Disc Identification/Serialization Data

Anatomy of a PS4 Game Disc

The Identification & Serialisation Data from a PlayStation 4 Game Title contains several Information, which you can find not only on any Game Disc pressed for the PlayStation 4, but also similar for any PlayStation 3 and/or any other Console-based Game Disc, and other Media pressed on CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

Productcode

CD showing IFPI-Codes in detail - there is no BCA visible

Blu-Ray Disc PS3 GAME IFPI- Mastering SID Code single-layer

Blu-Ray Disc PS3 GAME IFPI- Mastering SID Codes dual-layers

Blu-Ray Disc PS4 GAME IFPI- Mastering SID Code single-layer with IFPI logo

DVD showing CBA in detail - on the inner ring is the IFPI

Wii Disk showing CBA in detail - on the inner ring is the IFPI

Wii Super Mario Galaxy PAL - showing IFPI, BCA & Angular Marks

Wii Super Mario Galaxy PAL - BCA cropped

Complete inner ring from a Japanese PS3 Game Disc showing the Mastering Code together with the IFPI logo, the Matrix Code (Productcode) & the Toolstamp (in clockwise direction)

A sketch about the Angular Marks on a optical disc

Screenshot while reading a pressed Blu-ray Movie with Angular Marks

Main article: Productcode

Layout

unique ASCII of length 9 to identify, used for PS1/PSX, PS2/PStwo, PS3, PS4, PSP, PSP2/Vita.

format: XXXXYYYYY (lettercode for XXXX / numbers for YYYYY)

Source Identification Code

The Source Identification Code (SID-Code) can be found on almost all pressed optical discs worldwide since 1994, originally planned as a piracy safeguard, but it's also used for acceptance sampling. It contains two codes, a Mould Code and a Mastering Code. Each code consists the digits "IFPI" (named by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) followed by a four or (less often) five-digit code. These two codes are located in the inner ring from any optical disc (outside the data section) and can be used to trace the location from a manufacturing or mastering plant, where the disc got pressed.

Mastering Plant SID-Codes

Note: There were no distinctions between a single-layer and a dual-layer Game Disc pressed on DVD, UMD and BD.

Region	Disc Type	Platform	SID-Mould Code	Inner Ring Side	SID-Mastering Code(s)	Inner Ring Side	Mastering Plant	Country	Facility	Remark
Japan	CD	PSX	IFPI 45**	Bottom	IFPI L272 IFPI L274 IFPI L275 IFPI L276	on Top	Sony DADC Japan Inc.	Japan	Shizuoka - Haibara District, Shizuoka Prefecture
Japan	CD	PS2	IFPI 45**	?	IFPI L274 IFPI L275	?	Sony DADC Japan Inc.	Japan	Shizuoka - Haibara District, Shizuoka Prefecture
Japan	DVD	PS2	IFPI 45**	?	IFPI L271 IFPI L272 IFPI L275	?	Sony DADC Japan Inc.	Japan	Shizuoka - Haibara District, Shizuoka Prefecture
Japan	UMD	PSP	?	?	IFPI L271	?	?	?	?
Japan	BD	PS3	IFPI 45**	on Top	IFPI L279 IFPI L280	Bottom	Sony DADC Japan Inc.	Japan	Shizuoka - Haibara District, Shizuoka Prefecture
Japan	BD	PS4	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
North America	CD	PSX	IFPI 50** IFPI 51** IFPI 72**	Bottom	IFPI L330 IFPI L336 IFPI L424	on Top	Sony DADC US Inc.	United States	IFPI 50** = Pitman, New Jersey IFPI 51** = Terre Haute, Indiana IFPI 72** = ?
North America	CD	PS2	IFPI 50**	?	IFPI L327 IFPI L330	?	Sony DADC US Inc.	United States	Pitman, New Jersey
North America	DVD	PS2	IFPI QW**	?	IFPI L327 IFPI L330 IFPI L331 IFPI L332	?	Sony DADC US Inc.	United States	Terre Haute, Indiana
North America	UMD	PSP	?	?	IFPI L330 IFPI L331 IFPI L332 IFPI L333	?	?	?	?
North America	BD	PS3	IFPI QW**	on Top	IFPI L321 IFPI L322 IFPI L323 IFPI L324 IFPI L325	Bottom	Sony DADC US Inc.	United States	Terre Haute, Indiana
North America	BD	PS4	?	?	IFPI L325	Bottom	Sony DADC US Inc.	United States	Terre Haute, Indiana
Europe	CD	PSX	IFPI 94**	Bottom	IFPI L553 IFPI L555	on Top	Sony DADC Austria AG	Austria	Anif, near Salzburg
Europe	CD	PS2	IFPI 94**	?	IFPI L558	?	Sony DADC Austria AG	Austria	Anif, near Salzburg
Europe	DVD	PS2	IFPI 94**	Bottom	IFPI L556 IFPI L557 IFPI L558	Bottom	Sony DADC Austria AG	Austria	Anif, near Salzburg
Europe	UMD	PSP	IFPI 94**	Bottom	IFPI L556 IFPI L557 IFPI L558	Bottom	?	?	?
Europe	BD	PS3	IFPI 94**	on Top	IFPI LY23 IFPI LY24 IFPI LY25 IFPI LY26 IFPI LY27	Bottom	?	?	?
Europe	BD	PS4	IFPI 94**	on Top	IFPI LY25 IFPI LY26	Bottom	?	?	?

