Piracy film distribution formats

The movies distributed on the Internet by warez groups can be in different formats and qualities. The primary source from which the video and audio are extracted can be very diverse.

The following classification takes into account the quality of the film and its release date compared to the official date.

Obtained before the premiere

They are copies for promotional use aimed at members of the set, film critics and members of the academy. These types of formats are usually available before the film is released in theaters. Although the quality is usually very high, comparable to that of a commercial DVD, the film may include messages, black and white scenes or deleted scenes in the final version.

The R5 format is a commercial version, not promotional, but it is usually released before the rest of the world.

R5

It is a region 5 commercial DVD. Region 5 spans almost all of Africa and much of Asia, including Russia and India.

The R5 format differs from the other regions in that it is released earlier, since it does not have post-image processing. This method is used by production companies to compete with piracy in areas where piracy is common. The R5 are not intended to be sold in other regions, but this does not prevent them from being distributed on the Internet.

As with the Screener format, if the DVD is in another language, the image is synchronized with an audio track obtained from another source. These R5s have the LiNE tag added if the sound has been captured directly from an audio jack (for example, some theaters have headphone jacks for the hearing impaired).).

Screener (SCR)

It is a DVD or Blu-ray Disc for promotional use. These discs contain messages indicating that their use is promotional and sometimes include black and white scenes, but their quality is usually very similar to that of commercial DVDs.

Sometimes the image is extracted from a promotional DVD in another language and later synchronized with the audio captured from a movie theater's sound system, much like the Telesync format, but the quality image quality is much superior to the latter. The LiNE tag is added to these Screener.

Many times the term Screener is confused with Cam or Telesync when thinking that it is a recording made in a cinema, but in reality it is a high quality format very similar to DVDRip.

Telecine (TC)

It is a copy made by a machine that transfers the film from the analog reel, used by film projectors, to digital format. These types of launches are quite rare because the machines that perform the conversion are very expensive and large, although lately they are becoming popular. The Telecine format has basically the same quality as a DVD, since this is the technique used by production companies to digitize a movie to DVD. However, the result is of inferior quality since the analogue rolls used by cinemas are of lower quality than the originals.

Workprint (WP)

It is a copy made of a version of an unfinished film. For this reason, there may be uncut scenes or missing material that will appear in the final film. Effects that are added in post-production may also be missing.

Some Workprint have a time index in a corner or top edge, and in some cases, include a watermark.

Obtained in movie theaters

They are recordings made with a video camera in the cinema. In this category are the formats with the worst quality, but they usually reach the Internet quickly after the film is released. On some occasions, when recordings are made at pre-release screenings, the film may reach the Internet before it reaches theaters.

Cam

Both the image and sound are recorded using a video camera. The quality of the image depends on many factors such as the quality of the camera or the angle from which it is recorded. Additionally, the camera can record the shadows of viewers as they enter or leave the cinema. On the other hand, the audio is recorded from the ambient sound of the cinema using the camera's microphone. Occasionally murmurs, laughter or coughing can be heard from viewers, causing poor sound quality. The low quality of this format makes it quite unpopular.

Telesync (TS)

The image is recorded in the cinema with a video camera, just like in the Cam format, but it differs from this in that the audio is captured directly from the sound in the room from from the main system or through the special headphone jacks for the hearing impaired. Later it is necessary to synchronize the audio and video into a single file. Capturing the sound instead of recording it increases the quality considerably. Often Cam releases are mislabeled as Telesync.

In India, where the majority of films come from Bollywood, the street sale of films in PDVD format, also known as Pre-DVD, is common. This format is a low quality Cam or Telesync copy burned to a DVD. It is sometimes confused with the DVDRip format due to the similarity of the name.

When the image is recorded in HD, the name HDTS or TS-HQ is usually used.

Obtained from commercial media

In this category you will find the best qualities. Sources are DVDs, VHS tapes and a few others. These movies require that the original DVD (or VHS or whatever source) has been released first. Because releases often differ by several months in different parts of the world, some variants consist of copying the image from foreign DVDs (for example released in Japan), and then adding audio or subtitles obtained from another source, in the language destination.

