File Sharing Films Dictionary

Film Sources

Asian Silvers / PDVD

Put out by eastern bootleggers, they are usually bought by groups to release as their own. There are a lot around in the scene at the moment because silvers are very cheap and easily available in a lot of countries. Mainly smaller groups who don't last more than a few releases go about it this way. A PDVD is the same thing pressed onto a DVD. The quality is usually better than the silvers and they have removable subtitles. Usually released as VCD though ripped like a normal DVD.

CAM

A CAM was made by someone at the theatre with a digital video camera. They may have used a mini tripod but most of the time this is not possible and you might notice some shaking once in a while. Moreover, other people at the theatre could walk past the camera. The sound is recorded by an onboard microphone resulting in a low quality sound. Not only can you hear the film, you'll probably also be able to hear people laughing or having a difficult time opening a bag of crisps. The whole picture might have been filmed from an angle because seating was not very good. If properly cropped you won't notice it, though if any text is shown in the film, you will. CAM quality can differ a lot and is probably the worst quality around; sometimes you just have to be lucky!

DivX Re-Enc

A DivX re-enc is a re-encoded VCD original into a smaller DivX file. These will mostly show up on file sharing networks. Labelled like "Film.Name.Group(1of2)". Common release groups are SMR and TND. The quality is always very poor. You should stay away from these!

DVD Rip

A DVD Rip is a copy of the retail DVD found in stores. Sometimes released pre retail. The quality is simply excellent. DVD Rips are released in SVCD and DivX / XviD.

DVD-SCREENER (DVDscr)

Exactly the same as a screener except that this screener was copied from a DVD. Usually letterbox, without the extras that a retail DVD would contain. The serial numbers or markings to identify the source of the DVD which will be blocked usually block off a part of the picture. A DVDscr should be very good. Usually appear as SVCD or DivX / XviD.

SCREENER (SCR)

A screener is a pre VHS tape used for promotional use . Supplied on a VHS tape, it usually is a 4:3 (full screen) a/r, although letterboxed screeners are around as well. During the entire film a a message will be displayed at the bottom of the screen with the copyright and anti-piracy telephone number. These tapes usually contain serial numbers, or other markings that could lead to the source of the tape. These will be blocked usually with a black mark over the section. The size can differ from big to small and can last the entire film but usually just for a few seconds. Screener quality depends on whether it was copied from a MASTER copy and the equipment used, a VHS recorder. Most screeners appear as VCD, but some have tried SVCD, quality differing a lot.

TELECINE (TC)

Straight from the reels digitally copied by a telecine machine. Your looking at a very good quality picture and sound, yet there are little Telecine's due to the (expensive) equipment involved. The film will usually be in correct aspect ratio, although some 4:3 have popped up before. (Note: TC is not the same as Time Code which is a visible counter on the screen throughout the film.)

TELESYNC (TS)

A Telesync is similar to a CAM but it uses an external audio source. However, a direct audio source does not rule out background noise. The quality of the picture is usually better then a CAM because it is usually filmed in an empty theatre or from the projection booth with a more professional camera. TS quality can like CAM quality differ a lot. Most of the time CAMs are mislabelled as Telesync's.

TV Rip (TVRip)

This is a TV episode capped using digital cable or satellite boxes by preference off the network or pre-air from satellite feeds sending the program around to networks a few days earlier (contain no "dogs" but sometimes have flickers and the like). Some episodes contain extra footage and camera or commentary tests. PDTV is capped from a digital TV PCI card, generally giving the best result. Groups tend to release in SVCD for these. VCD / SVCD / DivX / XviD rips are all supported by the TV scene.

VHS Rip (VHSRip)

Copied from a retail VHS, these are generally skating / sports videos and XXX releases.

Watermarks

A watermark is a small tag generally in one of the corners of the picture. Many films come from Asian Silvers / PDVD and are tagged by the people who are responsible for it. This is usually a letter, initials or a little logo. Most famous are the "Z" "A" and "Globe" watermarks.

WORKPRINT (WP)

A Workprint is an unfinished film. There can be scenes and music missing and the quality differs from excellent to very poor. Some Workprints can be very different from the final print like missing computer animation and others can contain extra scenes. Good quality final Workprints can be nice additions to the collection.

