xREL.v3

The UK TV XviD Releasing Standards 2011

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INTRO

This rule set is written specifically for UK TV, taking into
consideration various factors which differ from other regions.

RELEASE RULES

Release sizing:
- Shows 18:00-22:59 must be 175MiB
- Shows 23:00-30:59 must be 233MiB
- Shows 31:00-46:59 must be 350MiB
- Shows 47:00-73:59 must be 550MiB
- Shows 74:00-94:59 must be 700MiB

- If the length of the show is near the end of any range, the
next size up may be used in the interests of quality, at cappers
discretion. For example, a 70 minute show could be either
550MiB or 700MiB.

- Shows above these lengths must be a multiple of 550 or 700 while
keeping the average video bitrate above 880kbps.

- Splitting into CDs is OPTIONAL. If releases are split they must
be placed in directories named CD1, CD2, CD3 etc. No Disc1 cd1
or other naming styles.

- Episodes that air back-to-back without a natural break such as
full credits or commercials in between must be pred as a single
release.

- All releases must be no more than 2.0MiB above the target size.
Releases up to and including 700MiB must be no more than 3.0MiB
under the target size. Releases larger than 700MiB may be no
more than 6.0MiB under. This applies to the size of the entire
release, not per CD.

Previously on/Credits:
- Any "previously on" footage must be included.

- No release may be propered for glitches in, or missing portions
of previously on footage.

- Full end credits must be included if they contain show content
or outtakes/bloopers. End credits are optional if they are clean
or contain promotions for future episodes or other shows.

Video:
- 2-pass variable bitrate XviD must be used.

- Quantization matrix must be either MPEG or H.263. Custom
quantization matrices are not allowed.

- QPel and GMC are not allowed.

- Pixel Aspect ratio MUST be square (default). Custom 1:1 or any
other custom ratio is not allowed.

- B Frames:
- The use of B frames is required.
- A maximum of 2 consecutive B frames may be used.

- This document gives no preference to packed versus unpacked
bitstreams as there are benefits to each format, and it is
trivial to convert between them using MPEG4 Modifier.

- Framerates must be in relation to the original source. Valid
framerates for releases are PAL (25 fps).

- Valid horizontal resolutions are are 512-576 for 4:3, 608-640
for 16:9, 544-576 for 14:9 or 672-720 for 2.35:1.

- A maximum aspect ratio error of 5% is permissible.

- Releases shall be cropped so that all black/noise on the edges
of the first full scene of a show is removed. These crop values
must then be used for the entire show.

- Live shows must be cropped to the first studio scene which may
not be the first full scene broadcast.

- Live shows without any studio scenes must follow the main rule
and be cropped to the first full scene.

- In situations where the first scene has vastly different AR to
the rest of the episode, crop values that retain most picture
throughout must be used. (example: 2.35:1 for the opening scene,
16:9 after - crop to 16:9)

- Video defacement such as intros, outros, and group watermarks
are forbidden.

Audio:
- Allowed audio formats are VBR MP3 and original AC3. ABR is
considered a VBR technique.

- MP3 audio must be encoded using standard LAME presets such as
'--preset 128' or '-m s -V 5 -b 32'.

- Average bitrate on MP3 audio may not exceed 192kbps.

- MP3 audio must be normalized.

- Audio sampling rate must be maintained at 48KHz.

- Original AC3 audio may be used at the discretion of the capper,
provided video bitrate remains above 890kbit. However,
transcoding to AC3 is forbidden.

Release Naming:
- Numbering for episodic programming shall be in the format
S00E00 or 0x00 (or S00E000 / 0x000 for series with more than 99
episodes per season).

- Number for date-based programming including soaps, daytime TV
and variety shows shall be in the format YYYY.MM.DD.

- For variety shows, it is strongly recommended that the primary
guest's name be included in the directory name.

- Different shows that have the same name in different countries
must be tagged with the code for the country of airing.
(example: The.Apprentice.UK.S01E01.SOURCE.XviD-Group)

- Different shows with the same name produced in different years
must be tagged with the year of airing of the first season.
(example: Doctor.Who.2005.S00E00.SOURCE.XviD-Group)

- Releases are to be named in the format:
- Show.Name.S00E00.SOURCE.XviD-Group
- Show.Name.Part0.SOURCE.XviD-Group
- Show.Name.2008.00.00.SOURCE.XviD-Group
- Show.Name.S03E04-E05.SOURCE.XviD-Group
- Show_Name.0x00.SOURCE.XviD-Group
- Show_Name.Part_Zero.SOURCE.XviD-Group
- Show_Name.3x04_3x05.SOURCE.XviD-Group

- The episode title may optionally be included between the episode
number and the source.

