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Disk id for Blu-ray and hd-dvd

iansilv

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Regular old dvds each are mastered with a unique disk id- are blu-rays and hddvds done the same way? If so, how can we identify it?

thank you
 
Regular old dvds each are mastered with a unique disk id
No, they are not. This "id" is nothing more than a hash on some files (that's why the id is different when AnyDVD modifies .ifo files).
 
Well, ok...

I feel dumber, but can you answer my question? Is there a way to uniquely identify hidef disks?
 
Well, ok...

I feel dumber, but can you answer my question? Is there a way to uniquely identify hidef disks?
HD DVDs have a disc id (at least those with iHD), but I don't trust this.
You can hash some files (same deal as with DVDs).
 
James-
What do you think is th best way to uniquely identify each disk once it is inserted in to a computer's drive? There has got to be something.
 
James-
What do you think is th best way to uniquely identify each disk once it is inserted in to a computer's drive? There has got to be something.

Sorry, as I don't have official Blu-ray or HD DVD documentation, I don't know if there is an "official" id.
The only thing I know of is Microsoft's iHD DISCID.DAT. (It is documented in Microsoft's iHD Toolkit). But be careful, not all HD DVDs use iHD (most do, but...)
But you can hash some files yourself and hope for the best...
 
Reading this I am a bit confused. It sounds like Blu-rays don't have a unique disc ID like DVDs do?
 
Similar to HD DVD with HDi menus (Microsoft changed that from iHD late in the game to avoid any possible association with Apple... :D ), any Blu-ray disc with Java menus will have a unique ID. It's in the CERTIFICATE folder, in a file called ID.BDMV, and it's in two parts:
Using a hex editor on this file, the 4 bytes located at hex address 28-2B represent the 8-digit Organization ID (which is, usually, the same for every title released by a studio), and usually begins with 7FFF. The 8 digits can only by hex digits (0-9, A-F)
The next 16 bytes represent the 32 character Disc ID, which can be randomly generated, or just completely made up (by the studio, of course). Sometimes there's text 'hidden' there (again, the 32 digits are only hex characters, but 16 standard characters they represent my spell out words), or sometimes all zeros except for a small number at the end (like 00000000000000000000000000000012, most likely the 12th Blu-ray that studio made).

If the ID.BDMV file exists, the 20 character value starting at hex location 28 will be unique to that disc (check to make sure it has a value though, and not all completely zeros...). I'm pretty sure all Java titles will have an ID file, but for the most part, HDMV only titles will not...

Visual aid:
attachment.php

Organization ID is 7F FF 0B B8
Unique Disc ID is 00 00 00 00 00 00 4C 57 57 2D 31 4E 2D 4E 45 31
Notice also that the Disc ID happens to spell out LWW-1N-NE1 on the right side. This is the title code and region code for this disc that this studio uses, but this isn't always the case. Sometimes it's just 32 'random' hex characters.
 

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Similar to HD DVD with HDi menus (Microsoft changed that from iHD late in the game to avoid any possible association with Apple... :D ), any Blu-ray disc with Java menus will have a unique ID. It's in the CERTIFICATE folder, in a file called ID.BDMV

From our experience, you can TOTALLY forget about the "uniqueness" of this file. Studios aren't really paying much attention to this thing.
 
They have to if they use Java programming and want to store any content in persistent storage on the disc or use any BD Live functionality. _Especially_ for BD Live functionality, these IDs are required to be unique to each disc (otherwise your disc of Movie A could download the content for Movie B, the certificates for online material use these IDs for verify the disc). For persistent storage (like the disc remembering where you were in the movie the next time you put it in), the directory structure (and the way the storage location is identified) is created based on the Org ID and Disc ID. If the same codes are used by two different discs, they will over write each others information.

If the studio doesn't use any storage or do BD Live, then I suppose they may not care about the Disc ID... But it seems most of the major studios at least put a basic BD Live feature on the disc to either download new trailers, or to bootstrap new code if an update is needed... And many of them now also include a 'remember where you last were' feature.

Strictly speaking, the codes are optional, but the major studios (at least most of them) are making them unique due to the way they are programming their discs these days. Maybe they are only unique by movie title (so the code for the US disc might be the same as the code for the European disc)... I know that Warner Bros pays VERY close attention to these disc IDs. Every disc gets a different Disc ID, that is in some cases referred to directly by the Java code to identify what disc is in the player.

Disney uses the title of the film and region in their disc IDs (see my example above: LWW= Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. N1=North America version. NE1= Disc one/Feature Disc (special features disc is NS1).

Universal has a BD Live element on every disc I think, so theirs are most likely unique as well...

Ultimately, no, it's not a viable way to uniquely ID every disc out there (so I can understand a company like Sly not attempting to use it to ID discs, it wouldn't work)... But if the studio IS using the ID, then they will make the effort to make it unique... And, like I said previously, if it's an HDMV title the ID.BDMV file is likely not even there...
 
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Reading this I am a bit confused. It sounds like Blu-rays don't have a unique disc ID like DVDs do?

Read the 2nd post in this thread. DVDs don't have a unique disc ID (apparently, not confirmed by me).
 
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