Avatar 4K (2026 German 3-Movie Collection) – repeated read errors on 00079.m2ts with BU40N and ASUS BW-16D1X-U

[ChrispyX]

Hi everyone,

I’m having a very stubborn issue with the Avatar (2009) 4K UHD from the 2026 German 3-Movie Collection, bought from Amazon Germany.

Collection:
https://bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme/20 ... ray?rating

The strange part is that Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash from the same box ripped successfully without any issues. Only the first Avatar movie is causing problems.

I have already tried quite a lot, so here is the condensed troubleshooting history:

Original drive: HL-DT-ST BU40N, MT1959, LibreDrive enabled.
Initially on firmware 1.00, later tested with 1.03.
The first Avatar disc repeatedly failed on /BDMV/STREAM/00079.m2ts.
saw errors including L-EC UNCORRECTABLE ERROR, TIMEOUT ON LOGICAL UNIT, INVALID FIELD IN CDB and hash-check failures.
Backup mode also failed.
-I exchanged the disc for a replacement copy.
-Same movie, same collection.
-The replacement behaved differently in places, but still showed serious read errors.
-With the BU40N it again failed around 00079.m2ts.
-I tested different USB setups with the BU40N.
-A new USB4/80 Gbps cable actually caused hard disconnect-type errors (device not present), so I went back to the original cable.
-I also tested direct motherboard USB and a powered USB hub.
-The hard USB disconnects disappeared with the original cable, but the optical read errors remained.
-I then bought an ASUS BW-16D1X-U.
-It contains the LG/MT1959 platform.
-I installed WH16NS60 1.02-MK.
-This drive performs much better with the same replacement disc and can actually reach the title selection and start the rip.
-With the ASUS at normal speed, the rip initially got stuck on:
-00079.m2ts
-first around offset 264333312
-after thoroughly cleaning the disc with warm water + a small amount of dish soap, it got much further and then failed around 1150482432–1151791104
-errors were mainly MEDIUM ERROR: L-EC UNCORRECTABLE ERROR, followed by STATUS_DEVICE_DATA_ERROR and later INVALID FIELD IN CDB
-I also tested reduced read speed using U3=8.
-With that setting, MakeMKV did not get to the normal title-selection screen.
-During scanning, 00079.m2ts was added successfully, but a new hash-check/read problem appeared on 00083.m2ts at a very low offset.
-The scan ended with 2 Read Errors and 1 HashCheck Error.

The especially interesting part to me is that both Avatar discs and both drives keep exposing problems around the same movie data, especially 00079.m2ts, even though the exact failing offsets vary significantly depending on drive, cleaning and read conditions.

The ASUS definitely reads this disc much better than the BU40N, but it still cannot complete the rip.

At this point I’m wondering whether this is more likely:
-a bad/problematic pressing of the German 2026 Avatar disc,
-a difficult area or layer transition that these LG-based MT1959 drives struggle with,
-or something else in the disc structure that I am missing.

Has anyone seen similar behaviour with this specific German 2026 Avatar 4K disc / 3-Movie Collection?

And if you have experience with this title: Is there anything else worth trying with the BW-16D1X-U / WH16NS60 1.02-MK?

Thanks!

[ChrispyX]

Additional update / control test

After the tests above, I did another run at normal/automatic read speed (U3=8 had already been removed).

This time the behaviour changed again. The rip got significantly further, but eventually failed while reading:

/BDMV/STREAM/00071.m2ts
Offset: 7080892416

At that point MakeMKV/Windows repeatedly reported errors equivalent to:

OS error: The device is not present

OS error: The media of a file was externally changed so that the
opened file is no longer valid
(Translated from German)

The same errors then repeated at exactly the same offset until the rip finally failed:

Title 0 failed to save
0 titles saved, 1 failed

So unlike the previous attempts, this was not an L-EC uncorrectable error at 00079.m2ts. Instead, the optical drive appeared to disappear/reset from Windows' point of view while reading 00071.m2ts. The errors continued at the same 7080892416 offset until MakeMKV aborted the title.

To rule out a general USB, cable, power, firmware or drive stability problem, I immediately did a control test with Avatar: The Way of Water from the exact same 2026 box.

I used:

the same ASUS BW-16D1X-U
the same WH16NS60 1.02-MK firmware
the same USB cable
the same USB port
the same MakeMKV settings
automatic/default read speed

The Way of Water ripped completely successfully without a single read error, timeout, disconnect or warning.

That makes a general USB/power/drive stability problem seem much less likely. The issue appears to be specific to the Avatar (2009) UHD disc / pressing, or to how this particular disc interacts with these LG/MT1959-based drives.

[MartyMcNuts]

Additional update / control test

After the tests above, I did another run at normal/automatic read speed (U3=8 had already been removed).

This time the behaviour changed again. The rip got significantly further, but eventually failed while reading:

/BDMV/STREAM/00071.m2ts
Offset: 7080892416

At that point MakeMKV/Windows repeatedly reported errors equivalent to:

OS error: The device is not present

OS error: The media of a file was externally changed so that the
opened file is no longer valid
(Translated from German)

The same errors then repeated at exactly the same offset until the rip finally failed:

Title 0 failed to save
0 titles saved, 1 failed

So unlike the previous attempts, this was not an L-EC uncorrectable error at 00079.m2ts. Instead, the optical drive appeared to disappear/reset from Windows' point of view while reading 00071.m2ts. The errors continued at the same 7080892416 offset until MakeMKV aborted the title.

To rule out a general USB, cable, power, firmware or drive stability problem, I immediately did a control test with Avatar: The Way of Water from the exact same 2026 box.

I used:

the same ASUS BW-16D1X-U
the same WH16NS60 1.02-MK firmware
the same USB cable
the same USB port
the same MakeMKV settings
automatic/default read speed

The Way of Water ripped completely successfully without a single read error, timeout, disconnect or warning.

That makes a general USB/power/drive stability problem seem much less likely. The issue appears to be specific to the Avatar (2009) UHD disc / pressing, or to how this particular disc interacts with these LG/MT1959-based drives.

The drive is struggling to read the disc. Clean the disc with soapy water and dry with a microfibre cloth and let it air dry overnight.