Issues with rips from LG BD-RE WP50NB40

[Mountain0359]

I've been ripping discs with MakeMKV for a couple years now, and for the most part, everything works pretty well. I usually rip to ISO, then use Handbrake to transcode the actual tracks I want to MP4. I have two drives, both external, one's a Dell (DVD+/-RW DW316) - this one works great. I also have an LG (BD-RE WP50NB40), and this one is giving me some issues.

It'll rip the disc fine; no errors. When I try to transcode in Handbrake, the iso fails for one or more tracks. When I mount the iso as a drive and play the content in VLC, it'll crash at a some point in the playback. If I play from the disc, everything is fine -- all tracks play through. If I re-rip t he disc using teh Dell drive, no issues. Handbrake transcodes everything and VLC plays everything. When I hash the LG iso, I get a different hash than the Dell iso., so the files are definitely different. I don't have to clean the disc between drives -- just move from one to the other, and the disc rips clean.

The LG used to work fine. This started and continued for a few weeks, then spontaneously stopped for a few weeks, then started up again. It's currently failing. The last BD disc I tried worked fine, so it seems to be just DVDs. I'll try re-ripping a disc later this weekend to see if it's still working fine.

Has anyone had an experience like this? I've looked through the forums for troubleshooting tips, but I haven't come across anyone else with this flavor of problem.

I'm considering flashing the drive to unlock UHD content in the hopes that the firmware change will improve things. Thoughts?

For reference, the drive is FW 1.03, and I'm using MakeMKV v1.18.2

[dcoke22]

Many LG drives have a 'feature' called Jamless Playback. Essentially the drive will sometimes make up data if it can't properly read the disc.

It might improve things if you clean the drive's optics. You could try using isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip to gently wipe the optics and then gently dry the optics with a clean microfiber cloth. Don't let the optics air dry. Do this twice.

[Mountain0359]

Thanks! I followed your suggestion and that seems to have done the trick. I confirmed that the last two discs I ripped on that drive didn't work, then re-ripped them after cleaning the lenses, and both ripped successfully and transcoded successfully (gave me a bit of a scare initially -- the drive didn't recognize the disc at first, and I thought I'd damaged the optics. Obviously it eventually worked, but I was pretty nervous for about 10 minutes).

Next challenge -- unlock the UHD capability. . .

Cheers!