Few CD Manufacturers

 

 

BOD Berlin Optical Disc GmbH (1986=>)

a.k.a. DOCdata Germany (1992-2008)

a.k.a. Docdata Media GmbH (2008-2010)

 

German full-service CD/DVD manufacturing company founded in 1986 with plant in Berlin. The company was part of the Netherlands-based DOCdata company for years but nowadays once again operates as an independand media manufacturer. 

 

Older CD matrixes often contain BOD and those from the DOCdata era DOCdata Germany logo. I haven't encountered releases made by them since around 2006. 

 

Known LBRs:

IFPI LL88 (source: Stratovarius - Intermission special edition in longform digipak, made around 2001)

 

Known mould code patterns:

IFPI 52**

 

 

 

CD-Linja Oy

 

Finnish CD manufacturing company that had a plant in Finland and pressed a lot of Finnish CDs between about 1995-2005. Sold to DCM in 2001, supposedly closed in 2009.

 

Probably established sometime in the early 90s, sold to DCM Sweden (DCM=Digital Communication Media) around early/mid 2001 and became part of d:centia in 2005 when DCM Sweden from Sweden, SDC (aka DanDisc or Scandinavian Duplicating Center) from Denmark and Tocano from Denmark formed d:centia. The former CD-Linja Oy plant was supposedly closed in 2009. It's said that due to the small Finnish market they never had any CD mastering capacity of their own and, at least in the beginning, all of their CD masterings were made by DCM in Sweden, IFPI L051 was the common SID code for both companies at the time. IFPI L051 did seem to be their most commonly used LBR in the 90s but strangely since the late 90s CD-Linja had several different mastering codes on their CDs. They probably outsourced the mastering to other companies as well. 

 

CD-Linja Oy pressed CDs usually have "CD-LINJA OY" or "CD-LINJA Digital Communication Media" laser burned on the matrix or sometimes only oval cdl logo usually on the transparent center area of the CD along with mould SID code. The oval cdl logo may sometimes be laser burned on the matrix as well and it's VERY similar to the dcm logo left by DCM Sweden plant on the CDs it pressed in the early to mid 90s.

 

Based on the CDs I have CD-Linja started using mould SID codes in late 1999 or early 2000, around that time it became a standard that the oval cdl logo is stamped on the transparent center area of the CD if the CD was pressed by CD-Linja Oy. Mastering SID codes were taken in use few years before the mould codes. 

 

Known LBRs:

IFPI L051 (source: Nightwish - The Carpenter single released in 1997, the only official edition of the single)

IFPI L052 (source: Nightwish - From Wishes to Eternity DVD, 2001, DCM era)

IFPI L055 (source: Amorphis - Alone single, 2001, not yet DCM era,

                                this mastering SID code is often on the edge of the metallic center and sometimes only partially visible or may even be completely absent)

IFPI L056 (source: Nightwish - Ever Dream single released in 2002, DCM era)

IFPI L063 (source: Nightwish - Oceanborn, first edition with lyrics of Walking in the Air on the booklet released in December 1998)

 

Known mould code patterns:

IFPI C9**; most often IFPI C9C#, rarely IFPI C9D# or IFPI C9F# (as an independent company and as part of DCM Sweden) 

IFPI 17C# (while part of d:centia/DCM Sweden)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Data-Mate

 

Finnish CD and DVD manufacturer and, at the moment, the only one fully owned by Finns. 

 

For a long time it seemed they didn't use IFPI codes at all but around 2011 some releases carried very small and nearly unreadable IFPI codes. 

Looks like their CDs/DVDs are pressed in Finland but based on the few mastering SID codes at least some of their CDs are mastered externally in Germany. 

 

 

 

Disc Manufacturing Inc

 

US CD manufacturer active under this name at least between 1990-1997. Supposedly sold in 1997 after which CD matrices no longer contained reference to Disc Manufacturing Inc although as far as I know this only refers to the newly burned glass masters while all the represses made from old glass masters still continued to display Disc Manufacturing in the matrix. Also, apparently their mould SID codes were transfered to the next owner of the plant and the same mould codes continued to be used for at least few years after 1997. There exists some Amorphis releases from the turn of the millenium that clearly carry both of the the old Disc Manufacturing Inc's SID codes but have significantly different matrices than the Disc Manufacturing Inc had.

 

Known LBRs:

IFPI L801 (source: Amorphis - Elegy, made in around 1996-1997)

IFPI L803 (source: Amorphis - My Kantele cardboard sleeve promo, retail digipak and retail jewel case releases all most likely from around 1997)

IFPI L804 (source: Amorphis - Privilege of Evil reissue probably from the mid to late 90s)

 

Known mould code patterns:

IFPI 2F**  

 

 

 

Sony DADC Austria AG

aka DADC Austria (1986-1994)

aka Sony DADC (1994-present)

 

CD, DVD and nowadays also blu-ray disc manufacturing company in Austria founded in 1986. Has been one of the most important optical disc manufacturers in Europe since the mid 80s, not just of factory pressed discs but also of home recordable discs. They have two plants in Austria, one in Anif and the other one in Thalgau, and a third plant in the UK. All three aforementioned plants make CDs, DVDs and blu-ray discs. They officially changed their name from DADC Austria to Sony DADC in 1994 though disc matrixes weren't fully updated until the late 90s/early 20s. 

