How many UHD ripping failures can be considered normal?

[Corleone]

Hi,

New forum member here. I purchased an Asus BW-16D1HT a couple of weeks ago, flashed the 3.10 firmware, and started ripping my UHD discs.

So far I've had 4 failures ('Scsi error - MEDIUM ERROR:L-EC UNCORRECTABLE ERROR') in 38 discs, i.e., a little over 10%. Just wondering if this rate is considered normal. I think the drive is still in the return window, but I'm not sure if they won't check for unofficial firmware.

I already increased the number of retries to 30. And like all similar reports I've read, I can't see any scratches or dirt on the discs. I tried washing one of them, it didn't help. That was before I increased the number of retries though, so I'll give it another chance.

Separate question: a fifth disc gave me a reading error but kept on ripping, and in the end I had the "backup done" message. I assume that means the reading error was overcome and I can trust the resulting file, right?

Thanks in advance,

Corleone

[dcoke22]

Separate question: a fifth disc gave me a reading error but kept on ripping, and in the end I had the "backup done" message. I assume that means the reading error was overcome and I can trust the resulting file, right?

Yes. Generally speaking, if MakeMKV produces a file, it is good. If it runs into an issue it can't overcome, it won't produce a file.

[dcoke22]

For an ASUS or LG desktop drive, that's probably a reasonable failure rate.

These days, Pioneer drives are considered the best for ripping. I have 2 Pioneer drives, one LG and one ASUS drive. Both the LG and ASUS drive are from before the COVID pandemic (the quality of LG and ASUS drives seemed to drop quite a bit during and after the pandemic, sadly). In my experience, my Pioneer drives have a higher success rate than my other drives.

Even before I had the Pioneer drives I found that having two drives improved my overall success rate. It seems like some drives just don't like some discs. Often, but not always, when a disc doesn't work in one drive, it'll work in a different drive.

It seems to me that lots of people who do this for long enough end up with a small collection of multiple drives so they have options to improve their odds with problematic discs.

[Corleone]

Separate question: a fifth disc gave me a reading error but kept on ripping, and in the end I had the "backup done" message. I assume that means the reading error was overcome and I can trust the resulting file, right?

Yes. Generally speaking, if MakeMKV produces a file, it is good. It it runs into an issue it can't overcome, it won't produce a file.

Excellent, one less to worry about.

Thank you!

[Corleone]

For an ASUS or LG desktop drive, that's probably a reasonable failure rate.

These days, Pioneer drives are considered the best for ripping. I have 2 Pioneer drives, one LG and one ASUS drive. Both the LG and ASUS drive are from before the COVID pandemic (the quality of LG and ASUS drives seemed to drop quite a bit during and after the pandemic, sadly). In my experience, my Pioneer drives have a higher success rate than my other drives.

Even before I had the Pioneer drives I found that having two drives improved my overall success rate. It seems like some drives just don't like some discs. Often, but not always, when a disc doesn't work in one drive, it'll work in a different drive.

It seems to me that lots of people who do this for long enough end up with a small collection of multiple drives so they have options to improve their odds with problematic discs.

True - I have a "generic" internal (SATA) drive that I use for regular BDs, and a Pioneer USB drive as a backup (and an old Asus DVD-RW for DVD's, for that matter). Occasionally the generic one won't read a disc, but then I plug in the Pioneer and it works. The Pioneer only failed with three discs, one that was defective and two that were badly scratched (none of these discs played in my standalone players either).

I've just found a thread that seems to indicate my Pioneer may read UHD discs too. I'll see if I can make it work, and keep the new Asus anyway based on your feedback.

Thanks a lot!