235w ago - Movie pirates are distributing fake Blu-ray movie titles in China, which are essentially ordinary DVDs passed off as Blu-rays.
According to a
WSJ report, the counterfeit Blu-ray discs are ordinary DVDs that hold the same movie content as the original Blu-ray but it is encoded in the AVCHD format. AVCHD is based on the MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video format, enabling recording of high-definition 1080i and 720p video onto cheap DVD discs.
"We are concerned and are assigning priority to this issue," said
Mike Ellis, the Asia-Pacific managing director for the MPA.
The issue came into the surface last month when authorities raided a big stash of the new pirated discs in China, which is often at the leading edge of piracy trends.
The MPA estimates that within the next six months the high-definition discs could account for 10% of $224 million that its member companies lose from piracy in China. While a legitimate Blu-ray discs costs about $30, a pirated Chinese disc goes for as little as $7.
It isn't. These are being sold as if they are Blu-ray discs - $7 for a Blu-ray ain't bad - but they are just DVDs. Hard to tell from just visual inspection unless you know what to look for.
The quality of 1 DVD AVCHD disc can't be perfect, when average movie usually takes > 20GB. I would rather backup my original BR:s using 2 x DVD9 discs with uncompressed & unnecessary sounds ripped, if possible.
The idea of watching HD movies is ruined quite easily, if you have to compromise the quality too much.