Naming Conventions for File and Folder Names#
Note: This page details the general guidelines that apply to all types of releases. See the other pages in the section for examples per category.
Also note that these are merely recommendations. Feel free to alter them to your own preferences.
File names are recommended to contain the following elements:#
The items are arranged roughly in a sequential order. For example, conventionally, the Resolution comes before the Source in the filename.
The name must not contain any non-ASCII characters. Use an online tool like this or this to validate it.
Movie Title#
Either the original language title or English title from IMDb.
To include both titles, put an "AKA", but put the year first, otherwise it breaks metadata scraping in programs like Plex or Kodi.
Example: Original.Title.2010.AKA.English.Title
-
Remove any special characters like "/" or ":" since they are invalid in file / folder names on some OSes.
-
For foreign language titles, replace any accented characters with English equivalent ones.
Examples: ร with a | ฤ with c | รด with o | รฆ with ae. Some online tools to help with this: One | Two | Three.
- DVDs and Blu-ray Discs often have abbreviated or incomplete labels as the folder name. These need to be changed to the proper movie title.
For example, change PIRATES_CARIBBEAN to Pirates.of.the.Caribbean.Dead.Mans.Chest
Year#
The year mentioned on IMDb.
For movie collection boxsets:
- Year of release of the boxset, e.g.
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, No. 1 [2013] - Year range covering the movies in the boxset, e.g.
David Cronenberg's Early Works [1966-1970]
Cut / Version#
Any relevant cut or version name, like Unrated, Extended.Cut, Directors.Cut, English.Dub, IMAX Version
Check IMDb's "Technical specs" and "Alternate Versions" page to find out information about different cuts of a movie.
For example, Deadpool 2's Technical specs and Alternate Versions pages.
If IMDb does not have any relevant info, try these sources:
- Wikipedia
- Blu-ray.com
- Movie-Censorship.com
- Webpage of the Blu-ray / DVD distributor
PROPER / REPACK / RERIP#
-
REPACKis used when fixing some error in your own earlier release, like changing the audio, adding a subtitle, fixing wrongly tagged language, etc.Do NOT reuse the initial filename unless it had zero snatches. It causes confusion when there are multiple files out in the wild with identical file names.
-
PROPERis similar toREPACKโ generally used when replacing a release by a different user or group. -
RERIPis similar toREPACKโ generally used when you actually reencoded the video, like to fix a glitch or a new encode from a superior source.
Resolution#
- For SD encodes from SD sources, resolution can be skipped.
- For SD encodes from HD sources, use
480por576pas applicable. - For HD and UHD content, use
720p,1080i,1080p,2160pas applicable.
Source#
- SD encodes:
DVDRip,NTSC.DVDRip,PAL.DVDRip,TVRip,VHSRip,WEBRip,LDRip - SD Blu-ray encodes:
480p.BluRay,576p.BluRay - SD sources:
DVD5,DVD9,NTSC.DVD5,NTSC.DVD9,PAL.DVD5,PAL.DVD9,WEB-DL - HD/UHD encodes:
BluRay,UHD.BluRay,WEBRip,HDTV,UHDTV,HD-DVD - HD/UHD sources:
Blu-ray,UHD.Blu-ray,Blu-ray.Remux,BD25,BD50,BD66,BD100,WEB-DL,HDTV,UHDTV,HD-DVD - For full blu-ray discs, region or distributor name can be added, e.g.
GER.Blu-ray,GER.BD50,Kino.Lorber.BD66 - For WEB-DLs, the name of the source should be added, e.g.
AMZN.WEB-DL,NF.WEB-DL,DSNP.WEB-DL,HMAX.WEB-DL,HULU.WEB-DL,MUBI.WEB-DL,VIMEO.WEB-DL,ATVP.WEB-DL
HDR Type#
Put the HDR type, e.g. HDR10, HDR10+, HDR10Plus, DV, DoVi, Dolby.Vision, HLG, HDR10.Dolby.Vision, HDR10.DV, HDR10+.DoVi
Use HDR10Plus instead of HDR10+ because the + symbol gets stripped by some scripts that cross-upload to other places.
How to check the mediainfo for the HDR type:
Important: Use a recent version of mediainfo, preferably the latest one. Old versions can have incomplete or entirely missing HDR metadata.
Some seedboxes come pre-installed with old versions. But mediainfo can be compiled and installed even on shared seedboxes, so upgrade it first.
