Hello everyone, I’m new here, and I’m from China. I recently needed to back up some Blu-ray discs, which is what got me started exploring this field.
Since China is the world’s largest manufacturer of optical drives, there are actually a lot of options here, but it’s hard to guarantee quality unless you go for brand-new machines, which would be a waste of money. After doing some research, it seems the BU40N and BU50N are still among the top choices? Is there a significant difference in lifespan between slim optical drives and 5.25-inch drives?
Is the BU40N still the best overall choice?
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barnstarmer
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2025 8:16 am
Re: Is the BU40N still the best overall choice?
LG and Pioneer are no longer manufacturing optical media drives for PC's.
The BU40N is one of the more inexpensive drives available that is capable of ripping blu-rays and UHD's with libredrive firmware.
There are a few tradeoffs with the drive.
1) It's a slim drive. Slim drives are known to cause scratches on discs if they're not provided consistent power input.
2) The only firmwares available for the BU40N include the "jamless playback" feature, which isn't ideal if you're trying to recover data from a damaged disc.
I prefer LG internal drives with the MT1959 chipset and ASUS libredrive firmware, and Pioneer internal drives that can read UHD's with libredrive firmware provided by coopervid and billycarr11. These firmwares do not have "jamless playback". ASUS firmware has the "sleep bug", but it's not an issue if I'm using Makemkv or Xreveal. Pioneer firmwares don't have the sleep bug.
The BU40N is one of the more inexpensive drives available that is capable of ripping blu-rays and UHD's with libredrive firmware.
There are a few tradeoffs with the drive.
1) It's a slim drive. Slim drives are known to cause scratches on discs if they're not provided consistent power input.
2) The only firmwares available for the BU40N include the "jamless playback" feature, which isn't ideal if you're trying to recover data from a damaged disc.
I prefer LG internal drives with the MT1959 chipset and ASUS libredrive firmware, and Pioneer internal drives that can read UHD's with libredrive firmware provided by coopervid and billycarr11. These firmwares do not have "jamless playback". ASUS firmware has the "sleep bug", but it's not an issue if I'm using Makemkv or Xreveal. Pioneer firmwares don't have the sleep bug.
Re: Is the BU40N still the best overall choice?
Thank you for your experience, I will study it carefully!barnstarmer wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2026 2:47 amLG and Pioneer are no longer manufacturing optical media drives for PC's.
The BU40N is one of the more inexpensive drives available that is capable of ripping blu-rays and UHD's with libredrive firmware.
There are a few tradeoffs with the drive.
1) It's a slim drive. Slim drives are known to cause scratches on discs if they're not provided consistent power input.
2) The only firmwares available for the BU40N include the "jamless playback" feature, which isn't ideal if you're trying to recover data from a damaged disc.
I prefer LG internal drives with the MT1959 chipset and ASUS libredrive firmware, and Pioneer internal drives that can read UHD's with libredrive firmware provided by coopervid and billycarr11. These firmwares do not have "jamless playback". ASUS firmware has the "sleep bug", but it's not an issue if I'm using Makemkv or Xreveal. Pioneer firmwares don't have the sleep bug.
Re: Is the BU40N still the best overall choice?
目前这个时间点我建议使用5.25in的华硕的BW-16D1HT（实际上机芯是LG的光驱，华硕贴牌），淘宝上应该还能买到一些全新的库存。现在的机箱普遍没有光驱位，所以可能需要额外配一个USB光驱盒。
固件也很好刷，如果只是用MakeMKV抓盘的话sleep bug的问题我个人用下来影响不大。
Translate：
At this point, I would recommend the 5.25-inch ASUS BW-16D1HT. Internally, it actually uses an LG optical drive mechanism, with ASUS branding on it. You should still be able to find some brand-new old stock on Taobao.
However, most modern PC cases no longer have 5.25-inch optical drive bays, so you may also need to get an external USB enclosure for it.
The firmware is also quite easy to flash. If you are only using it to rip discs with MakeMKV, the sleep bug has not been a big issue in my personal experience.
固件也很好刷，如果只是用MakeMKV抓盘的话sleep bug的问题我个人用下来影响不大。
Translate：
At this point, I would recommend the 5.25-inch ASUS BW-16D1HT. Internally, it actually uses an LG optical drive mechanism, with ASUS branding on it. You should still be able to find some brand-new old stock on Taobao.
However, most modern PC cases no longer have 5.25-inch optical drive bays, so you may also need to get an external USB enclosure for it.
The firmware is also quite easy to flash. If you are only using it to rip discs with MakeMKV, the sleep bug has not been a big issue in my personal experience.