See also

• SID code implementation guide
• List of SID- (IFPI-) Codes

Matrix Number

The Matrix Number (also known as the Matrix Code) defines an internal alphanumeric code system during the Mastering Process.

Grandmother

When any project get finished, such as audio files for a Audio-CD, movie and/or game files for a DVD/Blu-ray Disc, the Mastering Plant creates a Glass-master Disc. Literally speaking, those aren't Discs like any from retail because in most instances, a Mastering Plant use die glass plates similar to those used in printing. Such a die glass plate are also called Grandmother Disc because this is the very first Disc storing the files from a finished project.

Father

Because those Grandmother Discs are fragile (and mostly larger compared to a retail Disc), you can't use it as a template to press Master Discs for the retail market. Therefore a Mastering Plant creates a negative copy from the die glass plate with the difference that this new plate consists of metal (mostly from Nickel and Zinc). This new metal plate is called the Father Disc (also known as the Metal-master Disc). After the Father Disc was created, the Grandmother Disc gets fully destroyed.

Mother

Since the Father Disc was created and more durable due to their metal ingredients, it would be technically possible using this one template for Replication of retail Discs. But because a Mastering Plant wants to press on several machines simultaneously for faster replication (and to save that one metal plate as a backup), they produce a exact copy from the Father Disc commonly between 20 and 50 times through galvanization. Those copies are called the Mother Disc(s), since those are only copies with the same metal surface like used for the Father Disc, with the difference that those Mother Disc(s) are again positive copies due to the galvanization method (similar to the Grandmother Disc).

Son

After several Mother Disc(s) were created, it needs to create again negative copies to use them finally for replication. Those called Son Disc(s) (or stamper) have already the same form like a retail Disc including the central opening and can be finally used for the replication process. Those stampers keeping their properties for ordinary five years, but even if some gets consumed, it's still possible to create copies from one of the Mother Disc(s) or even from the Father Disc itself, if needed.

Code Explanation

Those codes are also detectable in the inner ring (outside the data section) nearby the Mastering Plant SID-Code, with regional distinctions but with the same rule. Every code gets printed separately (with a hyphen between the codes from the Father- and the Mother Disc), while dual-layer Discs shares only the code from the Father Disc. In spite of that, physical Game Titles released in Japan for both on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 contains the Productcode instead of a Matrix Code, which is also parted with a hyphen because of the same rule (but without any difference between single-layer and dual-layer Discs because there is only one Productcode printed two times on a dual-layer Disc).

Disc (Plate)	Gender	Surface	Template	Reproducible	Japan	North America	Europe
Grandmother	Female	(Die) Glass	Positive	No	Not Available
Father	Male	Metal	Negative	Possible	Productcode	four-digit code mixed with letters and numbers	eleven-digit code beginning with a single letter following by ten numbers
Mother	Female	Metal	Positive	No	Productcode	eight-digit code mixed with letters and numbers	four-digit code beginning with a single letter following by three numbers
Son	Male	Metal	Negative	Yes	one-digit code with a number only	one-digit code with a number only	four-digit code with numbers only

Examples

Game Title	Layer-type	Region	Father	-	Mother		Son
NAtURAL DOCtRINE	Single-layer	Japan	PLJS	-	70001		1
[1]	Single-layer	North America	B4SS	-	000710A1		3
FIFA 14	Single-layer	Europe	A0102211631	-	A511		2000
Killzone: Shadow Fall	Dual-layer	Europe	A0102222087	-	A911		6000
					B911		9000

Burst Cutting Area

The (Narrow) Burst Cutting Area ((N)BCA) can be used for adding further Information such as serial numbers or any other Information about the manufacturing process etc. The BCA-Code is written using a Nd:YAG laser and can be also used as a security measure to avoid illegal copies from a original pressed disc (as used on Game Discs both for the Nintendo GameCube & the Nintendo Wii). Therefore it's impossible to reproduce/copy the BCA with a standard optical disc drive running on a PC/Laptop.

• Location: inner ring, inside data section
• Radius: 1.2 mm (zone between 22.3 ±0.4 mm to 23.5 mm ±0.5 mm (single-layer), 21.0 ±0.4 mm to 22.2 mm ±0.5 mm (dual-layer))
• Data size: 12 bytes (minimum) to 188 bytes (maximum) (in steps of 16 bytes)

Sometimes blank recordable & rewritable discs (such as DVD-R/RW/RAM) also contains a BCA-Code, while Information about the CPRM and other DRM-policies were stored.