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 3 h 8 min
Bit rate : 51.1 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.257
Stream size : 67.3 GiB (93%)
Writing library : ATEME Titan File 3.9.6 (4.9.6.2)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 1114 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 109 cd/m2
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5@Main
HDR format : SMPTE ST 2094 App 4, Version 1, HDR10+ Profile B compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 1 h 54 min
Bit rate : 14.6 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 1 600 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.099
Stream size : 11.6 GiB (96%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 642 cd/m2
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 1 h 49 min
Bit rate : 73.5 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.370
Stream size : 56.4 GiB (95%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0010 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 899 cd/m2
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2094 App 4, Version 1, HDR10+ Profile B compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate : 55.9 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.281
Stream size : 46.6 GiB (94%)
Language : German
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0001 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Original source medium : Blu-ray
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@Main
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 58 min 0 s
Bit rate : 18.6 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.090
Stream size : 7.52 GiB (99%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : BT.2020 (10-bit)
transfer_characteristics_Original : HLG / BT.2020 (10-bit)
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
PQ10 is basically a more rudimentary form of HDR10. It consists of the PQ transfer function and 10 bit depth, but no SMPTE ST.2086 static metadata.
See page 30 in the Ultra HD Forum Guidelines v2.6 for more information.
The mediainfo of such files lacks the HDR format line, but the video is still HDR.
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5@High
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 38 min 46 s
Bit rate : 15.9 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 1 608 pixels
Original height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.108
Stream size : 4.32 GiB (94%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
In very rare cases, such a PQ BT.2020 video will be SDR instead of HDR. To know which one it is, play the video on your PC or take some screenshots โ if the video looks washed out (desaturated colors), it is PQ10. If the colors look normal, it is SDR.
Video Format#
- Encodes:
x264,x265,XviD,DivX - Discs:
AVC,HEVC,MPEG-2,VC-1 MPEG-2can be skipped on DVDs because they are always MPEG-2.- Remuxes:
H.264,H.265,AVC,HEVC,VC-1,MPEG-2 -
WEB-DLs:
H.264,H.265,HEVC,x264,x265-
AVC and H.264 are the same format, but the convention is to use H.264 on WEB-DLs. Similarly, HEVC and H.265 are the same format, but H.265 is more frequently used on WEB-DLs.
-
x264 and x265 must only be used in WEB-DL file names if the mediainfo shows the encoding settings present. One school of thought is that WEB-DLs should always use H.264 and H.265 instead of x264 and x265 respectively, regardless of the presence of encoding settings.
-
-
HDTV captures are generally either
H.264orMPEG-2 - HDTV encodes are generally
x264
Audio Format#
-
Lossy:
DD5.1,DD-EX.5.1,DDP5.1,AC3,AAC2.0,MPA2.0,DTS,DTS.5.1,DTS-ES.6.1Use
DDPinstead ofDD+because the '+' symbol gets stripped by some scripts that cross-upload to other places. -
Lossless:
DTS-HD.MA.5.1,DTS-HD.MA.2.0,TrueHD.5.1,FLAC2.0,LPCM1.0 - Object-based formats:
TrueHD.7.1.Atmos,DTS-X,DDP5.1.Atmos,E-AC3.Atmos
Alternate names of audio formats in mediainfo:
Mediainfo uses different names for some audio formats than what is conventionally used in filenames.
| โ Mediainfo's "Format" field | โ Use instead | ๐ฌ Comment |
|---|---|---|
DTS XLL |
DTS-HD.MA |
Not to be confused with DTS XLL X which is an object-based format like Dolby Atmos |
DTS ES XLL |
DTS-HD.MA |
DTS-HD MA track with a DTS-ES core |
DTS XLL X |
DTS-X |
Do not use DTS:X because colons are not a valid character on some OSes |
DTS XBR |
DTS-HD.HRA |
Has similar bitrates as DTS-HD MA, but is a lossy format |
DTS LBR |
DTS.Express |
This format has poor compatibility, so it is useful to identify in the file name |
MLP FBA |
TrueHD |
Add 5.1 / 7.1 based on mediainfo's channel info |
MLP FBA 16-ch |
TrueHD.7.1.Atmos |
None |
E-AC-3 JOC |
DDP5.1.Atmos |
Use DDP instead of DD+. The '+' symbol gets stripped by some cross-upload scripts |
Group Tag#
Any tag you wish to use to identify the release as yours.
The tag must always be the at the end of the file name. Format should be -TAG, without any space before the -
Do not use a tag that is already in use by another known group or releaser.