New BluRay burners with riplock protection

[ZikO]

Hi,

I am currently looking for a new optical drive to rip DVD and BluRay and convert them to videos. I have come across the term called riplock. Apparently, riplock causes a drive to reduce its reading speed down to x2 maximum while it detects that a DVD/BluRay disk is in the process of ripping.

I have narrowed my choice to two drives: Pioneer BDR-2209 and LG BH16NS55. First thing is, if riplock is implemented in drives, is it implemented in each new drive? Is there anything without riplock? The drives I listed, do they have this protection?

I guess I won't probably get away from it if it's a standard procedure now. If someone is familiar with it, how does it work? My understanding is that discs can still be ripped but how long does it take to rip one disc. Second, is it possible to flash firmware in drives to turn off the riplock?

Thanks

[Kerry56]

The Pioneers are always slow at ripping, but very good quality on burning with Blu-ray. Of the two you've mentioned, the LG should be faster. Some of the earlier Lite-on and LG drives don't have riplock, but you might have a hard time finding any of them.

You won't find custom firmware for the Blu-ray drives to remove riplock. As I understand it, their firmware is encrypted to prevent this sort of thing.

[hech54]

I have two old LG DVD drives (burners)....the oldest has no riplock(4167b) and the newer one has riplock(H58N). Believe it or not just yesterday I was trying to figure out how they changed the firmware to remove riplock. Even though with the H58N you were able to change the firmware....I downloaded some tools to do it.....but failed miserably.

[Kerry56]

Its possible to modify DVD drive firmware, we used to have three people over at MyCE who did this all the time. Dee stopped doing this five years ago or more, and Liggy really specialized in NEC chipset drives, which are no longer made. C0deKing did most of the work on Lite-on drives, and recently updated his flash utility, after many years of inactivity.

But I can't remember seeing any custom made firmware for Blu-ray drives.

[johns0]

The lg WH16NS40 has no riplock and is almost 1/2 the price.

[ZikO]

I can't find any store in UK that sells LG WH16NS40 here in UK. I found a similar drive, that is WH14NS40. Do you know the difference between them?

Thanks

[johns0]

Newegg.ca sells the lg WH16NS40,the LG WH14NS40 is the earlier model and only burns up to 14x.

[usually_quiet]

Newegg.ca sells the lg WH16NS40,the LG WH14NS40 is the earlier model and only burns up to 14x.

I just bought an LG WH14NS40 last week for my HTPC, but I haven't had a chance to use it much yet. I don't plan to burn media as much as watch movies with it, but the BD-R media I use is 4x and 6x. The inability to burn BD-R media at 16x is not much of an issue.

[ZikO]

Newegg.ca sells the lg WH16NS40,the LG WH14NS40 is the earlier model and only burns up to 14x.

I just bought an LG WH14NS40 last week for my HTPC, but I haven't had a chance to use it much yet. I don't plan to burn media as much as watch movies with it, but the BD-R media I use is 4x and 6x. The inability to burn BD-R media at 16x is not much of an issue.

My problem is not really about burning speed. It's more about reading speed when you rip BluRays / DVDs. If an optical device has "riplock", reading speed during ripping discs is down rated to max 2x, on purpose. If you have chance, you could take a few DVDs/BluRays and try to rip them and see what is the reading speed.

Thanks.

[johns0]

The lg WH16NS40 has no riplock and is almost 1/2 the price.

That's why i posted the blu-ray player,it rips blu-ray discs at full speed up to 12x,i have ripped many discs and never had any slow ripping.

[theewizard]

is there an external version of that LG drive
one that operates without the riplock
i have never ripped a bd, but i'm slowly moving that way
my PC is a core i-7 HP with 17" screen

[ZikO]

The lg WH16NS40 has no riplock and is almost 1/2 the price.

That's why i posted the blu-ray player,it rips blu-ray discs at full speed up to 12x,i have ripped many discs and never had any slow ripping.

Yes, I know you have post this burner and thanks for this but it is not available here. I mean I tried google, amazon and this drive is out of stock. I have no idea why is it that only an earlier model is available. If I found LG WH16NS40 I would probably buy it by now. On DVDFab forum, someone else stated BH16NS55 also rips BluRays / DVDs without major problems.

[gll99]

I've read various opinions on the difference between BH and WH LG drives. Some say they are the Firmware Revisions but others have disputed that saying they are the same. Someone once posted that it was the color (black vs white) but that proved to be false

I thought the only difference between the LG BH series and WH is that the WH is plain OEM packaging (could be a simple box or plastic wrap) or "bare" drive for commercial resellers and installers while the BH is retail packaged and comes with some extra software. At my local store that's how they are advertised.

LG BDRW-XL BH16NS55 16X SATA with Software CyberLink Black Retail
Part no: BH16NS55

LG Storage WH16NS40 Combo Blu-ray Writer BDRW XL 16X SATA Black No Software Included Package: Bare
Part no: WH16NS40


LG Storage BH16NS40 BDRW-XL 16X SATA with Software CyberLink Black Retail
Part no: BH16NS40


LG Storage WH14NS40 Combo Blu-ray Writer BDRW XL 14X SATA Support M-Disc Black Bare
Part no: WH14NS40

On the other hand the link you show for the 55 model sends me to the Canadian Amazon site and it says it's a bulk drive shipped from California? Go figure!!!

