This reporter,writer, whatever, compares shots of the centropy release of The Matrix Reloaded to the trailer. and even states the media pointed him in the right direction to get ahold of the release. here's the article.

From DVDWeb.co.uk

General News:- The Quality Of The 'Pirate' Reloaded
05/31/03 12:07:59 PM
Sean Barnard

While The Matrix Reloaded has been raking in millions all around the world, a high quality copy of the film is already available on the internet according to the BBC, and “appeared to been have made from a film print, and was in widescreen format with surround sound”. They then go on to say that “A computer user with broadband internet access could download the film in about three hours.”

As a research project I have spent the last two days trying to obtain this so called high quality copy, but it certainly didn’t take three hours to download, it actually took closer to 24 hours as you need to download over 2.5Gb worth of data. As for the quality well, let's put it this way, if a film studio presented a DVD of this quality nobody would touch it, let alone buy it. The film is presented on 3 CD ROMs in the SVCD format and from what I can make out this is by far the best copy that is available anywhere and but it is SVCD and not VCD most DVD players can't play it, so you would be reduced to watching it on your computer screen.

Here is a frame taken from the Quicktime trailer showing you how the picture should look;



Here is the same frame taken from the pirate copy;



As you can tell the image has been taken by placing a video camera in a cinema and then cropped into a widescreen format, the picture is overexposed and lacking in both colour and quality. If you look at the lamp posts on the left and right of the screen you can see just by how much the image is distorted (due to the camera being forced to look up at the screen) and I have managed to create a mask on the original image that shows you how much of the picture is missing from the frame;



It should also be noted that the sound have just been recorded in plain old stereo and isn’t a particularly good reproduction either. Just to show that the quality is equally low throughout the presentation here are a few more stills compared to the trailer.








The most interesting point that came up during my research was the fact that all the download sites on the internet have had a massive influx of visitors over the last few days and this is all down to the above mentioned BBC report which points people in the right direction on how to download a so called high quality movie on the internet, if it hadn’t been for their report, I wouldn’t have even known where to look on the net.

__________________
soda box

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

nice article...thanks

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

what a moron, the SVCD doesn't have fucking surround sound....the DVDR does..

__________________

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

most DVD players DON'T have SVCD? wtf he talking about?

__________________

Loving God.... Vengeful God...

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

and i like the way he`s trying to compare it to a dvd - "if this quality was released as a dvd no one would buy it" and he`s comparing stills of a 1st gen trailer, made by the studio to stills of a pirate/illegal copy, when people say its the best version around, they mean its the best pirate version around.i hope he`s pointed in the direction of the dvd rip, he`ll quit his job when he sees that. twat.
and as said above svcd is handled by most standalones now anyway, and 3 cd`s? big deal, beats adverts every 20 mins.

and people who have been around even a couple of weeks should knew that a bit of cropping has to be done, its free, put up with it.

the one thing that did interest me was the angle thing, it dont look that bad in the film, but that lampost comoparison is quite angled.but i didnt notice it much in the film, so its cool

Last edited by thejackal2000 on 06-15-2003 at 01:30 PM

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

quote:

---

Originally posted by lax01
what a moron, the SVCD doesn't have fucking surround sound....the DVDR does..

---

Huh?

Yes the DVDR has Dolby Digital Surround sound, but don't forget that most A/V receivers can create Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound from 2 channels (Left, Right, Centre and Rear-mono). And Pro-Logic II goes even one step further and creates Left and Right rear channels.

/me back on topic

I laughed my ass off when I read the last part.

quote:

---

Originally posted by the DVDWeb.co.uk guy
if it hadn’t been for their report (BBC), I wouldn’t have even known where to look on the net.

---

What a shock, journalists doing more harm than good

__________________
What stinks?


Oh, it's just JC

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

quote:

---

but don't forget that most A/V receivers can create Dolby Pro-Logic

---

__________________

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

quote:

---

Originally posted by lax01


Exactly, the Reciever or pre-amp has to create the surround sound....if you listen to it with no DSPs it would be stereo. The DVD had a direct Digital 5.1 surround sound (though I bet you already know this)...

eh, my $300 Sony DVD player doesn't play f*ing SVCDs...I have to use the header trick all the time....I guess its a little hold but I want a good DVD player to play SVCD and mp3

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

wow what model is that samsung??

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged