Bit Torrent terminology

Bit Torrent terminology

Is there a guide anywhere? Particularly relating to filenames.

I know the basics such as DVDrip, DVDscr, XVid etc but what does the rest mean?

Cheers.

dodgy is the man to speak to about all of these, as GH said in his sticky - thats what happens when you're best mate is a computer

I know CAM means it was filmed in a cinema

CAM - Filmed in a cinema usually with a handheld camera, picture is usually very sketchy and grainy. Audio is just taken by a mic and usually sounds very hollow. This is the worst out the lot for quality and i would never really recommend watching one.

TS/Telesync - Again filmed with a camera in a cinema (often an empty cinema) tho quite often is set up on a tripod at the back for a better angle and better picture quality, sound is usually direct audio from an input somewhere, generally the hard of hearing headphone sockets. Quality of TS's varies from similar to CAM to very watchable video quality with good sound, all depends on the copy and quite often the group that released it. These usually spring up close to the cinema release and are the best quality version usually until the DVDScreener or DVD rip comes out.

TC/Telecine - Not entirely sure on this one, but the impression i got was that its basically taken straight from an original source such as the film reels and converted by the rippers into a computer format. Quality again can vary greatly, when done poorly they can be no better than a TS but when done well can be pretty close to a screener. These arent particularly common as i guess it pretty difficult to get the gear to sort it out. These can sometimes have things such as timers on the picture as they are taken straight from the original reels.

DVDScr/DVD Screener - This is a DVD copy that is given out to judges of award ceremonies and other such events. They will usually have very good sound quality, but picture quality can be eratic, especially consider the source it comes from but they are generally very watchable regardless of how good quality it is. They often have watermarks on them imprinted by the movie studio and/or sections of black and white film for periods of the movie.

Screener - Same as above but from a VHS source, so usually a little poorer quality but not by much.

DVDRip - The final release taken from the retail dvd copy. Qaulity is spot on, on pretty much every one so obviously the one to go for if its out.


VCD/SVCD - This has nothing to do with the source but rather the encoding for the copy. all releases start out in one of these formats, and can vary from 2-4 cd's in length. Usually they are put onto 3cds these days. This will give the copy a file size of 2.1gb ish. will 2 obviously being 1.4gb and so on.

XVid - Once the VCD/SVCD version has been released, another group will then take the release and convert it into xvid encoding. This reduces the file size while maintaining a decent level of quality compared with the original encoding. If the original release was 3cd's then the xvid will take it down to 2 and if it was 2 then down to 1 cd (700mb)

if theres anything else u need to know then just say.

Think That Pretty much sums it up:clap:

Also though www.vcdquality.com Is a wicked site for telling you what the quality of most recent available torrents are like

Can't download but it's a really good reference so you don't waste time downloading shite

Like I did with my French Batman

oh shit yeah was supposed to mantion that but forgot by the time id wrote all that lol.

yeah with vcdquality.com if its a TS then id recommend anything with a score over 7 for both picture and sound. anything just over 6 is watchable if u really have to see it. anything less then that then just dont bother.

Thanking you.

Even though what has been said it right, I wouldn't take notice of any of the types cause I've downloaded many a dvd screener and its been shit quality recorded by a camera.

I find that the file size is often a reasonable figure to use as a guideline for how good quality it is also...so if it's a dvd screener/rip for example you would expect a large file size!

Personally I never knew they were different apart from the obvious like dvd screener and vcd etc, I always go by file size :blush:

well although that may seem like the case if it had infact been recorded by a cam then it would have nuked tho im guessing that just flies past most ur heads.

basically by the time it gets on bit torrent some people will rename stuff from the groups to make themselves look better.

main fact is to look on vcdquality.com and regardless of if some torrent says its a screener if theres only a TS on there then 99.9% of the time that will be bollox. It will be just the TS renamed to a screener to make more people download it (fuck knows why)

and btw the movie scene will be pretty quiet for the next month at least as a number of the big players in the movie ripping scene got arrested by the FBI 2 days ago.

yeah always go by file size its the only way to know for sure.

have u not listened to anything ive wrote??

going to vcdquality and checking what scores people have voted the rip in question as and checking the forums there to see what people have said about the rip is the only way to know for sure.

Going by file size is stupid, ive seen many a shite TS that arent worth watching but are still 2.1gb 3cd VCD's

Get him told

u do realise that the xvid rips are almost always just re-encodes of the vcd release? therefore yes it is smaller in size but it can never be any better quality. plus theres svcd these days which is still a valid format.

and yeah i forgot about the pictures on vcdquality too they can be useful.

I've never had any bother like I must admit! It's just a guideline as opposed to a rule...bigger files USUALLY would suggest better quality, like I say, usually works for me!

as far as i know they are re-encoded from the 3cd rel's. i will go ask my "contact" for full clarification on all this.

ok heres how it goes :

any xvid releases of TS's or TC's will be converted straight from the VCD/SVCD release.

But a xvid release of a dvdrip or often dvd screeners too will be encoded straight from the dvd.

so with regards to a full dvd rip then xvid is the best option to go for. but if its a TS or TC then its a toss up between slightly better picture quality against smaller file size of the xvid version.

to be fair im not hugely knowledgeable on the formats, know more about the sources side but maybe this little lot clears a couple of things up :

VCD: A file with the name VCD in it is enocoded to the mpeg-1 (mpeg) format with a constant bitrate of 1150kbit at a resolution of 352x240. An mpeg in this format up to 80 minutes in length can be burned as a VCD on an 700mb disk. In terms of quality, at its best, a VCD can have quality thats better than that of a vhs tape, but no where near that of DVD/SVCD Mpeg-2 Encoding.

SVCD: A file with SVCD in it, means that it was encoded to mpeg-2 specifications which allows variable bit-rates of up to 2500kbits at a resolution of 480x480. SVCD files at their best can have high quality dvd picture, as SVCD is the file format for DVD. The length of an SVCD movie that can be put on a disk varies from around 35-60 minutes. Also, most SVCD files are quite large, with a SVCD movie usually ranges from 1.7gb to 2.0gb in size.

DIVX: The Divx format is designed for computer use only. It utilizes a special combination of codecs that alternate between high and low motion codecs to result in an MPEG-4 file. The Divx format is usually used for Screeners/DVDRIPS/DVD's and other high quality sources, because a movie can be the the high quality divx format and be only 700mb in size compared to the large sizes of VCD's and SVCD's. Also, the divx format is also used for DVD related sources because the format allows for easy integration of the ac3 audio format. The ac3 audio format allows for dolby digital sound. In terms of actual resolution, divx files can vary, but most have SVCD resolution. However, do to the high compression nature of divx files, they are hard to convert to a burnable format such as SVCD, and it usually takes over 10 hours to convert the file. If you plan on watching a dvd version of the movie on your computer, download the divx version, if you plan on watching it on your dvd player, download the SVCD/VCD format.

XVID:
The xvid format is based off of the MPEG-4 Divx Codec. Xvid is basically just an open source version of the divx codec; meaning that any joe programmer can tinkle around with its source code. The only real difference between this and DIVX, is that you have to download and install the xvid codec instead of the divx one.



seems the reason vcd/svcd is used is cuz its much easier to burn to disc and play on a dvd player, whereas xvid is better for watching on ur computer.

that is of course unless u have a dvd player that plays divx/xvid