xREL.v3

Requirements: Notepad with terminal font or any other ascii viewer.

A lot has changed since 2009, when the last revision of the XviD rules was
released. While these rules have served us well over the years, the need
for a change has come. The weaknesses of the XviD codec have become obvious
and as habits change the need for strict size-based releases has gone.
After the non-retail TV scene moved to x264 the advantages of the codec
over XviD for SD resolutions became clearer for everyone and with CRF in
the mix, we can also ensure that the diverse array of material will get
the most appropriate bitrates and not arbitrarily fixed sizes. So once
again the active TV & Movie groups have gathered to bring the retail SD
rules in line with other sections using x264.

Compliance with this document is optional as of its pre date, and
mandatory as of 2013-11-01 00:00 UTC (1383264000 unixtime)

[ Video ]
1.1) English spoken movie sources with non-English overlays in the actual
movie footage are NOT allowed. This does not count for start/end
credits, but for relevant movie parts. e.g. on screen locations text,
hardcoded non-English subtitles (hardsubs) and similar occurrences.
Foreign overlays can be present on iNTERNAL releases.
1.2) Watermarks, intros, outros, or any other form of defacement of the
movie or episode are banned including during the credits.
1.3) Splitting the video into multiple files is not allowed.
1.4) Movies split into 2 discs (ie LOTR Extended) must still be pred as
one file, assuming the movie only has start credits on D1 and end
credits only on D2.
1.5) Removing credits is not allowed, and they must not be encoded with
settings different to the main footage, except as follows:
With sources where only credits are interlaced, you may either leave
the credits interlaced or de-interlace the credits ONLY, but you must
NOT de-interlace the whole footage.
1.6) Irrelevant material such as studio worksheets and test screens must
be removed.

[ AR/Resolution ]

[ General ]
2.1.1) Black borders must be removed completely with cropping. Where the
video has changing ARs, it must be cropped to the widest frame.
2.1.2) Height and width must be mod2.
2.1.3) Over/under-cropping by more than 1px is considered a technical
flaw. It is recommended to crop the 1 pixel out.
2.1.4) Video AR must be within 0.5% of the original AR.
2.1.5) AR for all releases must be based on the actual source AR, not on AR
listed on IMDB, cover or other sources.
2.1.6) In rare cases where the source AR is incorrect (i.e. bad mastering),
a source sample and a comparison screenshot explaining how you came
to the corrected AR is required.
2.1.7) The ITU-R Standard, which assumes anamorphic WS DVD as 1.82 and
FS as 1.36, is not allowed.
2.1.8) Only sharp resizers such as Lanczos/Lanczos4, Spline36, or Blackman
are allowed. Simple resizers (bicubic, simple, etc) are banned.

[ BluRay ]
2.2.1) Width must be 720 for Bluray material.
2.2.2) The AR of the source must be applied to the encode, while resizing
the resulting height to mod2.
Examples : 1920x1080 -> 720x404
1920x1040 -> 720x390
1920x816  -> 720x306
1920x800  -> 720x300
1800x1080 -> 720x432
1440x1080 -> 720x540

2.3.1) Sources with a horizontal resolution of 720 will be cropped as
required and only the height must then be resized to the closest
mod2 ensuring the correct AR, except as follows:
- 4:3 NTSC sources (720x480) with window/pillar boxed WS content
should be cropped by height and then resized by width.
2.3.2) Width must be the highest possible after crop, except for
4:3 NTSC sources, where the width must not exceed 640.
2.3.3) Resizing in a way that would cause the encode to be upscaled is not
allowed.
Examples (pixels after crop --> anamorphic / non-anamorphic) :
NTSC:
720x480 --> 720x406 / 640x480
716x478 --> 716x404 / 636x478
720x460 --> 720x388 / 640x460
718x362 --> 718x306 / 638x362
PAL:
720x576 --> 720x404 / 720x540
716x574 --> 716x404 / 716x538
720x552 --> 720x388 / 720x518
718x434 --> 718x306 / 718x406

