The Abyss 4K

[Chris01992]

Purchased mine from Wow HD... No visible sign of damage to 4k disc. Theatrical Version failed to rip on LG BU40N, but both versions ripped successfully on Pioneer BDR-S13. Haven't attempted to watch on physical Blu-Ray player yet but will test later.

[Mozey]

Purchased mine from Wow HD... No visible sign of damage to 4k disc. Theatrical Version failed to rip on LG BU40N, but both versions ripped successfully on Pioneer BDR-S13. Haven't attempted to watch on physical Blu-Ray player yet but will test later.

Interesting. Can you specify which BDR-S13 you had success with? BDR-S13UBK or BDR-S13U-X?

[John7]

Hello Forum!

First post for me! Long time lurker here but just registered to share some info regarding this release.

I'm in the UK and imported this release, which I received yesterday (19 March). I skimmed the disk (extended edition) using my Sony X800M2 disk spinner and all seemed OK. I have not watched the full movie in real-time yet

However primarily wanting to rip the disk to put on my NAS, I'm having the same issues as most posters here, that the disk will not rip, throws up read erros and will not complete.

Tried everything (uninstall/re-install MakeMKV, restart PC, backup disk, cleaning disk etc).

I thoroughly washed the disk using liquid hand soap 3 x times, dabbing dry with paper towel and final gentle polish with a clean microfibre cloth. To me, the disk never seemed to come up mirror shiny like most disks do, it seemed to have a "cloudy/greasy" look to it which didn't seem right. It also seemed kind of "sticky" and pulled fibres off the microfibre cloth(s), which I have never had when cleaning a disk before.

So, I washed it thoroughly again, for a longer period and with extra soap. This time, I examined the disk surface in more detail with some magnifying specs. I discovered two clusters of (irregular) surface marks on the disk, one about 20mm in diameter and one about 10mm in diameter with a smattering of smaller marks on the disk surface in the surrounding area.

These marks resembled tiny blisters and were located in the middle to outer third of the disk surface. I took a clean spectacle lens cleaning cloth and polished these marks vigourously using "breath" moisture as lube.

Most of the marks were removed using this method and the disk now has a non-sticky mirror finish. Looking at the packaging of the disks, these marks seem to coincide with the surface printing on the Extras Disk , which the playable surface of the movie disk was in contact with in the box. Maybe they were put together before the solvent in the print had dried completely, causing some contamination?

ANYWAY, after a frustrating afternoon/evening of several failed attempts, I have now successfully ripped the Extended version! It seemed to take a lot longer than usual on my ASUS BW-16D1HT and it worryingly stopped a couple of times but it eventaully continued and competed with no errors.

Some may regard my cleaning a little Gung-Ho, but I had little to lose really, as returning the disk to the 'States would not have been cost efficient for me, so I gave it a go and it paid off!

I may give it another clean and polish to see if the rip speed can be improved, now that I have a working rip.

If you want to give it a go, wash your disk and examine the surface for the tiny surface imperfections, which you can hopefully polish out! Good luck!

[mainecooncat1]

Message for jmos1277

As I just signed up for a MakeMKV forum account, I can receive your PM, but I cannot reply. My full backup of the 4k The Abyss UHD didn't run to completion (failed about 50-55% through). I received Witness on 4K UHD yesterday and it ripped without a single problem, so I'm still thinking the 4k Abyss disc has a manufacturing/packaging problem.

I'll try the disc backup again in the next few days to see if I can get it to run to completion. If not, returning it to Amazon for a refund seems to be the only option as they are not offering exchanges, that I've seen.

[rkhollister]

So a few observations based on admittedly anecdotal evidence here and in the Abyss thread on blu-ray.com ...

1) I believe all but 1 failed attempt to rip this reported here were with LG or Asus drives.

2) there are very few, if any, reports of this disc not playing correctly in BDP's over at blu-ray.com

3) I have both an LG BP50NB40 and a couple Pioneer S13U's. Out of the approx 400 4K UHD discs I have ripped, I had about 6 or so that would not rip in the LG but did so just fine in the Pioneers. As I recall, all were 3 layer discs. The most recent example was the Sony steelbook DV version of Blackhawk Down. My LG failed twice on it and the Pioneer sailed right thru without hardly slowing down for the layer changes.

