Let me confess something. I used to and even now watch movies downloaded from torrents or rapidshare or other file hosting services. Well, one thing is that I can watch the movies which are yet to release in India. Let aside legal and moral aspect one thing which always intrigued me was that what is all the details attached with the file name. After lot of reading on net and various other source I have learned a bit about the naming nomenclature. Infact, this info contains lot of information about the quality and source of film. Let me try to explain you some of the aspect of it:
CAM - indicates Source of rip- This indicates that the video is recorded using digital camera usually in a theatre, so quality will usually be poor, film may be shaking and full screen may not be covered iduring the shot. Sound will usually interpted by laughter or clapping or so. Peoples may also be seen sometimes walking.
TELESYNC - indicates Source of rip - This is same as CAM rip but audio is usually recorded through a isolated mic or is added later on, so quality may be better than CAM usually when the film has been cropped properly.
SCREENER, SCR, DVD-SCREENER, DVDSCR - indicates Source of rip - A pre-release tape or DVD usually distributed to retail chain or similar places for promotional purposes. Usually these releases have many markings including information about copyright infingement or similar information. Quality can be quite good sometimes especially when ripped to Xvid/DivX or SVCD format.
DVDRIP - indicates Source of rip - This is the best quality rip usually released immediately after release of commercial DVD.
PreDVDRIP - indicates Source of rip - This similar to DVDRIP but is released by rippers before release of DVD in market usually from some source in warehouse or factory.
VCD - indicates Quality of rip - This is MPEG1 format, quality of video is same as VCD ie 352 x 240 resolution video. Quality is usually poor to fiar but they are usually the first to be released in CAM, TELESYNC, etc.
SVCD - indicates Quality of rip - This is MPEG2 format or equivalent to DVD format with 480 X (200 - 480) resolution video. Quality is fair to Good.
XVCD, XSVCD - indicates Quality of rip - Usually are ripped by new rippers and don't follow VCD or SVCD standard like screen resolution may not be correct or bit rate may be low or high and so on. Not very popular. Quality can be poor to good.
DivX, XviD - indicates Quality of rip - DivX is a format designed for multimedia platforms. It uses two codecs,
one low motion, one high motion. most older films were encoded in low
motion only, and they have problems with high motion too. A method
known as SBC (Smart Bit-rate Control) was developed which switches
codecs at the encoding stage, making a much better print. The majority of
PROPER DivX rips are taken from DVDs, and generally up to
2hours in good to excellent quality is possible per disc.
PROPER - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This tag is added by releasing group to indicate that the quality is improved then the first release in the class for example a file CAM-SVCD-DDD may be first release by group DDD but CAM-SVCD-PROPER-RRR is the release by group RRR after group DDD but group RRR claims to be better quality then they add the word PROPER in the filename.
SUBBED - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This indicates that subtitle is hardburned into the video and cannot be changed. Usually the language of the subtitles is also indicated in the file name.
RECODE - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This shows that a group has taken a release and improved upon the quality of the rip such as by removing the subtitles. cropping the CAM rip or adding fresh sound track. This is looked upon as a low level act among release teams.
Usually the file name ends with with the release group name added at the end.
I hope you will find the information not only entertaining but also help you identify which print to download next time.
CAM - indicates Source of rip- This indicates that the video is recorded using digital camera usually in a theatre, so quality will usually be poor, film may be shaking and full screen may not be covered iduring the shot. Sound will usually interpted by laughter or clapping or so. Peoples may also be seen sometimes walking.
TELESYNC - indicates Source of rip - This is same as CAM rip but audio is usually recorded through a isolated mic or is added later on, so quality may be better than CAM usually when the film has been cropped properly.
SCREENER, SCR, DVD-SCREENER, DVDSCR - indicates Source of rip - A pre-release tape or DVD usually distributed to retail chain or similar places for promotional purposes. Usually these releases have many markings including information about copyright infingement or similar information. Quality can be quite good sometimes especially when ripped to Xvid/DivX or SVCD format.
DVDRIP - indicates Source of rip - This is the best quality rip usually released immediately after release of commercial DVD.
PreDVDRIP - indicates Source of rip - This similar to DVDRIP but is released by rippers before release of DVD in market usually from some source in warehouse or factory.
VCD - indicates Quality of rip - This is MPEG1 format, quality of video is same as VCD ie 352 x 240 resolution video. Quality is usually poor to fiar but they are usually the first to be released in CAM, TELESYNC, etc.
SVCD - indicates Quality of rip - This is MPEG2 format or equivalent to DVD format with 480 X (200 - 480) resolution video. Quality is fair to Good.
XVCD, XSVCD - indicates Quality of rip - Usually are ripped by new rippers and don't follow VCD or SVCD standard like screen resolution may not be correct or bit rate may be low or high and so on. Not very popular. Quality can be poor to good.
DivX, XviD - indicates Quality of rip - DivX is a format designed for multimedia platforms. It uses two codecs,
one low motion, one high motion. most older films were encoded in low
motion only, and they have problems with high motion too. A method
known as SBC (Smart Bit-rate Control) was developed which switches
codecs at the encoding stage, making a much better print. The majority of
PROPER DivX rips are taken from DVDs, and generally up to
2hours in good to excellent quality is possible per disc.
PROPER - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This tag is added by releasing group to indicate that the quality is improved then the first release in the class for example a file CAM-SVCD-DDD may be first release by group DDD but CAM-SVCD-PROPER-RRR is the release by group RRR after group DDD but group RRR claims to be better quality then they add the word PROPER in the filename.
SUBBED - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This indicates that subtitle is hardburned into the video and cannot be changed. Usually the language of the subtitles is also indicated in the file name.
RECODE - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This shows that a group has taken a release and improved upon the quality of the rip such as by removing the subtitles. cropping the CAM rip or adding fresh sound track. This is looked upon as a low level act among release teams.
Usually the file name ends with with the release group name added at the end.
I hope you will find the information not only entertaining but also help you identify which print to download next time.