VCD piracy in international waters

Yes that is pretty clever isn't it. But don't forget, a sly missile could put an end to that at any time so even if I was a criminal I wouldn't try it!!!! Why vcd though, can't they stop being cheap and get some dvd burners on them ships! (getting off topic for just a moment!) You wouldn't believe what I was reading about P2P pre-release movie trading. We've all heard about complaints that its ruining cinema & theatre BUT believe it or not THE NUMBERS ARE UP IN MOST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD. According to the Sky News website yesterday, in a poll of people who download these movies 89% go to the cinema a few days after if they liked the film and at least in the uk and ireland, Cinema viewing is at a record high!!!! However, its those released dvds that are suffering!!! The amount of rented dvds rises while the amount of purchased falls!!! But sure, what do I care!!!! The selling of dvds here is profiting a range of companies overseas from me, so my country doesn't loose as much!!!!!

We have had Radio stations off of various coasts for years broadcasting what could not be broadcast inland and offshore companies, this is nothing new. Many of the on line casinos are offshore. These pirates really are pirates! Paul.

I assume that the offshore pirates are making bootlegged vcds instead of dvds, because the vcd format is still HUGE in Asian countries, and making clones of them are easier than taking a poop when you really have-to-go, and the costs involved are *way* cheaper than dvd-production. More tricky than the actual discs themselves, I would imagine, is the associated packaging that goes along with them. Duplicating perfectly, the *packaging*, it would seem to me, would be far trickier than duping the discs themselves. Pirates, really *true* mass-producing Pirates, are giving all of us a really hard time, in that they give the damn RIAA and MPAA a convenient excuse for indulging in their horrific practices. If it weren't for the Pirates, neither of the aforementioned bodies would have a leg to stand on when screwing the rest of us around. -- Mike -- P.S. - I just came off the Finnish a/D forum. I hope my 'cookies' are still intract! Ta.

Hello Klingy, nice to see you are actually online, so only a wire separates us not an ocean! By the way, Finnish Afterdawn? Do you speak Finnish? Is it really cheaper to produce pirated VCDs than pirated DVDs? I thought the fact that you only need one DVD, should be a great incentive and blank DVDs are really cheap now. These guys don't use professional (like the recording companies) machines, do they, just lots of PCs, Burners and cheap blankies? Paul.

Hi Paul....yes, nice to see you are really 'here' with me, at least in real time. I'm just guessing that blank cds are cheaper than blank dvds, if for no other reason than the manufacturing tolerances for dvds are more stringent than cds. Either way, I bet that the packaging of (either) is a greater expense to the Pirates. They (the phony copies) have to look GOOD (legitimate) to fool both the consumer, and (to a less extent) the retail resellers. I bet there are lots of unscrupulous Asian retailers who wouldn't mind selling bootlegged vcds/dvds/music cds from a corrupt supplier, if those phony copies could be obtained at a bargain price, and *particularly*, if they were reasonably assured that they (the retailers) wouldn't get caught. No, I can't speak a word of Finnish, but I just *had* to satisfy my curiosity about the Finnish forums. And dRD even answered me too! :) But no, I'll leave Fin to Fin, and Eng to Eng. Best regards, Paul. -- Mike --

But, I don't think anyone is ever fooled by the fake packaging, it is just that people like to have the 'feel' of an original. I agree the packaging is probably a bigger overhead and they would need two, or even three CDs for EVERY movie, whereas a DVD would always fulfil one movie, perhaps even a few movies. They could do the entire Star Wars Trilogy on one DVD and make more money per DVD than possible on VCDs. Also they can sell them for more money because of the better quality. Anyone who has seen pirated/bootlegged CDs would not be fooled, would they?? Paul.

If you crammed 6 hours of video onto one DVD you're quality would be pretty low, on-par with the unwatchably poor quality of VCD

Yes the quality would be lower, of course. I have been very happy, however, with the results of ripping a DVD onto a VCD using DVD2AVI and TMPGEnc (on the slow/high quality setting) after all, VCD was a more than acceptable digital medium for many years. Anyway, what I really meant was to use VCD format, only recorded onto DVD, therefore you could get VCD quality of 9 hours or so, therefore reducing pirates costs of recordable media and allowing them to sell DVDs with loads of movies on for more money. This is, of course, illegal, we are only being hypothetical here, as treading on the thin line between piracy discussion and advocacy is risky! It would not be the best quality, but remember that pirate copies rarely are anyway because they are usually recorded in a poor format (including the wobbly camcorder screeners we have all seen!). If you are backing up your own movies, that is one thing, quality is everything (or at least much of it).

