xREL.v3

The SD x264 TV Releasing Standards 2012
L [ INTRO

- x264 has become the most advanced video codec over the past few years.
- Compared to XviD, it is able to provide higher quality and compression at
- greater SD resolutions. It also allows better control and transparency over -
- encoding settings. With CRF in the mix, we can also ensure that a diverse
- array of material will get the most appropriate bitrate for them and not
- arbitrary and fixed sizes. This standard aims to bring quality control back -
- to SD releases. There are many standalone players/streamers such as TviX,
- Popcorn Hour, WDTV HD Media Player, Boxee, Xtreamer, PS3, XBOX 360, iPad, & -
- HDTVs that can playback H264 and AAC encapsulated in MP4.

- The SD x264 TV section was formed to separate releases from the ruleless
- world of TV-XviD. This document will cover the rules and guidelines for
- only SD resolution x264 television rips.

L [ RELEASE RULES

-  Compliance with this document is optional as of its pre date, and
-  mandatory as of 2012-02-22 16:00 UTC.

-  Video:
Sources requiring resize are to be cropped and resized using sharp
resizers such as  Lanczos/Lanczos4, Spline36, or Blackman. Bicubic is
banned.
HD video taken from the decoded HD output of a set-top box (e.g.
component, DVI, HDMI) may be used as a source; source must be tagged
in dirname as AHDTV. Decoded output of PDTV or DSR sources is banned.
Releases taken from a natively recorded transport stream shall be tagged-
as HDTV, PDTV, or DSR. Dupes are as follows: HDTV > AHDTV > PDTV > DSR. -
AHDTV captures must be done at the native format of the channel, e.g.
720p or 1080i.
Sources that sideconvert 1080i to 720p (such as BellTV) are allowed but -
must be tagged as PDTV or DSR.
If there is a question as to the validity of a source, the release
may be nuked source.sample.requested_<reason.for.nuke> (e.g.
source.sample.requested_suspicion.of.analog.source) within 24 hours of  -
pre. The group has 24 hours from the nuke to pre a RARed SOURCE.SAMPLE  -
that is at least 10 seconds in length in order to document that the
source is valid. Failure to provide source proof or providing bad
source proof shall result in the release remaining nuked, and it may
then be propered.
Improper IVTC methods that result in jerky playback, such as Force
Film, are banned
Interlaced video sources must be deinterlaced with a smart deinterlacer -
such as Yadif. FieldDeinterlace is banned.
Group watermarks of any kind on the video are banned
Intros, outros, betweenos, or any other form of defacement of the
episode are banned
"Native" refers to the standard in which the video was produced (e.g.
NTSC or PAL). NTSC produced video is native to NTSC, PAL produced video -
is native to PAL. PAL produced video that is broadcast in NTSC is
converted. NTSC produced video that is broadcast in PAL is converted.
Converted video that has significant artifacting (e.g. blended frames)  -
and cannot be reversed to native must use CONVERT tag
Converted video that does not have significant artifacts does not need  -
convert tags and may not be nuked for the conversion
Native releases are allowed after those tagged CONVERT. Use NATIVE tag. -

-  Audio:
Allowed audio formats are VBR AAC LC (Low Complexity).
Average bitrate on AAC audio must be 96 - 160 kbps.
AAC audio must be normalized and downconverted to stereo.
Nero and Apple encoders are recommended. FFmpeg is banned.
Dupes  based  on audio format are forbidden and must be tagged INTERNAL -
Multiple language audio tracks are allowed and must be listed in NFO
Dupes are not allowed based on multiple audio tracks
Severe audio drops resulting in one full missing word or otherwise the  -
inability to  understand material dialogue is considered to be a
technical flaw and may be propered
Audio that is 120ms or more out of sync or drifts more than 120ms
between any two points (e.g. needing -80 at one and +40 at another) is  -
considered to be technically flawed and may be propered

-  Framerate:
IVTC or deinterlacing must be applied as needed
50/60fps video may be released at 50/60fps or 25/30fps. Releasing true  -
25/30fps video at 50/60 is considered a technical flaw.
In rare cases, 25/50Hz sources should be IVTC'd to 24 or 30 fps.
In rare cases, 30/60Hz sources should be IVTC'd to 25fps.
Failure to apply IVTC when needed is a technical flaw.

