Lessons learned from backing up hundreds of discs

[feeling_zen]

I'm curious how you managed to get the BDR-211UEK firmware out of the *.exe file you get from the Firmware download site. It seems to know that the drive attached does not match and won't unpack it and you can't pass that *.exe file directly to makemkvcon64.exe for the flashing.

Clearly I'm missing something. Probably something obvious,

[Woodstock]

Are you downloading that file from the factory website, or from one of the people here? The factory site would only have software that breaks compatibility with MakeMKV and other such software.

[feeling_zen]

Are you downloading that file from the factory website, or from one of the people here? The factory site would only have software that breaks compatibility with MakeMKV and other such software.

That's sort of what I'm asking. I've realised pretty quick the factory site firmware download is not what I should be using. So I'm wondering where the OP got the firmware bin from to cross flash their BDR-209M drive with the UHD model. Or is that where these $25 cross flash kits come in?

[Woodstock]

That's what the Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2023 topic covers, actually.

[Billycar11]

Are you downloading that file from the factory website, or from one of the people here? The factory site would only have software that breaks compatibility with MakeMKV and other such software.

That's sort of what I'm asking. I've realised pretty quick the factory site firmware download is not what I should be using. So I'm wondering where the OP got the firmware bin from to cross flash their BDR-209M drive with the UHD model. Or is that where these $25 cross flash kits come in?

Sadly the pioneer info is not public
But I do have a $25 flash kit for it

[obitwan7]

Does everyone run the slim, external, Pioneer or is there a good 5.25 internal Pioneer drive for old guys like me who like their giant, old school, tower cases?

I just got my hands on one of those slim external Pioneers from Adorama. Very handy since most PC cases these days don't have slots for 5.25" optical drives anymore. It works fine, but it's definitely slower than the two full size drives sitting in my giant, old school tower case. (4x vs. ~8x rips of BR)

It's surprising how nasty a DVD can be and still have a chance to read. It's a bit of a crap shoot but a visibly damaged BD has zero chance of reading while a DVD does.

As you say - you can't really tell from looking at the disc whether it's going to be readable or not. I have pristine-looking discs that are unreadable, and ones in bad shape that are fine.

I personally love the older 5.25 drives, but only because they seem more stable and I can put them in an enclosure. I miss them in my tower, but my towers are much cleaner looking without them in the front. Going through USB-C isn't bad and the speed is the same, so win-win. I'd love to get a Pioneer drive, so i can see if my discs that failed with my LG one failed. Very few discs so far (I did maybe 70 discs so far total) and only 2 had errors. I'm not sure if they are rot or something else. Either way, I like what each of you guys do here and I look forward to watching all my discs on PLEX.

As a separate note, what do any of you do for metadata when ripping with MakeMKV? I'll try to explain as best I can. When I slip in a movie, it's super simple (sort of). People only care about just the title of the movie and start ripping. ON UHD discs, they put in the correct title, but then there are chapter names. Example: when the movie plays there are chapter breaks and usually the first chapter has a name like Opening title/credits or some such. Assuming it shows up in the original discs inside the disc menu system. Most DVD's and a lot of blu-ray's have the chapter names, but not always.

So, even though I can see the names on the DVD's themselves inside the menu, it does not help with putting those names when ripping with MakeMKV. It may have a name for the main titles, but the chapter names are all left blank. If there is a way to put those in, in conjunction with MakeMKV, I would surely love to know that trick. I have been typing them in manually and with TV shows, this would be especially helpful in all ways possible. Thanks if anyone knows this and I hope to keep learning and reading tricks about these procedures.