What is BCA or NBCA

BCA stands for burst cutting area, a zone near the hub of a DVD reserved for a barcode that can be etched into the disc by a high-powered (YAG) laser. NBCA (narrow burst cutting area) is a thinner-diameter variation used on recordable discs to avoid impinging on the lead-in. Because barcode cutting is independent of the stamping process, each disc can have unique data recorded in the BCA, such as a serialized ID. DVD readers can use the laser pickup head to read the BCA.

The BCA is used by CPRM (see 1.11) and Divx (see 2.10) to uniquely identify each disc.