CAM:
A copy made in a cinema using a camcorder, possibly mounted on a tripod. The sound source is the camera microphone. Cam rips can quickly appear online after the first preview or premiere of the film. The quality ranges from terrible to very good, depending on the group of persons performing the recording and the resolution of the camera used. The main disadvantage of this is the sound quality. The microphone does not only record the sound from the movie, but also the background sound in the cinema. The camera can also record movements of the audience in the theater, for instance, whensomeone stands up in front of the screen.
TS (Telesync) / Pre-DVD :
Contrary to popular belief, the video quality of a TS is not necessarily better than a cam. The term Telesync doesn’t indicate better video quality but better audio quality. The CAM source is then synchronized with a secondary audio recording, either done with a professional microphone in an empty cinema (even though by Scene Rules this would be nuked since the audio is not direct, they are hard to tell the difference), fed directly from the cinema’s sound system, or captured from an FM radio transmission intended for hearing-impaired customers. Often, a cam is mislabeled as a telesync. PDVD, also known as Pre-DVD, is a release type found mostly in India and/or for Indian movies, with Bollywood movies being the majority. Low quality CAM/TS releases in India put on a DVD and sold on the streets, which are ripped by some release groups and released as PDVD-rips. They are often mistaken for being DVD-rips, due to the name.
Workprint :
A copy made from an unfinished version of a film produced by the studio. Typically a workprint has missing effects and overlays, and often differ from its theatrical release. Some workprints have a time index marker running in a corner or on the top edge; some may also include a watermark. A workprint might be an uncut version, and missing some material that would appear in the final movie.
TC (Telecine) :
A copy captured from a film print using a machine that transfers the movie from its analog reel todigital format. These were rare because telecine machines for making these prints were very costly and very large, however, recently they have become much more common. Telecine has basically the same quality as DVD, since the technique is same as digitizing the actual film to DVD. However, the result is inferior since the source material is usually a lower quality copy reel. Telecine machines usually cause a slight left-right jitter in the picture and have inferior color levels compared to DVD.
PPV (Pay-Per-View Rip):
PPVRips come from Pay-Per-View sources, all the PPVRip releases are brand new movies which have not yet been released to Screener or DVD but are available to view by Hotel customers.
Screener (SCR / DVDSCR / BDSCR):
These are early DVD or BD releases of the theatrical version of a film, typically sent to movie reviewers, Academy members, and executives for review purposes. A screener normally has a message overlaid on its picture, with wording similar to: “The film you are watching is a promotional copy, if you purchased this film at a retail store please contact 1-800-NO-COPIES to report it.” Apart from this, some movie studios release their screeners with a number of scenes of varying duration shown in black-and-white. Aside from this message, and the occasional B&W scenes, screeners are normally of only slightly lower quality than a retail DVD-Rip, due to the smaller investment in DVD mastering for the limited run. Some screener rips with the overlay message get cropped to remove the message and get released misslabled as DVD-Rips. Note: Screeners make a small exception here, since the content may differ from a retail version, it can be considered as lowerquality than a DVD-Rip (even if the screener in question was sourced from a DVD).
Digital Distribution Copy (DDC):
DDC is basically the same as a Screener, but sent digitally (email/ftp/http/etc.) to companies insteadof via the postal system. This makes distribution cheaper. Its quality is lower than one of a R5 but higher than a Cam or a Telesync.
R5 :
The R5 is a retail DVD from region 5. Region 5 consists of the Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia. R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing. If the DVD does not contain an English-language audio track, the R5 video is synced to a previously released English audio track. Then a LiNE tag is added. This means that the sound often isn’t as good as DVD-Rips.
DVD :
A final retail version of a film, typically released before it is available outside its originating region. Often after one group of pirates releases a high-quality DVD-Rip, the “race” to release that film will stop. Because of their high quality, DVD-Rips generally replace any earlier copies that may already have been circulating.
DVD-R:
A final retail version of a film in DVD format, generally a complete copy from the original DVD. If the original DVD is released in the DVD-9 format, however, extras might be removed and/or the video re-encoded to make the image fit the less expensive for burning and quicker to download DVD-5 format. DVD-R releases often accompany DVD-Rips. DVD-R rips are larger in size, generally filling up the 4.37 or 7.95 GiB provided by DVD-5 and DVD-9 respectively.Untouched or lossless rips in the strictest sense are 1:1 rips of the source, with nothing removed or changed, though often the definition is lightened to includeDVDs which have not been transcoded, andno features were removed from the user’sperspective, removing only restrictions and possible nuisances such as copyright warnings and movie previews.
HDTV / DS (TVRip / DSR / PDTV / HDTV / DVB / DTH) :
TVRip is a capturesource from an analog capture card (coaxial/composite/s-video connection)Digital satellite rip (DSR) is a rip that is captured from a non standard definition digital source like satellite.HDTV or PDTV or DTH (Direct To Home)ripsoften come from Over-the-Air transmissions. With an HDTV source, the quality can sometimes even surpass DVD. Movies in this format are starting to grow in popularity.Analog, DSR, and PDTV sources are often re-encoded to 512„1¤7384 if fullscreen, 640„1¤7352 if widescreen. HDTV sources are re-encoded to multiple resolutions such as 640„1¤7352 (360p), 960„1¤7528 (540p), 1280„1¤7720 (720p) at various file sizes for pirated releases. They can be progressive scan captured or not (480i digital transmission).
BD / BR :
Similar to DVD-Rip, only the source is a Blu-ray Disc. ABD/BR Rip in DVD-Rip size often looks better than a same-size DVD rip because encoders have better source material. What is commonly misunderstood among downloaders is that a BDRip and a BRRip is exactly the same. A BDRip comes directly from the BluRay source, and BRRip is encoded from a pre-release, usually from a1080p BDRip from another group. BD Rips are available in DVD-Rip sized releases (commonly 700MB and 1.4GB) encoded in XviD as well as larger DVD5 or DVD9 (often 4.5gb or larger, depending on length and quality) sized releases encoded in x264. BD5 or BD9 are also available, which are slightly smaller than their counterpart DVD5/DVD9 releases, are AVCHD compatible using the BD Folder structure and are intended to be burnt onto DVDs toplay in AVCHD compatible Blu-Ray players. More recent types, probably associated with the use of newsgroups and cheaper storage at home, are complete BluRay copies(images). Commonly referred to as BD25 or BD50 and may or may not be remuxed (but not transcoded).
Source of information: LancerR79346 www.frendz4m.com
Tapish Dongre 