Binobins
Tags - what it is?


In file name many times are written important informations about source of the release. We call them as 'tags'.

Let's analyze name 'The.Wind.That.Shakes.The.Barley.DVDRiP.MD.German.XViD-SKA.avi', we can split it for:
  • The Wind That Shakes The Barley - the movie name,
  • DVDRiP - need more to say?
  • MD German - info about the audio source,
  • XViD - info about used codec,
  • SKA - nick or group name which prepare this release.

As you see these give you a lot of information about the release. Often tags contain a lot of words and definitions which you may not understand. Below you can find what certain words in the tags mean (alphabetically):

CAM (Camera):
A cam is the lowest and worst quality source of movies. A cam is a rip usually done with a digital video camera by someone who made a copy of a movie by sitting in the back of a theater. The camera often shakes, and shadows of people's heads are often seen. Sound is taken mostly from the onboard microphone of the camera, and especially in comedies, laughter can often be heard during the film. So the picture and sound quality are usually quite poor, but sometimes we're lucky, and the theater will be fairly empty and a fairly clear signal will be heard.

Custom.Subbed:
A release can also be custom subbed. For example, Dutch subtitles were added to this rip: Mission.Impossible.III.2006.Custom.NL.Subbed.NTSC.DVDRip.AC3.Xvid-XvidsNL.

DC (Director's Cut):
A director's cut is a specially edited version of a movie that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit of the movie. It is often released some time after the original release of the film, where the original release was released in a version different from the director's approved edit.

DL (Dual-Language):
Means that the dvd contains more than one audio language.

DSR (Digital Stream Rip):
Recorded from Digital Satellite, quality is similar to PDTV.

Dubbed:
If a film is dubbed, it is a special version where the actors' voices are in another language.

DVB (Digital Video Broadcast):
The standard for direct broadcast television in Europe and the US Based on MPEG2 Compression.

DVDRIP:
A DVDRIP is taken from a retail dvd that you can buy. However, most are released on the internet a few months before you can buy them. DVDRIPS are high quality, as you would imagine.

DVDSCR (DVD Screener):
The same as a screener, but transferred off a DVD. 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.

Extended:
Sometimes movies are released again on DVD because now the movie is extended. They have put back deleted scenes. For example, E.T. was produced first in 1982 and years later it was brought on DVD again, but now digitally remastered and extended.

FS (FullScreen):
Aspect Ratio Tags.

HDTV (High Definition Televison):
For TV Rips. Digital recording from a source stream at a bitrate from 19,39mbps or higher.

iNTERNAL (iNT):
An internal release is done for several reasons. The most common reason is because it has already been release before, and with iNTERNAL in title, the release won't be nuked. I happens quite often with DVD's. Also lower quality theater rips are done iNTERNAL so not to lower the reputation of the group.

LiMiTED:
A movie is LiMiTED when it has a limited theater run (in less than 300 UK theaters, or in less than 500 USA theaters). Mostly smaller films (such as art house films) are released as limited.

MULTi / MULTiSUBS:
When there are multiple languages or subtitles.

NL / NO / DE / IT ... (Language Codes):
The language of the movie and the language of the subtitles can also be mentioned in the release name. Sometimes the language is fully mentioned in the release name, such as DUTCH, NORDiC, GERMAN and iTALiAN. Sometimes it's shortened, then the ISO standard country are used, the same like for net domains, for example: NL (Dutch), NO (Nordic), DE (Germany), IT (Italian). For the full list, click here.

Nuke:
A movie may be nuked because of a bad rar pack, a missing rar file, the movie being mislabled, or for simply horrible quality.

PDTV (Pure Digital Television):
For TV Rips. Other resolution digital recordings from source streams at a bitrate of 10+mbps or higher.

PPV (Pay Per View television):
Pay television programming for which viewers pay a separate fee for each program ordered.

PROPER:
A group adds Proper to their release if they believe they released the best quality version of the movie the fastest.

Rated / Unrated:
Rated means a movie is censored, unrated means uncensored.

READNFO:
When something important is mentioned in the NFO or as a replacement for PROPER.

Repack:
If a group releases a bad rip(Nuke), they will release a Repack which will fix the problems. It's similar to PROPER but then done by the same group.

ReRIP:
A previous rip was bad, now it's ripped again properly.

SCR (Screener):
A screener is taken from a VHS tape that is used for promotional use, such as award shows. 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. Many times the screen contains a "ticker" (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number).

SE (Special Edition):
Like the name says, it's a special dvd edition of a movie. Often special editions contain extra material like trailers, interviews, making-of.

SDTV (Standard Digital Television):
For TV Rips. Digital recording or capture from a source stream at any resolution with bitrate under 10mbps.

STV (Straight To Video):
These movies were never released in theaters, but they were immediately released on video/dvd.

Subbed:
If a release is subbed, it usually means it has hard encoded subtitles burnt throughout the movie.

TC (Telecine):
Telecine are rare because the equipment used to make them is expensive, it is a digitally copy from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good.

TimeCode:
TimeCode is a visible counter on screen throughout the film.

TS (Telesync):
A TS movie is usually capped from a digital camera just like a cam, except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). 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. Quality ranges drastically, from almost that of a vhs tape to a really bad cam, check the sample before downloading the full release.

TVRip:
TV episode that is either from Network or from satellite feeds sending the program around to networks a few days earlier.

Unrated / Rated:
Rated means a movie is censored, unrated means uncensored.

VHSRip:
Transferred off a retail VHS.

WP (Workprint):
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 with 'time bars' on the movie.

WS (WideScreen):
Aspect Ratio Tags.

More on page AboutTheScene - Tags.

Go to main page