Things that were discussed and decided in the iRS meeting:

1. There is a new nfo format.  Lager sent it to everyone that was in the chan, but if you need it, PM LiMP and he will send it to you. Noticable changes to it:

	a. No more casts or plot listings... is what the imdb link is for.
	b. US theater release date to be added. It can be found at amazon.com

2. No more non-chapter cue files.  Everyone should be having dvd2svcd use the dvd chapters. No need for .cue files without chapters anymore, no one else includes them anymore, and just causes more hassle for people here.  As well, with the new iRS intro movie everyone should be adding now, it requires a chaptered .cue file we found out. (The hard way too!)

3. EDIT YOUR CUE FILES!!!! Take the 10 secs to edit your cue files made by dvd2svcd.  You should be renaming both the bin and cue files to an appropriate name for the movie, and then editing the .cue file to remove the path and change the .bin name in it.  It looks bad when someone goes to burn it and the program says it is an invalid cue point.

4. Make your filesizes on the bitrate tab 3MB smaller. When adding the iRS Intro movie, it requires space on the first CD, and so we have to drop the CD sizes so that the first CD isn't an overburn.  If you are using 740 then manually edit it to 737, or if using 800 to 797.  This will make the first CD the right size and 3MB on the other ones is not a big deal.

5. Use WinRAR 3.0 to package your movies.  WinRAR 3.0 is to be used from now on for all movies.  There is to be NO COMPRESSION... only use the STORE function.  As well, we are switching to the partXX format for naming. I will go over naming conventions later in this briefing.

6. Be careful when making your .nfo files.  It should be easier now that we have removed a lot of the information in them, so take your time.  I have seen some with the wrong movie title in the nfo, or wrong runtimes etc.  Also, no TABs are to be used in the .nfo files... only spaces. I probably have to edit 1 out of 4 .nfo files.

7. iRS discussions only in #iRS. Sometimes iRS discussions have started in servers and gone on for a bit. If you are chatting with someone in there and mention iRS for a bit, no biggie.. but if you realize it is getting involved please move to #iRS. Some people have mentioned they don't like the iRS chat too much in #serversrus.

8. Last CDs in the movie should be atleast 1/2 full. So if you rip a movie using 3 cds that should be 2... your last cd will probably be less than 1/2 full... please do not up it. As a rull of thumb.. the last CD should be at least 400MB or more... preferably full.. but can't always happen.

9. 16:9 ripping does not mean the aspect ratio is 16:9. When filling out your nfo, use amazon.com to find out the actual aspect ratio.  WS movies are usually 2.35:1 or 1.85:1 and are rarely 16:9.  Take the second to look while you are at amazon.com getting the release dates.

10. Watch your DVDs in PowerDVD before ripping.  Before you rip, watch the movie in a windowed PowerDVD (not fullscreen).  There is a post on the board about what methods (4:3 or 16:9) should be used in dvd2svcd depending on how it looks in PowerDVD.

11. The following changes for format and packaging are to be followed from now on:

	a. VIDEO: Must be at least 1750kbit average with a 2230kbit max average and a 2450kbit max.

	b. AUDIO: Minimum 224kbit @ 44.1khz (regardless of source).

	c. PACKAGING: All releases must be BIN/CUE. (remove path from cue files)Must be packed with RAR,
                      compression is NOT ALLOWED and broken into 15 or 20 MB volumes.

	d. SAMPLES: Minimum 30 seconds, maximum 1 full minute in length.

	e. FILENAMES: All filenames should be labeled as follows:

			[b:2r2y89b6]Movie.Name.CD#-iRS.partXX.rar[/b:2r2y89b6]

        e. DIRECTORY NAMING: Directory names shall NOT exceed 64 characters.All releases are to include production year:

			[b:2r2y89b6]Movie.Name.Year.WS/FS.DVDRip.SVCD.iNTERNAL-iRS[/b:2r2y89b6]
		          

12. Do not move movies to complete folder. I will do that once i have checked the release. I usually check a couple of times a day if i know a lot of uploading is going on. Once i have checked filenames and nfos etc.. and the sample, and it looks good, I will move it... and i usually PM people if there is a bad file or something in case they don't realize.

13. It is suggested that you have a different nick in your nfos than you use on iRC.  This is for security reasons and is for your own benefit.  PM LiMP to tell him what your iRS nick is once you have it.

14.  Lastly, we run our group on trust, and that is what keeps us a tight bunch.  However, we do not have the resources for pubs/dumps and so everyone has to contribute to keep things going.  We can't afford having people leeching and not uploading movies.  This hasn't been too much of a problem yet, but if it does become one we may have to switch to a ratio system.  All we ask is that you try to rip 2 movies a month. We don't think that is unreasonable, and if everyone does 2 a month, that is plenty of movies for our viewing pleasure.

You may be wondering why all these changes.  They are either things that we have thought about for a bit but haven't implemented yet, or for adherence to the svcd council standards.  The svcd council was a meeting of a bunch of svcd groups to discuss scene standards.  They have released a (very-hard-to-find) document with the results, and we are going to follow 99% of them.  There is also another reason why all these changes are coming, but I am not posting it here on the board.  PM me on iRC if you want to know why, or have any questions about this post.

[b:2r2y89b6] Movies will not be accepted if they don't follow these rules.  You are warned.  Do no bitch at me if I don't accept your release for any of these reasons.  Taking the 5 mins extra while setting up a rip or packaging can save you a big headache! [/b:2r2y89b6]