Does ripping a disc (dvd or bluray) change the original at all?

[Hayt89]

Hello,

I recognize this is a seemingly surface level question to ask such an enthusiast community but I couldn't find a clear answer and I know this forum is very knowledgeable.

My question is: when you rip a dvd or blu-ray does anything change about the original disc? I vaguely understand ripping to be extracting data from the disc and copying it, but does that process do anything to the original? Do anything to the physical disc itself? Or Move the data around? Copy it and replace it? Could you look at a discs data (or another factor) and know that it had been ripped? When you bypass the protections on blu-rays does that alter the original disc?

Or is the process of ripping a disc no different than when it's used to install a game or play a movie?

I suspect the answer is "no it doesn't change when it gets ripped" but it anyone could give extra info that'd be great.

If you're wondering why I even want to know it's because i'm basically a fastidious person and knowing would give me peace of mind. I recognize that makes me a bit of a weirdo but it's how I am.

Thanks

PS: If this is the wrong subforum to post a question like this in please let me know and I'll move it.

[Woodstock]

Unless your reading drive has write capabilities AND it is reading a writable disk, it's simply not possible.

Well, it is possible that the laser could scratch the disk (a problem with some older drives with misaligned laser assemblies), but generally no.

[Hayt89]

Unless your reading drive has write capabilities AND it is reading a writable disk, it's simply not possible.

Well, it is possible that the laser could scratch the disk (a problem with some older drives with misaligned laser assemblies), but generally no.

Thanks for the reply, that's good to know. And thank you for your patience with what I am sure are obvious questions.

My drive is a LG BH16NS55 so it does have write capabilities so does that change anything as per your first sentence? Is there any issue with using a write capable drive for ripping instead of just a reader? I imagine most if not all commercial DVDs and blurays are not writable, correct?

To your second point when you say older drives how old do you mean? Is the LG BH16NS55 old enough to fall into that window?

[Woodstock]

The question of writable disks "should not" come up when ripping disks. I put that in quotes because sometimes the "original" disks comes to you as a copy that was burned onto a writable disk. Think low-volume DVDs for legal stuff (RightStuf used to do that) and pirated stuff more generally.

Stamped disks are not writable, so it couldn't happen to those. These are generally silver in color, like "normal" DVDs and BD disks. If it is a darker color, it is possible that it was originally a blank disk, and stuff was written to it, but it is unlikely that your drive would be "accidentally" set to write to it. MakeMKV isn't going to tell it to do that, but MakeMKV isn't the only software you run that talks to disks, is it?

But, in general, you are going to be using a writer to read disks, because most of what you can buy now that are 4K-capable are writers.

Second point... If you do a search on messages here, about 4-6 years ago, BU40 drives had a reputation of scratching disks. I did not personally experience it, so I do not know how people resolved it, but the BU40 evolved into one of the more popular 4K drives after that. Generally, the laser closed too much of the gap to the spinning disk, with scratches resulting.

[Hayt89]

The question of writable disks "should not" come up when ripping disks. I put that in quotes because sometimes the "original" disks comes to you as a copy that was burned onto a writable disk. Think low-volume DVDs for legal stuff (RightStuf used to do that) and pirated stuff more generally.

Stamped disks are not writable, so it couldn't happen to those. These are generally silver in color, like "normal" DVDs and BD disks. If it is a darker color, it is possible that it was originally a blank disk, and stuff was written to it, but it is unlikely that your drive would be "accidentally" set to write to it. MakeMKV isn't going to tell it to do that, but MakeMKV isn't the only software you run that talks to disks, is it?

But, in general, you are going to be using a writer to read disks, because most of what you can buy now that are 4K-capable are writers.

Second point... If you do a search on messages here, about 4-6 years ago, BU40 drives had a reputation of scratching disks. I did not personally experience it, so I do not know how people resolved it, but the BU40 evolved into one of the more popular 4K drives after that. Generally, the laser closed too much of the gap to the spinning disk, with scratches resulting.

Thanks again for your detailed reply. So that all sounds like there's basically zero chance of anything getting changed even using a writer. Makemkv actually is the only software I use for the disks unless I am unaware of something.

Thanks also for letting me know about the BU40 drives. Since mine is a LG BH16NS55 I should be in the clear unless that is the same drive with another name?

I also have the flashed firmware on my LG BH16NS55. Would that make any difference to any of this?

Again, thanks for taking the time to answer all these. Sounds like the take away is it's all fine.

[Woodstock]

You would have to hear from others if flashing the drive changed write behavior. I've seen messages where people complained that they couldn't write, others that said it worked great. I haven't had to flash any drives I use, so I cannot say.

[Hayt89]

You would have to hear from others if flashing the drive changed write behavior. I've seen messages where people complained that they couldn't write, others that said it worked great. I haven't had to flash any drives I use, so I cannot say.

Thanks for letting me know. And I suppose that since those issues are related to writing and ripping uses reading that wouldn't matter, right?

Sounds like I don't have anything to worry about anyway.