Beginner setup help

[Unknwn]

Hi,

so I'm really new to ripping Blurays and I'm still not sure if I have everything I need.
I read some threads and watched some videos (the most useful I saw was from EposVox, the one he made back in 2019).

I basically need a way to watch my Blu-rays on my PC, with no loss in quality. Also, I currently have no 4k Bluray or something just the "standard" ones, but I want my "setup" to be as future-proof as possible so that I can make a copy of 4k drives and everything if I choose to buy them.

So what I need to do is buy a BluRay drive (probably LG BH16NS55 as it is the cheapest of the ones recommended in the ultimate 2022 guide - and currently available for 70€).
Download and install MakeMKV.
Put in my Disk and (probably - somehow idk) press start to make it happen?

Or do I miss something?
Any help would be appreciated.

[emrysblack]

Welcome to the community

Sounds like you're on the right track. You've watched some videos then? Once you get it setup, it's put the disc in, click to open it, select the videos you want off it, and press start. So your steps are solid. And everything done through MakeMKV is lossless from disc.

As far as the future-proofing for 4k content, it looks like you've read the guides which is good. Just be aware that for an LG drive, buying it is a first step, it must also be flashed with custom firmware to unlock ripping of 4k discs. Which means, you either need to shell out to someone to do it for you. There's an entire subforum here where you can buy LGs preflashed that should be plug and play. Or if you can find a supported drive for cheaper you can flash it yourself if you feel comfortable with that to save a little. Or you could go with a compatible pioneer drive as those don't require flashing and will work out of the box for 4k.

[Unknwn]

Thanks for your answer.

Just be aware that for an LG drive, buying it is a first step, it must also be flashed with custom firmware to unlock ripping of 4k discs.

Never tried to up-, downgrade or unlock a firmware on a drive - but that normally doesn't hinder me from trying stuff Do you have a guide that would help me? If not that's ok I will look around and there is probably a good one on this forum.

Found a used BH16NS55 on ebay for currently 30€ (auction so 18h to go) that was manufactured back in December of 2018 so if it doesn't get too expensive I think I will buy it and try it out.

One more question:
Since I currently have no 4k bluray and no way to try out if my flashing works I can still rip my current "normal" blurays (1080p or whatever they are) without flashing the firmware? Or is there any other DRM stuff (like AACS 2.0 on real 4k drives) in newer firmware?
Or would you recommend to just buy a 4k Bluray (even though I can't play it on any other device) to flash my drive and then check with the newly bought Bluray if my flash was successful?

[emrysblack]

Never tried to up-, downgrade or unlock a firmware on a drive - but that normally doesn't hinder me from trying stuff Do you have a guide that would help me? If not that's ok I will look around and there is probably a good one on this forum.

Fair enough. There is a whole thread dedicated to helping with this process. Read the first post: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634. It should tell you everything you need to know about the process, quirks, and recommendations. It'll have links to a tool you can use to flash the drive, firmware packs containing the firmware you need, and some videos to help through the process if needed.

Your drive will continue to work as a normal drive after the flash. So it'll rip blurays and dvds just fine and no preparation is required so that is just plug and play. After you flash the drive, MakeMKV will tell you that Libredrive mode is enabled when you open the program (That's the bit that allows your drive to read 4k if it has the hardware), so there's no need to test with a 4k disc. I personally didn't even bother to flash my drive until I had some 4k discs as I hadn't needed it before, but Libredrive has many drive benefits apart from just reading 4k, so flashing now isn't a bad idea even if you don't have 4k.

[Unknwn]

oh, it's the same post. Didn't notice it since I didn't read everything past the USB enclosures. Thanks for linking it to me.

Also thanks for your help and answers. I will buy a drive and give it a try. Probably first without flashing and then I will go into the flashing stuff.

[Unknwn]

I will buy a drive and give it a try. Probably first without flashing and then I will go into the flashing stuff.

Just a short follow up.
I bought the LG BH16NS55 for around 50€ on ebay. First I ripped season one of a series without flashing (standard 1080p bluray) with makemkv and it was really easy and worked great. I then flashed the drive with the sdf tool flasher and the wh16ns60 1.02 firmware from "the all you need firmware pack" and now it has libredrive enabled - the flashing was also super easy by the way. I am now ripping the second season.

Just one thing I don't understand is that LibreDrive says it has faster read speeds but I somehow get slower read speed than using the factory firmware (which was somewhere in 7.?X - so around 30/40 M/s) and now (like this exact moment) it is at 4.7X (around 21 M/s)..