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Pirated movie release types - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pirated movie release types

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Contents
1 Background
2 Release formats
3 See also
4 References

Background
Cam releases were the early attempts at movie piracy which were implemented by recording the onscreen 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).
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 to be used for playback purposes, 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,
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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[2] 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,[3] 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.[4]
Type

Label

Rarity
Common; Quality issues
CAMRip
[5]
make this an unpopular
Cam
CAM
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.
TS
[6]
TELESYNC
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.
WP[7]
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.
Fairly rare; losing
TC
popularity due to R5
Telecine[5]
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.
Workprint[5]

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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.
SCR
SCREENER
DVDSCR
Very Common
Screener[5]
DVDSCREENER
BDSCR
Pay-Per-View Rip[8]

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 1800-NO-COPIES to report it." or more commonly if released for awards consideration
simply, "FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION." 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 mislabeled as DVD-Rips.
Note: Screeners make a small exception heresince 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
Downloadable/Direct Digital
DDC
Common
[9]
Content
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.LINE
Very common
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.[11] 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.[12]
R5[10]

The other regions are:

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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.
DVDR,[13] DVD-Full, FullRip, ISO rip, lossless rip,
DVD-R
Very common
untouched rip, DVD5/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.
DSR
DSRip
DTHRip
DVBRip
Very common
HDTV or DS Rip[14]
HDTV
PDTV
TVRip
HDTVRip
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.
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Analog, DSR, and PDTV sources are often re-encoded to 512384 if fullscreen, 640352 if
widescreen. HDTV sources are re-encoded to multiple resolutions such as 640352 (360p),
960528 (540p), and 1280720 (720p) at various file sizes for pirated releases. They can be
progressive scan captured or not (480i digital transmission).
VODRip
Common, becoming more
VODR
common
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.
WEBDL
Common, becoming more
WEB-DL
WEB DL
common
WEB-DL
This is a movie or TV show downloaded via an online distribution website, such as iTunes.
The quality is quite good since they are not re-encoded. The video (H.264) and audio
(AC3/AAC) streams are usually extracted from the iTunes file and then remuxed into a
MKV container without sacrificing quality.
VODRip

An advantage with these releases is that they mostly have no network logos on screen, just
like BD/DVDRips.
WEB-Rip
Common, WEB-DL is
WEBRIP
preferred
WEB Rip
This is a file ripped from a DRM-free streaming service, such as Hulu, CrunchyRoll or
WWE Network. The quality is comparable to WEB-DL, but bitrates are lower to save on
streaming bandwidth. The file will be extracted from the RTMP protocol and losslessly
remuxed from a MP4 or FLV container to MKV.
WEBRip

WEB-Cap
Common, WEBRip/WEBWEBCAP
DL is preferred
WEB Cap
This is a rip created by capturing video from a DRM-enabled streaming service, such as
Amazon Instant or Netflix. Quality can range from mediocre (comparable with low quality
XVID encodes) to excellent (comparable with high quality BR encodes). Essentially, the
quality of the image obtained depends on internet connection speed and the specifications of
the recording machine.
BDRip
BRRip
Blu-Ray / BluRay / BLURAY Very Common, becoming
BD/BRRip
even more common
BDR[15]
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
WEBCap

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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 or
x264, 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 23 GB; the 720p, which usually weighs
around 47 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 4060 GB. There are also mHD (or mini HD) versions available, which
are encoded in lower resolution and are smaller in size.

See also
Copyright infringement of audio-visual works
Standard (warez)
Warez
Warez scene

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. ^ "H.264 Codec Now the 'Official' Standard" (http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/03/superior-h-264-codecgains-traction-among-tv-torrent-groups-is-now-the-official-standard/).
4. ^ "AfterDawn Glossary" (http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/).
5. ^ a b c d VCDQuality Terms (http://www.vcdq.com/faq) Lists recent video releases in the warez scene.
6. ^ Telesync - AfterDawn: Glossary of technology terms & acronyms
(http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/term.cfm/telesync)
7. ^ "What does "WP" mean?" (http://scenelingo.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/what-does-wp-mean/). Retrieved
2009-11-02.
8. ^ "What is PPVRip?" (http://r5dvd.com/2009/05/14/what-is-ppvrip/).
9. ^ "Music_Video_Council_Rules_v6.0-MVC" (http://scenerules.irc.gs/t.html?id=VER6_MViD.nfo). 201109-23. Retrieved 2013-01-22. ""DDC" refers to Downloadable/Direct Digital Content which is not freely
available"
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