Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Music. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Music. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, October 20, 2008

Sam_Cooke-Around_the_World-2008-JUST [Music]

Sam_Cooke-Around_the_World-2008-JUST

Sam Cooke is one of the most influential soul singers of all time. If you know him, you probably have everything in this new import collection. If you don’t know him, you surely know his music, from film and television to numerous covers, and I’d recommend checking this release out.

Sam Cooke (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music.

Cooke had 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1965. Major hits like “You Send Me”, “Chain Gang”, “Wonderful World” and “Bring It on Home to Me” are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Track Listing:

1. You Send Me
2. Lonesome Road
3. Tammy
4. Ol’ Man River
5. Moonlight in Vermont
6. Canadian Sunset
7. Summertime
8. Around the World
9. Ain’t Misbehavin’
10. Bells of Saint Mary’s
11. So Long
12. Danny Boy
13. That Lucky Old Sun

Artist…….: Sam Cooke
Album……..: Around the world
Label……..: Saga
Genre……..: Soul
Catnr……..: n/a
source…….: CDDA
rip.date…..: 15-10-2008
str.date…..: 00-00-2008
quality……: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url……….: n/a

Release Name: Sam_Cooke-Around_the_World-2008-JUST
Links:
Homepage, Wikipedia, .NFO

OR


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Scene

The Scene

The Scene is a term used to refer to a collection of communities of pirate networks that obtain and copy new movies, music, and games, often before their public release, and distribute them throughout the Internet (and previously through BBSes). Each specific subsection within The Scene has its own community and rules governing releases, and are made up of many smaller groups. These communities are referred to as scenes as well, for example the MP3 Scene, the DVDR Scene, etc. Groups gather in private IRC channels where they can easily coordinate with other members to “pre” and distribute releases. EFNet, a popular IRC network, is where most scene activity takes place today, although DALnet was also once used. This has been the case for ten years.

History

The Scene started emerging in 1980s on privately run BBS systems. The first BBSes were located in the USA, but similar boards started appearing in the UK, Australia and Europe. The BBSes advertised their dial-in numbers openly in group nfo’s or semi-hidden, so that anyone interested had to use a war dialer to actually find the real number of the BBS box. The BBS systems typically hosted several megabytes of material. The best boards had multiple phone lines and up to one hundred megabytes of storage space, which was very expensive at the time. Releases were mostly games and later applications.

The Scene didn’t work with a fixed ruleset, they assumed that end-users would know what they were getting either based on the release name or nfo.

Talented coders who cracked games often included a 4 or 64 kilobytes long cracktro to express their skills as a coder, artist or a musician.

The demoscene grew especially strong in Scandinavia, where annual gatherings are hosted even today. Warez distribution played only a minor role during the modem/BBS era since the transfer speeds were extremely slow — though average file sizes for games and applications were considerably smaller.

On December 11, 2001, Operation Buccaneer occurred and changed the scene drastically. Law enforcement agencies from six countries arrested 62 people suspected of software piracy. In the United States alone, 130 computers, holding an average of one terabyte of data apiece, were seized. After these raids occurred, piracy groups congregating on EFNet began guarding their channels by requiring a password, or “key,” for entry. They also put their channels in “secret” mode, effectively making them invisible to anybody that is not inside them. People operating servers holding pirated data began taking security much more seriously. Almost overnight, registered users were required to log in from a specific ip address. Similar raids have followed since Operation Buccaneer, and paranoia has gripped the scene as a result.

Subsections

ArtScene

The part of The Scene community that specializes in the creation of digital graphical art in text format. This has evolved into a separate community because it requires skill in both the area of utilizing the text as well as graphics design. This means there is not a very big crossover between people who are good Scene programmers and people who are good ArtScene artists. Yet ArtScene art was very popular on The Scene due to the point that text viewers were and are the most universal content displaying tools, perfect as a promotion tool.

MP3 Scene

MP3 releases began appearing in the mid-90s. By 1999, MP3 groups had implemented a formal set of rules and guidelines for the ripping and packaging of MP3 releases. Releases were required to come from a CDDA source, be encoded at 160 kbit/s, have proper filenames and directory structure, and include a playlist, an SFV file and an NFO file. In recent years this rule has been amended, allowing the source to be from DVD (including DVD-A) or VHS, live recording, vinyl, or tape, and stipulating that all MP3 files sourced from an optical disc must be encoded with LAME 3.90.3 or 3.97, using the V2 –vbr-new variable bitrate setting. For all other sources, The minimum bitrate allowed is 192kbps. In the case of non-native 44.1KHz, all audio must be downsampled from 48 to 44.1. In 2004, a rule was added that all non-retail releases be tagged as bootleg.

Demoscene

The part of The Scene community that specializes in the creation of so-called Demos. These are computer programs which bundle together sophisticated code which produces esthetic art in the form of animated graphics with music. The idea is to display programming and artistic skill, thus Demos are fascinating flashy animations with trancy music all coded up with as little code and data as possible. Examples are so numerous and ubiquitous sets that pull anyone here would be superfluous.

