BluRay drive stopped accepting dvd's with the right PAL code

Please post here for issues related to DVD discs
Post Reply
PyroRider
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:24 pm

BluRay drive stopped accepting dvd's with the right PAL code

Post by PyroRider »

Hi, I recently bought a bluray/dvd drive for ripping, it all worked fine but now the drive suddenly started rejecting dvds (makemkv show that the countrycode is wrong). The device manager and the dvd on the other hand both say country-code/PAL 2 so I dont know whats going on. The drive is a TSSTcorp DVDBD SH-123L.
Is this a known problem or are there existing solutions?
Btw: My usb dvd drive reads the dvd perefectly fine
Woodstock
Posts: 9912
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:21 pm

Re: BluRay drive stopped accepting dvd's with the right PAL code

Post by Woodstock »

This is a VERY old drive - it was first sold a decade ago, and was discontinued at least 5 years ago. Whoever sold it to you (at best) was selling "new old stock".

MakeMKV can usually bypass region coding, except on certain old drives. It will mention when it encounters firmware that won't let it brute-force the code... But, it often can read the out-of-region disks even with such firmware.
MakeMKV Frequently Asked Questions
How to aid in finding the answer to your problem: Activating Debug Logging
PyroRider
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:24 pm

Re: BluRay drive stopped accepting dvd's with the right PAL code

Post by PyroRider »

Bought it used on a marketplace as it was like 30€ for a bluray drive and I was happy. Anyway the drive is going fine now again, there seems to be a problem with the disc (its rented and has a billion scratches on it). My external dvd drive was able to read and access it but then failed obviously on the main movie file due to too large scratches.
Okay so you say I should take a look to get a new bluray drive? If yes I will look for one that supports this LibreDrive things
Woodstock
Posts: 9912
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:21 pm

Re: BluRay drive stopped accepting dvd's with the right PAL code

Post by Woodstock »

lots of scratches are best dealt with by removing the scratched surface, which can be done by tools that DVD rental places have. They polish off the old.

You can try waxing the surface - water-based furniture polish like Pledge and generic versions will fill in the small scratches and hopefully give you a surface the DVD laser can read.

It may be that the scratches are fooling the drive in to thinking it can't deal with region coding... I've seen that before.
MakeMKV Frequently Asked Questions
How to aid in finding the answer to your problem: Activating Debug Logging
PyroRider
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:24 pm

Re: BluRay drive stopped accepting dvd's with the right PAL code

Post by PyroRider »

1) I live in germany, lets just say there are no movie rental places the old style anymore, I've rented the movie disk from the library.
2) Thats also the reason why I probably wont put anything on the disk XD
But I will remember the tips for the future when I maybe buy some disks
Woodstock
Posts: 9912
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:21 pm

Re: BluRay drive stopped accepting dvd's with the right PAL code

Post by Woodstock »

I fully understand the reluctance to "contaminate" the disk. I say this as someone who has used toothpaste to polish a few disks. Wax on lasers isn't a nice thing, but I'm confident enough to be able to clean a DVD drive mechanism without knocking things out of alignment. BD... probably, but they are more sensitive.

The disk polishing machines are easy enough to get hold of. I just never saw the economic benefit of buying one personally.
MakeMKV Frequently Asked Questions
How to aid in finding the answer to your problem: Activating Debug Logging
Post Reply