What does “R5″ mean?
R5 releases are a studio-produced, unmastered Telecine transfer of the film put out quickly and cheaply to compete against piracy in Russia. Mostly they are released with Russian audio only, so scene groups have to source direct English audio. For this reason, audio quality may be lacking, whilst the video quality is usually comparable to a DVDScr.
When R5 DVDs are released without an English audio track, the alternative source could be the direct line audio from the film’s theatrical release. In this case, the pirated release should be tagged with “R5.LINE” to distinguish it from a release with a DVD audio track.
The abbreviation “R5″ literally means “Region-5″, which includes Russia, among others (see DVD Region Codes). However in this context, ‘R5′ generally refers to the studio-produced telecines put out in Russia and not the retail region 5 DVD releases.
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That’s right, the only thing I wanted to add is that most of the time those quick discs are never replaced with a proper, normal R5 DVD in Russia, so we’re stuck with that crappy telecine disc.
Lenny Nero
September 12, 2008
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Anonymous
November 11, 2009