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At 10:17 AM 6/24/2003 -0500, Erik Dix wrote: >Hi! >I was wondering if it is possible to accurately figure out with programs >like "cdr identifier" who the manufacturer of a cdr is. fujifilm cdrs for >the U.S. market for example are made by taiyo yuden (as far as I can tell). >A lot of other companies like memorex, tdk, etc. switch their suppliers >like old socks. >I recently heard that programs like cdr identifier were not really able to >determine the manufacturer and I'd hoped that somebody could verify that >for me or not. I don't have the means to buy expensive test equipment so I >am stuck with these little helpers! >Any thoughts? It is possible to get an indication - and that's about it. If two blanks show different values in the ATIP, you can be confident that they came from different stampers. If the values reported are the same, you have a chance that they came from the same stamper. The only information in the ATIP on which you can rely is the nominal length of the spiral. Otherwise, whatever is in the ATIP is simply what the person ordering the stamper asked for. One other byte is likely to be correct: whether the disc is erasable; also probably honest is the type of erasable (standard, HighSpeed, UltraSpeed), which is inferred from the speed settings. In truth, I'm being slightly pessimistic here. I have seen no disc claiming to be from Mitsui or Taiyo-Yuden which was not from that company. They appear to control their trademarks and the stampers embodying them quite assiduously. On the other hand, I'm being optimistic on the length information. I have some discs I was asked to test for 95-minute capacity which claim to hold less than 30 minutes of audio. Incidentally, I had to persuade the author of CD-R Identifier to keep the program available. When the manufacturers got together to hide source information in the ATIP and to charge for access to it, he wanted to drop the whole business. Mike [log in to unmask] http://www.mrichter.com/