Hi,

I have most recently noticed that there a couple of Taiwanese laserdiscs on this forum that have unusual mint marks however it is quite obvious who actually manufactured these because the IFPI Code L602 is included in these mint marks.

L602 stands for U-TECH Media Corporation. Taiwan, a company that exists to this day.

I think it would make sense to add this company as a pressing factory to the lddb database.

I emailed U-TECH twice asking for confirmation but they didn't even bother replying.

Examples:

Story of O, The Series: The Castle in the Spring [951201]
Saint of Fort Washington, The (1993) [ADL-012]
Milly (Murder in Law) (1989) [CY-1005]
Nick & Eddy in Trouble (1992) [CY-1006]
Mega Hits Karaoke: vol.2 Pop Indonesia [W-002-95]
Everlasting Love Song: vol. 3 [HLD-1003]

We might have to dig further, the U-TECH was established around the end of global retail LaserDisc production, can't be that entity.

U-Tech Media Corporation (鈺德科技股份有限公司) is a Taiwanese company that has run numerous optical disc manufacturing plants in several countries through its existence. The company was established in March 2000 by parent company Ritek Corporation, which itself was established in 1988 as Taiwan's first optical disc manufacturer.

Julien

Ok convinced! Still weird they are using the same IFPI code

Pre-2000 L602 confirmed with Ritek on this 1997 CD:

https://www.discogs.com/release/8902925-Yes-Cinema-Sessions

But Discogs also mentions:



Julien

I do have a few of these U-Tech karaoke LDs.

I'll check to see if they have any manufacture dates on them when I get home.

OK I think there is a possibility that Ritek is UTECH's parent company. On the English Wikipedia site it says that in the Ritek article that "In 1999, U-TECH Media Corporation was formed as the largest pre-recorded medium manufacturer in Taiwan." On UTECH's website it says that "After invested and set up by RiTEK, U-TECH became a professional pre-recorded disc factory in Taiwan." But that was already mentioned in Julien's post before but I didn't notice.

So it is the same company! Hence the identical IFPI code. So I am 99,9 % certain that Ritek is the correct name of the manufacturer of these laserdiscs.

But what I have also found out by the way is that there was a laserdisc factory in Shenzhen, China, too. The name was 深圳先科激光电视总公司. It's mentioned on this Chinese website: https://www.sznews.com/news/content/mb/2018-09/27/content_21107736_0.htm

The English translation of the relevant passage here reads (Google Translate is your friend):

"In 1991, in a modern blue and white factory building in Bagualing Industrial Zone, China's first laser video disc industrial base, Shenzhen Xianke Laser TV Corporation, produced the first laser video disc and formed an annual production capacity of 5 million laser discs, 50,000 laser broadcasters, 1.5 million laser discs, and 50,000 laser video disc composite broadcasters..."

It would be most interesting to find out what these laserdiscs looked like (mint marks, pressed titles, etc.).

The name of this company now is SAST Shenzhen which is also mentioned here: https://www.fromgeek.com/corp/1243-476380.html

Damn! I think I have just found something else 1 minute ago!

Mission of the Shark (The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis) (1991) [---]

There is a publisher on lddb.com called S.A.S.T. Laservideo Co. Ltd. Shenzhen! If you check the Chinese name of the company on the cover then it is exactly the same as mentioned in my previous post: 深圳先科激光电视总公司!

https://www.lddb.com/search.php?adv_search=*&studio=304

And if you check all of the SAST distributed titles on lddb.com they all have the same mint marks (no mint marks at all that is)! That's why everybody was thinking it is PDO UK but it is actually SAST Shenzhen producing these discs!
It has been my conviction for a long time now that these PDO style discs were never produced by PDO UK. It simply didn't make any sense at all, geographical distance, and the width of the inner ring is different too compared to genuine PDO discs.

So I believe we have now solved the mystery of who was producing these PDO UK style laserdiscs for the Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese markets! It most certainly wasn't PDO UK, it was SAST Shenzhen!

So I think I am now able to say that we have two new pressing factories established:

Ritek Taiwan (with IFPI code L602)
SAST Shenzhen (with no mint marks at all, similar in appearance to PDO UK and Sonopress Germany discs that are/were often indistinguishable from each other)

WOW I cannot believe it !!! YES !!!

So I have already been able to find / discover three different manufacturing sites:

SKC Korea
SAST Shenzhen
Ritek Taiwan

Not too bad I think.

I have also found a picture with Deng Xiaoping visiting the aforementioned factory in Shenzhen:

http://www.locpg.hk/jsdt/2017-01/19/c_129453644_5.htm

First I thought it was a fake photo but it's from a government website (Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong S.A.R. ).

I have also found an article mentioning his visit in 1992:

http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2016/1110/c ... 50938.html

Google Translate is your friend once again:

"Deng Nan picked up a shining laser disc and showed it to Comrade Xiaoping. This mirror-like platter can store 108,000 frames of crisp images with true-to-life colors, and can be stored for a long time without wearing. When Comrade Xiaoping heard this, he was very interested and asked, "What kind of material?" The comrade of the company replied: "The plastic is plated with a layer of silver." He also watched with great interest the performance of the laser disc's features, acoustics, functions and retrieval capabilities."

108000 frames that would be 60 minutes of NTSC video. So that makes sense.

Also something here:

https://www.dswxyjy.org.cn/n1/2023/0224 ... 30589.html

"Ye Huaming reported that the company produces hundreds of domestic and foreign film discs every year, and Deng Xiaoping immediately asked how to solve the copyright, and Ye Huaming replied that the copyright should be purchased according to international rules. Deng Xiaoping nodded in approval."

