Blu ray player acting as if it were empty, while there is an actual disc in it

[thaelis]

Hello,

I am curently encountering this odd issue I so far only encountered with 4k UHD disc before patching the firmware. Except this time it happens with a HD blu-ray and I am not aware of a new version of the patched firmware.
I have bought the french blu-ray for 'Jo' a movie featuring de funes and this disc, despite I can read it with my home player, makes both my Pioneer GGC-H20L and ASUS BW-16D1HT drives as if they were empty when I put the disc in.
So of course MakeMKV won't allow it to be ripped. Google search revealed dozens of other people reporting various issues for this particular title both on PC and home players.
Any idea please ?

[edit]
The Pioneer drive is on stock driver and I barely use it, only as a secondary drive.
The Asus drive is patched, here is the LibreDrive information reported by MakeMKV:
LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 3.10
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

[MartyMcNuts]

Hello,

I am curently encountering this odd issue I so far only encountered with 4k UHD disc before patching the firmware. Except this time it happens with a HD blu-ray and I am not aware of a new version of the patched firmware.
I have bought the french blu-ray for 'Jo' a movie featuring de funes and this disc, despite I can read it with my home player, makes both my Pioneer GGC-H20L and ASUS BW-16D1HT drives as if they were empty when I put the disc in.
So of course MakeMKV won't allow it to be ripped. Google search revealed dozens of other people reporting various issues for this title both on PC and home players.
Any idea please ?

1. Clean the disc. Even if it looks perfect. Sometimes a good wipe can help a drive read it.
2. Ensure MakeMKV is closed before you insert the disc. Let the OS initialise the disc first so you can see it in explorer, then open the MakeMKV application.

[thaelis]

Thank you for your reply.
The disc has been cleaned several times already and the disc not being recognized at all happens even before starting MakeMKV.

[tomty89]

Do you really mean like it's the first time you have UHD BD inserted into the drive? Has the drive been flashed with MK firmware yet? Or does it still have the stock firmware?

Better post the LibreDrive information shown by MakeMKV btw.

EDIT: Ah I misread your post. Never mind then I guess.

[thaelis]

No worries, I've edited the initial post to clarify the status of my drives, especialy the one that is patched. But I am pointing out again that this appears with a regulard HD blu-ray, not a 4K UHD blu-ray as you might expect with an unpatched drive, except mine is.

[MartyMcNuts]

No worries, I've edited the initial post to clarify the status of my drives, especialy the one that is patched. But I am pointing out again that this appears with a regulard HD blu-ray, not a 4K UHD blu-ray as you might expect with an unpatched drive, except mine is.

Unfortunately not every drive will read every disc. As silly as it sounds some drives just don't like some discs and won't read them no matter what you do. This is why most of us have multiple drives. I have 5 myself but mainly use 2. The others are backups.

I have had success before with a troublesome blu-ray disc by quickly rubbing it on my tee shirt sleeve a few times. I think that little bit of static helped the drive recognise it and read it.

[thaelis]

Quite honestly, I don't know what to think about this. The logical explanation would be that this disc copy protection is tampering with my drives ability to read it, we had this a while ago with copy protected CD and car CD players for instance. But the thing is I don't see myself spending around 80-100$ to try my luck with a new drive. Especialy since I would not even know where to pick a new drive that could be patched and usable with MakeMKV, let alone the fact that I would not have any guarantee that I would be able to read the bloody disc after more or less attempts at new drives.

[MartyMcNuts]

Quite honestly, I don't know what to think about this. The logical explanation would be that this disc copy protection is tampering with my drives ability to read it, we had this a while ago with copy protected CD and car CD players for instance. But the thing is I don't see myself spending around 80-100$ to try my luck with a new drive. Especialy since I would not even know where to pick a new drive that could be patched and usable with MakeMKV, let alone the fact that I would not have any guarantee that I would be able to read the bloody disc after more or less attempts at new drives.

How old is the disc?

Around 2020 or 2021, I had a blu-ray disc from 2007 that would no longer read in any drive but would still play in a standalone blu-ray player. I'd say it had degraded just enough to no longer be able to be read by a PC optical drive. I replaced that title and ripped the replacement without issue.

Did you try quickly rubbing it a few times on your sleeve then put it in the drive and see if that works? I've done it occasionally on the odd troublesome disc. I reckon that little bit of static electricity helps.

Your LG GGC-H20L is a very old drive too. These were out in what, about 2010? Your BW-16D1HT is a bit newer but overall, these LG drives are not very good quality.

[thaelis]

The disc was released in 2025 and I bought it like 6 weeks ago, so it should be in decent working order.
Yes I tried cleaning the disc with lens cleaning wipes (I'm a hobbyist photographer so I have plenty of stuff to clean up objective lenses), and I also gave it that static rub you mentioned to no effect. As for the state of my drives, I mainly use the Asus which works just fine. Maybe the disc is just faulty, I can see about getting another copy.

[MartyMcNuts]

The disc was released in 2025 and I bought it like 6 weeks ago, so it should be in decent working order.
Yes I tried cleaning the disc with lens cleaning wipes (I'm a hobbyist photographer so I have plenty of stuff to clean up objective lenses), and I also gave it that static rub you mentioned to no effect. As for the state of my drives, I mainly use the Asus which works just fine. Maybe the disc is just faulty, I can see about getting another copy.

Can you get someone else (friend, relative etc) that has a PC and a drive to try to rip it?

[thaelis]

Sadly I have no one around me with a disc drive on his pc.

[Sayaka]

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