[ Framerate / Filters ]
3.1) IVTC or deinterlacing must be applied when required.
3.2) Only smart deinterlacers, such as Yadif, may be used. FieldDeinterlace
is banned.
3.1) MUST be as close to original source framerate as possible.
3.3) In some cases PAL movies need to be IVTC'd (e.g. to 24fps). Therefore
using a PAL source is not an excuse for lack of IVTC.
3.4) Hybrid sources will be left to ripper's discretion when it comes to
IVTC, but they must explain and provide source proof for any use, or
lack of IVTC.
3.5) In cases of a problematic source (e.g. PAL content on NTSC disc or
NTSC content on PAL disc) resulting in ghosted/blended/duplicated
frames, the video must be source restored to its original frame rate
with restore techniques. When the result still presents consistently
noticeable issues a vob/m2ts is required or use the INTERNAL tag and
mention it in the NFO.
3.5.1) Provided that the initial release was encoded from a source which
required restoration; a native source may be released at a later
date. Such a release must then be tagged as NATIVE and the original
release will not be nuked. This rule, however, does not apply for
simple NTSC to PAL speed up releases.
3.6) VFR (Variable Frame Rate) techniques are not allowed.

[ Container ]
4.1) Container must be MKV, and MKVMerge is the recommended muxer.
Custom muxing tools are permitted; however, output must be compatible
with standard demuxers to the same extent that files created with
MKVMerge are.
4.2) Support for file streaming and playing from rars is mandatory.
4.3) MKV headers must be kept intact and are not allowed to be blanked or
modified, also MKV header compression must not be enabled.

[ Codec ]
5.1) Video codec must be H264 encoded with 8-bit depth x264.
5.2) x264 version used must be no more than 50 revisions from newest at pre
time.
You should use http://tinyurl.com/mcekcw8 as reference to check what
the latest revision is.
5.3) CRF must be used:
5.3.1) CRF values below 19 and above 26 are never permitted.
5.3.2) A CRF value of 19 must be used for all sources where production
year is 2007 or NEWER, except sporting events and as follows:
- If at CRF 19 the resulting video's average bitrate is above
2000 kbps, a CRF value of 21 MUST be used.
- If at CRF 21 the resulting video's average bitrate is above
1500 kbps, CRF values of 22-23 MAY be used.
- If at CRF 21 the resulting video's average bitrate is above
2000 kbps, CRF value of 23-24 MUST be used.
5.3.3) CRF values within the 19-21 range must be used for all sources
where the production year is 2006 or OLDER, except sporting events.
It is the ripper's discretion to choose the most appropriate value
from this range. Exceptions are as follows:
- If at CRF 21 the resulting video's average bitrate is above
1500 kbps, CRF values of 22-23 MAY be used.
- If at CRF 21 the resulting video's average bitrate is above
2000 kbps, CRF values of 23-24 MUST be used.
5.3.4) CRF values of 23-26 must be used for sporting events. The exact
value to use will be left to ripper's discretion.
5.3.5) For TV season/volume sets the CRF value used must be the same for
all episodes, however for a maximum of 25% of the total episodes
different CRF values can be used to allow for variations in source
material, compressibility etc.
5.3.6) Bonus complete episodes must be encoded at the same CRF value as
the rest of the season/volume set, however the CRF value used for
any extras like deleted scenes/bloopers/bonus scenes will be left
to ripper's discretion. Rule 5.3.1 still applies.
5.4) No dupes based on source type (DVD/BD) are allowed, use INTERNAL.
5.5) No setting can go below what is specified by --preset slow.
5.6) Sample Aspect Ratio (--sar) must be square (1:1).
5.7) Keyframe  interval  (--keyint) must be at least 200 and at most 300
(inclusive). It is  recommended  to  be  10*framerate (rounded up)
(film=240,  PAL=250,  NTSC=300).
5.8) Minkeyint (--min-keyint) must be at least 20 and at most 30
(inclusive). It is recommended to be 1*framerate (rounded up)
(film=24, PAL=25, NTSC=30).
5.9) Colormatrix must be set to source specification. If not specified by
source, bt709 must be used for BD sources, DVD sources must use
'undef' (default).
5.10) Zones (--zones) are forbidden.
5.11) --output-csp must be kept at default
5.12) --level 3.1 must be respected.
5.13) Custom matrices are not allowed.