And here: https://news.sina.cn/gn/2017-02-14/deta ... =3049_0015

It's also mentioned on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Xiao ... twin_22-12

"The next day, he visited the high-profile factory of Xianke Laser Company (SAST), a state-owned enterprise that produced laser discs, CD players, and speakers."

Sorry to post again but this is very important !!!

I have found another link here: http://en.people.cn/200201/18/eng20020118_88932.shtml

It says: "Shinco Laser Company, a high-tech enterprise operating with advanced production technology imported from the Dutch Philips Company, is the only firm producing laser disc, video disc and light disc." (Shinco is just another transliteration of the Chinese name Xianke)

That is the reason why they look like PDO UK discs, respectively why they were and are mistaken for PDO UK discs !!! It all makes sense now.

Fascinating information, thank you for your posts, confederate.

I am also fascinated by your abilities to find all of these sites and to put everything together. Very nice work.

That looks pretty unmistakably like a LD:

http://www.locpg.hk/jsdt/2017-01/19/c_129453644_5.htm


So we would assume that:

• IFPI L602 refers to Ritek, a Taiwan company - now known as U-TECH
• China-published LDs with PDO-like lack of markings would be Shenzhen Xianke, a Chinese company - part of the S.A.S.T. Group

Julien

Thank you. All I did was google the words "laserdisc factory China" in Chinese and I found all the information in one evening thanks to Comrade Deng Xiaoping!

It simply didn't make any sense to me that there were so many PDO manufactured titles in the Far East. The vast majority of releases in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, etc., were manufactured in Japan (Pioneer, Kuraray, Mitsubishi, etc.). Taiwan and Korea had their own smaller pressing facilities (SKC, Princo, Ritek, etc.), but even those countries made use of Japanese manufacturers. There are a few exceptions such as Technidisc USA (some Indonesian releases) but that's rare.

In addition, just because it doesn't have any mint marks does it mean it is PDO ? I would always use question marks if I had a disc without mint marks. How do we know for certain ?

Still it doesn't prove that every PDO style disc in the Far East was made by Xianke/SAST but we can safely assume that this is at least the case for every Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese release as well as very likely for almost every other release in the Far East.

I still believe it's possible there are 1,2 other minor manufacturers of laserdiscs somewhere in the Far East but we simply do not know.

Btw, I have found a nice Chinese website (kind of a forum, I guess) with some nice pictures of these Chinese "PDO" pressings:

http://www.crystalradio.cn/thread-2016783-1-1.html

If you look at these pictures you can see that the inner ring looks exactly the same on all pictures. And I also compared them to the two pressings that I have át home:

Cover Story (1993) [LSM-1184]

Indonesian & American Karaoke Laser Discs [HLV-9008]

Both discs look exactly the same as the discs in the aformentioned link. The inner and outer rings are the same (width of inner ring until first ring of dashes 8 mm). No doubt. They are Shenzhen pressings, too. I compared these two pressings to some PDO UK pressings I have at home and they are quite different despite certain obvious similarities (different width of inner ring, etc.).

That one made me laugh!



We all know how the international copyright rules are respected in CCP's China.

Julien

Now the ultimate test... are Shenzen-pressed discs produced with PDO equipment rotting away like PDO production... or was it only a PDO UK quality control issue!

Julien

I only have two such discs in my entire collection and one of these two discs has clear rot on side 2/B, to the point that the audio is distorted, etc. Side 1/A is better but still has rot but at least the audio is OK.

The other disc has mild but clearly noticeable rot, it kind of reminds me of later PDO pressings (ca. 1993/1994) that were not as terrible as earlier PDO pressings (ca. 1986/1987-1991/92), those were the worst years quality wise (many releases with clear bronzing, totally annihilated digital audio, etc.).

Btw, I have compared some of these Ritek mint marks to some of Ritek's CD pressings from the same period and I can see a pattern here. It appears that many "unofficial" releases were pressed by Ritek at that time.

For instance:

Ritek laserdisc: 5739L1 ADL-010-B B01 IFPI L602

Ritek CD: 21372M1 AOTW-94011 IFPI L602

It's very similar. The middle part is the catalogue number / reference number. The first part appears to be the serial number of the production batch which also looks very similar. Obviously, CDs were pressed in larger quantities hence the longer number/extra digit.

So the karaoke disc I have isn't U-Tech but U-Best, so they're probably not part of this company. According to the back, U-Best was based in El Segundo, CA. Also has a Jient Ya Trading Co., LTD copyright.

Not related all all!

We already have this publisher => Jient Ya Trading Co., LTD

Julien

I have received official confirmation from Ritek today:

Regarding your question:
Yes, Ritek Corporation did produce LaserDiscs during the 1990s. At that time, we were one of the optical disc manufacturers involved in pressing LaserDiscs for various publishers, including both domestic and international clients. The code “L602” found in the matrix runout area is indeed associated with our production line.

Your mention of Princo is also accurate — they were another optical disc manufacturer active in the same period.

We’re delighted to know that part of our production history is still of interest to collectors like you. If you have any further questions about our historical products, feel free to reach out.

I would also like to recant my previous statement regarding the Cover Story and Indonesian karaoke laserdiscs believing that these are SAST Shenzhen pressings. It appears that these were in fact pressed by a different company in Taiwan. They are similar but not identical (different width of inner blank area) and use different chapter enconding. My friend David has provided me with some very convincing evidence to that regard. But there is no doubt whatsoever that there was a pressing plant in Shenzhen and that all PDO style Mainland Chinese releases were manufactured there.