What does DVDscr, TELESYNC, CAM, R5 etc. mean?

Have you ever downloaded a movie from torrent sites and wondered what those weird code from its filename means? Take for example, this file that I downloaded saw:

Lions.for.Lambs.R5.LiNE.XViD-HLS.avi

Let’s break it into segments:

  • Lions.for.Lambs is the title of the movie
  • R5.Line is the release type
  • XVid is the compression used
  • HLS is the group that released the video

For the downloader, the important part is the release type for this will tell you the quality of the video.

Here are the rest of known release types and their definitions:

CAM
A cam is a theater rip usually done with a digital video camera. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this wont be possible, so the camera might shake. Also seating placement isn’t always idle, and it might be filmed from an angle. Sound is taken from the onboard microphone of the camera, and especially in comedies, laughter can often be heard during the film. Due to these factors picture and sound quality are usually quite poor.

TELESYNC (TS)
A telesync is the same spec as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). A direct audio source does not ensure a good quality audio source, as a lot of background noise can interfere. A lot of the times a telesync is filmed in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with a professional camera, giving a better picture quality.

TELECINE (TC)
A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. Generally the film will be in correct aspect ratio, although 4:3 telecines have existed.

SCREENER (SCR)
A pre VHS tape, sent to rental stores, and various other places for promotional use. A screener is supplied on a VHS tape, and is usually in a 4:3 (full screen) a/r, although letterboxed screeners are sometimes found. The main draw back is a “ticker” (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number). Depending on the equipment used, screener quality can range from excellent if done from a MASTER copy, to very poor if done on an old VHS recorder thru poor capture equipment on a copied tape.

DVD-SCREENER (DVDscr)
Same premise as a screener, but transferred off a DVD. Usually letterbox , but without the extras that a DVD retail would contain. The ticker is not usually in the black bars, and will disrupt the viewing. If the ripper has any skill, a DVDscr should be very good.

DVDRip
A copy of the final released DVD. If possible this is released PRE retail (for example, Star Wars episode 2) again, should be excellent quality.

WORKPRINT (WP)
A workprint is a copy of the film that has not been finished. It can be missing scenes, music, and quality can range from excellent to very poor. Some WPs are very different from the final print (Men In Black is missing all the aliens, and has actors in their places) and others can contain extra scenes (Jay and Silent Bob) .

R5 or R5.Line
R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing. They take the information from the DVD disc and sync it to an English version of the film, usually a previously released version. Which means that the sound often isn’t as good as DVDRips. In some cases, R5 DVDs may be released without an English audio track, requiring pirates to use the direct line audio from the film’s theatrical release. In this case, the pirated release should be tagged with “.LINE” to distinguish it from a release with a DVD audio track.

Source: www.vcdquality.com

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19 Responses to “What does DVDscr, TELESYNC, CAM, R5 etc. mean?”

  1. Dawn says:

    Thanks Calvin. I finally know what R5.Line means.

  2. Calvin says:

    sure thing, glad to be of help.

  3. cornel says:

    Thank you very much for the explanations!!!!! I never knew what telesync and R5 are.
    onec again thx

  4. Calvin says:

    you’re welcome. R5 is good, TELESYNC bad.

  5. yonni says:

    which has the best quality dvd rip or r5? thanks in advance

    calvin: hey man, dvdrip is better than R5.

  6. yonni says:

    thank u calvin…how about the dsrip does it contain a good quality??? does dvd rip and r5 differ only in sounds? thanks again

    calvin: yup, DSRIP or digital streaming rip is of good quality although not as good as HDTV but still ok. It’s mostly used on TV shows and STV movies.

    the problem with R5 is not all R5 have good quality unlike DVDRip. So if you have to choose between DVDRIP and R5, go for DVDRIP.

  7. ian says:

    Thanks for the explanation calvin, I’d been ignorant of these release types but now i knew. What’s the purpose of ripping a DVD?? they said to copy a copyrighted DVD in your hard drive.
    can u just copy the contents of the original DVD without ripping??

    calvin: ian, you can copy a dvd directly to your PC but it will consist of many files and will take up around 4GB of space (try browsing the contents of a DVD from your PC). If you rip a DVD, not only will you compress it to around 700MB per movie but you can also rename the file into anything you want at the expense of subtitles, scene selection and extra features (unless you also rip those). The files will usually be in .AVI format that almost all media players can read but the most important aspect is the smaller size.

  8. ian says:

    by the way calvin can u suggest what’s the best quality of all release type.

    calvin: if you can see an HDRIP, that’s the best although it’s very rare at this time. Look for DVDRIP which is commonly used that has the best quality. Should wait for a DVD release of the movie in order to achieve a DVDRIP though so no DVDRIP for Dark Knight yet.

  9. ian says:

    Thank u again calvin..I’d been downloading dvdrip mostly an avi format. my problem is my dvd player can’t read an avi format so I need to convert it to a DVD file like VTS_01_3 so it will play mostly in DVD player
    I’m using dvd santa which is a free software the problem is I had 3 choices of size I tried to chose 650MB but it loss its quality I did not try yet the 1.47 GB cause I’m using the default size which is 4.7GB which the quality will not change. I’m just wondering how 8 pirated movies fit into a 4.7GB which is a DVD file and can fit 20movies using DVD9 which has the capacity of probably 8GB..Thanks in advance calvin.

    calvin: i would suggest buying a new dvd player that can play AVI DivX/XviD compressed movies. They’re not that expensive anyways (look for those with a USB port so you can just copy the movie on your thumb drive if you’re not planning to burn it on a DVD). If a 4.7 GB DVD has 8 movies, then some or all of the movies will suffer from poor quality or maybe lower resolution that can lead to pixelation when viewed on a TV. You can burn 6 DVDrip quality movies on a 4.7GB DVD.

  10. baklis says:

    Hey calvin, I’d downloaded the first part of a dvd rip movie which is cd1 and the second part which is cd2. Is it possible to combine them into 1 file??? XD

    by the way the format of my movie is .avi

    calvin: yup… there are some tools that can do this, the popular ones are AviDemux and VirtualDub. I use VirtualDub alot but haven’t really done some combining. but you can find a guide here. madali lang since all you need to do is append the second video then save the AVI and wait.

    Is that The Mummy 3? hehehe.

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