A pre
vhs tape, sent to rental stores, and various other places for promotional use. A screener is supplied on a vhs tape, and is usually in a
4:3 (fullscreen) a/r, although
letterboxed screeners are sometimes found. The main
draw back is a "ticker" (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number). Also, if the tape contains any serial numbers, or any other markings that could lead to the source of the tape, these will have to be blocked, usually with a
black mark over the section. This is sometimes only for a few seconds, but unfortunately on some copies this will last for the entire film, and some can be quite big. Depending on the equipment used, screener quality can range from excellent if done from a MASTER copy, to very poor if done on an old VHS recorder thru poor capture equipment on a copied tape. Most screeners are transferred to
VCD, but a few attempts at
SVCD have occured, some looking better than others.
(Sometimes abbreviated with SCR, DVDSCR.)