50% success rate with older drive

[w4lkr]

I'm using MakeMKV for the first time to backup my family's collection of DVDs. Some of the discs were bought new 10-12 years ago and some are more recent. None are in perfect shape but all of them load and play in a cheap portable DVD player, the kind with built-in screen. Because they all play in the player I had high hopes that all could be ripped.

So far my success rate is about 50% with this drive:
Current profile: DVD-ROM
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: DRW-24B1ST a
Revision: 1.04

Most of the discs that fail are giving MEDIUM ERROR or OS error during the ripping process. One disc won't open at all. Another opens but it's broken into too many titles with too few chapters each, and throws multiple errors in the opening process. All of them play just fine in the same drive using VLC.

Eventually I want to rip my BluRay discs too so I'm planning to buy a new drive for that. Is there any reason to think that the DVDs that have failed to rip thus far might succeed in a newer BluRay drive?

After skimming this thread I'm considering purchasing this drive. Although strangely the price has jumped 30% since yesterday.

Thanks for help.

[BrettTheRipper]

Because they all play in the player I had high hopes that all could be ripped.

I know the feeling. It's frustrating and disappointing to have a disk that will play but can't be ripped. Apparently, a player can and will skip over problematic areas, potentially without the viewer even realizing it, but MakeMKV doesn't/won't.

Eventually I want to rip my BluRay discs too so I'm planning to buy a new drive for that. Is there any reason to think that the DVDs that have failed to rip thus far might succeed in a newer BluRay drive? After skimming this thread I'm considering purchasing this drive.

Yes, there is reason to have hope, but I'd encourage you to consider spending a bit more on one of the Pioneer drives from a seller listed here. When using an external LG drive to rip my disk collection, most errors were on DVDs, and most of those ripped fine with a Pioneer I got from Billy. There's no guarantee a Pioneer will fix all (or even most) of your ripping problems, but my experience suggests that your chances of success are better with one, especially when it comes to DVDs.

Disclaimer: I have no connection, financial or otherwise, to any of the sellers; I'm just passing along what I saw.

[chihwahli]

See if you can get a drive mentioned in these forums. It does help to have a drive that uses Libremode. That means you have to flash it.

Another way, slower, is to use a program that records screen and audio, those exist as well. I don't recommend that way. Before I used Makemkv I used such program. In VLC I play the movie then record it. The recording time is the same length as the movie, inmagine, that takes ages if you have many DVD, blurays.

The program is called "EaseUS recexperts." You have to enable "black screen fix".
It has a silent record mode, then it records from system audio directly. Works if you do not want any menu, just pure the movie.
Do set the frame rate to 24. Your computer or laptop has to be powerful enough to play and record the movie.

[clenchdwarf]

I think there are significant unit to unit variations with drives. I've got one drive that gets clean rips on DVDs and CDs that fail with other drives; it's a humble LG. My advice would be to collect a few used name brand drives and just try them; it's helpful to have a USB adapter that supports SATA and IDE. Don't be afraid to try some pretty old drives.

DVDs are very robust, and the optics are good at looking past surface imperfections; I've ripped hundreds of rentals and library discs and only a handful have failed. Those usually had severe damage like deep scratches, actual dents, or cracks. Always check for surface dirt and if necessary, start with dish soap and water, and if that doesn't work, isopropyl alcohol.

Edit; so far I haven't noticed that my LG Blu-ray drives are any better at reading marginal DVDs or CDs. They are much slower ripping audio CDs using EAC, which istr is some kind of bug in EAC.

[w4lkr]

Thanks everyone for the helpful feedback. It's good to know that some DVD ripping problems may go away with a higher quality Pioneer drive. I fully intend to get one, possibly from Billy that's already flashed. When I checked his page it looked like all but one model is out of stock. At a glance, the "nicer" looking models were unavailable and one basic looking model is available for a little over $200. I'm wondering what you get for a $300 Pioneer UHD drive that you don't get with the $200 model.

Happy to report some success with my problem DVDs. I decided to try my hand at resurfacing and so far the results are encouraging. Out of 5 discs, 2 were fixed with just one round of polishing using this $20 kit:
https://www.autozone.com/wash-mitts-cha ... 916445_0_0

The included polish feels a bit like toothpaste. You can feel the grit while spreading it. The rotary sponge worked well with my cordless drill.

For all 5 discs (all of which failed to rip previously), I started by polishing for maybe 2 minutes each, wiped it clean and tried MakeMKV again. Two discs read and ripped successfully with no errors. The other 3 discs read but still had errors during ripping.

I picked the worst of the 3 discs and used 2000 grit wet sanding paper with water. I spent no more than five minutes sanding in circular motions, then switched to 2500 for another five minutes. This resulted in plastic that showed almost zero of the original scratches but was now uniformly cloudy. I then polished again for 1-2 minutes and wiped it clean. The result looked basically brand new to my eyes. And voila - MakeMKV read and ripped with no errors.

disc-resurfacing.jpg (103.57 KiB) Viewed 110 times

I plan to repeat this process on my other problem discs.

[dcoke22]

That's cool. And a worthwhile last ditch effort to save some scratched DVDs.

For posterity, it is worth noting that generally speaking, the coating on DVDs is different than on blu-rays. There's more coating on a DVD, but the coating on a blu-ray is more abrasion resistant. Things might not work exactly the same between DVDs and blu-rays if you try a sanding technique.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Hard-coating_technology

[w4lkr]

There's more coating on a DVD, but the coating on a blu-ray is more abrasion resistant. Things might not work exactly the same between DVDs and blu-rays if you try a sanding technique.

That's good to know, thanks for mentioning it and providing the link. Maybe I'll research other polish options and experiment on some thrift store discs that I don't care about.

It is cool to have a workflow that basically makes any used DVD I come across viable again, as long as it doesn't have really deep gashes.