Cinram

From Home Video

This company also duplicated records, audio cassettes and CDs.

List of Home Media Customers

  • 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2000-2015)
  • Alliance Atlantis (2005)
  • Artisan Entertainment (2000-2003)
  • BBC Video [Canadian] (distributed through CBS/Fox Video)
  • Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment [Canadian] (mid-late 1990s-mid-2000s)
  • Chordant Distribution Group (2001-2003)
  • First Look Home Entertainment (2001)
  • Geneon Entertainment (1998)
  • Hart Sharp Video (2004)
  • HIT Entertainment (2006)
    • Barney Home Video [Canadian] (1997-1999)
  • Lionsgate Home Entertainment (2003-present)
  • MGM Home Entertainment (2002-2016)
  • MTI Home Video (1999) (some copies of A Town Has Turned to Dust)
  • Palm Pictures
    • Manga Entertainment
  • Paramount Home Entertainment [Canadian] (1995-2006)
  • Questar Home Video (1999-2004)
  • Raven Releasing (2000)
  • Screen Media Films (2002-2005)
  • Small Fry Productions (2001)
  • Sony Pictures Home Entertainment [Canadian] (1995-2006)
  • Summit Entertainment (2012-2015)
  • TVA International
  • USA Home Entertainment (1999-2001)
    • PolyGram Video (1997-1999)
  • Warner Home Video (Canadian VHS tapes, 1994-2010; DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray, 2004-2010)
  • Warner Music Group (2004-2016)
  • Winding Star Press (2001)
  • Word Entertainment (2000-2006)

List of Audio Customers

  • Marsab Records (1982)
  • Saja Music Co.
  • Temple North Records (1991)
  • Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corporation (2002)

How to Tell for Home Media Releases

  • VHS tapes that were duplicated by Cinram have a print date and time on the bottom middle side of the tape. The overall printings are typically in invisible ink, and the date/time is read in the YY/MM/DD/00:00 format.
  • On some VHS tapes, specifically Canadian pressings, there is an engraving on the right side of the cassette shell that says "CVC". This unusual abbreviation is in a gold orange color.
  • Early tapes by this company have the company's name engraved on the left side of the cassette shell.
  • At the end of some Canadian tapes from 1997-1999 (possibly other years), a print time and date will appear at the very top left of the video signal, where some of it will be cut off depending on your television. The date will be in YY/MM/DD format. The length of this ending will vary (10-45 seconds), as well as the black screen between the end of the program and this ending (3-80 seconds).
  • EP mode tapes, as well as some BBC Video tapes, that were duplicated by this company may have the static roll of death.
  • Tapes that were recycled from unsold copies of other tapes may have an assembly date and time in addition to the print date and time.

How to Tell for Audio Releases

  • A CI or CR can be found on the shell, usually below the catalog number.
  • Records pressed at the Scarborough plant from 1979 until 1991 had a CR etched in runouts, a CR stamped in a circle in the runouts, or a CR or CI printed on the labels.
  • The date of the CD glass master can be determined from the Cinram matrix number.

Normally, it is given in the form of #YYMMDD (Year, Month, Day), like this for example:

#870610B DSRD-31035 MFG BY CINRAM

  • Some time during 1989-1990, a P was temporarily used to replace the leading digit - #PYMMDD, like the following examples:

#P90626JJ IRSXD-6273 MFG BY CINRAM

#P00111A CIDM-110 MFG BY CINRAM

  • Some time in Spring 2000, this was changed to #YMMDD, like the following examples:
  1. 000320II 0694904412 L382 CINRAM 21 (this example is still #YYMMDD)
  1. 00511V06 CDW-47709 L381 CINRAM 21 (this example is #YMMDD)
  • From 2010 onwards, it was reverted back to #YYMMDD. Take a look at the following example:

[Cinram logo] LT40 621848003925 #100104V03 11

These dates may be used to determine if the release is an original release or a repress, but does not inform the release date itself as glass masters are frequently used some time after it was originally manufactured.

Gallery

  • On most Canadian tapes, a date and time would appear in the vertical blanking interval, possibly indicating the date and time the tape was printed. The date is in the YY/MM/DD format.

    On most Canadian tapes, a date and time would appear in the vertical blanking interval, possibly indicating the date and time the tape was printed. The date is in the YY/MM/DD format.

Notes

  • Cinram operated 10 Sprinter units at its Huntsville plant for about a week before Sony sent a letter to numerous duplicators demanding back payments on royalties for a VHS-related patent. Cinram promptly returned all the Sprinters out of spite, and sales of the Sprinter never recovered from that incident.
  • Technicolor S.A. (formerly Thomson S.A.) acquired this company in November 2015.

Locations

  • Huntsville, Alabama (19??-????)
  • Montreal, Quebec (19??-????)
  • New York City, New York (19??-????)
  • Richmond, Indiana (19??-????)
  • Tarrytown, New York (19??-????)
  • Toronto, Ontario (headquarters) (19??-????)
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