Blu-ray Targeted by Chinese Pirates

Movie pirates are moving in on Blu-ray. A raid in Southern China turned up roughly 800 counterfeit Blu-ray titles, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The pirated movies sell for roughly $7 a pop versus roughly $20 to $30 apiece retail for legit Blu-ray DVDs. And although the pirated movies have Blu-ray holograms and […]

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Movie pirates are moving in on Blu-ray. A raid in Southern China turned up roughly 800 counterfeit Blu-ray titles, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The pirated movies sell for roughly $7 a pop versus roughly $20 to $30 apiece retail for legit Blu-ray DVDs.

And although the pirated movies have Blu-ray holograms and all that jazz, they're technically AVCHD DVDs, which is a high-definition format that's a grade lower than Blu-ray and cheaper to burn.

"Pirates are taking advantage of the fact that many viewers can't tell the difference between Hollywood's new high-definition, higher-priced
Blu-ray movie format and a bootleg format -- called AVCHD -- that's a grade lower: AVCHD uses 720 horizontal lines of resolution instead of
Blu-ray's 1,080, but still offers a sharper picture than an ordinary
DVD on high-definition television sets," according to the Wall Street Journal report.

We'd argue, though, that if viewers can't tell the difference between the two formats then Blu-ray has a problem -- regardless of whether the movies are being pirated. Why should consumers pay for a premium when the benefits aren't immediately obvious?

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