Camcorder pirates collared by audio watermark

OFC the copyright theft bandits will get real smart and start sitting in seats that they didn't pay for or maybe they'll even combine the audio from one cinema with the video from another. Oh the terror!!!

Are there certain wavelengths that the human eye cannot detect that would flood the sensors on the camera?

Infrared shows up as bright white on a camcorder. Trying pointing a remote control at one.

@Rich Wargo & bluesxman

Wow guys, seriously! That thought hadn't even crossed my mind. I wonder why it hasn't been put into practice (prevention is better than a cure etc). It makes me wonder if the movie industry actually want to stop piracy or just catch the pirates so they can make extra $$$/£££

Hmm, yes. At the Basingstoke Leisure Park I'm sure they could conceal some IR bulbs in all the rips on their screens and no-one would notice any difference.

Total BS. This accuracy is only in theory or a controlled environment. What’s the point of pinpointing anything to that level when they wouldn’t know about a cam until it hits the net? I bet this news release is to make cammers paranoid. Period.
Considering if it were possible and they were willing to invest in either outfitting each theater with sensors or sending a team to a suspected location for analysis, the audio acoustics of each theater is so different that they would have to test each individual theater for slight differences in size, shape, speaker placement, distances, reflection, etc. A digital signal flowing through air is not digital anymore, it’s analog. So I would bet money that someone could prove there’s enough variance and level error of, let’s say, 5-10 feet. If that’s the case then it could be anyone.
And then what? They would only discover this after analyzing a downloaded cam. Will they be taking snapshots or video taping the audience during every screening? I know I’ve been to the movie theater hundreds of times and I haven’t sat in the same seat twice.

Imagine, a completely foolproof way to detect where the camcorder is placed. What could possibly go wrong?

Either a remote microphone or a wireless microphone would happily have an empty seat identified as the culprit.

I agree. Determining where they were after they post the video is useless, unless the studios want the theaters to put cameras in the auditoriums to capture where everyone is sitting all the time. And, working for a movie theater, I can assure you that no studio would stand to have a surveillance camera inside an auditorium. They would be convinced that the surveillance camera would be used to pirate with (and they might be right!)
Having IR bulbs behind the screen might work, but also might interfere with assisted listening devices, unless the ALDs and IR anti-pirate bulbs were of sufficiently different frequencies to prevent crossover (or filtered so they work that way.) If you can get that specific, you would probably be better off putting an IR laser in the back of the auditorium or in the booth and have it paint a constantly changing pattern on-screen, or have an additional low-resolution DLP chip in a digital projector putting a scrambling IR picture on the screen.
Just my $0.02. I'd love to hear other ideas.
-Edly

Portable cameras could be fitted with a block that would turn off the theatre's projector when the portable cameras in the audience activates. Everybody else law abiding will point them out!

But still I don't see the point or value of pirates doing this, or counter measures being used against it. Unless its a gramble [grab/gambling] for attention from both sides.

In my part of the world, movie tickets do not have seat number assignments. Since this is a watermark, one (the MPAA?) will only know the seat position after 1) the culprit finishes recording 2) distributes it online and 3) MPAA downloading the content. Even after these steps, what will the seat number tell you? Nothing. You still don't know who did it.

Either do the night vision cameras, or do it like they do in the UK Museums, search everyone's bags.

That's a very stupid and possibly very costly idea. What's wrong with the camera being used to record the movie being switched off instead? I still prefer the IR method mentioned earlier or better yet scanners/x-ray machines which would also stem the rising gun related crimes committed in cinema's all over the world.

As someone else already mentioned earlier, the audio could just be sampled from a location different than the video.

Additionally, the audio could be sampled from multiple locations within the same theater, and then mixed. The result would make it very difficult to pinpoint the position.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_filter

Do you think someone going out of their way to cam a video wouldn't just pick up an IR filter?

The real threat would be those with cell phone cameras!!! They could then burn the captured video to a DVD, and use a Blueray player to UPCONVERT it to 1080P!!!!! :)

The Movie industry is surely doomed unless RIAA can save us all!

Fighting piracy is pretty pointless when they can't even stop people from pointing a video camera at the screen in a legitimate movie theater. Much like drug prohibition, when they can't even keep drugs out of PRISONS, ffs.

Hasn't the MAFIAA already terrorized the whole world enough yet? There is only one solution and that one is simple:
DO NOT BUY THEIR PRODUCTS.

Ok first don't we all figure it’s internal? You tell me why your employee who makes min-wage per hour and has no responsibilities in life and everything to gain from either taking a film roll for the night or setting up a means to cam it on the job.

The reason why the MAFIAA has not been involved is because the movie industry KNOWS its internal theft nine times out of ten. And even the one customer who does make off with a dub it’s done in such poor quality no one cares to see it.

I know for almost a FACT that when the third StarWars was leaked onto the net it HAD to have been by an employee showing how cool he was to the rest of his 16 year old friends.

Who would want to watch such a Cam Copy anyway? The quality is crap! It might be ok on an old style small CRT TV as found in most poor households. Basically it's an assault on the poor and easy to get targets. The Mafia should make cinema managers responsible for leaks. It's there fault they can't catch them, since they automated there cinemas and have no staff for supervision. They encouraged the situation by doing so. It's karma! for they had there eyes on the dollars and not the customers.

