I’ve seen a few throughout my life at friend’s houses as a kid during the age of Limewire. Typically they were pretty good quality even though you’d see the odd person get up from their seat or hardcoded subtitles. Lately I’ve been curious about the history behind them and how they came to be.

Have there been well known release groups similar to the game cracking scene?

Have they always been mostly from one region?

Are they released strategically for one reason or another?

Have there been hidden methods to bust groups after a release such as steganography?

I’d be down to hear any facts about it you find interesting, stories, and if you have any articles or videos about the subject.

  • Ilandar
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    11 months ago

    I also find these fascinating, mainly because I have absolutely no idea why anyone watches them. They look and sound awful and if you maintain just a modicum of patience you can have a significantly better experience a few months later.

    • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      The image quality is better than what it was, and the sound can be okay if captured directly instead of the theater room’s audio (some theaters offer audio jack for accessibility purposes).

      • maxprime@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        I watched one by accident a few weeks ago. It was the audio that threw me off. You could hear people chatting. But the video looked not half bad - I figured it had just been transcode poorly or something.

        • GiantBasil@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          I remeber downloading a cam version of Hunger games without realising at the time and the sound was fine, but the video was so shaky it felt I was hunger gaming myself

    • Mike@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      There is a social aspect to it. For corporate workers, people are almost ostracized and excluded for not ‘being up with the latest big thing’. It’s toxic, and I hope starting to change, but I imagine these would be the primary audience go ogling “barbie movie stream free” and clicking the first ad-ridden site they find.