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LG BP50NB40 External Blu-Ray/DVD Reader/Writer $109.42 + Shipping (Direct Import) @ F Digital via MyDeal

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LG BP50NB40 External Blu-Ray/DVD Reader/Writer $109.42 + Shipping (Direct Import) @ F Digital via MyDealAffiliate
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Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 12:31 mydeal.com.au (951 clicks)
Last edited 17/07/2024 - 13:33 by 1 other user
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This external portable optical drive is one of the few recommended in the MakeMKV forums for ripping UHD Blu-rays. Good for those wanting to legally setup a jellyfin server, or rip more obscure/ hard to find Blu-rays. Note that that better bang for buck might be to get a 5.25in optical drive then match with sata to usb 3 w/ 12V/2A power supply. That route was too clunky for me and would work out to be the same price. Amazon reviews indicate this external drive uses proprietary connectors (non-sata), so don't buy it thinking you can slap it in a PC case. 19 in stock at time of posting.

Computing External Blu-Ray Drive LG

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closed Comments

  • Mahogany Granger on 17/07/2024 - 13:23
    +3

    I remember these

    • Olli on 17/07/2024 - 13:24
      +6

      when CD writers where a thing 2x or 4x and you couldn't use your computer to not disturb the writing process :D

      • DontNeedThis on 17/07/2024 - 14:04
        +5

        You peasant! I had 16X.

        • smartazz104 on 17/07/2024 - 14:19
          +4

          And buffer underruns.

        • FabMan on 17/07/2024 - 15:04

          You young whipper snapper!

      • Hammo on 17/07/2024 - 15:33
        +1

        I LOL in your general direction. I spent thousands on a 1x Sony with SCSI controller card, which used caddies to hold the discs. Blanks were $15-20 each back then, so when you upset the computer in any way, the write would shit itself and kissed goodbye to pizza money.

        • rodericb on 17/07/2024 - 16:13
          +1

          Is that around 1993? You could get lots of pizza for the price of a blank CD back then! Or a mountain of 2 for 1 Hungry Jacks Whoppers….

  • Abaddon on 17/07/2024 - 13:48
    +7

    Note it's official'ish support and you will need to flash it to work.

    If you want something that works out of the box (already Libre enabled), I've been very happy with this https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/verbatim-e…

    Price matched it to ~$160. It's also USB-C rather than the USB 2.0 in the LG you linked.

    • Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 13:56

      Out of the box functionality would have been preferable tbh, good find. Hopefully I do okay with the flashing aspect and that make mkv forums will have me sorted.

      • GameBunny on 23/07/2024 - 09:14
        +1

        You want out of box Libre Support, get yourself Verbatim 43888 from Amazon when it is on sale.
        Link is this one : www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07MTP9VKX
        but right now it is not on sale, so you will have to wait for it.

    • Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 14:10

      @casho maybe this one, listed as compatible with Mac OS. Runs through 1 USB c cable too.

    • jumpypotato53 on 17/07/2024 - 14:31

      Why do you need to flash it?

      • Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 14:37
        +1

        So I can rip the blu ray disks. Pretty sure that it would only allow playback otherwise.

      • Abaddon on 17/07/2024 - 20:57
        +1

        It isn't 4K capable out of the box.

    • flagsarefun on 17/07/2024 - 15:07
      +1

      Who did you price match it to?

      • Abaddon on 17/07/2024 - 20:57

        Amazon I believe.

    • jwh on 17/07/2024 - 15:11
      +1

      I’ve had my eye on that Verbatim one for months and months.

      Went down to approx $146 at Amazon AU for a short period recently, but I’m holding out a better deal, closer to this price

    • out4abargain on 17/07/2024 - 15:20

      “Price matched it to ~$160.“
      Just did the same today for $153. At Amazon it was $174 2 weeks ago, $181 until yesterday, then this morning $161

    • BillyG687 on 17/07/2024 - 16:21

      Literally standing inline at Officeworks and Amazon ups the price to $224.

    • CacheHunter on 17/07/2024 - 23:36

      The 43888 is currently $141 on Amazon DE via AU

  • Tollery on 17/07/2024 - 13:49
    +1

    Connects VIA USB 2.0

    • ShMiCk on 18/07/2024 - 11:59

      Yeah, what’s up with that? If you’re just using it to write Blu-Ray, does it matter?

      • Tollery on 18/07/2024 - 12:06
        +2

        Not really unless it's high speed drive. Something that costs that much should be USB 3.0 or type C. USB 2.0 is old (about 12-18 years old).