The following are the types of digital sources first and then those of analog sources (VHS).

DVD-R/DVD5/DVD9/DVDFull

It is an exact copy of the content of a commercial DVD. In most cases it has the complete content of the original DVD. On rare occasions, instead of deleting content, the video is recompressed, lowering the quality and size.

DVDRip/DVDMux

The image and sound are extracted from a commercial DVD or DVDFull and compressed using codecs that reduce their quality and size. The loss of quality can be practically imperceptible.

The Xvid and DivX codecs (increasingly less popular) are usually used for image compression and MP3 (stereo) or AC3 5.1 (surround sound) for audio. Subsequently, the image and sound are stored in a single file, typically in AVI format (which is falling out of use). The compression process attempts to ensure that the size of the resulting file can be recorded on a CD (700MB), although rips larger than 1GB (typically 1.4GB) are increasingly common.

All extra content from the DVD is removed, although sometimes two audio tracks may be included, the original version and the dubbed one. In this case the DUAL tag is added.

The main difference that DVDRip has with DVDMux is that the latter is encoded with the H.264 (AVC) or H.265 (HEVC) codec, and the audio codec used are AAC or AC3, and they are multiplexed in a.mp4 or.mkv container, containing a video track, several audio tracks and several subtitle tracks, which is a great advantage over the.avi container. This last type of format is the most popular on warez sites.

HDRip

HDRip is characterized by being a rip that generates an output file that is in high definition but whose source (BluRayDisc, BluRay, HDTV, WEB-DL or WEBRip) is extracted and encoded to a lower resolution and smaller format. Bit rate. Most of the time, they are at 1280x720p.

The compression process is the same as DVDRip, producing a video file with a size between 700 MB and 2GB (depending on the compression level) and can contain several tracks of audio and subtitles.

WEB-DL/WEB-DLMux

This is a rip extracted from movie files from any platform (Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube, Play Movies, Anime Onegai, among others, IPTV also counts). Normally, when downloading these files they come protected with DRM technology and the protection is removed obtaining the necessary data. They are multiplexed into.mkv files with H.264 video and audio (this depends on the platform; generally they are 'AAC, HE-AAC, EAC3, AC3). Sometimes it is re-encoded at a lower resolution and lower bit rate, which is called WebdlRip, since it has been encoded from an original WEB-DL source. For this rip, the H.264 and AAC/AC3 codecs are used in container.mp4 or XviD/DivX and MP3 in container.avi, and the resolution tends to be reduced to 720x404 for the.mp4 files or 624x352 for the container.avi.. In piracy groups, any WEB-DL file that has audio from another source attached to it is also called WEB-DLMux (for example, an iTunes movie originally in English, with Spanish audio as a second option obtained from a second source) and multiplexed into an MKV container.

WEBRip

This format is a recording using Internet programs, which consists of matching the WEB-DL format. This is done by users who do not know how to create WEB-DL files and their only option is to simply save. They use common programs like "FlixGrab" among others. Usually, they are H.264 files, increasingly H.265 and with an mp4 container, but some groups multiplex the file into an MKV container.

WEBCap

This is a screenshot recorded with a screen capturer directly from the web page or from the TV in which the desired content is offered, since we cannot know how to make a WEB-DL. The resolution can be terrible, compared to some poorly made DivX rips, to be comparable to BRRip. It is not very common, and it is recommended to avoid these captures

BDMV

Similar to DVDFull. It is an exact copy of the contents of a previously decrypted commercial Blu-ray Disc. They are distributed as an ISO Image or the BDMV folder with the m2ts files on disk. Common on BitTorrent Anime websites like Nyaa Torrents, users argue that the animation gains graininess when encoded for ripping or they are unhappy with the quality of a BDRip.

In most cases it has the complete content of the original Blu-ray Disc.