The Demoscene further branches into new and old:

* The old branch specializing in the production of art code for older platforms(CPM and DOS), where the processing power and space capacity are the biggest problems and require the biggest skill investment.
* The new branch specializing in the production of art code for newer platforms, where the challenge lies less in overcoming processing and capacity limitations, but but rather making the animation look and sound as spectacular as possible.

Crackers and reverse engineers

The part of The Scene community that specializes in the creation of software known as cracks and keygens. There is a large amount of crossover between the two communities as the skills required are pretty much the same. The point that software is inherently very complicated once finished is what makes cracking and reverse engineering such an attraction: it’s a challenge, which requires a lot of skill to do. This made cracking and reverse engineering the core element of The Scene since the beginning.

Warez scene

The part of The Scene community that specializes in the underground distribution of warez software. There is a certain amount of crossover between the cracking and reverse engineering community and this one, as the former cannot operate without the latter. The Warez Scene has been with the Scene from the very beginning, it however no longer matches the category of being technologically sophisticated to implement, thus it generally receives less respect than the other aspects

Distribution

Members involved in the scene are generally well-organized in their behavior and cautious with their identity. They maintain a private network of FTP sites called topsites that get new releases first. Releases are distributed from topsites down to smaller and smaller sites, and eventually may find their way onto peer-to-peer networks.

Users who distribute releases are called couriers and must earn credits by uploading files from other topsites. Credits, usually counted in megabytes, allow a user to download files. For example, many sites allow a user to download 3 megabytes for every megabyte uploaded. A credit balance is persisted with each user’s account.

Releases containing problems (for example, poor quality, duplicates, etc.) are nuked; a permanent mark is placed on a release, and the user responsible for uploading it is fined credits. It should be noted that competition amongst courier and release groups is the primary driving force behind the distribution of releases.

Well Known Release Groups

Well Known Release Groups



Historical groups:


Group Year Section Exta info
BSP (Bentley Sidwell Productions) 1988-1989 Games Disbanded
CDA (Compress Da Audio) 1996-? MP3 First mp3 warez group
CiA -> CORP (The Corporation) -> SHOCK 1996-now Apps
DoD (Drink Or Die) 1993-2001 Apps Members got raided
FiRM 1989-1994 Games Disbanded
HBD (Hybrid) 1993-1998 Games First warez group to release a CD-rip
iNC (Internationale Network of Crackers) 1989-1993 Games Disbanded
NEUA (National Elite Underground Alliance) -> FLT (Fairlight) 1989-now Games Members got raided, though still operating
UNT (The Untouchables) -> PNT (Pentagram) -> GNS (GENESiS) -> TDU-JAM 1993-1995 Games
PwA (Pirates With Attitude) 1992-2000 Apps Members got raided
PE (Public Enemy) 1990-1993 Games Disbanded
TDT (The Dream Team) 1989-1996 Apps Disbanded
THG (The Humble Guys) 1989-1993 Games Disbanded
TRSI (Tristar & Red Sector Inc.) 1991-1995 Games Disbanded
USA (United Software Association) 1991-1992 Games Members got raided


Appz:


Group Year
CORE (Challenge of Reverse Engineering) 1997-now
PC (Phrozen Crew) 1993-now
uCF (uNITED cRACKING fORCE) 1994-now
ViRiLiTY 2002-now
AGAiN 2003-now
AG (Another Group) 2004-now
DVT 2004-now
TNT (The Nova Team) 2000-now
ECHOS 2003-now
iMMERSiON 2001-now
iSO 1999-now
H2O 1998-2006
LND (Legends Never Die) 2000-now
PANTHEON 2000-now
Rise 2000-now
RBS (Rebels) 1992-2004
TBE (The Bitter End) 2002-now
TDA (The Devine Alcoholics) 2003-now
W3D (Warez3D) 2001-now
XiSO 2003-now
ZWTiSO (Zero Waiting Time ISO) 2005-now


Games:

Group Year Exta Info
ADDiCTiON 2005-now
CLASS 1997-2004 Disbanded
CLONECD 2001-now
DEViANCE 1999-now
EMPORiO -> PROViSiON 2004-2006 Members got raided, though still operating
FASiSO 2002-now
FLT (Fairlight) 1987-now Members got raided, though still operating
HOODLUM ????-2005 Members got raided
MiRROR 2005-2006 Scenebanned
MYTH 2000-2005 Disbanded
Razor1911 1985-now Members got raided, though still operating
RELOADED 2004-now
VENGEANCE 2005-2005 Members got raided


Console games:


Group Year Section
ECHELON 2000-now PS2
KALiSTO 1998-2005 PS2
PARADOX 1990-now XBOX/PS2
ORGASM 2001-now PS2
STRiKE 2003-now PS2
CHRONiC 2002-now PS2
GENiUS 2000-now PS2
ALLSTARS 2005-now PS2/XBOX
GAMEOVER 2003-now PS2
DAGGER 2004-now PS2/XBOX
PROTOCOL 2004-now PS2
CONFUSiON 2002-now PS2/XBOX
WAR3X 2002-now PS2/GameCube/XBOX/PSP
PROJECTX 2002-now XBOX
RiOT 2002-now XBOX
SPARE 2005-now XBOX
USA 2002-now XBOX/GameCube/PS2
PI now XBOX360
CLEAR 2005-now XBOX/XBOX360
STINKYCUBE 2004-now GameCube
DARKFORCE 2001-now GameCube/PSP/XBOX/PS2
STARCUBE 2003-now GameCube
MOONCUBE 2003-now GameCube


MP3

Group Year Exta Info
1KING 2005-now
aPC (aPOCALYPSE pRODUCTION cREW) 1997-2001 Members got raided
BPM (Beats Per Minute) 2000-now
DDS now
DJ (DeeJay) 2005-now
DOH now
FMC (Fresh Music Cartel) 2003-now
SQ (Swiss Quality) 2001-now
4CHOON 2003-2005 Disbanded
HSALiVE 2004-now
MOD (Musical Over Dose) 1999-now
MUSiQ 2004-now
MTC 2000-now
PoW 2000-now
RNS (Rabid Neurosis) 1996-2007 Disbanded
SDS 2002-now
uC (Underground Connection) 2004-now
SQ (Swiss Quality) now
QMI (Quality Music Import) 2003-now
TCLUB (Technoclub) 2000-now
XTC 2004-now
XXL 2002-now


Movie:

Group Year Section Exta Info
ALLiANCE 1999-now XviD
Centropy 2003-now VCD/SCVD/DVDR
FLAiR ????-2005 VCD/SCVD
PoT (Pirates of the Theatre) 2003-2005 VCD/SCVD
VALiOMEDiA 2002-2005 XviD
VideoCD 2003-now VCD/SCVD
SCREAM (Sexy Cool Rightful Evil Angry Mobsters) 2003-now SVCD
WastedTime 2004-2005 VCD/SCVD Members got raided
MEDiAMANiACS 2001-now XviD
LiNE now XviD
DONE 2001-now XviD
DiAMOND 2003-now XviD
PROMiSE 2003-now XviD
VOMiT 2002-now XviD/DVDR
FiCO 2002-now XviD
iNCiTE 2002-now XviD/TVRip
CFE 2003-now DiVX
CHAKRA 2003-now SCVD
HAFVCD 2001-now VCD/SCVD
ViTE 2001-now XviD


German:

ATS 2004-now
GM4F now
UMF 2003-now
FmE 2005-now


XXX

Group Year
SMuT 2001-2005
TESORO 2002-now
xDOMiNiONx 2001-????
DivXfacTory 2004-now
PORNOLATION 1999-now
Pr0nStarS 2003-now


TV-Rip

Group Year
ANiVCD 1999-2005
BAMHD (Bad Ass Mutha Hi Def) 2005-now
FoV (Future of Vision) 2002-now
LoKI 2004-now
LOL ????-now
MiNT 2004-now
MiRAGETV 2002-now
ORENJi 2005-now
SFM (Sci-Fi Maniacs) 2002-now
TCM 2005-now
XOR ????-now


Dutch:

DiFFERENT 2005-now
STELLA 2005-now
JUPiLER 2003-now


German:

HDi 2005-now
OMERTA 2004-now
SOF 2005-now
TELEViSiON 2004-now
DGX 2003-now
C0NFUSED 2003-now
CiNEVCD 2001-now
DRABBiTS 2003-now

DVDr

Group Year
REPLiCA 2002-now
SCREAM (Sexy Cool Rightful Evil Angry Mobsters) 2003-now
BURGER 2002-2006
AFO 2004-now


Dutch:

Group Year
BAVARiA 2004-now
NLSGDVDr 2003-now
GOOGLE 2004-now
SuPReME 2004-now
Unique ????-now
AMSTEL 2003-2005
BaCo - DsM4U (Dutch Subbed Movies 4 U) 2004-now
ANARCHY ????-now
FoA (Forces Of Alliance) 2002-now
FTC (Fuck The Copyrights) 2004-now
BREiN 2004-2005
PaTHe 2004-now
BiERBUiKEN 2003-now
cNLDVDR 2004-now


German:

Cinemaniacs 2004-2006 Members got raided
OPiUM 2005-now
GDR 2005-now
GL now
iHATE now
UMF 2003-now


Courier Groups

AOD (Angels on Drugs)
RTS (Request To Send)
Motiv8
RiSC (Rise in Superior Couriering)
SWAT (Special Warez Acquisition Team)
UPS (United Piracy Service)
STE (Super Trade Encounters)

Sunday, October 19, 2008

World.of.Goo-SKIDROW[PC Games]

World.of.Goo-SKIDROW

The game is built around the idea of creating large structures using balls of goo. It is based on the prototype game Tower of Goo developed for Kyle Gabler’s rapid game prototyping Experimental Gameplay Project. The game is divided into five chapters, each containing several levels. Each level has its own graphical theme and music, giving it unique atmosphere. There is also a bonus meta-game called World of Goo Corporation, whose objective is to build the highest tower using goo balls which the player collected through the course of the game. Players from all over the world can compete, as the height of the tower and number of goo balls used are being constantly uploaded to the 2D Boy server.