4) Of the 400 UHD discs I have ripped, I think I had 2 defective discs that wouldn't rip or play in my Panasonic BDP's. I have not noticed widespread scratches as many report on blu-ray.com and the consensus seems to be that most scratches occur at the time of manufacturing/packaging, not from loose discs or stacked discs during subsequent shipping. The far greater risk for disc damage comes from the packaging that uses cardboard sleeves, e.g. the recent 4 disc collector's editions of the Avatar films.

My guess here is the widespread reported rip failures are due to marginal non-pioneer drives coupled with an inherently marginal layer change in the disc itself that most BDP's (and Pioneer drives) can navigate successfully.

[robert.gregory]

Where do we buy new burners? I have an LG. all discs rip except the abyss.

[SamuriHL]

^^ Check in the for sale part of the forum for a vendor in your location. They have Pioneer drives available.

As for the anecdotal evidence, I'm the outlier in your observations. I have a bu40n, 212u, and 513u. Abyss failed in all of them. It also failed in my UB820. I'm still waiting for a replacement from Walmart. In general, I wholeheartedly agree that the Pioneers, while slower, are tanks at reading just about anything. E.G. I had no problem with True Lies or Aliens in my 212u.

[robert.gregory]

I just got my walmart replacement delivered, but not home at moment. will try later.

I am not hopeful

[SamuriHL]

I just checked on mine. I sent it out Friday. The return is "still in transit". I guess I need to go grab that fedex receipt and find out where the hell they think they're sending it to.

EDIT: Oh they're hilarious. It was signed for on Monday. They better get that new one delivered asap.

[rkhollister]

^^ Check in the for sale part of the forum for a vendor in your location. They have Pioneer drives available.

As for the anecdotal evidence, I'm the outlier in your observations. I have a bu40n, 212u, and 513u. Abyss failed in all of them. It also failed in my UB820. I'm still waiting for a replacement from Walmart. In general, I wholeheartedly agree that the Pioneers, while slower, are tanks at reading just about anything. E.G. I had no problem with True Lies or Aliens in my 212u.

I'm sure there are some defective discs in circulation, just not enough to account for the almost universal problem in ripping this here.

[SamuriHL]

I'm sure there are some defective discs in circulation, just not enough to account for the almost universal problem in ripping this here.

That was my point. You absolutely CAN'T be sure at all. You can share your experience as I have done, but you can't draw such a conclusion as to whether there are or aren't defective discs or how many there are. MakeMKV is not the only ripping tool, and I know of many other people having problems ripping these discs using other tools, even on Pioneer drives. But that still doesn't provide anything conclusive either way. The point is, we can't know from a subset of observations either way.

[robert.gregory]

Here is attempt #2 - walmart abyss

I will update this post, wish me luck...

verdict! walmart disc, same result as other disc. no rip!

Whomever speculated the issue lies within the disc player not understanding 3-layer discs, is most likely correct.

I will be getting a new ripper. just not now.

[CalicoSkies]

I ordered The Abyss 4K from Amazon, and it arrived on Monday. Yesterday I tried ripping it - The theatrical version succeeded, but the extended version failed right at the end. I tried the Backup option, and it said the hash failed for one file. I tried ripping the extended version from that, and the resulting .mkv is missing the last several minutes.

The bottom of the disc looks fine - I don't see any scratches or other marks. I'm using an LG WH16NS40 (internal SATA) drive to rip. Normally I don't have a problem ripping with this drive.

I decided to order another copy from Wal Mart online, and I plan to return my Amazon copy and say it's defective. It seems Amazon doesn't have it in stock, and some other places are out of stock as well..

[CalicoSkies]

Where do we buy new burners? I have an LG. all discs rip except the abyss.

If you're just interested in ripping, you shouldn't need a burner, do you?

[Chris01992]

Purchased mine from Wow HD... No visible sign of damage to 4k disc. Theatrical Version failed to rip on LG BU40N, but both versions ripped successfully on Pioneer BDR-S13. Haven't attempted to watch on physical Blu-Ray player yet but will test later.

Interesting. Can you specify which BDR-S13 you had success with? BDR-S13UBK or BDR-S13U-X?

Hi @Mozey, sure - I have the BDR-S13EBK with BDR-S13JX firmware 1-03 (purchased in a Vantek enclosure recently from @asmcom on this forum)