Chinese pirates offering cheap AVCHD Blu-ray rips on disguised DVD-Rs

Just last week we heard that Warner Bros. was ending its home video / DVD business in South Korea due to rampant piracy, and now we've got a report from China suggesting that sophisticated pirates are duping buyers with faux Blu-ray Discs that are actually DVDs. As the story goes, movie pirates in select parts of Asia are ripping bona fide BDs and then burning them in AVCHD format (which uses 720 horizontal lines of resolution compared to Blu-ray's 1,080) on writable DVDs. Word on the street has it that these discs are being offered for around $7 each, and they even boast the BD hologram and the iconic blue hues on the packaging. Reportedly, none of the discs have made it outside of Asia just yet, but stay sharp should you ever get the urge to snag a discounted BD title while traveling abroad.

[Image courtesy of UberGizmo]

[Homeboy @ Nov 17th 2008 6:34AM]

This is no different then going abroad, picking up a DVD of a semi-new movie and discover that the quality of the movie is horrible enough for the movie to comfortably fit on a normal CD-R.

[LondonConsultant @ Nov 17th 2008 7:09AM]

Actually, I'd be pretty happy buying 720p movies for £4 - providing they weren't dubbed in Korean...

[lettcco @ Nov 17th 2008 8:26AM]

will they play on ps3?

[OneLove @ Nov 17th 2008 11:56AM]

I'll take 2 copies! Is that david (ross) schwimmer on da left?

[Magallanes @ Nov 17th 2008 12:56PM]

Yes, upscaled blu-ray movies looks awful, even worst than the original dvd.

[balls @ Nov 17th 2008 1:54PM]

@London

But dubbed in Chinese is okay?

[erikcantu @ Nov 17th 2008 6:36AM]

AVCHD does do 1080i/p, and Blu-Ray does support 720p resolutions.

[Maff @ Nov 17th 2008 7:06AM]

Blu-ray supports 720p, 1080i and 1080p (as well as SD resolutions) using WMV-HD (VC-1), h.264 and MPEG2 codecs
AVCHD supports 720p, 1080i and 1080p using h.264 codec (also known as AVCHD!)

[rock99rock @ Nov 17th 2008 12:56PM]

These "Pirates" (average engadget reader + street vendor) appear to only be using single-layer dvds. the 1080p m2ts files use 7-9gb, depending on length of film. So these just arent pirates, they are CHEAP pirates.

[JerkfacedFed @ Nov 17th 2008 4:46PM]

Youre actually not completely right, H.264 means its MPEG-4 Part 10 or MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding). AVCHD is a format that USES H.264 for video and either AC-3 (Dolby Digital) or PCM (uncompressed) for audio. Don't get MPEG-4 AVC and AVCHD mixed up, even though the AVCHD format when burned on a disk can play correctly on a Blu-ray player because they have the same file structure as standard Blu-ray movies.

[Lance @ Nov 17th 2008 6:41AM]

Gotta love how they have DVD logos on them

[Lester Bangs @ Nov 17th 2008 3:06PM]

Was in Kuala Lumpur last week and for 20 Ringot ($US5) you can get a 720p written onto a DVD-R in a Bluray case. There were literally 100's available. Go to China Town. DVD's were $1US. Quantum of Solace DVD (Cam Job) was sold out in the city. You can go to the cinema's for $US 3 in a good quality plex to watch the latest "legal" releases.

Cheers Lester "Did not buy any" Bangs

[lejupp @ Nov 17th 2008 10:09AM]

They've got all the logos you want

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 17th 2008 3:06PM]

They'll even put Betamax on it if you really want it.

[Darwin @ Nov 17th 2008 6:50AM]

The name of the game is LCD, Lowest Common Denominator: pirates compete against each other, because everyone wants to make a quick buck; they jump on the bandwagon all at once and squeeze profits from each other, dropping quality and average Joe (Chan?) customers in the process; they will work themselves out to extinction.

Moral of the story? Value is king. 3/4" tape --> Beta --> VHS --> VCD --> DVD --> Blu-Ray/Digital download. Give a good product for a commensurate price and you get loyalty. Just be sure to keep innovating and providing a good customer experience.

[Boards of Canada @ Nov 17th 2008 7:07AM]

definitively Chan!