£5 to watch the film. £15 per person to watch 1 movie, it's a total rip off.

If their cinema prices were fairer then I'd sympathise, but they are ripping us off way worse than any pirates.

Do you think the Chinese guy in my local car park, who has to sell dvd's for the triads who gave him his ticket to the UK inside a lorry container, is going to worry about using a video camera is a cinema?

Movie Execs, sell me the latest movies for £1 a night on my telly, or £2 at the cinema with fair priced popcorn/drink/hotdog, and I'll be on your side. Until then Yarrrr!

People still download cam movies? Seriously? Why even bother? The quality is so horrid, especially after you add in the face that they're usually compressed to a tiny 700mb divx file before they get uploaded. Cam rips are worthless, and people who download them are idiots.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some pirated full-quality 1080p .mkv bluray rips to watch.

"It's only a matter of time before cinema owners are forced by the big studios to start taking night vision snaps of movie-going audiences..."

Already old news, see

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/pirated-australia-online-but-few-takers/2008/12/23/1229794377077.html

@interested_party

orange wednesdays in the afternoon and ticket price is less than the popcorn. You can get a pay2go sim for a few quid. Take a 'man bag' for food, drinks etc. I suppose it's not much help for people with jobs. Beats watching a shitty cam.

I do see the point of just adding an IR filter, but doing that just means the quality is going to go that much further down. You can respond by either putting out multiple frequencies, or a broader spectrum of IR. Make them use more or more expensive IR filters until wither the cost is too much, or the quality is too low to make it worthwhile. Of course, as several people have pointed out, it's already debatable whether the quality is good enough to make it worthwhile now.

As to the cost of movies, keep in mind that the vast majority (about 90%) of the ticket price goes to the studios. If you don't like paying those kinds of ticket prices, then don't go to see expensive movies, at least until they are second run. If the studios can't make their money back on the WATCHMEN type movies, they won't make them anymore. Concession prices are a harder nut to crack with the theaters. The vast majority of the theater's income is from concession sales at first-run movie theaters. If concession sales drop, they will almost certainly increase prices to make up the difference. I'm sure you can see the nasty spiral taking form there. Since ticket sales basically cover electricity costs for the theater, lower takes at concessions usually means payroll cuts and service cuts. It has been my experience that complaints about concession prices fall completely on deaf corporate ears. I really have no solution for that.

They're transporting the 'films' over satellite now. Isn't everyone getting copies delivered to their home this way? LOL.

They're already filming audiences; have you never seen those panels of IR emitting LEDs?

It doesn't matter if the sound is recorded in different locations to the video, whoever is holding the mic will soon be fingered. The technique isn't too different from 'phased arrays'. That said, the 'sound shaping' of an audio compressor could well remove those subtle audio cues more so if several mics are used in different positions.

Flooding the cinema with IR won't work. Yes it is true a camera, even with an IR filter, can still see light from an IR remote and yes we can only see a faint glow (if anything), but the amount if IR needed to overwhelm a typical camera - in any possible location, is phenomenal; there will be eye safety issues (but it'll feel nice and warm).

Is this a joke to see how many people get riled up over a cam'd movie? Seriously, I have a hard enough time enjoying the movie fresh off the screen due to poor quality.

Perhaps they need to charge even more for admittance and refreshments so they can invest in some improvements!

20 years ago, the big screen was something to behold, nowadays, you can watch it at home on your Plasma with surround-sound in higher quality.

It blows my mind that movie profits have not been properly re-invested in evolving the experience into something worth seeing.

How many people would be more likely to go to the theater if Starwars for example was filmed in 3D, and the experience led you to fee like the actors were there live on the stage performing in front of you.

Instead, what you get is a stained screen with an out of focus projector, hair in front of the lens, and some crappy 1/2 blown speakers belching the sound track just barely louder then the guy next to you stuffing handfuls of popcorn down his face while the idiot in front holds up their IR filtered camcorder cackling because no one is going to catch him because he read this forum and picked up on all the excellent advice you guys are offering.

Star Wars, and a great many other films, have been recorded in 3D (even the old ones), even in HD - they look great, if you can squint. You can trust me on that ;c)

Instead of trying to figure out where a person sat at a movie, how about lowering prices? I can't afford a $5 movie, plus $10 popcorn, plus a $3 drink. It may sound kid of dumb, but I don't have any kind of job. I'm only 16, all I want to do is go watch a movie without wasting all my money.

Thanks Carmike Cinemeas!

Er, have you thought about not buying overpriced popcorn or drinks? That way you'd only be paying $5 to see the film. Just a thought.

My eyes are only half as good as the eyes of a young person.
I therefore only get half the value of the film compared to the young person.
I should only pay $2.50 , it is half the price of $5 that the young person should have to pay.

Now about the popcorn.
My tastebuds are only half as good as those from a young persons. ........

The simple cure is obvious. The solution shouldn't be to encroach on our privacy buy video taping and photographing us whilst we watch films. Instead the emphasis should be on monitering the people who let you into a cinema. We have all been hundreds of times, Not once has any of us been asked to take off our coat or been asked to prove our innocence. I know that most of us with nothing to hide wouold be more than happy for a pat down. We accept it walking into a night club so why not a cinema?

Clearly the people who fight piracy are stupid and would rather perv over the couple in the back seat than actually prevent piracy!