Picard Season 2 - DVD

[cappy2112]

Has anyone been able to rip Picard Season 2 DVDs with anything?
Discs 1 & 2 weren't a problem with MakeMKV. Disc 3 just can't be ripped for some reason.
I've tried MakeMKV, MacX DVD Ripper Pro, and MacDVD Ripper Pro. None can open the disc.

I need to try that disc in a real DVD player.

I have a Windows 10 laptop and a license for AnyDVD , will try that next.
I'm up against a brick wall here.

[cappy2112]

Well, Disc 3 plays just fine on a stand-alone DVD player.
I've
also tried using AnyDVD on Windows 10, it has the same problem that MakeMKV does. It scans the disc but eventually shows there is no disc inserted.

I'm wondering if I just don't have a decent USB-optical drive (Archgon MD-8107-U3).
I haven't updated the FW since I bought it, but can't find any FW sites to get an update either.

Does anyone here have experience with these drives?

Thanks

[dcoke22]

It has been my experience that some optical drives just don't like some discs. I don't know why. I'm now have 3 different optical drives. Most things rip fine in my 'main' drive. When they don't I try the other drives. Often, but not always, they work just fine in a different drive. On the rare occasion that one of my 3 drives won't rip a disc, I finally try cleaning the disc, which, most of the time, fixes the situation. I think only twice have I had a disc that just wouldn't rip no matter what. In both cases it was a BD-100 UHD and both times I was able to exchange the disc with Amazon and the replacement worked.

In summary, try your problematic disc in another drive. If you're going to buy another drive, don't feel like you have to replace your existing drive (unless it is dead), just add another drive into your fleet.

[cappy2112]

It has been my experience that some optical drives just don't like some discs. I don't know why. I'm now have 3 different optical drives. Most things rip fine in my 'main' drive. When they don't I try the other drives. Often, but not always, they work just fine in a different drive. On the rare occasion that one of my 3 drives won't rip a disc, I finally try cleaning the disc, which, most of the time, fixes the situation. I think only twice have I had a disc that just wouldn't rip no matter what. In both cases it was a BD-100 UHD and both times I was able to exchange the disc with Amazon and the replacement worked.

In summary, try your problematic disc in another drive. If you're going to buy another drive, don't feel like you have to replace your existing drive (unless it is dead), just add another drive into your fleet.

Thanks, good suggestion. I've been getting movies from the local library, which are often in horrible condition.
When a disc can't be read, I usually clean it with a soft cloth (the ones that come with eyeglasses). Amazingly, this has worked for so many
discs. The Picard disc is new and very clean, and it works in my TV DVD player.

ATM, I only have 1 DVD/BR/UHD reader, Archgon MD-8107-U3. I don't know how this rates as far as being decent or bad, I happened to buy it from Amazon
and got lucky. I don't have a desktop machine any more, so I have to go with USB drives. I've ripped about 250 movies (only a few BR though) and about 30 TV shows with this drive. I think I've come across 5 discs that can't be cracked/ripped. I use a Mac and was expecting the ripping SW would be better, I am disappointed.

As far as buying an additional drive that is well-suited for use with MakeMKV, I wouldn't know what to buy.
Is there a list of recommended drives available ? I don't quite understand the LibreDrive thread in that forum.

[dcoke22]

I use a Mac as well. All three of my drives are full sized 'internal' 5.25" drives that are in powered external enclosures and connected via USB. Two are in the OWC Mercury enclosure and one drive, my Pioneer, is in a Vantec enclosure because the OWC enclosure is physically too small (it is too short).

The Flashing Guide has a list of drives that work with MakeMKV. Folks on this forum speak highly of a BU40N (which might be what the innards of your Archgon is; check the Drive Information section on the first screen in MakeMKV). They also speak highly of Pioneer drives. I don't have a BU40N but I do have a Pioneer (a BDR-212U), which has worked well for me. Pioneer drives on the flashing guide list don't need to be firmware flashed to work with MakeMKV. The firmware works out of the box.

The flashing guide also has a list of sellers on this forum who will sell you a flashed and tested drive for a small premium. I have purchased both from one of the sellers here and from Amazon. The nice thing about buying from a seller is the drive shows up and is ready to go.

When I clean a disc, I use warm water and dish soap. I wet the disc, add a generous amount of soap, and lightly move my fingertip from the inner ring to the outer ring and back again, slowly rotating around the whole disc. The data on optical discs is written in a big spiral from the inside the outside (and back again if it is a dual layer disc). By moving my finger from the inner edge to the outer edge, my fingertip is moving perpendicular to the way data is written to the disc. If the unfortunate happens and my act of cleaning actually causes a scratch, my motion is likely to minimize the amount of adjacent data that is ruined, giving the error correction built into the disc a chance to recover. The water and the soap are effectively lubricants to prevent this from happening. Dish soap is also really good at getting rid of films, oils, and other nearly invisible deposits that can end up on the business end of an optical disc. I have had to clean brand new discs because they had 'gunk' left over from manufacturing that didn't get cleaned off or deposits from the plastic case off gassing. Finally, to dry the disc, I lay the label side down on a towel and use a can of air to blow the data side dry. This way I don't have to touch the data side with a towel. Just make sure there's no water on the disc before you put it back in your drive, because when it spins up, any water left on there is going to fling off into the drive which isn't good.

[dcoke22]

I think I've come across 5 discs that can't be cracked/ripped. I use a Mac and was expecting the ripping SW would be better, I am disappointed.

I've been able to rip all my discs with MakeMKV. I'm only aware of two discs, one variant of the UHD Zombieland and the recent UHD of Event Horizon, that MakeMKV has trouble with. There are long threads on each of those titles on this forum.

[dcoke22]

I don't quite understand the LibreDrive thread in that forum.

I assume you mean this thread: What is LibreDrive?

As I understand it, when a drive is a LibreDrive, that means the firmware of the drive has been very slightly changed so that MakeMKV can overcome the copy protection scheme Blu-ray and Ultra Blu-ray discs use to prevent copying. Without this, all of the contents of a disc come out scrambled.

[cappy2112]

I don't quite understand the LibreDrive thread in that forum.

I've tried sending PMs but the messages are sitting in my Outbox.
How do I send them?