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TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

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Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#91

Post by shibboleth »

gradstudent wrote: post #73
mdda wrote: post #19

Personally, I find it fascinating that this band of merry pirates is so organized, so rules-based. Out of a purely anarchic environment, they've managed to accept this kind of self-discipline. If only web-standards committees had that sort of power...

The (movie/audio/warez/demo) "scene" is not anarchic at all but rather a very well organised distributed processing machine. You probably know these guys organise into "groups" but there is lots of other stuff you likely do not know. I will describe below aspects of the warez scene, as it was some 10 years ago. I believe most observations continue to hold today and are probably mirrored in the movie-release scene. So…

Also, the bulk of legitimate releases comes from the "leaders" of the ISO scene.. As of right now there are ~38 users in the IRC channel representing the the majority of the top level groups. To me this is absolutely frightening that a channel like this even exists.

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#92

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

gradstudent wrote: post #73
mdda wrote: post #19

Personally, I find it fascinating that this band of merry pirates is so organized, so rules-based. Out of a purely anarchic environment, they've managed to accept this kind of self-discipline. If only web-standards committees had that sort of power...

The (movie/audio/warez/demo) "scene" is not anarchic at all but rather a very well organised distributed processing machine. You probably know these guys organise into "groups" but there is lots of other stuff you likely do not know. I will describe below aspects of the warez scene, as it was some 10 years ago. I believe most observations continue to hold today and are probably mirrored in the movie-release scene. So…

That is amazing. But you what would be really awesome? If these people got together and created a nice all in one php + sqlite script that allows me to put my DVD collection and PS2 iso rips onto my server and share it with my friends. I could give friends usernames and passwords and see which of my movies and games they downloaded and they can do the same for me. Like file sharing on a much smaller more personal scale.

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#93

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

donniezazen wrote: post #54
mdda wrote: post #19

Personally, I find it fascinating that this band of merry pirates is so organized, so rules-based. Out of a purely anarchic environment, they've managed to accept this kind of self-discipline. If only web-standards committees had that sort of power...

Anarchist are more open than content providers. On the other hand, content providers and publishers only act in wake of revenue loss.

It's funny because if it weren't for the pirates there'd be no innovation and new distribution means or it would be extremely slow. Hollywood and the music industry had become so stagnant, that it took pirates to get them to change their idea of distribution, I think.

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#94

Post by menoyou »

pjscott wrote: post #18
GvS wrote: post #3

They are so slow, anime groups seems most innovative and use Hi10P ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles ) since almost a year.

For the longest time, xvid was the standard for these guys. They still have standards requiring that all releases be packaged into multipart RAR files, "in 15, 20, or multiples of 50 MB". In other words, they are kind of inflexible and hidebound. Anime fansubbing groups, in contrast, have no common standards except for -- to paraphrase the IETF motto -- rough consensus and regular releases. If some group wants to enc…

It's a lesson our ancestors learned a long time ago and which some people are trying to remove from the pages of history.

It's called the free market.

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#95

Post by dfc »

shibboleth wrote: post #91
gradstudent wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (movie/audio/warez/demo) "scene" is not anarchic at all but rather a very well organised distributed processing machine. You probably know these guys organise into "groups" but there is lots of other stuff you likely do not know. I will describe below aspects of the warez scene, as it was some 10 years ago. I believe most observations continue to hold today and are probably mirrored in the movie-release scene. So…

Also, the bulk of legitimate releases comes from the "leaders" of the ISO scene.. As of right now there are ~38 users in the IRC channel representing the the majority of the top level groups. To me this is absolutely frightening that a channel like this even exists.

Frightening? Of all the cabalistic groups in the world, the scene groups are not among the ones I am frightened by...

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#96

Post by rmccue »

MrKurtHaeusler wrote: post #81

Who watches SD anymore anyway? Although I can just imagine all the pirates whining about "h.264 (or mkv as they call it) doesn't play on my dvd player, bring avi (as they call xvid) back". I can't believe pirates are still burning crappy SD rips to DVD. Someone I know stopped doing that when he wanted to watch a movie for the second time and realized it was quicker to leech a 1080p bluray rip than search through his…

I do, for two reasons:

1) I watch it in the corner of my screen, so I'm fine with 320. 2) Here in Australia, we pay for usage. I'm not going to download something in a high quality if I'm near my limit

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#97

Post by ZeroGravitas »

gradstudent wrote: post #73
mdda wrote: post #19

Personally, I find it fascinating that this band of merry pirates is so organized, so rules-based. Out of a purely anarchic environment, they've managed to accept this kind of self-discipline. If only web-standards committees had that sort of power...