Film Formats

CVD

Combine VCD with SVCD and you get CVD. Supported by most DVD players as well. It supports SVCD's MPEG2 bit-rates, but uses a resolution of 352x480 (NTSC) as the horizontal resolution is generally less important. Currently no groups release in CVD.

DivX / XviD

Designed for multimedia platforms, DivX uses two codec's. There's a low motion and a high motion. Older films used to be encoded in low motion only, having various problems with high motion. When encoding a method known as SBC (Smart Bit-rate Control) is used. This method was developed to switch codec's. This results in a much better print. The format is Ana orphic and the bit-rate and resolution are interchangeable.

Although there have bee players in development in the past, it's very unlikely that we'll ever see a DVD player capable of playing DivX. The reason is that high processing power is required, and there are different codec's for playback.

The majority of PROPER DivX rips (not Re-Encs) are taken from DVDs. They generally have up to two hours of good quality per disc. There are various codec's around, the most popular are the original Divx3.11a and the new XviD codec's.

DVD-R

There are various recordable DVD solution at the moment like DVD-RAM and DVD+R, and this one seems to be the most popular. Holding 4.7GB of data per side, double sided discs being available, these discs can hold up to nearly 10GB in some circumstances. For SVCD MPEG2 images to be burnt to DVD-R and played successfully they must be converted first . DVD to DVD-R copies are possible, but sometimes extra's and languages have to be removed because only 4.7GB is available.

MiniDVD

MiniDVD or cDVD is the same format as a DVD but goes on a standard recordable or rewritable CD. Due to the smaller capacity of normal CDs and because of the high resolution and bit-rates, only around 20 minutes of footage per disc is possible. This format is also compatible with only a few DVD players.

SVCD

SVCD is based on MPEG2 like DVDs. It has a resolution of 480x480 (NTSC) which is decompressed into a 4:3 aspect ratio when played and allows variable bit-rates of up to 2500kbits. The variable bit-rate results in the length you can fit on a single CDR not being fixed. Usually it's between 30 and 60 minutes. A SVCD encode using variable bit-rates is far clearer when using multiple "passes", though this takes a lot longer to encode.

VCD

VCD is based on MPEG1 which has a resolution of 352x240 (NTCS) and a constant bit-rate of 1150kbits. Generally used for lower quality transfers like CAM, TS, TC, Screener(VHS), analogue TV Rips so that as much content as possible can fit on a single disc. The size of a VCD can be bigger then a CD because it's timed in minutes and not in size. A CDR74 will fit 74 minutes on it.

XVCD / XSVCD

These guys are non-standard (S)VCDs not intended for release but for a personal backup. The resolutions and bit-rates will be higher then normal. Some players will play them, some won't.

Film Misc Info

Macrovision

Most commercial DVDs feature Macrovision these days. It prevents the DVD being copied by displaying lines and darkening the images of copies. These are made by sending the VHS signals it cannot understand. Certain DVD players can circumvent this protection and a "video stabiliser" will also do the trick.

PAL / NTSC

These two are the mainly used standards across the world. NTSC has a frame rate of 29FPS compared to only 25FPS for PAL. But PAL has a higher resolution and generally gives off a sharper picture.

On most modern TV sets, an RGB enabled scart-lead will play an NTSC picture in full colour. To record this to a VHS tape, you will need to convert it to PAL50 and not PAL60 as the majority of DVD players do. This can be achieved by an expensive converter box, an onboard converter or using a World Standards VCR which can record in any format.

RCE

Regional Coding Enhancement or RCE was designed to overcome multi-regional DVD players. But due to many faults and generally being very unpopular there have been very few titles RCE encoded. It's considered to be something of the past now.

Regional Coding

Regional coding prevents the possibility of playing DVDs in countries other then where it was sold / was intended to be viewed. It's designed to prevent people from buying American DVDs and watching them in other countries (since American films are released later in other countries) or for some older films where the world distribution is handled by different companies. This prevention can be circumvented on a lot of DVD players by hacking them with a chip or using a remote.