[ Optional Psychovisual settings ]
5.14.1) Allowed parameters for --tune (optional) are film/grain/animation
5.14.2) --deblock ( Default : 0:0 )
+ -2:-2 recommended for film content (--deblock -2:-2)
+  2:1  recommended for animation content (--deblock 2:1)
5.14.3) --aq-strength XX  ( Default : 1.0 )
Sets the strength of AQ bias towards low detail ('flat')
macroblocks. Background is considered a low detail area, while
actor's face is a complex area. A lower value than 1.0 will give
more bitrate for complex areas.
Recommended value : 0.6-0.9 (Example: --aq-strength 0.7)
5.14.4) --psy-rd xx:yy Default: 1.0:0.0
xx is the strength of Psy-RDO, yy is the strength of Psy-Trellis.
Note that Trellis is still considered 'experimental', so leave that
at 0.0 .
Recommended value for film content xx = 0.8-1.2
Recommended value for animation content xx = 0.4-0.7
(Example: --psy-rd 0.5:0.0)

[ Suggested basic command lines ]
5.15.1) BD:
x264.exe --level 3.1 --crf xx --preset slow --colormatrix bt709
-o output.mkv input.avs
5.15.2) DVD:
x264.exe --level 3.1 --crf xx --preset slow -o output.mkv input.avs

[ Audio ]
6.1) The only allowed audio format is VBR AAC LC (Low Complexity). INTERNAL
AC3 releases are allowed.
6.2) Nero and Apple encoders are recommended. FFmpeg and FAAC are banned.
6.3) Average audio bitrate must be between 96 and 160 kbps (inclusive) for
stereo and between 60 and 100 kbps (inclusive) for mono.
6.4) MUST be STEREO for STEREO sources, and MONO for MONO sources.
(Any audio track with identical channels is considered a MONO source).
Dual mono is also forbidden. However this does not apply to remastered
audio tracks for titles that may originally have been mono.
6.5) Audio with more than 2 channels must be downmixed to stereo, with the
exception of INTERNAL releases.
6.6) Audio tracks must be kept with the original frequency as it was on the
source: e.g. 48khz for 48khz and 44.1khz for 44.1khz.
6.7) AAC audio must be normalized.
6.8) Dual-language audio tracks are allowed for non-English material ONLY.
6.9) English dubbed titles without original audio track must be tagged
DUBBED.
6.10) Dubbed releases are only allowed if no release with a secondary
English dubbed audio track exists.

[ Subtitles ]
7.1) Only Vobsub and accurately OCR'd srt are allowed.
7.2) Subtitles are required for non-English movies and movies with
non-English spoken parts.
7.2.1) If you chose to use srt, you must mux the English subtitles into
the MKV container and enable this stream by default.
7.2.2) If you chose to use vobsubs, and the foreign parts are not
available on a separate stream, but only embedded/flagged on the
full subs, a forced only stream must be provided. It must be muxed
into the full subpack, with the exception of DVD forced subs that
can also be provided as a separate idx/sub set.
7.3) In all other cases it is recommended to mux srt subtitles into the MKV
container. Packing them separately is also allowed.
7.4) Vobsubs are NOT allowed to be muxed into the MKV container.
7.5) Subtitle files must have identical filenames to the video file, with
the exception of separate forced idx/sub subset from DVDs that should
be tagged *.forced.
(i.e. Movie.2013.720p.BluRay.x264-group.forced.idx)
7.6) Vobsubs from BD sources must be resized to 720x480 or 720x576. This
can be achieved using BDSup2Sub/BDSup2Sub++.
7.7) External subtitles MUST be packed in a RAR file with the best
compression available: <video-name>.subs.rar =
[ <video-name>.idx + <video-name>.rar(packed <video-name>.sub) ]
This RAR file must be placed in a directory named 'Subs' along with
a SFV file containing standard checksum information for that RAR.
The subtitles must not be packaged in the main RARs for the release
and the RAR file containing the subtitles must not be listed in the
main SFV for the release.
7.8) There must only be one set for all the included subtitles.
VobsubMuxer can be used to merge VobSubs.
Point 7.2.2 is the only case this rule can be ignored.
7.9) Hardcoded subtitles are only permissible when present in the source.
If the subtitles overlay both active video and matting (black bars),
cropping to the bottom of the subtitles is permissible, and an equal
amount of matting shall be left at the top. If the burned subtitles
overlay only matting, they must be OCR'ed and cropped out.
7.10) English subs must be synced with the video.
7.11) Foreign releases (non-English spoken) lacking English subtitles MUST
be tagged with the spoken language. Releases with English subtitles
MUST NOT be tagged with the spoken language. A release containing
English subtitles after a foreign-tagged release is not considered a
dupe, regardless of whether or not the foreign-tagged release has
English subs.
7.12) Only Retail subtitles are allowed. Fan/Custom subs are not allowed.
Use INTERNAL.
7.13) Multi-language subtitles cannot be used as a basis for a dupe. Use
INTERNAL.
7.14) SUBBED tag MUST be used on hardsubbed releases. This only applies to
fully non-English movies.

