Pirates on Bittorrent have ditched Xvid in favor of x264 video codec. x264 has become the most advanced video codec over the past few years. Compared to XviD, it is able to provide higher quality and compression at greater SD resolutions. It also allows better control and transparency over encoding settings. They have published a new document about multimedia standards to be used in their SD (Standard Definition) releases.
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With CRF in the mix, we can also ensure that a diverse array of material will get the most appropriate bitrate for them and not arbitrary and fixed sizes. This standard aims to bring quality control back to SD releases. There are many standalone players/streamers such as TviX, Popcorn Hour, WDTV HD Media Player, Boxee, Xtreamer, PS3, XBOX 360, iPad, & HDTVs that can playback H264 and AAC encapsulated in MP4. The SD x264 TV section was formed to separate releases from the ruleless world of TV-XviD. This document will cover the rules and guidelines for only SD resolution x264 television rips.
Read the RELEASE RULES!
The warez groups that decided to switch from Xvid to x264 include ASAP, BAJSKORV, C4TV, D2V, DiVERGE, FTP, KYR, LMAO, LOL, MOMENTUM, SYS, TLA, YesTV, and they praise the new codec for bringing "quality control back to SD releases".
Source: Wired