Thoughts on BU40N vs other drives?

[KBucklin]

Hi, first post here. I was thinking about getting a preflashed LG WH16NS60 internal drive. In the past I've always gone for fast drives (for CD, DVD, BD over the years) and then usually rip at a bit less than max to prolong the life of the drive. It's a system that's worked for me.

There's at least one prominent poster who feels that pretty much any drive except the BU40N is unreliable for UHD ripping. Just wondered what others think of this. The BU40N looks OK but it is slower, and I've seen some reviews that say it runs pretty hot. It's also slim and I have an old school PC with full size bays. None of these things are insurmountable, if the consensus is that BU40N is best, I can make it work and would probably just stick with external. Just wondering if there are others who would agree they've had problems with pretty much any other drive.

[Billycar11]

im not making it up if your not buying it from me i have nothing to gain from it i just have experience with 1000s of drives

For now the bu40n is like a damn tank. Slow and steady and rips through anything. The only discs I've had fail with the damn thing were physically screwed.

Hello, I just purchased this set to rip, but the disc wont even load properly. The drive seems to make a bunch of noisand then goes silent, with both Windows and MakeMKV saying there is no disc inside. Both the drive and the boxset is brand new. It also worked wonders on my 4K Wizard of Oz disc. This is the info that MakeMKV says about my drive:

Drive Information
OS device name: F:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH16NS60
Revision: 1.02
Serial number: KLNK3J92354
Firmware date: 2118-10-29 19:36
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 76

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.02
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I spent way too much on these items to not work.

Clean the discs
The WH16NS60 and lower models are very trouble some same with the asus bw16.
If cleaning the disc does not work get a BU40N

I tried cleaning the disc. I tried everything. Didnt work. So I took your advice and just bought a BU40N.
Flashed it. Now its happily ripping these damn discs.
Thanks for your advice.

Finally got Fellowship Disc 1 to rip. It wouldn't work in my ASUS or LG 5.25" drives, but my slimline BU40N read it with no issues.

It is done.


GoT_rip.png


Credit goes to everyone here who recommended the LG BU40N drive. It had zero "real" issues (such as read errors) and only 2-3 issues where the disc couldn't be mounted and it said "no disc", but reconnecting the drive helped in those cases. This drive is miraculous. I don't have a laptop with a slot for a drive so I bought the cheapest $4 USB->MiniSATA cable for it and it worked even for flashing the firmware. Yes, it sounds like the drive is going to take off because it just sits on top of the PC case with no enclosure so you can really hear the motor work, but it just reads everything. I bet I could insert a slice of cheese into it and it would read it

On the other hand, my other "main" drive, the ASUS BW-16D1HT outright refused to read almost all the 3-layered discs with 1 or 2 exceptions. It just failed to mount them and made sounds that would justify calling an exorcist. Without the LG drive, it would probably take me weeks to rip all the discs waiting for the ASUS to have a "good day" when it can read one or two 3-layer discs and then go back to summoning Satan with all the weird noises.

Long story short, I strongly recommend the LG BU40N drive. If you don't have it and you often rip tripple-layered UHD discs, you'll love it.

i can dig up more but you get the point

not to bash the other drives but viewtopic.php?f=16&t=26581
the thing is they are great if they work but to many didn't work with every disc type and if i got one like that i would return it not to be sold.
others can live with this and just get 2 of them and hope they complement each other.

[Billycar11]

side note dont mess with speed control on the BU40N even to slow it down it used to make it act weird have not tested recently so maybe fixed

[MartyMcNuts]

Hi, first post here. I was thinking about getting a preflashed LG WH16NS60 internal drive. In the past I've always gone for fast drives (for CD, DVD, BD over the years) and then usually rip at a bit less than max to prolong the life of the drive. It's a system that's worked for me.

There's at least one prominent poster who feels that pretty much any drive except the BU40N is unreliable for UHD ripping. Just wondered what others think of this. The BU40N looks OK but it is slower, and I've seen some reviews that say it runs pretty hot. It's also slim and I have an old school PC with full size bays. None of these things are insurmountable, if the consensus is that BU40N is best, I can make it work and would probably just stick with external. Just wondering if there are others who would agree they've had problems with pretty much any other drive.

I find that most drives are pretty good. The BH16NS55 and WH14NS40 work just fine and I've sold a lot of these units.

I rarely (and I mean very rarely) have any issue ripping UHD discs. Personally, I've had maybe 5-6 out of about 300 UHD's that my BH16NS55 wouldn't read and then I used my BP50NB40 (cross-flashed to BP60NB10 firmware) to rip those discs.

I've also sold plenty of the Archgon BU40N's. They are good but I certainly can't say without a doubt that they are far better than the other drives.

The only drive I find that is often unreliable is the ASUS BW-16D1HT. There's just something about the ASUS firmware that makes these run like crap with UHD discs.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents....

[KBucklin]

Not that I disbelieve the resellers here, I was just hoping to get second opinions from some of the users.

[smoran2]

I have been using both the BU40 and WH16NS60 for about two years now (thanks to the help I received from Billy). The BU40 is more reliable. It's not a drastic difference, but noticeable. I wouldn't limit myself to one drive (if possible). There are always a few discs that prefer one drive over another. I couldn't tell you why that is. I'm far from being an expert which is why I rely on the advice from the prominent contributors of this forum.

[jbrown]

I've gone through 2 WH16NS60 drives in 2 years. I rip maybe 10-15 discs (combination of UHD and blu ray) a month. So the lifespan that I've seen hasn't been great. Disc handling generally isn't an issue. I do have ones that do have issues ripping occasionally. Usually it's because of a dirty or scratched disc. So an optical cleaner and microfiber cloth most cases does the trick. But they have been on the sensitive side. I am very interested though on what is the recommended model for longevity and reliability.

So I'm very keen to hear to hear what the most highly rated drive is today.

[daried]

Hoping I'm not breaking rules reviving this old thread.

Is the BU40N standing up to the test of time?

I currently have a 5.25, and another cheaper DVD slimline portable drive. I hate the disc insertion/retention of the cheap portable DVD, and much prefer the "drop in " style of the 5.25.

Could someone describe the disc insertion/retention on the BU40N.
1. Does the disc self center and click into place easily?
2. Does the drive + enclosure have enough weight so that the drive isn't moving around while trying to insert the disc?

Thanks!