The overall World of Goo is split up into a number of chapters, each containing a number of levels. The chapters are set over the course of a year in the World of Goo.

The six chapters are:

  • Chapter 1: The Goo Filled Hills (Summer)
  • Chapter 2: Little Miss World Of Goo (Fall)
  • Chapter 3: Cog In The Machine (Winter)
  • Chapter 4: Information Superhighway (”Meanwhile…”)
  • Chapter 5: End Of The World (Spring)
  • Chapter 6: Moon Chapter (Retail only).

Minimum Requirements:

  • Supported OS: Windows® XP or Vista
  • Processor: 1GHz or faster
  • Memory: 512+MB RAM
  • Video: Any 3D graphics accelerator less than 5 years old
  • DirectX® Version: 9.0c
  • Hard Drive: 100MB

Publisher: Unknown
Developer: 2D Boy
Genre: General
Release Date: Oct 17, 2008 (US)
ESRB: EVERYONE

Release Name: World.of.Goo-SKIDROW
Size: 156 MB
Links: NFO - Gamespot - Wikipedia - Homepage - Torrent

OR

RapidShare
http://rapidshare.com/files/154085353/sr-wogoo.rar

OR

http://rapidshare.com/files/154205251/SKIDWOG.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/154205252/SKIDWOG.part2.rar


Monday, October 20, 2008

The_Cure-413_Dream-2008-FNT [Music]

The_Cure-413_Dream-2008-FNT

After months of anticipation, 4 singles and a remix EP, earlier today, FNT pre’d the brand new Cure album, 4:13 Dream! I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, so I’m very happy it’s here. I hope you all enjoy.

2008 release, the 13th studio longplayer from the legendary Goth rockers led by Robert Smith. Now down to a quartet (Smith, Simon Gallup, Porl Thompson and Jason Cooper), the band continue to musically evolve while dealing with subjects like relationships, the material world, politics and religion. The songs on 4:13 Dream are stripped down and ‘in your face’ while also sounding very much like The Cure. Includes the singles ‘The Only One’, ‘Freakshow’, ‘Sleep When I’m Dead’ and ‘The Perfect Boy.’

Track Listing:

1. Underneath the Stars
2. Only One
3. Reasons Why
4. Freakshow
5. Sirensong
6. Real Snow White
7. Hungry Ghost
8. Switch
9. Perfect Boy
10. This. Here and Now. With You
11. Sleep When I’m Dead
12. Scream
13. It’s Over

Artist: The Cure
Album: 4:13 Dream
Label: Suretone / Geffen
Playtime: 52:37 min
Genre: Alt. Rock
URL: http://www.myspace.com/thecure
Rip date: 2008-10-20
Street date: 2008-10-28
Size: 73.85 MB
Type: Normal
Quality: VBR kbps / 4410kHz / Joint Stereo

Release Name: The_Cure-413_Dream-2008-FNT
Links:
Homepage, Myspace, Wikipedia, .NFO

OR


http://rapidshare.com/files/155830303/The_Cure-413_Dream-2008-FNT.rar


OR


http://rapidshare.com/files/155848936/The_Cure-413_Dream-2008-FNT.rar

No pass! Enjoy!

OR

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Britney Spears - Intimidated (2008) [Music]

Britney Spears - Intimidated (2008)

Britney Spears - Intimidated (2008)

Just so nobody gets it twisted, this is no official Britney Spears album. Her forthcoming album is titled “Circus” and is to be released on December 2, 2008!

Tracklist:

01. Britney Raps
02. Intimidated
03. I’ve Just Begun (Having My Fun)
04. The answer
05. We Will Rock You (with Beyonce & Pink)
06. Don´t Hang Up
07. Boys & Girls
08. Guilty
09. Do Somethin´
10. And Then We Kiss
11. Mona Lisa
12. Get It
13. Someday (I Will Understand)
14. Chaotic
15. Over To You Now
16. Chris Cox Megamix

Rapidshare, Torrent

Monday, October 20, 2008

Pink-Funhouse-2008-PiNK [Music]

Pink-Funhouse-2008-PiNK

The newest album by Pink was pre’d this morning by one-time group PiNK. I know there are a lot of people out there who have been waiting for this, so enjoy.

Explicit Version. P!nk comes right on time in 2008 with her highly anticipated and provocatively personal Funhouse album, addressing both her public and private persona, as only P!nk can. Teaming once again with hitmakers Max Martin, Billy Mann, and others, P!nk is poised to leave another memorable mark worldwide! Since her debut in 2000, P!nk (Alecia Moore) has been widely hailed as a fearlessly talented singer, songwriter and the Pennsylvania native’s genre-defying creative risk-taking has propelled her to global stardom. To date, the chanteuse has sold 22 million albums cumulatively worldwide. 12 tracks.

