What’s the difference between Telecyn and Telecine? What’s a REPACK or an iNTERNAL? We run through the most common piracy related TV and movie terms.
3D
A 3D release. 3D releases may also come tagged to explain the particular 3D format. ex: ‘3D Half SBS’ (half-side-by-side), ‘3D Half OU (half over-under), 3D Anaglyph (old-school blue & red 3D), etc. NOTE: occasionally a ‘3D’ tagged release may actually be a ‘2D’ release of a film that was released by studios with a ‘3D’ as part of the official film title. ex: ‘Saw 3D: The Final Chapter’ or ‘Step Up 3D’. In that case any release of the film, whether it’s 2D or 3D, even a CAM/TS which are always 2D, is supposed to have the ‘3D’ as part of the film title.
480p, 576p, 720p, 1080p. etc
These are release video resolutions. Everything 576p and below is considered Standard Definition (SD). Everything above that is considered High Definition (HD).
480p = 720x*** where the *** can be up to 480 pixels depending on the source AR
576p = 1024x*** where the *** can be up to 576 pixels depending on the source AR
720p = 1280x*** where the *** can be up to 720 pixels depending on the source AR
1080p = 1920x**** where the **** can be up to 1080 pixels depending on source the AR
AAC
Release that contains an audio stream in the AAC audio codec (usually in an MP4 container)
AC3
Release that contains an audio stream in the AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) audio codec. Sometimes the channels will be added. ex: ‘AC3 5.1’.
AHDTV
Tag is supposed to stand for ‘Analog High Definition Television’ as defined in Scene’s SD and HD x264 TV rule sets:
– HD video taken from the decoded HD output of a set-top box (e.g. component, DVI, HDMI) must be tagged in dirname as AHDTV. Decoded output of PDTV or DSR sources is banned. Releases taken from a natively recorded transport stream shall be tagged as HDTV, PDTV, or DSR.
– AHDTV captures must be done at the native format of the channel, e.g. 720p or 1080i.
FWIW it’s clear from the Scene ruleset the intent is to note it is not from the transport stream but that doesn’t actually make HDTV analogue so it’s a bit of a misnomer.
AVC
This tag is usually used for full Blu-ray releases. AVC stands for ‘Advanced Video Coding’ which is a video codec aka H.264 or ‘MPEG-4 Part 10’ that is the most common video codec being used in retail blu-ray discs these days along with VC-1.
BD5
Encode from a Blu-ray source made to be able to be burned to a single layer (DVD5) that can play in a blu-ray player or PS3. BD5s are typically 720p
BD9
Encode from a Blu-ray source made to be able to be burned to a dual layer (DVD9) that can play in a blu-ray player or PS3. BD9s are typically 1080p
BD25
A blu-ray release that’s meant to be able to be burned to a BD25 disc.
BDRip
Encode from a blu-ray disc (a Blu-ray Disc Rip). Scene uses this tag for SD releases only. Scene BDRips in HD resolutions are tagged as “720p BluRay x264” or “1080p BluRay x264”.
BluRay
Denotes a release from a Blu-ray source. Example: ‘BluRay x264’ would denote a Blu-ray encoded with the x274 encoder into a video format using the H264 aka AVC codec.
BLUR
A technique for trying to hide watermarks / timecodes / subtitles on a video by blurring that area of the screen. Common in Oscar DVDScreeners (see below).
BRRip
Re-encode from a BDRip source. (a BDRip Reencoded Rip)
CAM
Camcorder recording video and MiC sound from a theater. Quality varies widely from the fairly common unwatchable to the not-so-common surprisingly good.
CAN
‘Canada’ – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
CEE
‘Central East Europe’ – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
COMPLETE
A DVD or Blu-ray release with all of the options/streams/features kept intact.
DC
Director’s Cut
DD
Dolby Digital – See AC3
DOCU
A documentary
DSR
Digital Satellite Rip
DTS
Release that contains an audio stream in the DTS audio codec. Sometimes the channels will be added. ex: ‘DTS 5.1’. Sometimes may say ‘DTS-HD MA’ to denote the lossless DTS master audio track was used.
DVB
See PDTV
DVD5
A DVDR release under 4.37GB that can fit on a single layer DVD (DVD5)
DVD9
A DVDR release over 4.37GB but under 7.95GB that can fit on a dual layer DVD (DVD9)
DVDR
Image file (ISO, IMG, etc) or a DVD’s VIDEO_TS folder that’s ready to burn to DVD to play in a DVD player. These come in PAL or NTSC video standards and may be compressed or have some content stripped to allow it to fit on a single layer (DVD5) or dual layer (DVD9) DVD.
DVDRip
An encode from a DVD into a video format.
DVD SCREENER (DVDSCR)
Release from a screener source. Screeners are sent out to movie critics and/or to guild members for award consideration early, often while a film is still in theaters. These are often retail DVD quality except they may have studio watermarks, timecodes, or even black and white scenes interspersed throughout the film. Screeners often include hidden digital fingerprinting embedded into the film & or audio stream to allow the studios to track down exactly who was authorized to receive that particular copy. News of arrests are unfortunately common after someone’s copy wound up online.