 

Nowadays they use long matrixes that always seem to begin with A in discs made for companies not affiliated with Sony and with S in discs made for companies affiliated with Sony. The long code Axxxxxxxxxx/Sxxxxxxxxxx  seems to have been taken in use in 1994 apparently along with the mastering SID code. 

 

The most common Sony DADC Austria CD matrixes are in the format:

- [DADC Austria logo] [catalogue number] BB CC               [for old releases especially in the 80s and early 90s] 

- [DADC Austria logo] Axxxxxxxxxx-yyzz BB CC                   [for old releases made around 1994-1999]  

- [DADC 'D' logo] A010xxxxxxx-yyzz BB CC                           [in rare cases for releases from the late 90s]

- Sony DADC A010xxxxxxx-yyzz BB CC                                  [for releases made in the 20s for non-Sony affiliated companies]

- Sony DADC S010xxxxxxx-yyzz BB CC                                  [for releases made in the 20s for Sony affiliated companies]

- Sony Music S010xxxxxxx-yyzz BB CC                                  [apparently very rarely around 2007 for releases made for Sony affiliated companies, never seen one myself]

where 

- yy indicates the disc number (always 01 for single-disc releases)

- zz indicates the number of discs in the release (always 01 for single-disc releases, 02 for double-disc releases and so on...) 
- BB is a two digit number, usually between 11-25. The second digit is the same as the last digit of the mastering SID code (IFPI L55x).

   The first digit seems to be 1 for releases never before pressed by Sony DADC and 2 for releases that have been pressed before by Sony DADC. 

- CC is etched into the matrix ring, and is usually A0, A1, A01, B1, B4, B7 etc. Some people think this is the stamper identifier but for now it's not known for sure what it is.

   For some reason the letter always seems to be either A or B and the number most commonly below 10.

   For some releases (most commonly for DADC US made releases but very rarely if never for Sony DADC Austria made releases) the etching is in mirror image. 

 

DVD and blu-ray matrixes may differ greatly from the above matrix schemes but since around 1994 the long code Axxxxxxxxxx/Sxxxxxxxxxx always seems to be there, no matter what the disc format is. 

 

Their mastering quality has usually been slightly towards more old fashioned stuffy and less brickwalled masterings than with many other CD plants, which makes their CDs favourable for audiophiles though lately the difference has grown thinner in newly made discs. 

 

The first ever CD of Finnish artist released in Finland (Eppu Normaali - Kahdeksas ihme) and the first CD single of Finnish artist released in Finland (EppuPopedaNormaali - 20 vuotta sikana / Hyvä kankkunen) were made by Sony DADC in Austria. Also, many early Finnish CDs were made by Sony DADC Austria in the 80s and in the 90s. 

 

Known LBRs:

IFPI L551

IFPI L552

IFPI L553

IFPI L554

IFPI L555

IFPI L556

IFPI L557 (007 Casino Royale 2DVD, 2-disc collector's edition movie disc)

IFPI L558 (007 Casino Royale 2DVD, 2-disc collector's edition bonus disc)

 

Known mould code patterns:

IFPI 94**

 

 

 

Tecnicolor

 

International CD, DVD and Blu-ray disc manufacturer among many other things. Technicolor's website informs it's the largest manufacturer of Blu-ray and DVD products in the world. 

 

Technicolor is known to have or have had three manufacturing plants in Europe: one in the UK in Cwmbran, South Wales (the former Nimbus factory), one in Luxembourg and one in Poland. It was announced in January 2007 that the UK and Luxembourg plants will be closed in 2007. The factory in Piaseczno, Poland, is still operational. I believe the Luxembourg plant used matrix numbers beginning with LU, the Poland plant still uses matrix numbers beginning with CAP and that the UK plant had a completely different looking matrix area typical to other UK made CDs. 

 

Known LBRs:

IFPI LR76 (source: Amorphis - Eclipse CD, reissue from around 2008 probably made in Poland) 

IFPI LR77 (source: Amorphis - Magic and Mayhem CD, from around 2010 probably made in Poland) 

IFPI LR78 (source: Amorphis - Skyforger CD, misspressed first edition made in early 2009 probably in Poland) 

IFPI LR79 (source: Amorphis - The Beginning of Times digibook CD, from around 2011 probably made in Poland) 

IFPI LQ57 (source: Amorphis - Silent Waters promo CD, made in early 2007 probably in the UK) 

IFPI L127 (source: Amorphis - Eclipse faded promo CD, made in 2006 probably in Luxembourg) 

IFPI L128 (source: Amorphis - Eclipse digipak CD, made in 2006 probably in Luxembourg)

 

Known mould code patterns:

IFPI UG** (probably for their stilll operational Polish plant)

IFPI 7Q** (probably for their defunct Luxembourg plant)