BDRip/BRRip

BDRip is a rip in which the video from a BluRayDisc is encoded directly, using an H.264 or x265 encoder and multiplexing the DTS 5.1 video and audio at 1500 kbps, AAC or AC3 5.1 640kbps in an MKV container. In ripes of musical material such as concerts, operas, ballets, etc., which incorporates high-quality uncompressed (PCM) audio tracks, the audio is sometimes compressed using the FLAC codec at 3200 kbps (24 bits)., 5.1), 1400 kbps (24-bit stereo), 1500 kbps (16-bit 5.1) or 700 kbps (16-bit stereo), approximately since the bit rate in FLAC is variable. BRRip is an encoding of a BDRip and, consequently, has a lower quality than the latter, since it compresses the video and audio more and loses quality.

These two can have multiple audio tracks and subtitles due to the MKV container.

Obtained from television broadcasts

This category includes series and/or anime programs that are recorded from television channels, the general classification is also known as DVBRip.

HDTV

Captured from a high definition digital broadcast. The quality is better than a DVDRip or an HDrip, but lower than a BDRip. Originally, these rips have the resolutions 1280x720p or 1920x1080i. Includes AC3 audio tracks at 384kbps. Very common in English-speaking trackers. They are re-encoded to 720x404 with AAC audio and MP4 container in standard resolution, usually to make a light version, or multiplexed to 1280x720 progressive or 1920x1080 deinterlaced with AC3 audio and MKV container.

A practice that is becoming very common that is being categorized in this format is the recordings made of Netflix series and movies through a personal video recorder in high definition, without the need to make a WEBCap, and a quality is obtained video and audio close to the original source. This type of format for recording shows on Netflix is gaining popularity in scene-groups.

DSRip/SATRip

Standard definition capture from a satellite signal, such as DVB-S. The image is compared to that of a DVD

PDTV/SDTV

PDTV is the acronym for Pure Digital Television. It is often seen as part of the file name of television programs shared via P2P networks. It is a label given to files that have been copied (ripped) directly from a purely digital source, with less resolution than HDTV. This is achieved, for example, by using a television tuner card capable of receiving digital television. In Europe, it is also known as DVBRip, referring to the European DVB digital television standard.

PDTV comprises different capture methods and sources, but generally it is a capture of a Standard Definition or non-High Definition broadcast without any analog-to-digital conversion, but instead directly copies MPEG broadcasts. Television standard digital cable resolution captured by ATSC or DVB-C. The quality is better than DVD, except that it contains AC3 audio (used in DVDs) at 192kbps stereo, while DVDs use 384kbps to 640kbps with 6 audio channels.

TVRip

Recorded from an analog television broadcast.

DVBRip/TDTRip

Standard definition television captured by DVB-T signals.

EDTV (Enhanced-Definition Television)

Digital standard resolution television originally with progressive resolution (480p or 576p) captured digitally. It is becoming a trend in Europe as standard resolution digital signals are now sent progressively, ditching deinterlacing.

Qualifiers

• REPACK: If a group has taken out a film/series with some fault, they will release a new version that will call repack.

• NUKED: Not approved. Version that does not comply with the rules ripe that several groups have agreed with each other when recording a film. Standards: tdx. There are many reasons, the typical ones are:
  • Bad a/r: Bad aspect ratio. Wrong aspect ratio. The image is higher or narrower than it should be.
  • Bad IVTC: Inverse TV Erroneo. The reverse Telecine process consists of changing the number of frames per second (fps, frames per second). To achieve greater compression, it usually reduces this amount to 23,976 fps, considered in the industry as the acceptable minimum. Bad Ivtc notes that this process has been made with errors.

• PROPER: The custom points out that the first one to publish a film (usually cam or telesync) wins the race (releases the greatest diffusion by means P2P) and the second one cannot reach it. But if the quality of the first publication is low, another group will have the opportunity to publish a "appropriate" (proper) version of the same film. The reason for that proper version is to be included in the nfo.

• LIMITED: A "limited" movie means it has been seen in less than 250 cinemas in the USA.

• Internal: They are distributed "intern" for various reasons. It's usually to get old ripples on DVD (i.e., they are doubling a film already published a long time ago), or when the source is a bad recording and they don't want it nuke. Internals are not governed by previous quality standards (if internal, you can put any trash in there).