One specific new Blu-Ray disc not reading? External Pioneer TD03 drive

[bsaurus]

New to the forum and very new to blu-rays and drives; hopefully this is the right place to ask.

I bought an inexpensive external blu-ray drive via Amazon recently with the hopes of being able to rip the handful of blu-rays I purchased alongside it to my computer. Gave myself a crash-course on using MakeMKV, Handbrake, and VLC and was happy to find that the whole process worked well across several discs of varying ages. However, one disc (which came brand new and sealed) will not seem to read in the drive.

Disc looks very clean with no visible marks. I tried reinserting the other discs I'd already ripped, and they read via MakeMKV and play via VLC without issue. This particular disc (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, regular blu-ray) keeps beginning to spin, stopping with some noise, then repeating that process for 30 seconds or so, until the drive seems to give up trying and shows a "no disc inserted" message.

The information MakeMKV gives on the drive is:

Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-TD03
Revision: 1.20
Serial number:
Firmware date: 2011-02-09
Bus encryption flags: 13
Highest AACS version: 76

It was purchased from this listing on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0DKXPN11B

Is there anything I can do to get the disc to load correctly? The drive was new out of the box within the last week as far as I could tell (no noticeable signs of it having been used and returned). There don't seem to be any issues reading any of my other discs. The date of the firmware surprised me a little with how old it was, but it probably came with the territory being in my budget. I don't mind much as long as it works for the few movies I have. Still learning about all this, so any thoughts would be appreciated.

[bsaurus]

Update: I finally tried the last disc I wanted to use with the drive (Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse), only to have the same issue. It starts spinning, makes a somewhat grinding stopping noise, and then tries again repeatedly until it gives a "no disc" message.

Being that one disc was brand new and this one was used but guaranteed tested, I somewhat doubt they're the issue, unless there's something about them that isn't meshing well with the drive. I would have thought that it might be something about newer discs not working with the old drive for whatever reason, except that it worked perfectly with a different new blu ray from this year, so I'm not sure why these two aren't working.

Where would I look for updates to the firmware, if there are any? Being that it's a Pioneer drive, would being able to use LibreDrive with it in the future potentially help the issue? I did find Pioneer's webpage of firmware versions for their different models, but the TD03 wasn't listed that I could find. From what I am finding on the model, it's pretty old. Guess I'm experimenting with how that model works out of the box in 2025?

I do have the option to return the discs and try getting replacements while I'm still in the return window, but I'm hesitant to go to the trouble, as I'm not convinced they're the issue. I have a very small handful of blu rays so far, and having two out of six of them not reading is a bit disappointing. Seems strange that it's just these two so far as well.

[MartyMcNuts]

Update: I finally tried the last disc I wanted to use with the drive (Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse), only to have the same issue. It starts spinning, makes a somewhat grinding stopping noise, and then tries again repeatedly until it gives a "no disc" message.

Being that one disc was brand new and this one was used but guaranteed tested, I somewhat doubt they're the issue, unless there's something about them that isn't meshing well with the drive. I would have thought that it might be something about newer discs not working with the old drive for whatever reason, except that it worked perfectly with a different new blu ray from this year, so I'm not sure why these two aren't working.

Where would I look for updates to the firmware, if there are any? Being that it's a Pioneer drive, would being able to use LibreDrive with it in the future potentially help the issue? I did find Pioneer's webpage of firmware versions for their different models, but the TD03 wasn't listed that I could find. From what I am finding on the model, it's pretty old. Guess I'm experimenting with how that model works out of the box in 2025?

I do have the option to return the discs and try getting replacements while I'm still in the return window, but I'm hesitant to go to the trouble, as I'm not convinced they're the issue. I have a very small handful of blu rays so far, and having two out of six of them not reading is a bit disappointing. Seems strange that it's just these two so far as well.

Firmware is not your issue and changing it won't help. The drive is old and probably on it's last legs. You could try cleaning the lasers using a q-tip and alcohol. Just ensure you wipe it dry. Don't let it air dry.

If you can, try those discs in another drive. If you don't have another drive, get one, borrow one or get a friend to try them in theirs.