DXVA
denotes a video that contains a video stream using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) which some players support the decoding of partially or completely using dxva-compatible graphics cards in order to reduce CPU usage.
EE
Extended Edition
EUR
”Europe’ – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
FS
A full-screen release – typically denotes a 4:3 AR resolution.
FESTiVAL
A movie distribution tag denoting a film that only played at one or more film festivals.
FiX
A release that contains some sort of FiX for a previous release that had some sort of problem. Encodes sometimes have a ‘SYNCFiX’ that addressed audio-video sync issues. DVDR releases often have a FiX that can correct most any problem with a DVDR. A RARFiX usually contains one or more rar files from a previous release archive that were found to be corrupt so that you can replace them and extract the archive.
GER
‘Germany’ – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
HDTV
Captured from an HDTV source
HK
‘Hong Kong’ – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
iNTERNAL (iNT)
A tag used by groups typically to denote a release that was not meant to be spread to other release sites. Scene groups often use the ‘iNTERNAL’ tag for releases that don’t conform to scene release standards or to avoid getting a NUKE for being a DUPE, etc. For example, a group may have pred an XviD DVDRip but chose to release it with MP3 audio, which is allowed. Another group wanting to release it in a larger size with AC3 audio would be prevented from doing so acc’d to Scene rules if there was nothing wrong with the first release that pred so they may release it just to the site(s) they release to as an ‘iNTERNAL’.
ITA
‘Italy’ – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
KVCD
A lower quality encode from a DVD or video source (often a cam/ts/r5/scr/dvdrip source) in a bin/cue image file format ready to burn to a CD-R that can play in most DVD players. Don’t see a lot of these any more.
LIMITED
A movie distribution tag denoting a film that had a ‘limited’ distribution. Often only shown in arthouse theaters &/or select cities.
LiNE
An audio stream captured from a hearing impaired feed in a theater’s handicapped seat or captured fm radio signal from a drive-in. Usually much better quality than cam audio, but sometimes good cam audio is mislabeled as Line.
MiC
Open mic audio recorded in a theater. Also sometimes tagged a ‘CAM AUDIO’. May contain audience sounds. Quality is usually pretty poor, often so much so some or even most of the dialogue is unintelligible.
MULTi
A release that also includes one or more foreign-dubbed audio streams.
NORDiC
‘Nordic countries’ ( Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
NTSC
A DVDR release in the NTSC video standard, as is typically used in DVD regions 1, 4, etc.
NTSC / PAL list of countries (Note: for practical purposes SECAM = PAL)
PAL
A DVDR release in the PAL video standard, as is typically used in DVD regions 2, 5, 6, etc.
PDTV
Scene x264 TV rules require upscaled or 576i/576p content airing on HD channel to use a PDTV tag, which is what the tag usually means, although ‘PDTV’ should actually mean content captured from a ‘Pure Digital Television’ source aka a Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) as opposed to a modulated HDTV feed from a cable or satellite provider where a large number of feeds or channels are compressed into one feed that a receiver must decode.
PPV
A release recorded from a pay-per-view channel usually at a hotel where films can often be viewed a month or more before the retail DVD/blu-ray release date. Quality on these releases varies widely. Hotels don’t make these easy to copy anymore as many use secure encrypted stream that can’t be captured by a card or DVDR like they used to. Often enough these days PPVs are actually a cam of a TV screen in a hotel room.
PROPER
A ‘scene’ release replacing a previous release from a different ‘scene’ group of the same content that did not conform to scene release standards (often after a ‘nuke’ was issued). A ‘PROPER’ is a sort of in-ur-face besting by one Scene group of another, which is why a ‘scene’ group cannot release a ‘PROPER’ of their own release that didn’t conform to ‘scene’ release standards. In that case they would have to tag it as a ‘REPACK’ or a ‘RERIP’ etc, depending on the reason(s) for their re-release, and they would have to do so before some other group was able to ‘PROPER’ it. Also, sometimes p2p releases will improperly be tagged ‘PROPER’ apparently as some kind of lame attempt to infer their release is better than others out there, but all they really are accomplishing is showing off that they have no idea what the tag is supposed to mean. No p2p release should ever be tagged as a PROPER.
R1, R2, R3, R4 … etc
Region 1, 2, 3, etc DVD source. See the Wikipedia page for the full list.
Note that a DVDs Region is a completely separate thing than the NTSC or PAL video standard. Making a DVD ‘region-free’ (able to play in any region player) does not change whether it’s NTSC or PAL.
- – R1: USA and Canada (NTSC)
- -R2: Europe, South Africa, Middle East (PAL), Japan (NTSC)
- -R3: South-East Asia (primarily NTSC)
- -R4: Central and South America (NTSC), Australia (PAL), New Zealand (PAL)
- -R5: Former Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, Africa (primarily PAL)
- -R6: China (primarily PAL)
R5
While ‘R5’ stands for a ‘region 5’ DVD, the ‘R5’ tag on a release actually refers to a pre-retail studio-telecine from the Russian theatrical film source commonly released by studios early on DVD in the former Soviet states with the Russian-dubbed audio from the film as shown in theaters there. ‘R5’ tagged releases with English audio usually have Eng MiC or LiNE audio synced to them. Should not be confused with retail region 5 DVDs which do come with Eng studio audio (assuming it’s an Eng language film). Those should be tagged simply as a DVDR / DVDRip same as from any other region, though some p2p groups still will tag them as ‘R5 Studio Audio’ or some such.
