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.)