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Pirates release DVD Screener of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has been released in a pirate version that comes close to DVD quality.
The previous versions released range from TELESYNCs and CAM-corded versions. The version released on January 8, 2003 was made from a so called "DVD Screener" (made from sources such as VHS and promotional DVDs intended for screening purposes). Quality differ greatly between the different versions floating around the Net. Some have foreign subtitles while some are of very poor quality. Compression formats vary between VideoCD (VCD), SuperVCD (SVCD), DivX and XViD.
The DVD Screener released by "The Digital Inmates" (TDI) on January 8, 2003 is the best version out to date. It is encoded in the SVCD format which allows most normal DVD-players to play it just like a regular DVD. Both picture and audio quality is very good. Because of the length of the film (runtime is 179 min) this pirate version of the film requires four 80 minute CDs (compressed size is about 3.4 Gb) unless it is unpacked directly to a computer hard drive. The size will probably discourage a lot of people from downloading. Even with a DSL-connection downloading at optimum speed it takes more than 12 hours to download all the files needed.
On November 9th a second version of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released by another group called "ViTE". That version is on 2CDs and uses the XViD Video Codec.
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| Not a sample of the actual picture quality of the pirate version |
Films, such as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, are first released by elite pirate groups on private FTP-sites before they are spread to file sharing communities such as Direct Connect and KaZaA where they reach a mass audience. This process usually takes a few days depending on how anticipated the particular film is. Other major recent films such as "Gangs of New York", "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Die Another Day" have also been released in DVD Screener versions close after the premiere.
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by AxisNova.com
Published: Jan 8, 2003
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