I too am satisfied with the admittedly lesser quality of standard, white-book vcds for *television* programs - after all, these TV programs (sit-coms, documentaries, adventure series - you know, the kind of standard TV fare we all grew up with), were *meant* for standard 4:3 NTSC or PAL tv sets - the kind that the vast majority of people still own. I myself have been (ummm...) backing up such wonder classics as, Star Trek TNG (The Next Generation), M*A*S*H (4077), Fawlty Towers (John Cleese/BBC-TV), Monty Python's Flying Circus-BBC-TV, of which *all* 45 Episodes are available for *free* borrowing from our Public Libraries); etc. etc. You can easily get away with vcd quality here, as the shows were meant to be watched on standard tv sets. Movies - full Hollywood film productions are another matter. If you are in the minority, you have a wide-screen, hi-res 16:9 monitor, maybe even a true HI-Definition set. For you, dvds probably represent a good value, but for the rest of us, the majority, much of the higher definition (and cost) of dvds is wasted....false value, as we have not the means to exploit the higher quality picture, as well as higher 5.1 surround sound, which requires even *more* expense, and a LOT of home space. I'm not trying to recreate "The Movie Theater Experience"; I just like to be entertained. I don't like the overblown cost of dvds, not the mandatory additional expense handed down by the increasingly prevailance of really *dumb* extras, bonus tracks, "the making of" featurettes, actor/actress biographies, etc. etc. (I could go on....) Paul, I forget what website I was on, but it explained to me that there basically two types of Pirates. a) The scuzzy kind who do indeed produce vcds/dvds on basic bare-bones equipment in their basements, using cheap, conventional media, and whose products wouldn't fool any of us for a minute, and b) The truly "professional" Pirates whose bootlegged products you or I would be hard-pressed to differentiate from the originals. They truly are remarkable reproductions, right down to the holographic stickers sealing the original jewel-boxes/snap-cases, and original, ripped-off artwork printed on high-quality stock on professional printing presses. THESE are the *real* pirates, and the people who give both the RIAA and MPAA a convenient excuse to punish the rest of us, who do no more than backup the occassional music cd or dvd for our own personal use. (Have I wavered off-topic yet?) :-) I simply *adore* my own, tv-content, home-made vcds. -- Klingy -- P.S. The local libraries (and video rental outlets) are offering more and more standard TV content these days.....American-made "Sanford & Son" (sitcom), The Simpsons, and even the Arts And Entertainment (A&E) tv network are releasing.... (too numerous to go into here), and they tout them as, "Television Classics Now And Forever On DVD". (And now, on homemade vcd too!!!) Now I'm waiting for 'All In The Family", "The Munsters", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "The Monkees", "WKRP In Cincinnatti", "Bewitched", and all of the other *wonderful* things I grew up watching as a kid. (I'm still a kid). But oh god! (Does it *ever* take a lot of time to compress these shows!) My new 80-gig hard disc drive is clogged-up with 75 gig-s worth of tv shows right now, and it's going to take *forever* for me to get 'em off! (I'm running three copies of TMP right now along the lower taskbar)... SEE YA !!!!

Hey Klingy, wasn't ignoring you, but my ISDN line has been donw since Friday (guess I won't be topping the charts this week) and noticed by inbox had as many notifications as (I guess) dRD on a normal morning. ARRRRRGHHHH, we all know that thread, 8165 (my new lucky number!) Fawtly Towers rocks, by the way and it is nice (patronise patronise) to see someone on the western side of the atlantic who appreciates real comedy as opposed to Friends! Actually, I also think Frasier is right up there as comedy classics, although the latest ones are a little tired. That of course, is part of the success of Fawlty Towers, they only made 12! Paul.

