FAQ

DVD- or LD-Rip:

Here, an official DVD or a laserdisc was used as the source for the VCD. The quality of these versions is excellent, but they are rarely found with new films, as the official DVD or laserdiscs are only released in the USA some time after the theatrical release. Nevertheless, the release may be earlier than the theatrical release in Germany, as many films are released in this country with a delay of around six months.

TV-Rip:

The movie was recorded by television and usually has a channel logo superimposed (e.g. “RTL”). However, the quality is usually quite good.

VHS-Rip:

The movie was recorded from a video. The quality is usually quite good here too.

Cam:

The worst of all forms of recording. The film was filmed from the screen with a camcorder in the cinema. The picture quality is usually acceptable to good, with some films showing the heads of other moviegoers in the picture for brief moments. The sound quality is very variable, disturbing noises such as laughter from the audience are possible.

Telesync (TS):

These VCDs are filmed from the screen in an empty movie theater using a professional (digital) camera mounted on a tripod. The picture quality is much better than with a cam. In these productions, the sound is often taken directly from the projector or another external source and is therefore interference-free and usually even stereo.

Workprint:

A special treat for movie fans. This release is a “beta version” of a film, so to speak. Its release on VCD is usually well before the worldwide theatrical release. It is a pre-release version of the film, so the quality can range from excellent to almost unwatchable, depending on the source material. Often, however, some scenes are still missing or the cuts are inconclusive. On the positive side, there are sometimes scenes included that fall victim to the editing table in the final product. In some of these productions, a running counter - a so-called timecode - is displayed at the bottom or top of the screen, which is required for cutting the film material.

Screener (SCR):

The second best of all recording forms. Here a press copy of a professional video tape of the film is used as the basis. The picture quality is comparable to very good VHS. The sound is equally flawless, stereo and often Dolby Surround.

SUBBED:

This movie has subtitles. This can range from a single, small subtitle to several or very large subtitles, which can take up a lot of space, usually at the bottom of the screen.

DUBBED:

Original sound has been replaced (e.g. sound taken from a German cinema and mixed with an English release) Mic.Dubbed = sound was recorded via micro in the cinema Line.Dubbed = sound was recorded via the “Line” output from an external source in the cinema.

REPACK:

When packing the release into a RAR archive, for example, errors occurred and the archive showed CRC errors when unpacking and was therefore packed again and re-released.

PROPER:

An earlier release of this movie was inferior in quality to this release.

FS:

The release is full screen. The entire visible screen area is utilized, thus avoiding black edges.

WS:

A widescreen video attempts to preserve the entire image as seen in the movie theater on the television -- although the proportions of the screen and the television screen are very different. A widescreen version retains the dimensions of the film image (in most cases 1.85:1) by adding black bars above and below the image to simulate the rectangular format of the movie screen. There are different widescreen formats that use various intermediate sizes. The width of the black bars is therefore always dependent on the actual picture format of the movie copy. Films that have not been copied to video in widescreen or letterbox format fill the entire screen and have been processed using the “pan and scan” method. If there are two versions of a film on video, a full-screen (“pan and scan”) and a widescreen version, then the content is the same. The titles differ only in the way they are reproduced on the television screen.

LETTERBOX:

Letterbox is another term for widescreen (see *WS*).

PS:

Pan and scan: Films that were shot for theatrical exploitation have a picture format that is aligned to the rectangular movie screen. If such a film is now transferred to video for use on a home television, the image needs to be adjusted so that it fills the square television screen. Most American films made after 1955 were shot in the American widescreen format of 1.85:1 (most European films are shot in the European widescreen format of 1.66:1). The exception is the even wider Cinemascope format (2.35:1), for which an anamorphic lens is used. In contrast, the standard aspect ratio of a television set is 1.33:1, which means that the image is reduced in size when transferred to video. This is done by scanning the entire picture (the English term for this is “pan”) and then concentrating on a section of the picture. The width of the image is reduced and part of it is lost. If there is no information on the picture format on a video or DVD and the words “original cinema format” are missing, it must be assumed that the picture size has been adapted to the television format (1.33:1) using the pan and scan process. If you prefer to see the whole picture, you should - if they exist - fall back on widescreen or letterbox versions. A full-screen release (cf. *FS*) is the result of the pan and scan process.

RECODE:

A release has been converted to another format (e.g. 3CD SVCD release --> 1CD DivX release), or re-encoded.

STV:

Straight To Video means that the film was taken from a film projector and encoded directly in real time. (cf. digital video recorder process).

WATERMARKED:

Small permanent overlays of any abbreviations or symbols of the release group or the distributor.