-  Codec/Container:
Video codec must be x264 (8-bit depth).
Container must be MP4.
You will have 30 days from latest  x264  rev date to update in order to -
maintain all bug fixes and improvements in the x264 codec
Stripping or falsifying encode information in the file header is banned -
Custom  muxing  tools are permitted; however, output must be compatible -
with standard demuxers.
Custom Matrices are allowed
Encoded colorspace must be 4:2:0.
Deblocking  must  be  used;  values are at the discretion of the group. -
(default is enabled, 0:0 settings)
No setting can go below what is specified by --preset slow.
Keyframe  interval  (--keyint) must be at least 200 and at most 300. It -
is  recommended  to  be  10*framerate  (film=240,  PAL=250,  NTSC=300). -
Minkeyint must be 30 or less
Colormatrix must be set to source specification. If not specified by
source, bt709 must be used for sources with resolution greater than or  -
equal to 1280x720 (e.g. HDTV and some PDTV) and sources with lower
resolutions must use bt601 (e.g. DSR and some PDTV).
Constant Rate Factor (--crf) must be as follows:
Compressibility -  CRF  - General Examples

High            - 19-20 - Scripted, Talk Shows, Poker, Animation
Medium          - 21-22 - Documentary, Reality, Variety
Low             - 23-24 - Sports, Awards, Live Events, Competitive-
Reality
x264 parameters shall not vary within a release
Zones (--zones) are forbidden.
Any deviation in CRF from given examples must be specifically justified -
in the NFO. Use discretion when deviating CRF by matching the
compressibility of the show to a corresponding CRF value. CRF values
below 19 and above 24 are never permitted.
As a general suggestion, average video bitrate in excess of 1500kb/s
is a sign that a higher CRF value should be chosen, when possible
Allowed parameters for --tune (optional) are film/grain/animation
Level 3.1 must be respected.
Suggested command line:
x264.exe --crf ## --preset slow --level 3.1 --colormatrix bt709 -o
out.h264 in.avs

-  Resolution:
WS HDTV and WS PDTV sources with greater than 720px horizontal res must -
be cropped as needed and resized to 720px width and mod2 height to
maintain proper AR.
WS PDTV sources with horizontal source res of 720-704px must be cropped -
as needed and only height must be resized to the proper anamorphic AR
using mod2. Upscaling/downscaling is forbidden.
All other sources, including FS HDTV, must be cropped as needed and
resized to 640px width and mod2 height to maintain proper AR.
When cropping, remove everything that is not actual picture, including  -
black or other colored borders, duplicate lines, and full-time tickers. -
Removing or retaining fading edges is at capper's discretion and shall  -
not be considered undercropped or overcropped.
In the case of varying crops, crop to the most common frame size (e.g.  -
pitch/primary view in sports).
Actual picture area may be over- or under-cropped by 1px maximum per
side. More than 1px on any side is considered a technical flaw.
Encoded Video resolution must be within 2% of the original aspect ratio -
To calculate AR error (%): (Original AR - Release AR)/Original AR * 100 -
OAR = (SourceWidth-CropLeft-CropRight)/(SourceHeight-CropTop-CropBottom)-
Release AR  = EncodedWidth / EncodedHeight

-  Subs:
Optional, but encouraged
Text based format is preferred (e.g. SubRip, SubStation Alpha, etc).
Subtitles must be in "Subs" directory.
Burned subtitles will only be allowed when the source exhibits such
subtitles in the picture itself
Subtitles cannot be used as a basis for a dupe
Group marks in subtitles are banned

-  Packaging:
Releases must be packed in RAR file format.
Rars may be in 15, 20, or multiples of 50 MB. 15 and 20 MB sizes must
contain 1-101 files. Multiples of 50 MB must contain 10-101 files.
1MB = 1,000,000 bytes.
Multi-episode  releases  with no clear delineation such as credits must -
not be split
RAR compression must not be used
Recovery and MD5 record are optional
Encryption or password protection is forbidden
Must have SFV and NFO
RAR, SFV, and sample files must have unique, lowercase filenames with
the group tag.
Missing SFV or RAR(s) on all sites is considered a technical flaw.
Corrupt RARs (errors on extraction) are considered technical flaws.
SFVFix and RARFix are not permitted. Uploading a missing SFV or RAR to  -
all presites after pre is not permitted. Release REPACK.

-  Credits/Previously On:
Previously on footage is optional, but suggested to be included
Full end credits must be included if they contain show content or
outtakes/bloopers. End credits are optional and suggested if they are
clean, and purely optional in other cases.

