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Manufacturing Dates in Mint Marks
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=9059
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Author:  cplusplus [ 13 May 2020, 18:25 ]
Post subject:  Manufacturing Dates in Mint Marks

It looks like the center three digits of a Technidisc mint mark correspond to the month and year it was manufactured:
#123-MMY-123A

i.e. #024-063-827B = June 1993

Author:  blam1 [ 14 May 2020, 00:47 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

This seems to hold true, but it looks more like month/year the order was placed. The mastering date sometimes is out from this. For example:
#024-112-592A 12/19/92J (from "Best of Video Playmate Calendars") where 112 is November 92 and the date is... obviously the date of mastering. The mastering date codes seem to vary in structure too. Sometimes they are actual dates, other times they appear to be "03061L" which might mean 03/06/91. I've seen "5A19Q" which seems to be 01/19/95 and "5A8N" which I take to mean 01/08/95.

If all of this is correct, it looks like "Playboy: Hard Bodies" was one of the last Technidisc titles mastered (6G26G)

Author:  admin [ 14 May 2020, 01:57 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

Let's see if the only Technidisc I own checks out...

Sting: Fields of Gold 1984-1994 (1994) [089 623-1]

582-104-016T 5A4G#

Maybe project #582, mastered October 1994?
That could work.

The oldest Technidisc with a release year and mint marks we have in the database is: Ford Video Communications Network: The Trial of Employe Involvement/The People Factor (1983) [4VC012~3]

004 063 004C 7-13-83 A
004-073-005E 7-19-83 E


Could be project #4, June and July 1983 while the rest of the info is obviously a date of manufacturing: 13-Jul-1983 and 19-Jul-1983.

Another old one: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) [11375 LV]

First Pressing:
014-074-002T 10-1-84B
014-074-003W 10-6-84A
014-074-004M 9-29-84A

Repressing:
014-037-002AH 09020F S1
014-037-003AK 09020I S2
014-037-004AH 08230J S3


Project #14, mastered July 1984, manufactured 1-Oct-1984, 6-Oct-1984 and 29-Sept-1984.
New master from March 1987, manufactured... 2-Sept-1987 and 23-Aug-1987 + Side information.

The final letters (F,I,J) don't seem to give a year.

Most recent are:

Cries and Whispers #207 (1972) [CC1359L]
#024-073-857A

Working With Orson Welles (1993) [ID3143GA]
025-075-589A 5G7C#

So... projects #24 and #25, but the central dates doesn't see to match the 1998 and 1999 releases.
That would be July 1993 and July 1995!

They might have changed the structure a some point.

Julien

Author:  cplusplus [ 14 May 2020, 02:17 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

Cries and Whispers might be incorrect. Jacket says "First Printing 1993", which would make those 1993 mint marks match up.

My disc has:
CC1359L-A01-K
CC1359L-B03-K

Which is Kuraray correct?

Author:  admin [ 14 May 2020, 02:25 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

cplusplus wrote:
Cries and Whispers might be incorrect. Jacket says "First Printing 1993", which would make those 1993 mint marks match up.


That could be a wrong release date indeed.

cplusplus wrote:
Which is Kuraray correct?


Yes it is. So first pressing at Technidisc, repressed at Kuraray?

Julien

Author:  cplusplus [ 14 May 2020, 02:34 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

admin wrote:
cplusplus wrote:
Cries and Whispers might be incorrect. Jacket says "First Printing 1993", which would make those 1993 mint marks match up.


That could be a wrong release date indeed.

I found a reference to it in a Billboard article from Sep 23, 1995 (Vol. 107, No. 38). Price was 49.95 but it sounded like it had been out a while.

admin wrote:
cplusplus wrote:
Which is Kuraray correct?


Yes it is. So first pressing at Technidisc, repressed at Kuraray?

Seems to be the case. Now to decipher Kuraray's :lol:

DADC's looks strictly incremental.

Author:  admin [ 14 May 2020, 02:42 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

cplusplus wrote:
DADC's looks strictly incremental.


Yes they are: https://www.lddb.com/mint/dadc-usa

Julien

Author:  cplusplus [ 14 May 2020, 02:49 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

admin wrote:
cplusplus wrote:
DADC's looks strictly incremental.

Yes they are: https://www.lddb.com/mint/dadc-usa

Excellent! I was hoping something like that existed.

Author:  je280 [ 14 May 2020, 05:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

A very informative thread - thanks.

Author:  admin [ 14 May 2020, 05:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

cplusplus wrote:
Excellent! I was hoping something like that existed.


Planning to do the same with Pioneer USA masters refs at some point.

YY-NNN-A1-01 or YY-NNNA1-01

Early Pioneer Japan were like this too if my memory is correct.

Julien

Author:  admin [ 14 May 2020, 12:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

admin wrote:
Planning to do the same with Pioneer USA masters refs at some point.


I'm getting old, I already had done it!

SONY => https://www.lddb.com/mint/dadc-usa
PIONEER => https://www.lddb.com/mint/pioneer-usa

Added links to the titles and the total masters count at the end.

Julien

Author:  blam1 [ 14 May 2020, 17:18 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

admin wrote:
Let's see if the only Technidisc I own checks out...

Sting: Fields of Gold 1984-1994 (1994) [089 623-1]

582-104-016T 5A4G#

Maybe project #582, mastered October 1994?
That could work.



