First case of HD movie piracy reported

Philip Wong | Feb 05, 2008

We knew all along that it was just a matter of time, and now the Chinese have finally taken the first step in pirating HD movies! The "honor" goes to Michael Bay's Transformers in HD-DVD format, complete with Mandarin dubbing and subtitles for mainland Chinese consumption. The original images of the work-in-process disc were taken from www.mov8.com, posted by a member going via the moniker HD-001. This person also added that the pirated movie was cut on three HD-DVD9 format media in pristine 1080p visuals and HDi interactive features.

Hats off to these mainlanders who also made a brief mention that Blu-ray piracy was in the pipeline, while making a resounding "HD-DVD is the best choice for China" claim. As hilarious as the claim sounds, we at CNET Asia were debating the repercussions. Our handheld reviewer John Chan prophesized on HD-DVD push courtesy of the Chinese, while yours truly took the stand that this was "too little, too late". Nonetheless, we did reach a common consensus that Tosh*** is probably smiling away right now, though the studios will be crying out loud for intervention!

Via AVS forum | Photo credit: www.mov8.com/HD-001

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