[JonShado @ Nov 17th 2008 8:54AM]

Hmmm, if your progression is meant to show change over time from one higher quality format to the next, then it has a flaw. The jump from Beta to VHS was a jump DOWN, not up. Beta SP is still the most amazing looking analog/SD format around. Even BetaMAX was better looking than VHS, but VHS was cheaper. I would even venture to say that Beta SP holds it's own against a wide number of digital/SD formats.

I agree with the concept of giving a product a marketable price, but I wouldn't call VHS a "good" product, just the product that won that particular marketing war.

[Darwin @ Nov 17th 2008 9:31AM]

(commenting system acting screwy?)

As I said, the progression was really about VALUE being king. Beta lost because of the cost of licensing. It's all about the tradeoff.

[ian mcgrady @ Nov 17th 2008 6:52AM]

This is a very positive development - perhaps people who undermine people whose jobs & careers in the entertainment business by producing and buying these discs will actually become mindful of the difference and therefore stop buying them. A sophisticated blue-ray user will know the difference and perhaps become a legitimate consumer of entertainment again.

[mcatrage @ Nov 17th 2008 6:56AM]

They're getting the movie for cheaper and in most instances people don't have big enough tvs for 1080p to even matter. So yeah I don't see this bringing people back to the legit offerings.

[Andy TGD @ Nov 17th 2008 6:56AM]

It is a shame that it had to pan out like this. But, I can't help but think that only a handful of people are actually buying blu ray discs. Period.

[anantha92 @ Nov 17th 2008 6:57AM]

No, i actually bought these discs just for the heck of it the other day and they are just plain dvds and are not in the AVCHD format, If you are travelling abroad and you would like to buy some cheap blu-rays keep an eye out to see whether or not they are playing the supposed blu rays in a regular DVD player or a blu ray player. They however are as clear as the original DVD counterparts which are sold.

[eiki @ Nov 17th 2008 6:45PM]

is it dual layer? what is the total capacity of disc? thanks!

[Valicore @ Nov 17th 2008 7:10AM]

7 dollars? That is fricken' huge compared to a 5 -10 kuai pirate DVD.

[nikster @ Nov 17th 2008 8:07AM]

I have seen them for $2 in Burma. As mentioned above most of them are actual DVDs. They just come with a nice BD logo. I mean - why bother ripping them to AVCHD when you can just sell DVDs packed in BD packages. At the end of the day, no one cares if the movie is in DVD format, or in AVCHD. Customers are happy if its a DVD 9 and there are no sound distortions or popcorn-noises. Pirates are not exactly selling to a high end crowd here.

If it was really BD though there would be returns since normal DVD players sold here don't do that. So there is good reason to not actually sell BDs.

Pirates sell what customers want: The latest and greatest BluRay discs that also play in your $20 chinese DVD player.

[solmar @ Nov 17th 2008 11:51AM]

Look closely at the box. For faux-BD-DVD's, they have the DVD-9 logo on the cover. If it's an actual BD, then there is no DVD logo.

[Larry @ Nov 17th 2008 7:15AM]

Buy two and you get egg roll.....

[Vcize @ Nov 17th 2008 10:35AM]

Well in spite of your downvote, I thought it was funny.

[Prhime @ Nov 17th 2008 7:19AM]

once more movies roll out in the 1080 format and the number of tvs and blu-ray players increase then people will be able to spot the difference. until then 720p looks as HD as anything that meets the average person's eye as the step up from the abundant regular programming.

is that david schwimmer [sic?] on the cover of the left case?

[spam_free @ Nov 17th 2008 9:37AM]

No, that's not David Schwimmer. This is a famous HK action star Donnie Yen:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0947447/

He's like Jet Li (some would say much better than) except he hasn't dipped his Kung Fu feet into Hollywood yet. IMO he does have better acting than Jet Li.

[William @ Nov 17th 2008 7:29AM]

As someone who lives in Shanghai and buys these DVDs from time to time.

Any retard will know that they are not Blu-Ray discs... but don't ask why they put that logo on there

the price of a disc averages from 1$-2$

[William @ Nov 17th 2008 7:31AM]

oops, i didn't read carefully. I guess engadget did find out why. Thanks for that *thumbs up*

PS - is that edit function coming soon?

