720p TV Rips or Web-DL 720p Quality difference?

[heiska]

I've been wondering this, but what exactly are Web-DL 720p videos? Are they videos that are actually available for download? I know there are TV shows that are streamed in HD on their official network websites, but I don't think it's possible to download them, only watch. I also know there are TV shows available for official purchasing on iTunes in compressed HD files, but my guess is that they're protected content, and only viewable by the person who bought them, and can't be downloaded/uploaded anywhere or made available on the internet for everyone. At least I don't recall ever seeing them anywhere. I'm not sure if that's what is meant by Web-DL 720p videos.

Have you considered the fact that they might actually remove all the restrictions you mentioned from the original media file before spreading it? Duh.

[jkl49]

Are you talking about iTunes videos? If they're still using copy protection on their videos (I know for a fact they used to, I'm not positive if they still do), then I don't believe there is any way possible to remove the DRM protection. You could re-encode or even re-record the videos, but then what would really be the point, you may as well just encode from a full-sized raw HD source. Obviously it would make more sense if any such web files were being spread around in their original filesizes and the original encodes, instead of being bloated up in a re-encode of a lower quality source.

Secondly, you apparently misunderstood my post. I was asking, not saying anything definitively. I was simply asking, and if you're aware of any answers, then that's exactly what I'm curious about. If there are either of those things being shared, I'm curious to know about it or any examples. I've never seen it myself, which is what I was saying and why I was asking.

Lastly, if you were referring to what I said about TV shows being streamed in HD on the official network websites and not iTunes, then that's still not really accurate either. Most of the streaming websites these days use something like Microsoft Silverlight for streaming video or something similar, so almost all of the time it is not possible to rip or capture them directly, so there would be no restrictions to remove if you aren't able to retrieve the actual files to begin with. The only choice would be capturing them in real-time from your desktop, which means re-encoding but also re-recording, which would seem a little pointless when cappers could use a raw HD source, not to mention that re-recording and re-encoding in such a way would bloat the files up to a point that it likely wouldn't be worth it for lower quality web sources anyway. So I can't say I've seen that occur anywhere or with any shows, but like I said, I'm curious to know about it if anyone knows any specific show examples or websites where those kinds of things are available.

[heiska]

I don't have a clue about the source of tv shows for p2p groups. I don't know where the scene gets their DVD-screeners either. And for sure I don't know how exactly music albums get leaked days/weeks before their official launch. I also don't know how ENGiNE cracked Autocad 2011, but I still enjoy using it .

I would assume however that the source for WEB-DLs is whatever online shop gets them first.

[Raqo]

Web 720p has usually better quality than TV 720p, but it can also be the other way around but rarely. If you have two different 720p rips just look at the video bitrate, the higher video bitrate the better quality.