-  Samples:
REQUIRED!
50-70 seconds in length and  in  a  separate  folder  marked  as Sample -
Must be taken from the episode, not encoded separately
Stream samples are recommended for any questionable issue with the
source, e.g. no IVTC possible

-  Propers:
Propers are only permitted in the case of a technical flaw in the
original release (e.g. Bad IVTC, Interlacing, missing footage, bad crop,-
commercials, bad x264 settings used, bad source, etc.)
Scrolling or other alert messages added by a station (e.g. weather,
Amber alerts) must be at least 30 seconds in length in order to
nuke/proper
Drops with missing footage but no missing dialog must be at least 2
seconds long in any one instance to be considered a technical flaw
Proper  reason  must  be clearly stated in nfo, including timecodes and -
extent of the flaw when appropriate
Sample of propered release is encouraged
Qualitative propers are not allowed
Flaws  (such  as  drops) present in any optional content are not a flaw -
and shall not be nuked or propered.
Propers based upon the rules set forth here are allowed only on
releases that come after this document goes into effect

-  Internals:
Internals are allowed to be pred for any reason, including releases
with technical flaws or those done with alternate codecs, containers,
or settings for experimental purposes
Any severe technical flaws or deviations must be mentioned in the NFO
With the exception of the following rule, internal releases may only be -
nuked for severe technical flaws or deviations that are not mentioned
in the NFO
Using  DIRFIX.iNTERNAL to avoid a dupe nuke is banned, and such
dirfixes shall be nuked fix.for.nuke

-  Directory Naming:
Show.Name.SXXEXX.Episode.Title.HDTV.x264-GROUP
Show.Name.YYYY.MM.DD.Guest.Name.HDTV.x264-GROUP for daily or other
dated shows
Episode title and guest name are optional
Show.Name.PartXX.HDTV.x264-GROUP for miniseries
ALL others are FORBIDDEN. (e.g 0x00 000 EXX.EP.TITLE PART.VI)
Sport:
League.YYYY.MM.DD.Event.EXTRA.TAGS.HDTV.x264-GROUP
Competition.YYYY-MM.Event.EXTRA.TAGS.HDTV.x264-GROUP
Using just the year is only permitted if the event is once per year
(e.g. a WWE PPV). In the case of leagues which have seasons that span
multiple years, it is permissible to tag the release with just the years-
of the season. Inclusion of MM and DD is mandatory for all constantly
running shows (e.g. WWE).
If there is no league, the sport needs to be used instead
The following are some examples of correct directory names:
EPL.2010.01.01.Manchester.United.vs.Arsenal.HDTV.x264-GROUP
TNA.Impact.2010.03.02.HDTV.x264-GROUP
WWE.WrestleMania.2010.PPV.HDTV.x264-GROUP
Tennis.US.Open.2011.Final.Player1.vs.Player2.HDTV.x264-GROUP
Different  shows  that have the same title in different countries (e.g. -
The Marriage Ref) must have the ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 country code in the  -
directory name, except for UK shows (e.g. The.Marriage.Ref.UK not
The.Marriage.Ref.GB). ISO country code is not needed for the original
show (e.g. The.Marriage.Ref.US is forbidden).
Different shows with the same name in the same country produced in
different years must have the year of the first season in the directory -
name, e.g. Human.Target.2010 and Doctor.Who.2005. Year is not needed
for the first show with a particular name.
Channel name (e.g. National.Geographic, History.Channel) shall not be
tagged on any normal series starting after this ruleset's effective
date. Miniseries and single-episode docus may optionally be tagged with -
the channel name.
The use of audio format tags such as AAC, and AAC.x.x is FORBIDDEN
READ.NFO tag is allowed; however, discretion is recommended
PROPER.READ.NFO is NOT allowed. The NFO is REQUIRED to have a reason;
therefore, the tag is redundant.
All repacks must include detailed reason as to why it's being repacked  -
in the nfo
Other  permitted  tags are: PROPER, REPACK, RERIP, REAL, UNCUT, DUBBED, -
SUBBED, iNTERNAL, OAR, PPV, CONVERT, NATiVE
Acceptable  characters  in  naming  a  directory  include (NO spaces or -
double dots - single dots ONLY):

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789._-

-  Nukes:
Releases must be nuked for any of the following reasons:
Any valid proper listed in the propers section
Missing nfo, or missing Sample
Invalid directory naming format
Mislabeled  directory  that  could  prevent  finding  the  release in a -
dupecheck,  including  incorrect season/episode/date or incorrect title -
Dupe
Releases may not be propered for bad tagging or missing nfo/sample

Fixes:
The  following  fixes are  allowed: NFOFix, SampleFix, DirFix, SyncFix, -
ProofFix
DirFix requires NFO and NFO must state which release is being fixed
The original release shall be unnuked when a valid fix is released
A proper may not be released for an issue that was fixed, unless the
fix does not completely correct the issue


The SD x264 TV Releasing Standards 2012 (2012-02-22)

L [ GROUPS

TVx2642012 rules created by the following groups:

ASAP BAJSKORV C4TV D2V DiVERGE FTP KYR
LMAO LOL MOMENTUM SYS TLA YesTV

LT \   Thanks to the x264 developers for their assistance in     / T-
LT \      determining assistance in determining the best       / T-
L \                mix of encode settings.