[ Packaging ]
8.1) Must be packed with RAR files, broken into a max of 99 volumes.
Allowed rar sizes: 15,000,000 bytes and 50,000,000 bytes.
8.2) Filenames (even the subpack rar file) MUST be unique (to avoid dupe).
8.3) Compressed RARs or Recovery records are not allowed.
8.4) Must have an SFV for main RARs and another for subtitle RARs
(if applicable).
8.5) Must have an NFO.
8.6) It is recommended to include the following information in the NFO:
Group name
Title
Release date
CRF Value
IMDB / Amazon / TVRage / Any other release relevant iNFO site link
Number of rars (e.g.30x15MB) or total video size

[ Samples ]
9.1) It is required to include a 50-70 seconds sample for each release.
9.2) The sample must have a unique filename and be in a separate directory
named 'Sample'.
9.3) It MUST be cut from the video, NOT encoded separately.
9.4) Source samples are required for any rip that is deemed questionable,
e.g. when no clean IVTC is possible on the source, or all ghost frames
can't be removed etc. See 'Framerate / Filters' section above.

[ Propers / Repacks / Rerips ]
10.1) Propers are only permitted in the case of a technical flaw in the
original release (e.g. bad IVTC, interlacing, wrong CRF value).
10.2) Propers MUST include a note in the NFO file detailing the reason.
10.3) Releases not globally nuked MUST include a sample or screenshots from
the original release that demonstrates the flaw in the release sample
dir.
10.4) Qualitative propers are not allowed, nor are propers based on
decisions made by a ripper, where it is allowed. Use INTERNAL.
10.5) Releases containing hardcoded subs may be followed by non-hardsubbed
video. Original release SHALL NOT be nuked.
10.6) Propering a release when a working fix is released is not allowed.
10.7) Propers for XViD releases can only be done if the release in question
violated the XViD rules in effect at the pre time of the release.
Propers must be done respecting the current SD-x264 ruleset.
10.8) Detailed reason must be included in the NFO for all repacks and
rerips.

[ Special Movie Editions ]
11.1) Allowed: DC, EXTENDED, UNCUT, REMASTERED, UNRATED, THEATRICAL,
CHRONO, SE (or any other special edition).
11.2) Special Edition releases with the same runtime as previously
released versions of the movie will be considered dupes.
11.3) Shorter cut version of a movie after a longer version was released is
allowed (e.g. THEATRICAL), and MUST be mentioned in the dirname.
11.4) Remastered releases after the original have been released are allowed
and must be tagged REMASTERED.
11.5) Extras released in a special movie edition cannot be used as a basis
for a dupe, unless released separately and are not dupes of previous
releases.
11.6) Homemade sources are not allowed.
11.7) NOTE: PAL - NTSC length differences come from the number of frames
per second and not extra footage.

[ WS vs. FS ]
12.1) WS or FS tags on the release name are ONLY allowed in case of a rip
with a different AR existing.
12.2) A WS release after a FS release (and vice versa) requires proof that
the new release contains more picture area than the original release
(provide sample from the original release or JPG screenshot of the
same frame in both releases showing additional area). A release not
documenting additional picture area is considered a DUPE.
12.3) Wider wide screen where more of the original source is visible is
valid and not considered a dupe but must be tagged as WS not PROPER.
Original release must not be nuked. Provide proof as listed above.
12.4) Letterboxed DVDs are not considered FS even if the aspect ratio
flagged on the disc is 4:3; only active picture area must be
considered.