- Allowed Characters:
- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
- ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
- 0123456789

- All Sample, NFO, SFV, and RAR names MUST be in all lowercase
letters. The name of AVI inside the RARs is permitted to
contain capital letters.
- Double dots (..) are not allowed.

- Additional Tagging:
- PROPER, REPACK, REAL, UNCUT, SUBBED,  INTERNAL,
OAR (Original Aspect Ratio), DIRFIX, SAMPLEFIX, NFOFIX or
READNFO are allowed (discretion is recommended).
- All releases tagged PROPER, REPACK, REAL, and READNFO must
include notes in the NFO as to why the release was tagged
that way. PROPER.READNFO is therefore redundant and must not
be used.

- Source Naming:
- Valid source names are WEBRIP, PDTV, WS.PDTV, HDTV, and no
tag (analogue).
- Analogue source will have no tag other than WS if needed.

- Source Definitions:
- analogue, via svideo or the like, must have no tag.
- 576i\576p shall be tagged PDTV.
- 720p\1080i\1080p shall be tagged HDTV.
- Content from iPlayer, 4oD or other/future services must be
tagged WEBRIP. Use common sense. If multiple streams are
available, use the highest quality one. Propering with a
higher quality source will not be tolerated.
- 4:3 content broadcast at HDTV resolutions shall be tagged
PDTV.
- Windowboxed (16:9 with black on all sides),
letterboxed (16:9 with black on the top and bottom) and
native 16:9 content shall be labeled as Widescreen (WS.PDTV).
- The use of the HDTV tag implies widescreen so WS.HDTV shall
not be used.
- Upscaled sources must be labeled PDTV.
- PDTV/HDTV sources must be 100% digital. S-Video, composite,
or RF from a digital receiver to a tuner card is analogue.
Valid PDTV and HDTV sources will be received via a digital
connection such as USB, Firewire, Ethernet from a reciever,
or DVB tuner.
- Dupe order:
WEBRIP -> PDTV -> WS.PDTV -> HDTV

Packaging:
- Container:
- Container must be AVI.
- The file must consist of one video stream, one audio stream
and the usual AVI overheads, files are not to be padded out
with junk.
- The AVI itself must be named like the release and include
some format of episode number (show initials are fine, as is
shortening the episode number).

- RAR\SFV:
- Releases shall be packed into 15,000,000 or 20,000,000 byte
RARs using store compression.
- 50,000,000 byte RARs are allowed for releases that are 1100MiB
or larger, and MUST be used for larger releases to ensure
there are no more than 101 rar parts.
- An SFV must be created for all RAR files in the release.

- Sample:
- All releases must include a sample of length :50-1:10 cut
directly from the release (NOT encoded separately).
- The sample must be placed in a directory named Sample.
- The file itself must be named uniquely, preferably containing
the name of the release as well as the word sample.

- NFO:
- An NFO must be included in the release and, at a minimum,
must contain release name, episode number (or title), channel
the show was broadcast on, and date of airing/release.  An
IMDB/tvrage/broadcaster link is recommended but not essential.
- The NFO must be named uniquely based on the name of the
release.

Propers:
- Propers are only permitted in the case of technical flaws with
the original release or violations of applicable rules.

- All propers must include a note in the NFO detailing the flaw in
the original release, including timecodes if relevant.

- Including a sample of the flaw is suggested but not required.

- Propers are expressly permitted in cases of any of the following
flaws in a release:
- Audio 120ms or more out of sync.
- Severe audio drops resulting in the inability to understand
dialogue. Glitches that do not result in inability to
understand dialogue are not properable.
- Improper audio normalization, including audio with levels that
vary widely between parts, very quiet audio, or audio with
excessive clipping.
- Under or over crop of 2 or more pixels on any one side that
lasts for the entire show. Propers for under/over crop which
does not last for the entire show are not allowed.
- Releases missing a significant portion of video, either in
duration or content.
- Glitches that do not result in the inablity to watch the show
are not nukeable (we all agree Freeview isn't perfect).
- Change in video format (PDTV on an HDTV release) exceeding
five seconds or causing loss of dialogue.
- Inclusion of 2 or more seconds of commercials over an entire
release.

The UK TV XviD Releasing Standards 2011

Released: 2011-01-01 + Valid from: 2011-01-11 onwards.

GROUPS

TVX2K11.UK rules created by

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