Track Listing:

1. So What 3:35
2. Sober 4:11
3. I Don’t Believe You 4:36
4. One Foot Wrong 3:24
5. Please Don’t Leave Me 3:51
6. Bad Influence 3:36
7. Funhouse 3:24
8. Crystal Ball 3:26
9. Mean 4:17
10. It’s All Your Fault 3:52
11. Ave Mary A 3:15
12. Glitter In The Air 3:48
13. This Is How It Goes Down (feat. Travis McCoy) 3:19
(Bonus Track)

ARTIST : Pink
TITLE : Funhouse
LABEL : Sony BMG
GENRE : Pop
BITRATE : 192 kbps avg
SOURCE : CD (LP)
PLAYTIME : 00:48:34
SIZE : 70.2MB
STORE DATE : 2008-10-24

Release Name: Pink-Funhouse-2008-PiNK
Links:
Homepage, Myspace, Wikipedia, .NFO

OR


Movie sources

Movie sources

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 make shake. Also seating placement isn’t always idle, and it might be filmed from an angle. If cropped properly, this is hard to tell unless there’s text on the screen, but a lot of times these are left with triangular borders on the top and bottom of the screen. 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, but sometimes we’re lucky, and the theater will be fairly empty and a fairly clear signal will be heard.

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. Quality ranges drastically, check the sample before downloading the full release. A high percentage of Telesyncs are CAMs that have been mislabeled.

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. A great example is the JURASSIC PARK 3 TC done last year. TC should not be confused with TimeCode , which is a visible counter on screen throughout the film.

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). Also, if the tape contains any serial numbers, or any other markings that could lead to the source of the tape, these will have to be blocked, usually with a black mark over the section. This is sometimes only for a few seconds, but unfortunately on some copies this will last for the entire film, and some can be quite big. 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. Most screeners are transferred to VCD, but a few attempts at SVCD have occurred, some looking better than others.

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. Usually transferred to SVCD or DivX/XviD.

R5

This is fairly new movie format. Basically the same as DVD Screener - this kind of release is legal DVD released in Russia to decrease the level of pirated movies in this country. Retail is rushed out by the studio, so there is little to no cleanup of the film after the telecine process. As a result, you can see some scratches, hairs or other mess on the picture, but you will hardly notice it while watching. External English audio is often used, as these are supplied with Russian sound by default.

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. DVDrips are released in SVCD and DivX/XviD.

VHSRip

Transferred off a retail VHS, mainly skating/sports videos and XXX releases.

TVRip

TV episode that is either from Network (capped using digital cable/satellite boxes are preferable) or PRE-AIR from satellite feeds sending the program around to networks a few days earlier (do not contain “dogs” but sometimes have flickers etc) Some programs such as WWF Raw Is War contain extra parts, and the “dark matches” and camera/commentary tests are included on the rips. PDTV is capped from a digital TV PCI card, generally giving the best results, and groups tend to release in SVCD for these. VCD/SVCD/DivX/XviD rips are all supported by the TV scene.

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) . WPs can be nice additions to the collection once a good quality final has been obtained.

DivX Re-Enc

A DivX re-enc is a film that has been taken from its original VCD source, and re-encoded into a small DivX file. Most commonly found on file sharers, these are usually labeled something like Film.Name.Group(1of2) etc. Common groups are SMR and TND. These aren’t really worth downloading, unless you’re that unsure about a film u only want a 200mb copy of it. Generally avoid.

Watermarks

A lot of films come from Asian Silvers/PDVD (see below) and these are tagged by the people responsible. Usually with a letter/initials or a little logo, generally in one of the corners. Most famous are the “Z” “A” and “Globe” watermarks.

Asian Silvers / PDVD

These are films put out by eastern bootleggers, and these are usually bought by some groups to put out as their own. Silvers are very cheap and easily available in a lot of countries, and its easy to put out a release, which is why there are so many in the scene at the moment, mainly from smaller groups who don’t last more than a few releases. PDVDs are the same thing pressed onto a DVD. They have removable subtitles, and the quality is usually better than the silvers. These are ripped like a normal DVD, but usually released as VCD.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Movie Formats

Movie Formats

DivX/XviD

DivX

DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. (formerly DivXNetworks, Inc.), including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality. The DivX codec uses lossy MPEG-4 Part 2 compression, also known as MPEG-4 ASP, where quality is balanced against file size for utility. It is one of several codecs commonly associated with ripping, where audio and video multimedia are transferred to a hard disk and transcoded. As a result, DivX has been a center of controversy because of its use in the replication and distribution of copyrighted DVDs. Many newer “DivX Certified” DVD players are able to play DivX encoded movies, although the Qpel and GMC features are often omitted to reduce processing requirements. They are also excluded from the base DivX encoding profiles for compatibility reasons.