A Pre-recorded Media Serial Number (PMSN), located inside the BCA, can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc (but extremely unlikely on PS3/PS4 Game Discs because this is a part from the AACS copy protection).

PIC Zone

This (pre-recorded) PIC Zone, which is included within the BCA (Data size: 0x73 bytes), contains general Information about the disc that includes, but is not restricted to:

• Physical media class and version,
• Physical address of the start of the Data Zone
• Physical address of the start of the outer Zone (if this is a single-layer media, this is the lead-out)
• Number of layers
• Recording Density
• Write power Information

See also

• Standard ECMA-267 - 3rd Edition - April 2001
• Physical Format Specifications for BD-ROM White Paper - 6^th Edition - October, 2010
• Advanced Access Content System (AACS): Blu-ray Disc Pre-recorded Book
• reading BCA - the hard way by naehrwert

Angular Marks

Angular Marks are also a security measure to avoid piracy. It makes the difference that these Marks were located in the data area of a disc (outside the BCA). It works similar to the old Bad Sector copy protection, were the CD-ROM got pressed with zero-filled Physical Sector Numbers, which were unreadable for very old outdated optical disc drives without a RAW-writing function. Instead, the sectors are readable (error correction will fix the angular marks), but a special feature of the DVD controller allows recovering the bit-exact position and size of the laser mark. The result is then stored signed in the BCA, so that the reader can validate it. Since the laser marks are written after producing the discs, the marks cannot be as accurately as required to pass a given BCA. This method is used on the Nintendo Gamecube, for example. This can be circumvented by placing strings of zeros in the actual bitstream, which - to the reader - look identical to an angular laser mark.

It is known that Sony (Pictures Home Entertainment) use these Marks for their retail Blu-ray Movies to avoid illegal copies (which is easy to bypass), but there are no Information about the applicability on PS3/PS4 Game Discs pressed on BD-ROM.

See also

• Anatomy of an Optical Medium Authentication (Part 1)

ROM Mark

Notes

It is unknown if any PS3/PS4 Game Discs contains a ROM Mark because these Marks were only in use when there were several Mastering plants who got the order to press identical DVD's and/or Blu-ray's (for example when one plant in Portugal and another one in Finland got the orders to press the same Blu-ray Movie with identical Languages and Subtitles for releasing in several European markets. Therefore it works like a copy protection between all Mastering plants and those are able to verify if there were other (unlicensed) Mastering plants who reproduces a DVD and/or Blu-ray without permission (like on Third World markets with illegal copies in China, for example). But it seems that there is only one Mastering plant for each Region who owns the License to press PS4 Game Discs. As like, it would be redundant that PS4 Game Discs contains a ROM Mark.

The ROM Mark contains the Volume ID required to decrypt content encrypted using AACS.

So the ROM Mark can be also used as a security measure against piracy, which works together with AACS and already in use with several pressed Blu-ray movies. Of course it would be possible that the ROM Mark communicates with any other file(s) on a PS3/PS4 Game Disc, but with which one (EBOOT.BIN/INSTALL.PKG)? Therefore the following can be thought of as a general Information.

Information

ROM Mark or BD-ROM Mark is a serialization technology designed to make it more difficult for replication plants to do unlogged over-runs (being sold out the back door, without the copyright holder's knowledge) on a pressing.

Only licensed BD-ROM manufacturers have access to the equipment that can make these unique ROM Marks (physical-layer to store key cryptographic secrets).

Although every machine used to laser-cut a master disc is theoretically the same, the motor that spins the blank disc and moves the laser along a spiral track varies slightly in speed and precision. So if a digital marker is put in the middle of a recording, its physical position on the master disc - and every disc then pressed - will be a unique fingerprint of the cutting machine.

• Location: ?
• Length: ?
• Sample: ?

Patents and references

• http://www.google.com/#q=rom+mark+patent
• Blu-ray and HD DVD Content Protection
• Blu-ray Disc Marking System Explained
• Blu-Ray Disc Copy Protection - Whitepaper October 2006

Trivia

If you got horny about those pictures of the bottom side from a PS4 Game Disc:

• CUSA-00002 (Killzone: Shadow Fall): JPG @ 4843x4915px - TIF @ 11758x11933px
• CUSA-00128 (FIFA 14):: JPG @ 3686x3633px - TIF @ 12166x11990px

Generic

References:

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• Postscribed ID
• http://www.blu-raydisc.com/assets/downloadablefile/bd-romwhitepaper20070308-15270.pdf (including page 40 - SID, page 41 - BCA, page 45 - PIC Zone)
• AACS specifications
• Patent 07278031 - Secure distribution of portable game software & a sketch from the given Patent
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Founders
• Thomson Patent: Optical disc with pre-recorded and recordable regions (a proposed alternative for CBA: disabled at factory, enabled at a point of sale)
• SCEI Patent: A game playing system includes a use permission tag: a patent that could effectively prevent the use of second-hand game (e.g.: using NFC)