Fluffy McNutter, GeiwTeol, GoingBatty, Groggy Dice, Grumpyyoungman01,
Gunhamz, Götz, HappyInGeneral, Haseo9999, HeinzzzderMannn, J.smith, Jahiegel, JamesBurns, Jhawkinson, JustinRossi, KJS77, Kollision, LilHelpa, Longhair, MBisanz, McAusten, Miro
modo, Mr Messiah, Muddar, Neolucifer, Noformation, Ondertitel, PaddyMcDonald, Radagast83, RaptorialNL, Rettetast, Righttovanish1, Rjwilmsi, Rmeyers, Royly Fernando, Rurik, S33k3r,
ST47, Satam357, Sharebay, Simplymoody, Skarmenadius, Tabletrack53, Theone salman, TinFoil, WSaindon, Wai Wai, WatchAndObserve, Wbm1058, Whpq, Wiki alf, WissensDürster,
Witchkraut, X-Fi6, Xeryus, Zache, 193 anonymous edits

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