Strictly anecdotal but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a pirated Blu-ray DVD for sale. They seem to have disappeared years ago, and believe me, around this place that says a lot.
Well, in the third world, most people don’t have 65" high end displays and high end 7.1 sound, now, do they? A lot of people are on inexpensive tablets and smaller tvs and using portable dvd players. So there’s no benefit to a pirated blu ray. Also, the media is a lot more expensive for the pirates.
Every streaming service I’ve used has subtitles / closed captions.
It would be harder to pirate a Blu Ray due to the size, and people buying pirated DVDs aren’t particularly fussy about picture quality. I’m not sure it says a lot, really.
It can’t be that hard, because a few years ago pirated Blu-ray DVDs were everywhere over here. Now, nada that I can see, although no doubt some may still be around.
And I disagree that buyers of pirated DVDs are in general not fussy about picture quality. My experience is different, with customers returning them for a better copy. (Over here, it’s not guys wandering around the streets selling them, but fixed stalls in shopping centers and major streets. The police are paid A LOT to look the other way.)
Depends on where in the Third World. I can tell you a lot of people do here in Bangkok. And still they buy pirated discs. Again, Blu-ray pirates were quite in vogue not long ago.
I think that the number of films that “can never be Blu-ray quality” in theory, at least, is vanishingly small. In the case of 28 Days Later (which I have seen only once, many years ago), it seems to be the case that the director chose to shoot most (but not all) of it on PAL video for artistic reasons to create a low-tech, *cinema verite *style. Director Danny Boyle had shot several previous features on 35mm film, including Trainspotting, so he probably could have shot 28 Days Later on film, too, if he had wanted.
So it may very well be true that a Blu-ray version of that film is kind of pointless (except for the final scene that was shot on 35mm), likewise a few other titles like Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity, where the conceit is that they were captured on a low-res home video camcorder or surveillance video system.
But the vast majority of theatrical features and even a lot of TV could be mastered in Blu-ray quality. Anything shot on 35mm, HD video or 2K digital or higher could, in theory, be mastered for Blu-ray and exhibit quality significantly better than SD.
For most of the history of television, soaps, sitcoms, and talk shows have mostly been shot in the currently available video formats and most probably couldn’t be effectively enhanced for Blu-ray. But until the mid 1990s, most TV dramas were shot on 35mm, and if the original neg remains (a big if) and there is a financial incentive, a decent Blu-ray version could be prepared.
35mm film has a lot of noise from dirt and the grain of the film stock itself. This limits the effective resolution and the needed bit rate. Frankly, an old film that has then been heavily compressed for sale via itunes (heavily being a relative term, I mean a final file size of about 4 gigs for the film) is going to be almost as good as the blu ray because the compression averages out a lot of that grain noise.
Were they really Blu Ray quality though, or just labelled as such? I’m sceptical - Blu Rays are simply huge.
Do you have a cite for any of this?
Although 35mm film stocks were constantly improved over the decades, even the earliest stocks had equivalent resolution much greater than HD (1080x1920 pixels). Hell, some 16mm stocks could do better than that. And the latest camera stocks from Kodak are considered to be equivalent to 6K (approx 6144x3160 pixels) or more, from an frame that is only 13.5x24mm.
The standard for scanning any theatrical movie these days is 4-6K (and even higher for the relatively small number of films shot on 70mm). Here’s a chart showing the scan rates for one of the leading cinema scanner manufacturers.
Of course, this assumes that you have high quality source material, which ideally is the original negative. If you have to work from other elements, interpositives, internegatives, or (shudder) release prints, you obviously won’t get the best quality. In those cases, your comments about dirt and grain might be relevant. But even then, restorers working on less-than-ideal source material have been able to do marvelous things to approach the quality of original neg.
Basically every blu ray review ever. Or my own eyes. Just watch an upconversion - the film grain is trivial to see.
The “effective resolution” means the smallest feature that can be distinguished at all. However, if you look at any high resolution scanned film of any type, among those distinguishable features you will see many bits of noise and blotches and other unwanted elements due to the film. High end digital cameras have almost eliminated these artifacts (at reasonable resolutions as the lower resolutions mean larger ccd elements and more resistance to noise)) and look vastly better.
Could you be a little more specific? How about listing, say, ten relatively popular, commercially released BDs with lots of grain, so that I (and other Dopers) can check your claims?
(I’m going to set aside the issue of “dirt,” since that is obviously not a problem inherent to film. A show that has been scanned sloppily or from poor source material may have dirt, but that can be fixed in many ways.)
I’ve watched plenty of films on Blu-ray and don’t recall seeing noticeable film grain, unless, as I mentioned before, it was an artistic choice. (FYI, I have a 68-inch Panasonic monitor and a Sony BD player. And good eyes.)
After doing some searching about grain on BDs, I’ve discovered that one cause seems to be turning the TV’s sharpening setting too high. A lot of people don’t know how to properly calibrate their sets and boost sharpening and contrast because it gives the appearance of a sharper and crisper picture. But it could increase the visibility of film grain in a completely unnatural and inappropriate way. In fact, for the most accurate reproduction of movies shot on film, all sharpening should be off. (And the set should be calibrated in many other ways, too, of course.)
I still buy and watch DVD’s. I don’t own any BR’s. I used to have a BR player but never used it outside of DVD’s.
For whatever reason, resolution just doesn’t bother me. Aside from my gaming TV, I have no use for anything above 420p. Even my comcast just outputs 420p as far as I know but I don’t watch much TV at all.
So maybe the reason is that many are like me and just don’t care enough to bother with it.
I can’t attest to that since I’ve never even viewed Blu-ray, legitimate or otherwise. But odd as it may sound, there are “honorable” pirates over here whom one can trust, and I would believe them. Hell, the pirate stands in MBK Center alone have been operating for decades.
But how big are the real Blu-rays? I see real ones for sale in the legitimate chains such as Mang Pong, and from the packaging they just look DVD size.
They are blu-ray quality. Why do you think they just can’t be? Even with a slow broadband connection, you can download one in just a few hours, certainly not “ages.” And you’re really quibbling over the 5 cents of electricity it takes?
Blu-Rays are exactly the same size - physical dimensions - as DVD.
I think SciFiSam is talking about the data capacity of Blu-Ray
Try downloading a BD over a DSL connection - might take a day.
I see. Not being familiar with Blu-rays real or fake, I was thinking he meant something the size of laser discs. For all I know, maybe the pirated ones came in packs of two or more discs. All you see at the stands are the cover packaging. You order which ones you want and come back in 30 minutes, because they have to go get them. Never keep them on site. That’s in a place like MBK Center. On the street stands on, say, Silom Road, they seem to be closer, as someone runs to get them and is back in just a few minutes.
Perhaps they’re not fetching the discs when you order them, but burning them when ordered?
Possible, but they’re not burning them onsite. It’s still at another location. Or, er, so I’ve heard. Sometimes you’ll have special requests such as English subtitles, and they call to see if that’s even available. Or, er, so I’ve heard. And no matter how few or many you order, it’s always come back in 30 minutes. and if it’s not there in 30 minutes after all, they’ll call to see what the holdup is. Or, er, so I’ve heard.
If you’re lucky. 50 GB is a ridiculous amount of data even over a broadband connection.