Complete failure with ASUS BW-12D1S-U

[rkofcal]

Hi,

I just unpacked and tried out my new external ASUS Blu-Ray writer. It has a USB 3.0 port which is supposed to be backward compatible to 2.0. I have tried on both a MAC Pro w/s and a MBP laptop. On a machine without the Daspi v1.3 extension a blu-ray rip works but runs very slow. With the Daspi v1.3 extension, I get the following messages when doing a blu ray backup:

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Loaded 3 SVQ file(s)
Processing BD+ code, please be patient - this may take up to few minutes
Processing BD+ code using generic SVQ from builtin/00003.svq
BD+ code processed, got 1 FUT(s) for 1 clip(s)
Error 'Scsi error - HARDWARE ERROR:LOGICAL UNIT COMMUNICATION TIME-OUT' occurred while reading '/AACS/ContentHash000.tbl' at offset '0'
Failed to load content hash table, unable to verify integrity of M2TS files.
Error 'Scsi error - HARDWARE ERROR:LOGICAL UNIT COMMUNICATION TIME-OUT' occurred while reading '/BDMV/index.bdmv' at offset '0'
Backup failed
------------------------------------


In the info screen, the Drive is recognized with the following

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Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/rdisk1
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: BW-12D1S-U
Revision: E102
Serial number: ********* (deleted by me)
Firmware details: intf=SAT gen=1030 krnl=ID71 main=ID71 ver=0002
Firmware date: 2011-05-06
Bus encryption flags: 13

Disc Information
Data capacity: 30.87 Gb
Disc type: BD-ROM
Number of layers: 2
Channel bit length: 74,5 nm (25.0 GB max. per layer)
Bus encryption flags: 80
------------------------------------

I called ASUS tech support and spoke to someone who did not inspire confidence. Regardless, she claimed that their blu-ray players have no firmware that required upgrades. The website seems to allow you to pursue a firmware update download but I can't get past the "select OS" screen which is required to get an update, it just shows up as an empty pull down list.

As a reference point, using vmware running Windows7 running Anydvd, the backup works but runs fairly slow (averages about 8.5MB/s, about 2x). The drive is supposed to have up to 12x write and 8x read capability. Moving the Blu-Ray disc to the internal LG blu-ray writer, makemkv backup runs great and reads at up to 3.6x as usual, averaging about 3x on the big file.

I was hoping to improve on my apparently fast, reliable internal LG blu-ray writer but it looks like a bit of a downgrade.

Anyone with a shared experience? Any advise on what to do next, short of sending the ASUS back?

[mike admin]

Your drive is apparently fine. The line "intf=SAT gen=1030 krnl=ID71 main=ID71 ver=0002" means that what you have is a re-branded PIONEER drive with SATA interface, and these are usually very good. The problem comes from your external enclosure. Unfortunately, some USB-SATA chipsets are handled by Mac OS X very poorly and nothing can be done about that.

Your other two options are:
- disassemble the enclosure, remove drive and put it as internal into Mac pro.
- if you want to keep it external, buy a new external enclosure. There were several threads in mac subforum about ones that work.

[rkofcal]

Thanks, your description is very informative! I think I'll just return this and purchase a different solution (I'd like to use my laptop). Hopefully this will help others who might get into my situation avoid this issue.

P.S. When I removed the DASPI extension (by removing the system directory), I let makemkv run through to see how long it would take. However, it seems like it reported hash file corruption on every m2ts file (but kept running). Very strange ... it's odd that anydvd in a vmware windows 7 could do the backup to completion on the same drive.

[mike admin]

Very strange ... it's odd that anydvd in a vmware windows 7 could do the backup to completion on the same drive.

Did you try MakeMKV in vmware as well?

[rkofcal]

Very strange ... it's odd that anydvd in a vmware windows 7 could do the backup to completion on the same drive.

Did you try MakeMKV in vmware as well?

No, I did not try loading makemkv on the windows vm. I should have tried that. It's too late now, the drive has been returned. The one thing I did try in the vm was loading the packaged cyberlink software etc ... it loaded on the vm but it was not able to play a regular Blu-Ray movie.