I'm thinking the original work-order date '104' is October '94 as speculated, However, the master appears to have been made January 4, '95 (5A4). The third sequence '016T', the 016 part is incremental. I think the letter "T" is the glass master ID, starting at "A". The 20th mastering!?!. And then the final 'G', maybe the stamper ID (starting at "A")?

Author:  cplusplus [ 14 May 2020, 17:45 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

admin wrote:
PIONEER => https://www.lddb.com/mint/pioneer-usa

Added links to the titles and the total masters count at the end.

I was wondering if the first two digits corresponded to anything significant for Pioneer. That list certainly helps.

It looks like the first two digits correspond to a category of some sort, with the middle three incrementing to 999 then incrementing the "category" number.

01-20: Educational or small batch discs
23-29: Adult
30: PAL
5X: General US releases
9X: Most of the 80s, up to mid-1991. Pioneer USA completed some major upgrades around mid-1991. I want to confirm the exact date, but I can't find the article again where I read this.

Author:  admin [ 14 May 2020, 18:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

blam1 wrote:
I'm thinking the original work-order date '104' is October '94 as speculated, However, the master appears to have been made January 4, '95 (5A4). The third sequence '016T', the 016 part is incremental. I think the letter "T" is the glass master ID, starting at "A". The 20th mastering!?!. And then the final 'G', maybe the stamper ID (starting at "A")?


More data to meditate* on :-)

https://www.lddb.com/mint/technidisc

Julien

* = private joke for blam1

Author:  cplusplus [ 14 May 2020, 19:05 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

At a glance:

023-025 = Image Entertainment
028 = Lumivision
063 = A*Vision Entertainment
326 = Polygram Video
418 = Voyager
433 = Fox Video
534 = Various Hong Kong publishers
609 = BMG Music Video
758 = MPI Home Video

Author:  cplusplus [ 14 May 2020, 19:55 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

blam1 wrote:
admin wrote:
Let's see if the only Technidisc I own checks out...

Sting: Fields of Gold 1984-1994 (1994) [089 623-1]

582-104-016T 5A4G#

Maybe project #582, mastered October 1994?
That could work.



I'm thinking the original work-order date '104' is October '94 as speculated, However, the master appears to have been made January 4, '95 (5A4). The third sequence '016T', the 016 part is incremental. I think the letter "T" is the glass master ID, starting at "A". The 20th mastering!?!. And then the final 'G', maybe the stamper ID (starting at "A")?

Could T mean the 20th stamper? With 5A4G# only covering plastic?

I believe they always tried to keep just a single master due to the time and money involved to make one. From there, they could scale in the stamper phase of production. If it was a small run, a single stamper could be used for 20,000-30,000 sides. If it was a large run, essentially stampers were created from stampers so replication could scale to several million from a single master. I read that in Videodisc and Optical Memory Systems (I highly recommend if you are considering opening up a laserdisc plant. :lol: )

That being said, 20 stampers for that Sting disc seems high unless they always made a set amount due to quality control concerns or if the process was automated to the point where it would take too long to change it.

Author:  admin [ 15 May 2020, 16:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

cplusplus wrote:
It looks like the first two digits correspond to a category of some sort, with the middle three incrementing to 999 then incrementing the "category" number.


The Pioneer improved list found a few typos and mistakes that I fixed along the way.

Also put a filter for these "masters" that keeps coming back very often... for some reasons ;-)

  • 07-400 = dead side for 12" NTSC
  • 07-440 = dead side for 12" NTSC
  • 37-400 = dead side for 12" PAL
  • 38-400 = dead side for 8" PAL
  • 97-400 = dead side for 12" NTSC
  • 98-000 = dead side for 8" NTSC

Julien

Author:  admin [ 15 May 2020, 17:17 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

Also gave DADC Austria a run.

2 types of mint markings:

1/ Either a sequential master on 10 digits (the list I created)

Lowest = A0000029988 for Cliffhanger (1993) [LD 14600]
Highest = A0100272460 is Sexcrimes (1998) [LD 66590]

2/ Or a rather simple master ref with the LD catalog included

Ex: A3BFFLD11774 for Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The (1988) [LD 11774])

=> https://www.lddb.com/mint/dadc-austria

Julien

Author:  cplusplus [ 15 May 2020, 18:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

Fun fact for DADC USA:
I think they began LD replication sometime around March 1990. By Fall 1991, they had reached 1 million pressings with Fantasia being the millionth.

With Fantasia being 000492, that gives us a very rough indication on numbers.

Author:  blam1 [ 15 May 2020, 18:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: Manufacturing Dates in Technidisc Mint Marks

admin wrote:
Also gave DADC Austria a run.

2 types of mint markings:

1/ Either a sequential master on 10 digits (the list I created)

Lowest = A0000029988 for Cliffhanger (1993) [LD 14600]
Highest = A0100272460 is Sexcrimes (1998) [LD 66590]

2/ Or a rather simple master ref with the LD catalog included

Ex: A3BFFLD11774 for Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The (1988) [LD 11774])

=> https://www.lddb.com/mint/dadc-austria

Julien


I've come across a variant where the DADC USA mint markings are carried over to Austria:
Stripes - Widescreen
USA: LDVS-002137-A-A2
Austria: A3DEELDVS2137 62

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