XviD

Xvid (formerly “XviD”) is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard. Xvid features MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.

Xvid is a primary competitor of DivX (Xvid being DivX spelled backwards). While DivX is proprietary software, Xvid is free and open source software and, unlike DivX, can be used on many different platforms and operating systems.

x264

x264 is a free software library for encoding H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video streams. The code is written from scratch by Loren Merritt, Laurent Aimar, Eric Petit, Min Chen, Justin Clay, Måns Rullgård, Radek Czyz, Alex Izvorski, Alex Wright, and Christian Heine. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Several graphical user interfaces have been made for the command line version, including MeGUI, AutoAC and a .NET (1.1) based x264CLI GUI.

Capabilities

As of March 2007, it is one of the most advanced publicly available AVC encoders. It is also one of the few publicly available High Profile AVC encoders. It supports:

* Context-based Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC) and Context-based Adaptive Variable Length Coding (CAVLC)
* Multiple reference frames
* All intra-predicted macroblock types (16×16, 8×8 and 4×4 — 8×8 is part of AVC High Profile)
* All P-frame inter-predicted macroblock types
* B-Inter-predicted macroblock types from 16×16 down to 8×8
* Rate Distortion Optimization
* Multiple ratecontrol modes: constant quantizer, constant quality, single or multipass ABR with the option of VBV
* Scene cut detection
* Adaptive B-frame placement, with the option of keeping B-frames as references / arbitrary frame order
* 8×8 and 4×4 adaptive spatial transform (High Profile)
* Lossless mode (High 4:4:4 Profile)
* Custom quantization matrices (High Profile)
* Parallel encoding on multiple CPUs
* Interlace support
* Adaptive quantization, a newer feature which allows different quantization matrices to be used for different parts of a frame. In x264, it is used to allow the allocation of extra bits to dark background areas to avoid blocking.

DVD

DVD (also known as “Digital Versatile Disc” or “Digital Video Disc”) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. DVDs resemble Compact Discs because their diameter is the same (120 mm or 4.72 inches, or occasionally 80 mm or 3.15 inches), but they are encoded in a different format and at a much higher density.

All read-only DVD discs, regardless of type, are DVD-ROM discs. This includes replicated (factory pressed), recorded (burned), video, audio, and data DVDs. A DVD with properly formatted and structured video content is a DVD-Video disc. DVDs with properly formatted and structured audio are DVD-Audio discs. Everything else (including other types of DVD discs with video) is referred to as a DVD-Data disc. Many people use the term “DVD-ROM” to refer to pressed data discs only, but that is not technically correct.

DVD Video

DVD-Video is a standard for storing video content on DVD media. As of 2003, DVD-Video has become the dominant form of consumer video formats in the United States, Europe, and Australia.[8]

Though many resolutions and formats are supported, most consumer DVD-Video disks use either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio MPEG-2 video, stored at a resolution of 720×480 (NTSC) or 720×576 (PAL). Audio is commonly stored using the Dolby Digital (AC-3) and/or Digital Theater System (DTS) formats, ranging from monaural to 5.1 channel “Surround Sound” presentations. DVD-Video also supports features like selectable subtitles, multiple camera angles and multiple audio tracks.

DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio is a format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. It offers many channel configuration options (from mono to 5.1 surround sound) at various sampling frequencies and sample rates. Compared with the CD format, the much higher capacity DVD format enables the inclusion of either considerably more music (with respect to total running time and quantity of songs) or far higher audio quality (reflected by higher linear sampling rates and higher vertical bit-rates, and/or additional channels for spatial sound reproduction).

Despite DVD-Audio’s superior technical specifications, there is debate as to whether the resulting audio enhancements are distinguishable to typical human ears. DVD-Audio currently forms a niche market, probably due to its dependency upon new and relatively expensive equipment.

Security

DVD-Audio discs employ a robust copy prevention mechanism, called Content Protection for Prerecorded Media (CPPM) developed by the 4C group (IBM, Intel, Matsushita, and Toshiba).

To date, CPPM has not been “broken” in the sense that DVD-Video’s CSS has been broken, but ways to circumvent it have been developed.[9] By modifying commercial DVD(-Audio) playback software to write the decrypted and decoded audio streams to the hard disk, users can, essentially, extract content from DVD-Audio discs much in the same way they can from DVD-Video discs.

VCD

Video CD (aka VCD, View CD, Compact Disc digital video) is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc. VCDs are playable in dedicated VCD players, nearly all personal computers, most modern DVD-Video players, and some video game consoles.

The VCD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Philips, Matsushita, and JVC and is referred to as the White Book standard.

Video CDs are authored (or “burned”) using the Mode 2/XA format, allowing roughly 800 megabytes of VCD data to be stored on one 80 minute CD. (Versus 700 megabytes when using Mode 1) This, combined with the net bitrate of VCD video and audio, means that almost exactly 80 minutes of VCD content can be stored on an 80 minute CD, 74 minutes of VCD content to a 74 minute CD, and so on. This was done in part to ensure compatibility with existing CD drive technology, specifically the earliest “1x speed” CD drives.

