Avatar to shatter Blu-ray piracy records

30 Apr 10 03:19 by Jared Newman in category Movies, Piracy To news archive

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20th Century Fox may be thrilled to see how well Avatar is selling on Blu-ray, but the studio can’t be happy about the film’s through-the-roof piracy rates.

TorrentFreak reports that the Blu-ray version of Avatar was downloaded more than 200,000 times within four days of release. At this rate, it should have no trouble becoming the most popular pirated Blu-ray download of all time.

Avatar’s Blu-ray version measures roughly 10 GB, and the number of downloads is small compared to the film’s DVD version, but no other Blu-ray film comes close on the BitTorrent charts. This makes sense given that the movie crushed day one Blu-ray sales records through legitimate outlets.

TorrentFreak notes an interesting trend, however: A “relatively high percentage of downloads” (the site didn’t give specific numbers) come from the United Kingdom and Australia. That may be because 20th Century Fox released the film in the United States on April 22, and in the United Kingdom on April 26. The time difference may have played a role in peoples’ decisions to download, especially given that a weekend passed between the U.S. and U.K. release dates.

A small percentage of users may have also become frustrated with copy protection on some older Blu-ray players, which require a firmware update to play Avatar. Because these updates weren’t available when the movie was released, users may have turned to piracy instead to watch the film they already paid for.

The silver lining for Fox is that it’s planning to release Avatar on Blu-ray again later this year, packing bonus features and possibly 3D playback (although that may come in a special 3D edition in 2011). People who downloaded the movie this time around may be compelled to buy the disc for those perks.

4 Comments

ivid: Posts: 651; Posted on: 02 May 10 19:56

That is not the blu ray "version" technically. It is the x264 version blu ray rip. Not that it really changes anything from the MPAA wanker's POV, but technically its like referring to an Xvid movie as a DVD. This version is more compressed than the real BR. I'm just sayin...

This 10 GB version that is around is encoded at ~ 8 Mbps and Blu ray is often 4 times that. No I didn't download it I found out by reading the nfo online..

Dartman: Posts: 1719; Posted on: 03 May 10 00:29

Funny that the extra tough DRM they used may actually cause piracy because legit buyers can't get the thing to play in their newer players.
It takes FOREVER to load in my very first gen Panasonic BD-10a but then plays fines

They should stop messing with things and just worry about the big pirates, not make it so half their customers can't even watch the disk they bought.

DeadMan: Posts: 1629; Posted on: 03 May 10 19:20

The actual BluRay weighs in at 43+GB and they used the space to give the movie a very high bitrate. The 10GB version will suck. There is a far better 17-18GB version out there in full 1080P with DTS core audio (The lossless DTS-HD being overkill for some and not compatible with some hardware players like the WDTV).

I will not buy a non-3D version anyhow. I plan on getting myself a relatively cheap 3D setup using a 24" 3D capable monitor and Nvidia shutter glasses costing around £400-£500. By sitting close to the screen anyhow I don't really need a 50" 3D HDTV that costs over £2000 :P

What will be interesting is when we see 3D rips turning up in MKV containers or variants thereof. From what I can tell someone needs to tweak the encoder and container to allow an MVC type system as employed on BluRay (MVC does not require two video streams and thus does not take up twice the space needed). If you rip a 3D title to hard disk right now you will get a file twice the size of the BluRay. Unless you keep it as an ISO that is.

sagafengbao: Posts: 12; Posted on: 04 May 10 09:05

blu ray "version"? I think I would have a try,
thanks for you poste. and can you give me you e-mail?

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Piracy

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