The (movie/audio/warez/demo) "scene" is not anarchic at all but rather a very well organised distributed processing machine. You probably know these guys organise into "groups" but there is lots of other stuff you likely do not know. I will describe below aspects of the warez scene, as it was some 10 years ago. I believe most observations continue to hold today and are probably mirrored in the movie-release scene. So…

Anarchism and "chaos" are linked in the popular imagination, but the "scene" seems truly anarchist to me:

"But there also is no lack of free organisations for nobler pursuits. One of the noblest achievements of our century is undoubtedly the Lifeboat Association. Since its first humble start, it has saved no less than thirty-two thousand human lives. It makes appeal to tho noblest instincts of man; its activity is entirely dependent upon devotion to the common cause, while its internal organisation is entirely based upon the independence of the local committees. The Hospitals Association and hundreds of like organisations, operating on a large scale and covering each a wide field, may also be mentioned under this head. But, while we know everything about governments and their deeds, what do we know about the results achieved by free cooperation? Thousands of volumes have been written to record the acts of governments; the most trifling amelioration due to law has been recorded; its good effects have been exaggerated, its bad effects passed by in silence. But where is the book recording what has been achieved by free cooperation of well-inspired men? At the same time, hundreds of societies are constituted every day for the satisfaction of some of the infinitely varied needs of civilised man. We have societies for all possible kinds of studies—some of them embracing the whole field of natural science, others limited to a small special branch; societies for gymnastics, for shorthand-writing, for the study of a separate author, for games and all kinds of sports, for forwarding the science of maintaining life, and for favouring the art of destroying it; philosophical and industrial, artistic and anti-artistic; for serious work and for mere amusement—in short, there is not a single direction in which men exercise their faculties without combining together for the accomplishment of some common aim. Every day new societies are formed, while every year the old ones aggregate together into larger units, federate across the national frontiers, and cooperate in some common work." -- Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and Principles by Peter Kropotkin (1887)

http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/kropotkin/ancom/

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#98

Post by okamiueru »

dfc wrote: post #16

The title is a little misleading. This is a new standard for SD content. http://scenerules.irc.gs/t.html?id=2011_X264.2.nfo

Thank you. I was a bit surprised by the mp4 container (instead of matroska), as well as DTS not being allowed. Now it all makes sense, and it's not really a big deal at all.

SD content is mostly being used on smartphones and tablets. For iOS users, this would require a lot of extra work to convert the files to the limited container choices.

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#99

Post by okamiueru »

okamiueru wrote: post #98
dfc wrote: post #16

The title is a little misleading. This is a new standard for SD content. http://scenerules.irc.gs/t.html?id=2011_X264.2.nfo

Thank you. I was a bit surprised by the mp4 container (instead of matroska), as well as DTS not being allowed. Now it all makes sense, and it's not really a big deal at all. SD content is mostly being used on smartphones and tablets. For iOS users, this would require a lot of extra work to convert the files to the limited container choices.

A part of me would like iOS users to deal with the inconveniences of their more locked down platform, and also show some love for matroska. Conforming to restrictive policies is a good way of allowing restrictive policies.

Re: TV piracy groups formally adopt h264

#100

Post by okamiueru »

mikecane wrote: post #22

I wondered why I was suddenly seeing x264 instead of AVI for TV files. I thought it had to do with the lockers going down. Well, in a way this will make things even worse for the CopyNazis. No longer will people have to convert from AVI to watch on their tablets and phones.

I suppose you mean mp4 instead of avi, as avi is only a container. So the discussion is two-fold, the container format (mp4, mkv, avi) and the encoding of audio, subtitles and video, of which the latter, h264 is pretty much the standard, and xviD/Divx are and have been for almost a decade, deprecated.
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