When you download Video files they often have extra characters in the file name. Once deciphered these characters provide information on the quality, format and type of the download you can expect.
Here is a list of the most common of pirated movie release types along with respective sources, ranging from the lowest quality to the highest.
Cam or Camera
* Common Labels: “CAM”
* Popularity: Low
* Quality: 2 to 5
This is movie piracy in its simplest and most original forms. It involves somebody taking a video camera into a movie theatre and recording the movie. The sound often includes audience noise and the video is of lower quality with the occasional patron walking on past. Because of the relatively low quality of Movies shot with a camera this style is no longer popular with very few cam versions released.
Those cam’s that are released these days are primarily for blockbuster movies where other higher quality releases are not easily available due to increased security. Technology in video cameras has improved dramatically in recent years and it is worth noting that any cam release will be far superior to cam’s of the past. Some of the best cam’s are when projectionists or other theatre workers are in on the movie copying and the cameras are positioned for the best quality picture, often in the projectionists booth.
Telesync
* Common Labels: “TS” or “Telesync”
* Popularity: Average
* Quality: 3 to 6
A telesync combines the same video from a cam release with a higher quality audio source. The cam video is synced to a separate audio source which is often a direct feed or fm transmission for the hearing impaired. A good quality telesync is usually the bare minimum standard that most people will download to watch.
Workprint
* Common Labels: “WP, “Workprint”
* Popularity: Very Low
* Quality: 2 to 5
A workprint is a production copy of a film leaked to the scene. Often workprints are often unfinished and have missing special effects and can offer differ from the final theatrical release. Many workprints have a time counter in the top or a corner of the screen.
Screener
* Common Labels: “SCR”, “SCREENER”, “VHS-SCREENER”
* Popularity: Rare
* Quality: 4 to 6
These are early VHS releases of a movie that is often sent to movie reviewers, and theatre owners for review and promotional purposes. To differentiate a screener from a retail release a movie studio often undertakes several techniques to mark a screener as such. These can range from warnings and studio logos across the screen, black and white scenes and time counters. The screeners are normally produced inhouse by the Movie Studios and the finished quality is often below that of a retail release.
DVD Screener
* Common Labels: “DVDSCR”, “DVD-SCREENER”, “DVD-SCR”
* Popularity: High
* Quality: 6 to 7
A more modern version of the VHS screener with higher video quality but all of the same restrictions. Around award time many of the year’s top movies are handed out on DVD to judges and critics and invariably one of these copies always end up in the hands of the Scene and its not long before they find their way on the internet.
R5
* Common Labels: “SCR”, “SCREENER”, “DVDSCR”, “DVD-SCREENER”, “VHS-SCREENER”
* Popularity: Very High
* Quality: 5 to 9
The Region 5 DVD market includes the former Soviet Union where bootlegged copies on the street of new movies are a problem for movie studios. In an effort to compete with movie piracy, movie studios created a new format for DVD releases that could be produced more quickly and less expensively than traditional DVD releases. Many R5 movies do not have an english soundtrack so the audio track is often sourced separately and synced to the video track.
Video quality is generally very good however the sound quality of R5 releases can vary depending up the source of the audio and the skills of those doing the syncing.
Telecine
* Common Labels: “TC”, “Telecine”
* Popularity: Rare
* Quality: 6 to 7
A telecine is a copy of a movie captured using a telecine machine which converts a normal movie reel into a digital format. Telecine movies are slightly inferior to DVD and R5 versions, since the technique of converting a film to a digital version is very similiar. Because Telecine releases are done using english soundtracks there is no need to sync a secondary source which is why generally they are considered to be a better release format than R5′s.
DVDRip
* Common Labels: “DVDRip”
* Popularity: Very High
* Quality: 8 to 9
A DVDRip is a digital version of a retail dvd disc. The quality of these releases is normally very high with any drop in quality due only to the restrictions of the codec and bitrate utilised to rip the movie. Generally a DVD-Rips is considered as the final copy released on the scene.
On major theatrical release a DVDRip version of a movie can take weeks or months to come out however on all other videos a dvdrip version can be released very quickly.
DVDR
* Common Labels: “DVDR”
* Popularity: High
* Quality: 8 to 10
A final retail version of a film in DVD format. This is normally a complete copy from the original DVD or a complete copy of the movie component of an original DVD with extras removed. DVDR releases are becoming more popular as higher download speeds and improved bandwidth allow people to download DVDR version quickly and easily.