AVA (2020) Disc Not Detected

[liechsowagan]

I purchased a used AVA Blu Ray disc from Redbox. I have two different LG Blu Ray drives, and neither one is detecting the disc. The drive will speed up and slow down intermittently for several minutes, then show "No Disc". I actually returned one disc as faulty already and was given a credit for a replacement. The second one is doing exactly the same thing.

I plugged it into my XBOX and the disc menu loaded instantaneously. That leads me to believe that it has a novel disc protection scheme that I haven't seen before. Can anyone confirm this? Most copy-protection problems show up during the ripping process; I've never seen one inhibit the drive's ability to identify the presence of a disc...

I am running MakeMKV v1.15.4 Win-x64.

Here are the details on the two drives.

Drive 1: WH14NS40 manufactured somewhere around September 2014 (Stock firmware; NOT cross-flashable with WH16NS60 due to the drive platform)

Code: Select all

Drive Information
OS device name: \Device\CdRom0
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH14NS40
Revision: 1.03
Serial number: K9CE9I84911
Firmware date: 2114-03-26 11:05
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 70

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1939
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.03
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Partial
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

No disc inserted

Drive 2: WH16NS60 manufactured March 2020 (Patched with "HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936" from "The All you need firmware pack".)

Code: Select all

Drive Information
OS device name: \Device\CdRom0
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH16NS60
Revision: 1.02
Serial number: KLZK42B3909
Firmware date: 2118-10-29 19:36
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 76

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.02
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

No disc inserted

I am at a total loss here. Since the discs aren't even making it through the identification stage, I can't properly determine if the disc or the drive is the issue in order to know if this is the correct "topic" for this question. As you see though, my newer drive is updated for AACS v76, which is well beyond the protection enforced by most Blu Rays. Almost all of the discs I've been buying recently have been v68.

[Billycar11]

Clean the disc

[liechsowagan]

Clean the disc

Actually, I did... repeatedly. I should have mentioned that in my original post. I have a ~30% solution of Isopropyl Alcohol (91% that is mixed 1:2 with distilled water) that I keep in a small spray bottle for this purpose. I use a microfiber cloth -- the kind that comes with a phone or a pair of glasses -- to wipe the disc radially after spraying it down.

Right after I wrote the original post, I gave it one more try. Amazingly, this time it worked. So it seems the moral of the story is to be more stubborn than your technology. It only took about 8 attempts. The AACS on the disc is v68, it turns out, so that was nothing special.