  • twig on 17/07/2024 - 13:51

    Tangential question, is there a way to watch Bluray in any programs on Windows reliably yet?

    Or do we still need to stick to programs which paid for the keys or licensing?

    • Abaddon on 17/07/2024 - 14:12
      +1

      Depends which apps you are using. In libre mode (MakeMKV) you can just open in VLC.

      • twig on 17/07/2024 - 14:23

        Ah I wanted to view from some couch friendly software like kodi

        • greatlamp on 17/07/2024 - 22:24
          +1

          Not a very elegant solution but you can cast from VLC to a smart TV

        • Abaddon on 18/07/2024 - 15:46
          +2

          I just rip it first and watch via Plex.

  • qube on 17/07/2024 - 14:01
    +2

    Is it region locked?

    • Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 14:07
      +2

      My use case involves flashing firmware that would avoid any issues with that (I think/ hope), so I'm unsure.

      • rygle on 19/07/2024 - 00:06
        +2

        Libredrive gives you lower level access that bypasses region protection and some other protections, plus in this case and several other drives it enables UHD/4K rips.

  • casho on 17/07/2024 - 14:07
    +1

    Sorry for hijack. Anyone know a good bluray reader for modern mac books?

    • rygle on 19/07/2024 - 00:10
      +1

      If they have USB-C this drive should work. The verbatim 43888, which is actually a pioneer mechanism that doesn't have the locked firmware that many other pioneer drives now have.

      https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07MTP9VKX

      But may need to use VLC to play movies or makeMKV to rip because I don't know what system support Macs offer for Blu-ray or 4K.

  • Matt86 on 17/07/2024 - 15:14
    +1

    Purchased this.

    Coupon code "party" gave me $10 off.

    USB Type C can be achieved with an adapter if required - does anyone have a link to flashing the firmware?

    • Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 16:03
      +1

      The Make MKV forum linked in the description has a good overview and gives the relevant files as downloads at the end.

    • Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 16:12
      +1

      here

  • Guybrush57 on 17/07/2024 - 16:05

    Would this model flashed be better than the Verbatim VB43888 linked above? Specifically for ripping purposes or other?

    • Dan24 on 17/07/2024 - 16:24
      +2

      Nah, the verbatim one is just marginally more expensive atm. I was mainly guided by the model recommendations in the MakeMKV forum (link in description). There is a separate post talking about how the Verbatim model is quite good here. Honestly wasn't aware of the Verbatim as an option until someone talked about it here in the comments.

      • Guybrush57 on 17/07/2024 - 17:04
        +1

        I also have a Pioneer desktop drive that is apparently really good according to that link.

  • [Deactivated] on 17/07/2024 - 17:49
    +2

    I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a Pioneer BDRXS07TUHD model, sometimes I think about starting to rip my approximately 5000 Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray Disc collection, but quickly change my mind because it will be a extremely time consuming task, and I don’t see the point from a time saving perspective. 18 years after the launch of 1080p Blu-ray and 8 years since the launch of 4K UHD Blu-ray, and the picture and audio quality on paid streaming services is generally still vastly inferior to these 2 physical media formats

    • Matt86 on 17/07/2024 - 18:45
      +2

      I'd suggest to do this, as physical media does degrade with time even if not played.

      I wouldn't do the 5,000 at once. But go ahead and start with the less common / more valuable ones and just do one to two a day after work here and there.

      You won't ever probably get all 5,000 but there are other "harrr mateys" sources for more common shows.

      • [Deactivated] on 17/07/2024 - 18:55

        Rubbish. Like any product, the odd batch or a singular copy of media physical media/BDs/4K BDs sometimes can be defective and degrade over time, however if the disc is free of defects it will last many decades… The majority of discs aren’t defective. The user damaging them is a different a matter. I’ve come across about 10 out of 5000 BDs/4KBDs in my collection that no longer work (I watch a minimum of 2 Blu-rays/4K UHD Blu-rays almost every night each week, I subscribe to several paid streaming services but certainly could easily go without them, and definitely don’t want or need FTA ever again), which I’ve had to replace, hardly a major concern, and it amounts to such small amount of money repurchasing them a second time to replace them, much less than what my time is worth per hour based on what I get paid for my job when you consider the amount of time I would need to devote to ripping my entire collection for the sake of a handful of titles that are defective and no longer work.

        • Matt86 on 17/07/2024 - 19:40

          That's fair, I mean yes using them / poor handling is the biggest. They usually last a few decades without issue but it depends how long you're planning on keeping them for.