R6
Tag could mean a Region 6 DVD source, but usually an ‘R6’ tag is used for Chinese pre-retail telecines (‘TC’) similar to ‘R5’ releases, however ‘R6’ telecines typically are not professionally done by studios like ‘R5’s but rather done by black-market outfits using cheap telecine-rigs that produce a lower video quality that usually rivals a decent to nice quality cam that are sold as bootlegs (‘silvers’). Pre-retail ‘R6’ telecines also typically have line or studio Eng audio & hardcoded Chinese subtitles.
RC
Stands for ‘Region C’ (a blu-ray region encompassing Russia, China and South Asia). Often tagged as ‘RC Bluray’, ‘RC BDRip’, or ‘RC BRRip’. An ‘RC’ tagged release is used to refer to a pre-retail Region C blu-ray sourced release similar to an ‘R5’ (region 5) DVD release. It’s a pre-retail studio-telecine from the Russian theatrical film source released on blu-ray in the former Soviet states with Russian-dubbed audio. ‘RC’ tagged releases with English audio usually have Eng MiC or LiNE audio synced to them.
READNFO
A tag used to let you know there is something important explained in the NFO included about the release. (The NFO is usually included as part of the torrent release description).
ReEnc
similar to a BRRip, this is a re-encode from another encode, usually into a smaller size/reslution. Tag is typically used by p2p groups for re-encoded HDTV releases.
REMUX
A Blu-ray that has had the menu &/or some content/streams stripped from it, often so that it can fit on a BD25 Blu-ray disc.
REPACK
A release by a group with a corrected flaw from an earlier release of theirs (technical flaw or didn’t conform to Scene Release Standards)
S01E01 (example tag)
Season one, episode one of a TV series.
SE / SCE
Special Edition / Special Collector’s Edition
SCREENER (SCR)
A less-than-dvdrip quality screener release. This used to denote a VHS screener but there aren’t (m)any of these anymore. Often the SCR tag is used these days when a pre-retail source is actually unknown and the quality resembles that of a VHS screener (better than Cam but not as nice as DVDRip). Sometimes the video quality on a DVD Screener was purposefully degraded to more like R5-like or even Cam-like quality during encoding ostensibly in an attempt to hide any hidden digital video watermarking, in which case such a release might get tagged as a SCR instead of DVDSCR.
SiTERiP
Videos/Movies obtained from a website source
STV
A movie distribution tag denoting a film that did not get a theatrical release and was released straight-to-video (ie: DVD &/or Bluray).
TELECiNE (TC)
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH A TELESYNC (TS). A telecine is a direct film to video conversion (using a telecine rig – basically a framerate synchronized booth cam). ‘R5’ and ‘RC’ releases are professionally done telecines by the studios using equipment that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (US) capable of producing a near retail DVD & Blu-ray video quality. Usually a ‘TC’ tagged release is a bootleg / black-market telecine using MUCH lower grade equipment and expertise with lesser-quality video results that may even resemble that of a decent Cam or VHSRip. Don’t see many ‘TC’ releases any more besides the occasional R6 release (w/ chinese subtitles) often mislabeled as a Screener (SCR) or whatnot.
TELESYNC (TS)
‘Cam’ video release with ‘Line’ audio synced to it.
TrueHD
Release that contains an audio stream in the lossless Dolby TrueHD audio codec sometimes used on Blu-rays. Sometimes the channels will be added. ex: ‘TrueHD 5.1’.
US
‘United States’ – tag used to help identify where a Blu-ray was released.
V2, V3, … etc
A second or third (etc) release by the same group for the same film/show title, often because a newer better source became available. Most common on pre-retail (CAM, TS, R5) releases.
VC-1
This tag is usually used for full Blu-ray releases. VC-1 is a common video codec being used in retail blu-ray discs these days.
VHSRip
Converted to video from a VHS videotape source, either on a DVD Recorder or using a capture card etc.
VODRip
A video-on-demand rip. Similar to a PPV from a cable or satellite provider
WS
Widescreen format release. Typically a 16:9 (aka 1.78:1) AR to 2.4:1 AR release.
WEB-DL
Source is from a web download, usually uploaded in the same format/size as it came.
WebRip
An encode from a WEB-DL source.
WORKPRINT (WP)
A release leaked before it was ready for prime time. The quality can vary and often come with timercodes, watermarks, missing special effects etc.
x264
Tag denotes an encode into a video format that has the H.264 aka AVC video codec (used in MKV or MP4 containers). ‘x264’ is the name of the popular open-source encoding application used to encode videos into the H.264/AVC format.
XviD
Tag denotes an encode into a video format that has the XviD video codec (used in an AVI file)