[ Directory and File Naming ]
13.1) Mandatory directory format:
Movie.Name.YEAR.<PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK>.<BDRip/DVDRip>.x264-GROUP
TV.Show.SxxExx.<PROPER/READ.NFO/REPACK>.<BDRip/DVDRip>.x264-GROUP
13.2) ALL movie releases must include production year in the directory name.
13.3) TV shows that have a matching name to a previously released show must
either use a country tag, if different (US, UK, etc) or a production
year tag.
13.4) Use DVDRip for DVD sources, BDRip for BD sources, etc.
13.5) DO NOT indicate ripping method, DVD/BD/X264 release date, genre,
audio that was used or anything else. (Use the NFO for that)
13.6) Movie distribution tags e.g. FESTIVAL, STV, LIMITED or TV (TV tag is
used for TV movies only) are allowed and must be used wisely and
correctly.
13.7) READ.NFO tag is allowed, but shall not be abused.
13.8) Other permitted tags are: WS/FS (rules above), PROPER, REPACK, RERIP,
REAL, RETAIL, EXTENDED, REMASTERED, RATED, UNRATED, CHRONO,
THEATRICAL, DC, SE, UNCUT, INTERNAL, DUBBED, SUBBED, FINAL,
COLORIZED.
13.8.1) Use RERIP for ripping issues and REPACK for packing issues.
13.8.2) RERIP's/REPACK's must use different file names from the
previous release.
13.9) Acceptable characters in naming a directory include (NO spaces or
double dots/slashes - single dots/slashes ONLY):

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789.-

[ Proof ]
14.1) ALL retail (including R5) releases MUST now include source proof in
the following way:
Photograph (not scan) of the actual physical disc (printed side)
with a group tag in JPEG format. The image must be good quality with
disc details clear and readable. Small portions containing sensitive
information may be blurred or blackened.
14.2) The proof picture(s) must have unique filenames and be in a separate
directory named 'Proof'.
14.3) Cover scans and m2ts/vob samples may be added but DO NOT count as
sufficient proof.
14.4) Releases that fail to pre with such proof are to be considered a nuke
and can be propered. Proofixes later than 4 hours from pre (if a
proper has not been pred during that time) will not be accepted.
14.5) For TV series one of the following is allowed:
a) Include a proof image with all the discs in the first pred
episode of the set.
b) Include a proof image of the relevant disc in every episode of
the set.
c) Include a proof image of the relevant disc once in one episode of
your choice from that disc. In this case you MUST mention in all
the relevant NFOs the release name where proof can be found.
d) Include a proof image of all the discs in every episode of the
set.
14.6) It is ESSENTIAL to make sure EXIF metadata is removed from your image.
14.7) As a transitional measure, VOB source proof instead of picture proof
will be allowed for titles that match ALL of the following conditions:
a) Come from a DVD source.
b) Retail date of the DVD is before the date this document is pred.
c) The pre is NOT iNTERNAL.

[ Source Related Notes ]
15.1) Re-encoding material of any transcoded source is forbidden.
15.2) Non-studio audio must be tagged accordingly, e.g. LINE audio.
15.3) Releases provided with studio audio do not dupe releases with
non-studio audio. The reverse does not apply.
15.4) The use of sources like CAM, TS, TC, Workprint, SCREENER, Laserdisc,
etc. MUST be tagged with the source in the dirname and must adhere
to ALL the rules of this document, except for the proof rules. Such
releases are not considered retail however, so retail DVD or BD rips
pred after are not to be considered dupes.
15.5) Screeners must be clearly marked in the directory name and the NFO
must contain presence of studio watermarking, black&white scenes and
counters or lack thereof.
15.6) SD WEBRips from sources that offer SD downloads such as iTunes must
follow this ruleset without reencoding where possible. HD downloads
must be reencoded.
15.6.1) WEBRips that are "capped" such as Netflix, Amazon VOD, etc must
follow TV rules.
15.6.2) Proof must be a screenshot of the download in progress.
15.6.3) BDRip/DVDRip can be pre'd after WEBRip - WEBRip is NOT allowed
AFTER BDRip/DVDRip.

[ Internals ]
16.1) INTERNALS must follow all rules stated in this document and are exempt
from CRF rules and certain conditions explicitly mentioned throughout
the rules.
16.2) INTERNALS are not exempt from proof rules.
16.3) Other codecs and containers are allowed for experimental purposes.
16.3.1) XviD has been superseded. XviD releases must be kept INTERNAL.
16.4) Dirfixing a release to INTERNAL must not be done to avoid a nuke
and the release will remain nuked.
16.5) INTERNAL must also be used for any releases that have already been
pred as XViD. Non-internal codec dupes are not allowed.

[ Changelog ]

Rev1.1 - Fixed the resizing examples

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