          • [Deactivated] on 17/07/2024 - 19:51
            +1

            @Matt86: I plan to keep them for life… I have more than 20 Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray players in my home (including 4 region free models), made up of about 10 stand alone players and 10 gaming consoles with BD/4K disc playback capabilities, so I’ll always have a player to play the discs on when the players finally stop being manufactured/produced. I’m almost 43 years old, I’ve been a movie enthusiast for as long as I can remember, and even since my mid teenage years it was a goal of mine to own a large collection of physical media. With the exception of a some VHS tapes my parents bought me when I was a kid, I have been paying for and collecting physical media since 1999 when I was 18 starting with DVD (luckily the superior Blu-ray format was release in 2006, so besides purchasing approximately 400 DVDs I hadn’t really collected any of the prior physical media formats that boomers did, therefore I didn’t feel as bitter for spending money on inferior formats that were replaced by something superior). My collection has been purchased for the purpose of lifetime use, and I will use it until the day I die.

          • cobknob on 18/07/2024 - 01:14
            +1

            @Matt86: Have to agree. Dvds, Blurays, 4k Media are not manufactured to be kept 50+ years. Degradation of materials stored in sub optimum condition is very common. Have you ever seen how some products are stored for archival purposes - almost like a clean room, temperature, humidity, air quality, sunlight… All controlled. It also ain't the days where companies where selling writable media that had archival-like qualities from the likes of TDK, KODAK, etc - they are gone for consumers. I would say that's more a professional business now.

    • Abaddon on 18/07/2024 - 15:49
      +1

      Pioneer are difficult unless you can get one with an older firmware, crack that and don't update it.

      The Verbatim one I linked above has a Pioneer drive in it which works.

    • Abaddon on 18/07/2024 - 15:58

      I just rip before playing and delete afterward. Particularly with UHD discs 60-90GB the storage is more expensive than the disc long term (not worth pirating at high quality).

      That and the disc should well and truly outlast any spinning rust I'd put it on.

      • Matt86 on 20/07/2024 - 11:05

        I disagree - ripping it for storage is convenient and storage isn't that expensive especially if you get creative.

        I definetly wouldn't have full 4k Blu ray rips for every single movie. Only usually favorites - 1080p for a lot of movies is good enough.

  • xmagic on 17/07/2024 - 19:50
    +2

    I personally having a hard time to rip UHD BDs with slim drives even when it’s connected via SATA (not through USB). Something to do with overheating.

    5.25” drive rather worked flawlessly. Picked up one from FB Mkt for < $50. But it’s hard to find either a PC with 5.25” bay or a good and compact external enclosure.

    And USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 makes a significant difference in ripping speed.

    • Abaddon on 18/07/2024 - 15:50

      I've had no issues with mine. Though it does sit on top of my PC that has constant airflow through the top rad.

  • u u on 20/07/2024 - 18:58
    +1

    LG WH16NS40 $81.45 shipped if anyones interested.
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/857884

  • Matt86 on 27/07/2024 - 13:02
    +4

    So I got mine on Thursday but only got around to using it today - Posting here since the guide wasn't obvious for this drive specifically but this should hopefully help everyone out.

    First you'll want to test that it works on a regular Blu Ray.

    Download the current MakeMKV Beta and confirm that you've got an A1959 drive with 1.03 Firmware. Check that it has the NS52 service tag on it - the firmware and NS52 tag will be on the bottom of the drive.

    1. Download SDFtool Flasher 1.3.5 and the firmware pack - this is listed in the OP's post.
      1b. If it wasn't obvious extract the zipped folders.

    2. (Optional) Make a dump of your original firmware incase you need to revert back for some reason. Do this via opening SDFTool Flasher and select the drive, hit READ firmware and then save it.

    3. Locate the folder called "LG slim BP50NB40-NB50" this is the first firmware you'll want to flash, open the SDFtool Flasher (run as an admin) and then select your drive, confirm that WRITE firmware is selected and select the firmware. Press start.

    4. You can test the drive works if you like; but quit and re-open the program (as an admin) and it should no longer say that the firmware is encrypted.

    5. Select RECOVER Drive, select the firmware you just flashed (The 1.03 FW), now tick "include boot loader" AND then select the BP60NB10 1.02 firmware from the downloaded firmware pack in the "Please select a firmware to write" section. Press start and wait.

    6. Open MakeMKV and it should show it as a BP60NB10 1.02 - Put in a 4k movie to test and bob's your uncle.

    Original Reddit post by No-Association-7610

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