Technical specifications

Video

* Codec: MPEG-1
* Resolution:
o NTSC: 352×240
o PAL/SECAM: 352×288
* Aspect Ratio:
o NTSC: 107:80 (0.3% difference from 4:3)
o PAL/SECAM: 4:3
* Framerate:
o NTSC: 29.97 or 23.976 frames per second
o PAL/SECAM: 25 frames per second
* Bitrate: 1,150 kilobits per second
o Rate Control: constant bitrate

Overall picture quality is intended to be comparable to VHS video, though visual artifacts may be noticeable in some cases. Poorly compressed video in VCD tends to be of lower quality than VHS video, but exhibiting block artifacts rather than analog noise.

352 horizontal pixels was chosen because it approximates the resolution of an analog broadcast video signal, assuming a 5 MHz bandwidth. Any more than this would be wasted in the RF modulator, which was the usual means of video input for domestic television receivers at the time.

VCD video is mostly compatible with the DVD-Video standard, except for any video encoded at 23.976 frames per second. DVD-Video requires all MPEG-1 video to be encoded at either 25 or 29.97 frames per second.

Audio

* Codec: MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
* Frequency: 44,100 hertz (44.1 kHz)
* Output: Dual channel or stereo
* Bitrate: 224 kilobits per second
o Rate Control: Constant bitrate

As with most CD-based video formats, VCD audio is incompatible with the DVD-Video standard due to the difference in frequency; DVDs require 48 kHz, whereas VCDs use 44.1 kHz.

SVCD

Super Video CD (Super Video Compact Disc or SVCD) is a format used for storing video on standard compact discs. SVCD falls between Video CD and DVD in terms of technical capability and picture quality.

Technical specifications

SVCD has two-thirds the resolution of DVD, and over 2.7 times the resolution of VCD. One CD-R disc can hold up to 60 minutes of SVCD-format video at a picture quality roughly comparable to Laserdisc. While no specific limit on SVCD video length is mandated by the specification, one must lower the video bitrate, and therefore quality, in order to accommodate very long videos. It is usually difficult to fit much more than 100 minutes of video onto one SVCD without incurring significant quality loss, and many hardware players are unable to play video with an instantaneous bitrate lower than 300 to 600 kilobits per second.

Video

* Codec: MPEG-2
* Resolution:
o NTSC: 480×480
o PAL/SECAM: 480×576
* Aspect Ratio: 4:3
* Framerate:
o NTSC: 29.97 or 23.976 frames per second
o PAL/SECAM: 25 frames per second
* Bitrate: Up to 2.6 Megabits (2,600 kilobits) per second
o Rate Control: Constant or variable bitrate

Interlaced video is supported (though not required) for SVCD video, excepting any video at 23.976 frames per second, as it must use 3:2 pulldown.

Unlike other CD-based video formats such as China Video Disc and Video CD, Super Video CD video is incompatible with the DVD-Video standard due to a conflict in resolution. However, the 480×480/576 resolution is supported by the HD DVD standard.

Audio

* Codec: MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
* Frequency: 44,100 hertz (44.1 kHz)
* Output: Monaural, dual channel, or stereo
* Bitrate: Certain bitrates between 32 and 384 kilobits per second, inclusive
o Rate Control: Constant bitrate

As with most Compact Disc-based video formats, SVCD audio is incompatible with the DVD-Video standard due to the difference in frequency; DVDs require 48 kHz, whereas SVCDs use 44.1 kHz.

Additional features

The SVCD standard supports several other features, including menus, hyperlinks, karaoke lyric highlighting, overlay subtitles, and DVD-quality slide shows with resolution up to 704×480 (NTSC) or 704×576 (PAL). SVCDs may have two separate stereo audio tracks (for commentary or additional languages); audio may have up to 8 channels (in a 7.1 arrangement) using the MPEG Multichannel surround sound format, though space constraints and poor hardware support make it somewhat impractical.

Playback issues

Presentation of SVCD titles on most players is marred by an unfortunate violation of sampling theory almost built into the spec. The “2/3″ choice for resolution is rarely consistently implemented end to end through the full player electronics. Because a DVD player might include provisions for various VCD, SVCD, and DVD horizontal resolutions (360, 480, 540 or 720) and only one analog low pass filter is provided, 2 out of the 3 formats will suffer aliasing when presented on the screen. Usually, the best resolution, DVD 720 dictates filter design, with SVCD display suffering from “foldover”. While displays should follow correct theory, the objectionable aliasing artifacts that result are usually buried in noise from other sources, such as camera, quantization, and MPEG artifacts.

