Pioneer and Serial Numbers

Gary Parent

Recently, there was a TV program, on security, where a techie (not sure who pays this guy's check or where he works) told the reporter that all kinds of computer recorded media are traceable through the serial number of the device doing the writing. This included code patterns on printers where the code is tiny dots embedded into the text. But the one that got my attention was optical disc burners that supposedly place the drive's serial into the media. I checked the FAQ for CD media and pasted the item below.

QUESTION:

Regards Pioneer, does the manufacturer's firmware load the drive's unique identifier somewhere into the DVD and/or CD media, probably in a writeable area that is outside the domain of data content?

FWIW, I own a Pioneer DVR-111D with Firmware 1.29.


********************* CD FAQ *********************

Subject: [2-26] Is a serial number placed on the disc by the recorder?
(2004/07/15)

In general, no, but it appears that some stand-alone consumer audio CD recorders write one. The Recorder Unique Identifier (RID) is a 97-bit code recorded every 100 sectors. It is composed of a brand name identifier, a type number, and a drive serial number. Recorders such as the Philips CDR870 write the RID to discourage distribution of copyrighted material.

Windows will show something like "Volume Serial Number is 4365-0FED". There does not appear to be any way to control this. Some have suggested that the serial number is generated based on data found on the disc, similar to the way that audio CDs can (mostly) be uniquely identified by the number and durations of the tracks.

cantankerous

This is infact true. Ever since the 108 I believe I have seen the firmware of my drive show up on the disc if checked through decrypter/imgburn.

Gary Parent

I just ran DVDINFOPRO and it found the PIONEER, MODEL, and SERIAL NUMBER embedded on a DVD-R that I just burned. I will assume it does the same with CDs. So much for privacy. Big brother is watching us!

_chef_

No news.

Not all burners do that on all mediatypes and all formats.

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