"Go be a waiter in there, Manwell." "Kay?" "Go and be a waiter in *t-h-e-r-e.....* !!" Comedy of the very highest calibre. 'Friends' makes me ill to my stomach, and *all* daytime soaps send me into a prolonged coma. I too have been 'off' for a bit, RE-re-re-re installing winners-98, and frigging around trying to recoup my old email address(es). Really crummy news: The other day my Panasonic/Matshita cd-burner went 'tits up'. Breaks my heart it does, 'cause I'm poorer than Oliver Twist in a home for boys.. (sob!). It gave me over a thousand burns however, mostly vcds. My computer, windows itself, and my burning software(s) all recognize the drive and identify it properly as 'Matshita CD-RW CW-7586', but I keep getting error messages, mostly "drive not ready" or "waiting for drive to become ready". It never does. Not even in DOS. I guess it's 'ready' for the trash can. Putting a brand new ribbon cable in didn't help. (I think the laser is burned out). Even though cd-burners have plummeted in cost over the last few months, I think I'm going to have to seriously consider getting a new dvd burner instead. (That means eating *more* Kraft dinners for a while, I guess) <gg> I have been recently impressed with the comments made by the president of the 321 Studio's president, Robert Moore, whose threads you can find in the News portion of this forum. They make the soon-to-be-released DVDXCopy, and I'm anxious to try it out. Mr. Moore *kindly* offered me a free beta (!), which will be upgradeable to the FULL version when available (!!!), for FREE (!!!!!!!!).......also, f-i-v-e free serial keys for 5 friends (!!!!!!!!!) who have the beta. (I consider you a friend, so if you ever get the beta, (& a dvd burner), one of the keys has your name on it). :-) Now to start some more scraping up $$$..... this being without a burner is killing me..... AND I'M W-A-Y off topic. See ya !! -- The Rambler --

Hey rambler, off topic if fine with me, but free serial numbers!!!! Legal like!!!! (love the sound of that!) Petteri would like one too, i should think! I have a DVD burner, Pioneer and it is sweet! But what the hell is Kraft dinner? Sounds awful! I will look for the beta to that software and look for any bugs!!! :-) Long live Klingons! Paul.

Cool! I think, Paul, that if you send a private email request to 321 Studios, Mr. Moore will add you to his list of beta requesters. And you can bet, that if I can help dRD get a beta serial #, I most certainly will! (Or he may already have one, I don't know). My own emails are somewhat frigged up after I reinstalled Windows after a crash. I sent Mr. Moore a couple of private_messages via the link under his name, (from_within_the_forum). I don't know if he got them. Also, I don't seem to be getting the usual notices from a/D that there are new posts in the forums I have visited. (I think I have fixed that now by updating my user-profile settings). I have just re-updated my personal settings to reflect what I think is my proper email address. Paul, could you do me a favour? If there is a "send_private_message" link under my 'A_Klingon' user-name, could you please send me a short note? (anything). This will tell me if my email is working 'ok'. I hope also, since changing my a/D settings, that I'll get the usual a/D forum-update messages. <pant pant> Trouble-shooting......what a boring, tedious task..... :-( Also, I'll send you a private mesage under _your_ link. (Hey! I didn't know you had a dvd-burner!) You lucky bugger! I take it then, that you have been burning vcds with the dvd burner? "Kraft Dinner", which is a cheap, packaged box of macaroni & cheese, is a sort of 'in-joke'. It refers to, traditionally, a cheap cheap cheap 'dinner' that poor, working college/university students have to eat 20 times a week, to be able to afford their tuition. (I was joking that that's what I'll probably have to live off of while I save up enough $$$ to replace my dead cd burner with a new dvd burner.) God, I yak a lot.... :-) Sending you a private message ........ -- Klingy --

loaded wrote: Is it really cheaper to produce pirated VCDs than pirated DVDs? One reason people prefer CDs than DVD is this. CDs has been on market much longer. Factories know how to make them not loose data. Even when stored cool, dry, dark place it might happen. Much more obvious it's happening to DVD than CD. No experience. Much tighter data storage.

why the hell would you drag up a four year old thread? when that was written, dvd production was difficult, but that is currently far from the case. additionally, the quality of dvds continues to increase. you have no valid points.