As I pointed out recently with my tongue-in-cheek prank Pirate Bay Giftcard, the simple fact is that anything available for a fee is also available for free. (I'm looking at you, Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu, etc.) A quick search of everyone's favorite pirate site, The Pirate Bay will give you a huge assortment of user-hosted torrent downloads and media files. The real question is the quality of the download...
Pirates move quickly to capture eyeballs and gouge Hollywood accounting numbers. They often release stuff as soon as possible, and re-release newer encodes as they become available. Below is a list of short terms you may see in the file name to signify the source from which the capture came from. These are listed in worst to best quality.
The Capture
CAM |
Copy made in a Cinema using a Camcorder or Mobile Phone. |
TELESYNC |
Copy shot in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with professional camera on a tripod. |
WORKPRINT |
Copy made from an unfinished version of a film produced by the studio. |
TELECINE |
Copy captured from a film print using a machine that transfers movies from analog reel to digital format. |
PPV-PPVRIP |
Copy that comes from pay-per-view sources. |
SCREENER |
Theses are early DVD releases sent to Movie Reviewers, Academy Members and Executives for review purposes. |
DIGITAL |
Same as a SCREENER, but sent digitally to companies instead of postal system. Makes distribution cheaper. |
HDTV |
Capture source from analog capture card or Digital satellite rip. |
VODRIP |
Video-on-demand rip |
WEB RIP |
Downloaded via an online distribution website like Amazon or iTunes. |
DVD-RIP |
Final retail version of a film , typically released before its available outside its region. |
DVD-R |
Copy from the final retail version in DVD format from original DVD. |
The Region Encoding
This signifies the place where the source was captured. As movies now have worldwide releases, and they are simultaneously released around the world (with local-language versions, or well-subtitled versions). Generally, R1 and R2 are considered the best quality.
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) |
While currently there may be no competition for the Movie Cineplex, the fact is the rude audience, high prices, unhealthy junk food, and lackluster Hollywood shlepping shitcoms as movies has made 'A Night At The Movies' no longer fun.