[JoeP @ Nov 17th 2008 7:31AM]

I live in Shenzhen, China and these fake blu-ray DVD's have been around for a few months now. They sell for 10rmb in Shenzhen, which is about $1.30. There is no price difference between the normal fakes and the Blu-ray ones here.

[Josh @ Nov 17th 2008 7:37AM]

Exactly. I live in HK (just across the border from Shenzhen) and these have been around for months. No big deal, really.

[chefgon_ign @ Nov 17th 2008 7:40AM]

If I was buying one of these I would expect it to be a VCD taped off of a theater screen with a 20 year old analog camcorder. 720p Blu-ray rip actually sounds pretty damn good for a pirated package.

[Soop @ Nov 17th 2008 7:55AM]

Anyone wan buy DVD?

[Evan @ Nov 17th 2008 7:57AM]

These have been available in Toronto for months. Not sure if they are AVCHD or regular DVD, though.

[dudeItsFree @ Nov 17th 2008 8:08AM]

Hmm AVCHD Blu-ray rips are avil to download on USENET servers...have been for awhile. The quality is identical to an actual bluray.

[strang @ Nov 17th 2008 10:45AM]

VC-1 rips are also avail on Usenet. People should just start calling these H.264 rips and VC-1 rips. Because that's what they are. AVCHD is using H.264 for video (well, X.264 really, since that's the open source counter part) and usually AC3 for audio encoders. I have also seen encodes using AAC for audio. But by far AC3 is the more popular one.

This is not a new Chinese pirating technique. When DVD rips became available on Usenet, they begun selling them on DVD+Rs. Now that Blu-ray rips are available, they're just doing the same. I bet you some of those discs are DL since the sizes of the rips can vary and above single-layer size releases are not uncommon.

Not condoning piracy but I expected something like this to happen in Asia long ago.

[Ryan McClelland @ Nov 17th 2008 8:17AM]

I have a 50" Samsung DLP that I sit VERY close to (small house) and I can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p. No one will ever know...

[Handle @ Nov 17th 2008 8:40AM]

Actually you need to sit some feet away from your TV to benefit from HDTV-resolutions like 720p or 1080p, otherwise you won't spot a real difference. You sit too close to your TV.

[Static @ Nov 17th 2008 9:35AM]

What? Dude, your NOT SUPPOSED to sit close to such a large HDTV. Thats probably why you can't tell the difference. I have a 55 inch Samsung DLP. I sit 14 or more feet away. I can easily tell the difference between 720 and 1080.

[Vcize @ Nov 17th 2008 10:40AM]

What in the wide wide world of sports are you two talking about? You don't notice a bigger difference as you move farther AWAY from your TV.

That's just, wow. That doesn't even make sense.

[adam @ Nov 17th 2008 8:13AM]

since mid September on the streets of Toronto, Canada
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=640171

[Homer @ Nov 17th 2008 8:13AM]

Who wants to buy movie? Especially pirated one. I live in Asia and I have enough experience with these pirates. They ripped off customers by saying this DVD is the best quality , matching the original one, while the true story is the DVD content is just a movie taken with camcorder from Cinemas.
Now i just download my movies from AXXO and if i really liked the movie, i will buy the genuine original.

[ITRanger @ Nov 17th 2008 8:13AM]

Since the end of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format wars, I have still noticed a few sceptical people about taking the plunge into Blu-Ray. Despite the $139 player, and now totally 'illegitimate' backing from pirates in Asia who also think Blu-Ray is a winner.

What more evidence do you need about the future of Blu-Ray as a replacement for DVDs?

With respect to the piracy, I think it's a real crime that needs to be stamped out. The only thing is I can't see how when a Blu-Ray disc in comparison to people's monthly incomes in Asia are going to induce them to go legal.

[loocas @ Nov 17th 2008 8:47AM]

DRM MY ASS!

[andres @ Nov 17th 2008 6:39PM]

no thanks, im not into that

[htd @ Nov 17th 2008 8:49AM]

this actually looks a lot better than normal DVD...

[Mic2000 @ Nov 17th 2008 9:01AM]

Blu-Ray takes 1920 as horizontal lines, not 1080.

it is 1920 x 1080 for Blu Ray
SD is 720 x 480 or 560?