XVCD/XSVCD

Designed to squeeze the most out of a CD is the DVCD or Double VCD where a non-standard CD is overburned to include up to 100 minutes of video. This format is seen only in China (although such titles can be found outside China, but they’re extremely rare), and the DVCDs are playable on many DVD or VCD players though some CD-ROM drives and players have problems reading these CDs mostly because the groove spacing is outside specifications and the laser servo is unable to track it.

XVCD

XVCD stands for eXtended VCD. It uses a much higher bit rate (3.5 Mbits per second), so it is higher quality, but can’t store as much on one CD. (Approximately one half hour.) It is not an officially recognized format, so it is harder to find DVD players that are compatible with XVCDs.

(x)VCD

There are many non standard variants of the standard Video CD. Those called (x)VCD and they supported by most (but not all) standalone DVD players.

Popular (x)VCD are KVCD (nothing more than a template for the ubiquitous TMPGenc MPEG 1/2 encoder), CVCD (a Spanish xVCD), S(x)VCD (a VCD but with vbr mpeg 2) and miniDVD. There is also SKVCD (or KSVCD) which does much the same thing as KVCD, but uses MPEG2 and adds some luxuries such as multiple audio streams and chapters. Some later flexible standalone players now support (K)SVCD, as the format has been endorsed by Philips, the custodian of all the CD standards.

Most commonly the players can have trouble with (x)VCDs.

SXVCD

Super eXtended VCDs are another hack of VCDs. They have the same bitrate as DVD (9.8 Mbits per second) and are read by most DVD players. The only major disadvantage is that very little video can be stored on an SXVCD.

CVD

The China Video Disc (or CVD) standard is a CD-based MPEG-2 audio and video format developed in 1997. It is almost identical to the SVCD standard, the only technical difference being a lower video resolution.

Technical specifications

On a technical basis the CVD standard is all but identical to the SVCD standard. The only difference between the two formats is the video resolution: SVCDs require 480×576 (PAL/SECAM) or 480×480 (NTSC) resolution video, whereas CVDs use 352×576 (PAL/SECAM) or 352×480 (NTSC) resolution video. All other technical aspects of the CVD standard are identical to those of the SVCD standard.

Video

* Codec: MPEG-2
* Resolution:
o NTSC: 352×480
o PAL/SECAM: 352×576
* Aspect Ratio: 4:3
* Framerate:
o NTSC: 29.97 or 23.976 frames per second
o PAL/SECAM: 25 frames per second
* Bitrate: Up to 2.6 Megabits (2,600 kilobits) per second
o Rate Control: Constant or variable bitrate

Interlaced video is supported (though not required) for CVD video, excepting any video at 23.976 frames per second, as it must use 3:2 pulldown.

The CVD video standard is almost completely compatible with the DVD-Video standard. However, the CVD standard does not specify any limits on GOP structure, and as such it is possible to encode CVD video with a GOP size larger than DVD-Video’s 64 frame-per-GOP limit. In practice this is highly uncommon; most commercially produced CVD video uses a 12 or 15 frame GOP structure, which is compatible with the DVD-Video standard.

Audio

* Codec: MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
* Frequency: 44,100 hertz (44.1 kHz)
* Output: monaural, dual channel, or stereo
* Bitrate: Certain bitrates between 32 and 384 kilobits per second, inclusive
o Rate Control: Constant bitrate

As with most CD-based video formats, CVD audio is incompatible with the DVD-Video standard due to the difference in frequency; DVDs require 48 kHz, whereas CVDs use 44.1 kHz.

Additional features

Support for features such as karaoke, selectable subtitles, two selectable audio tracks, and DVD-quality slide shows.

Advantages/disadvantages to SVCD

Though the lower resolution of the CVD standard brings with it less detailed video than the SVCD standard, it also provides certain advantages. Most obvious are the space requirements for “decent quality” video, as the lower resolution allows the bitrate to be reduced significantly more while keeping the number of “compression errors”, such as MPEG block artifacts, to a minimal level. Other advantages primarily center around the DVD support for the resolution; while CVD standard video is also DVD-compatible, SVCD standard video is not. Initially this is only useful for transferring CVD content to DVD, as the video does not have to be transcoded and can avoid the quality loss which would result. (Though the audio must be transcoded, as DVDs require 48 kHz audio rather than the 44.1 kHz audio used on CVDs) Additionally, CVDs do not suffer from certain playback issues faced by SVCDs due to limitations present in many DVD players. These issues are mostly due to “foldover” or aliasing problems encountered when the DVD player resizes the video as it plays it. While SVCDs are frequently affected by this issue CVDs are not, as the resizing algorithms used by DVD players are almost always optimized with valid DVD resolutions (such as the CVD resolution) in mind.

The major disadvantages of the CVD standard, aside from the lower resolution, are primarily compatibility issues. While almost all PAL DVD players which are listed as “SVCD compatible” must also support the CVD standard, DVD players sold in the United States have no such requirement. Though no solid figures exist, it has been estimated that roughly a quarter of those DVD players sold in the United States which are “SVCD compatible” do not support the CVD standard.

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