www.makemkv.com

For a long time I've been ripping DVDs, but haven't done BluRays because my mid-2011 Mac Mini (that Ii use as a media player) just can't handle it (it drops frames like eggs being dropped in a 3-legged egg and spoon race). So I've not been ripping BDs.

But these days even cheapo devices (Firestick 4K, for example) can play BD rips just fine. And my plan is something better, anyway.

So I started to use this wonderful program on my Linux desktop (also around 12 years old). And for the most it works fine. Except 2 disks (to date; out of 200 or so disks in) didn't rip cleanly. So I bought a second BD player; one that can take the patched firmware to also allow 4K disk rips. But because there's no space inside the computer I also got a USB-3 adapter.

So that's my setup; Debian Linux 11; LG WH16NS40 and a USB adapter.

One of the bad disks ripped clean. OK, good. The other disk failed in the same place (sigh).

So now I start to do my (small collection) of 4K disks. And, damn, one of my favourite movies (Blade Runner) has an error. Never mind, I set it aside. And another disk also failed.

Now for other reasons I got a Windows 11 stick computer (MeLe brand). So I wondered... I plugged the USB adapter into the Windows machine and attempted to rip.

And it worked. For both of the bad disks. Both machines running 1.17.3.

So I'm wondering if the _OS_ is also making a difference; could Linux be more fussy and report errors up to the app that may be ignorable, whereas Windows doesn't report them and the app is happily continuing (and verifying the checksums).

I don't think it is the OS. In my experience, sometimes multiple attempts of the same disc on the same drive produce different results. Certainly, sometimes the same disc on different drives produces different results.

Reading an optical disc has a mechanical component to the process. A servo motor positions a head where a laser is reflected off the surface and the reflected light is interpreted as data. There's no guarantee that the motor(s) will position the head in the exact same spot from run to run. Slight variations can affect results, especially if part of the disc is slightly dirty.