Reviews – Page 87

Just some info on muvee extensions and types that i would like to share…..

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. 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 X** 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.

Scene Tags…

PROPER – Due to scene rules, whoever releases the first Telesync has won that race (for example). But if the quality of that release is fairly poor, if another group has another telesync (or the same source in higher quality) then the tag PROPER is added to the folder to avoid being duped. PROPER is the most subjective tag in the scene, and a lot of people will generally argue whether the PROPER is better than the original release. A lot of groups release PROPERS just out of desperation due to losing the race. A reason for the PROPER should always be included in the NFO.

LIMITED – A limited movie means it has had a limited theater run, generally opening in less than 250 theaters, generally smaller films (such as art house films) are released as limited. INTERNAL – An internal release is done for several reasons. Classic DVD groups do a lot of INTERNAL releases, as they wont be dupe’d on it. Also lower quality theater rips are done INTERNAL so not to lower the reputation of the group, or due to the amount of rips done already. An INTERNAL release is available as normal on the groups affiliate sites, but they can’t be traded to other sites without request from the site ops. Some INTERNAL releases still trickle down to IRC/Newsgroups, it usually depends on the title and the popularity. Earlier in the year people referred to Centropy going “internal”. This meant the group were only releasing the movies to their members and site ops. This is in a different context to the usual definition.

STV – Straight To Video. Was never released in theaters, and therefore a lot of sites do not allow these.

R5 – R5 refers to a specific format of DVD released in the Former-Soviet Union, which is in DVD Region 5, and bootlegged copies of these releases that are distributed on the Internet. In an effort to compete with movie piracy, the movie industry chose to create a new format for DVD releases that could be produced more quickly and less expensively than traditional DVD releases. R5 releases differ from normal releases in that t
hey are usually a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing common on DVD releases, and without any special features. This allows the film to be released for sale at the same time that DVD Screeners are released. Since DVD Screeners are the chief source of high-quality pre-DVD release pirated movies, this allows the movie studios to beat the pirates to market.

The thing about gadgets it that sometimes just to test a feature, it drives you to discover stuff that you didn’t do earlier. Take me for example, who didn’t bother to check FM radio stations earlier until I got my new phone, the LG KG300. Now I was a bit bored listening to the music tracks I’d loaded on phone, so I just switched on the FM player. It met my expectations – a quick auto scan presented me the usual Bollywood crap. I might as well tell that I don’t listen to / like Hindi music, except for a few bands like Euphoria. I was about to give up when surprise surprise I run into a station playing Deep Purple!

So I took up, as a challenge, enduring loads of Bollywood crap (no arguments in the comments section on this please, I simply don’t want to listen to more crap suggestions), and finding out more about good music choices. Should also tell you beforehand – I simply HATE the RJs. Nothing personal against the kind, but I hate the useless banter, I prefer JUST the music. Internet radio was my fave haunting ground thus, but a few things happened: Yahoo! LAUNCHcast started blocking Firefox (but it’s a bloody good service – and can predict your music tastes real well, apart from having one of the world’s largest online music libraries); Last.fm‘s Audioscrobbler needs too time to get things right; music companies started screwing Internet stations and they didn’t play popular music that much, for example, Pandora is no longer accessible for most non-US territories like India; ShoutCast has some good streams, but they’re difficult to find – ditto for Live365. Basically, Internet radio is still getting screwed by the companies. Coming back to Delhi FM radio stations, here’s what I found out.

Most stations are crap – they play only Bollywood. I don’t understand the fucking reason, because there’s enough of a market for English stuff.
Specifically, I was disappointed about Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, because being a Times Group venture I expected it to be more sensible.
The other sensible FM station at one time was Hits 95 FM, but now they play more Hindi shit, and ‘English songs’ for them has suddenly turned into rap / hip-hop (boy do I hate that genre).
HT Media’s Fever 104 FM (Rating – 0.6 / 10): Happens to play English songs, but very infrequently, and that too it always happens to be a few selected songs of Akon, Linkin Park and Avril Lavigne. That’s it – that’s where English stuff ends for them.
AIR 102.6 Rainbow FM (Rating – 8.3 / 10): Surprisingly, the best station is a government offering. Sure, the audio is mono channel, unlike the others which generally have stereo, and also has poor reception at times, but as far as music goes it rocks. The time slot is 8-9 pm daily – and they focus on one genre everyday. So for example you’ve movie soundtracks on one day, classical music on one, rock music on another, rap on one another, old time stuff on some other – you get the drift I guess. And you won’t believe, but this station is the ONLY station which actually has any variety – their music playlists aren’t stagnant, and they aren’t scared to experiment with bands. Also, being AIR, nobody puts ads so less interruptions; but it also means you’ve to listen to irritating government jingles on some new free crop fertilizer scheme. Having said that, their RJs are pathetic. They keep on speaking (when they have to) without reducing the song volume – as a result you get gibberish which you can’t make out anything of. There’s one RJ I especially hate for his fake accent (which he can’t get right). One day I was listening to a Bob Dylan song, and (some other RJ) comes on after the song is over and says the song was by Bob Dhillon. And then there was this gem from the fake accent guy:

And now we have a song by the Irish band Ronan Keating…

There’s more, after the song was over:

After Ronan’s wife died due to HIS breast cancer problem, he set up an organization to combat breast cancer.

You’ll get stuff like these pretty frequently, so that makes it a comedy show too. The saving grace is the fact that you get MUSIC on AIR, even though they ask for recommendations using a Gmail account and get excited when an Orkut community they start gets TEN members.
Radio City 91.1 FM (Rating – 6.8 / 10): They’ve got this pathetically named called slot every weekday called City City Bang Bang from 9-11 pm, complete with sound effects ripped off from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Another fake accent keeps on announcing the cheesy show’s name all the time, and telling that it’s for ‘mature’ listeners. Nothing would even make a grandma blush. There’s a really irritating RJ (keeps on saying how good Amity University is all the time) to boot, who wants to chatter all the time. Thanfully, the music’s OK – they only play old time stuff, and that too they don’t experiment. I mean, fine, play the Beatles but at least change the bloody songs! They seem to have this collection of about 100 songs and they keep on playing that five times a week for three hours. You might stumble across good ones from Deep Purple, U2, Verve, Van Halen, Pink Floyd – but the song list is stagnant and within a few days you’d have memorised the whole list. It’s disappointing why they don’t add new songs. Then again, on Saturday at 9 pm they’ve the World Chart Show, not produced by them (and thus better) and bought from an overseas company. At last, you can listen to some good, sensible, and fresh music. What pisses me off is that every five minutes the RJ butts in to tell her name THROUGHOUT the show. Maybe she gets a kick out of it, but for someone who hates useless chatter on radio shows like me, it’s irritating.

If I’ve missed out anything, please do share it here – and maybe if you have a different take on FM / Internet radio. And in case you’re an FM station exec, I’d like to know why the hell there isn’t any RATM, LP, Marilyn Manson etc on air…