Pirated movie release types
Pirated movie release types are the different types of pirated movies and television series that are shared on the Internet. The quality and popularity of pirated movie release types vary widely, due to the different sources and methods used for acquiring the video content, the development and adoption of encoding formats, and differing preferences on the part of suppliers and end users as to quality and size-efficiency.
Pirated movie releases may be derived from cams, which have distinctly low quality; screener and workprint discs or digital distribution copies, telecine copies from analog reels, video on demand or TV recordings, and DVD and Blu-ray rips. They are seen in Peer-to-peer file sharing networks, pirated websites and rarely on video sharing websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion due to their strict copyright rules.
Pirated movies are usually released in many formats and different versions as better sources become available. The versions are usually encoded in the popular formats at the time of encoding. The sources for pirated copies have often changed with time in response to technology or anti-piracy measures.
Cams
releases are a form of movie piracy which involve recording the on-screen projection of a movie in a movie theater.This enables groups to pirate movies which are in their theatrical period. This method often results in distinctly low quality and requires undetected videotaping in a movie theater.
Pre-release
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. This is notable for three reasons:- 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.
- It was released nearly two months prior to its release in theaters.
- It was listed by the movie company as one of the reasons it released an unrated DVD edition.
DVD and VOD ripping
DivX
In October 1999, DeCSS was released. This program enables 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.Xvid
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, was created. Later, Xvid replaced DivX entirely. Although the DivX codec has evolved from version 4 to 10.6 during this time, it is banned in the warez scene due to its commercial nature.x264
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 that most commonly uses the.mkv file name extension.x265 (HEVC)
With the increasing popularity of online movie-streaming sites like Netflix, some movies are being ripped from such websites now and are being encoded in HEVC wrapped in Matroska containers. This codec allows a high-quality movie to be stored in a relatively smaller file size.AV1
is a free modern video format developed by the Alliance for Open Media. It delivers high quality video at lower bitrates than H.264 or even H.265/HEVC. Unlike HEVC, it can be streamed in common web browsers. It is being adopted by YouTube and Netflix, amongst others. As of 2023, a few encoders use AV1.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.| Type | Label | Popularity |
| Cam |
| Common; low video and sound quality |
| Telesync | Uncommon | |
| Workprint | Extremely rare | |
| Telecine | Very rare | |
| Pay-Per-View Rip | Very rare, WEB-DL is preferred | |
| Screener | Uncommon | |
| Digital Distribution Copy orDownloadable/Direct Digital Content |
| Rare |
| R5 | Rare | |
| DVD-Rip | Formerly common lossless DVD format whose popularity has diminished in favor of higher quality Blu-Ray releases | |
| HDTV, PDTV or DSRip | Common, often used for TV programs | |
| VODRip | Very rare, WEB-DL is preferred | |
| HC HD-Rip | Common, WEB-DL is some times preferred | |
| WEBCap | Rare, WEBRip is preferred | |
| HDRip | Common, WEBRip is preferred | |
| WEBRip | Very common, WEB-DL is preferred but not as available as WEBRip is | |
| WEB-DL | Very common, although WEBRips are often mislabeled as WEB-DL when they have been re-encoded from a WEB-DL source. | |
| Blu-ray/BD/BRRip | Very common. Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray make up a large share of the market, despite each segment making up a smaller market share than DVD by itself. | |
| 4K | Uncommon. 4K content released in Constant Bit-Rate and Variable Bit-Rate with emphasis on quality. |