[ZikO]

Well, I guess it's nothing else left but to buy a drive and see what happens ^^. I still can return goods bough from internet.

On the other hand the link you show for the 55 model sends me to the Canadian Amazon site and it says it's a bulk drive shipped from California? Go figure!!!

I have no idea of the meaning of that. The link for LG BH16NS55 refers to UK Amazon; the ISO country code is co.uk so you need to make sure the Amazon website address is correct. If I type http://www.amazon.ca I end up in the Canadian Amazon website.

It's particularly interesting that LG WH16NS40 is available there!

[usually_quiet]

Newegg.ca sells the lg WH16NS40,the LG WH14NS40 is the earlier model and only burns up to 14x.

I just bought an LG WH14NS40 last week for my HTPC, but I haven't had a chance to use it much yet. I don't plan to burn media as much as watch movies with it, but the BD-R media I use is 4x and 6x. The inability to burn BD-R media at 16x is not much of an issue.

My problem is not really about burning speed. It's more about reading speed when you rip BluRays / DVDs. If an optical device has "riplock", reading speed during ripping discs is down rated to max 2x, on purpose. If you have chance, you could take a few DVDs/BluRays and try to rip them and see what is the reading speed.

Thanks.

Rip a few discs, just for you, since I rarely rip anything? That is an unreasonable request.

I devoted 21 min. to ripping one commercial DVD (6.53 GB) and another 26 min. to ripping one commercial Blu-Ray (31.4 GB). (I decrypted and copied the entire contents of these discs.) That will have to do. My drive is rip locked, but not to 2x. The maximum read speed it reached while ripping the Blu-ray was 6.7x, but the drive is capable of 12x read speeds.

[theewizard]

90 minute movie = 3x
2 Hr movie =4x

Considering a bd has 4~5 times the data of a DVD
That's nothing too sneeze at , seems impressive to me

Equivalent to ripping a DVD at 16x
Don't think I'm going to worry about riplock , when the time comes I'll just buy another LG drive
My current external burner (auxiliary to the internal burner) is an LG DVD burner

[gll99]

Well, I guess it's nothing else left but to buy a drive and see what happens ^^. I still can return goods bough from internet.

On the other hand the link you show for the 55 model sends me to the Canadian Amazon site and it says it's a bulk drive shipped from California? Go figure!!!

I have no idea of the meaning of that. The link for LG BH16NS55 refers to UK Amazon; the ISO country code is co.uk so you need to make sure the Amazon website address is correct. If I type http://www.amazon.ca I end up in the Canadian Amazon website.

It's particularly interesting that LG WH16NS40 is available there!

I know it's not Google because I changed my search engine to Bing and it does the same. Maybe it's Firefox traffic control defaults pushing things to my country location. It's funny the both drives are available on the Amazon .ca site yet the Pioneer goes to the UK but the LG link is redirected to .ca. It's not just Amazon it happens at other times during Google searches although I've never selected any Canadian site as default if/when requested.

I've never bothered to check exactly what causes it because I didn't know it played with direct links within posts like yours until now. I thought it only affected some sequences within search lists. I didn't mind that they might favor listing some Canadian sites first within the searches but this kind of arbitrary substitution and traffic shaping by Firefox or whoever is much more alarming to me.

[usually_quiet]

90 minute movie = 3x
2 Hr movie =4x

Considering a bd has 4~5 times the data of a DVD
That's nothing too sneeze at , seems impressive to me

Equivalent to ripping a DVD at 16x
Don't think I'm going to worry about riplock , when the time comes I'll just buy another LG drive
My current external burner (auxiliary to the internal burner) is an LG DVD burner

No. See "CD and DVD writing speed" at Wikipedia to learn the definition of 1x speed for optical media.

[theewizard]

I've seen the definition
It is still many times the data rate of DVDs
21 minutes to read 6.7gb
26 minutes to read 31 GB
I know 1x DVD is less than 1x bd
That wasn't my point
My point was the amount of total data copied in that amount of time

[usually_quiet]

I've seen the definition
It is still many times the data rate of DVDs

90 minute movie = 3x
2 Hr movie =4x

Maybe you saw the definition but clearly you didn't understand it. Otherwise you would not have implied that the drive read speed when ripping has anything to do with the run time.

1x = 4.5 MB/sec for Blu-ray

1x = 1.385 MB/sec for DVD

My point was the amount of total data copied in that amount of time

There was no need to make that point. It is obvious to everyone that this drive's data transfer rate is significantly slower when ripping a DVD than its data transfer rate when ripping a Blu-ray disc.

[ZikO]

Rip a few discs, just for you, since I rarely rip anything? That is an unreasonable request.

I devoted 21 min. to ripping one commercial DVD (6.53 GB) and another 26 min. to ripping one commercial Blu-Ray (31.4 GB). (I decrypted and copied the entire contents of these discs.) That will have to do. My drive is rip locked, but not to 2x. The maximum read speed it reached while ripping the Blu-ray was 6.7x, but the drive is capable of 12x read speeds.

It'd not be just for me, for community as well, at least this topic is public, isn't it? But if it's just for me, I have not a single problem with that

[usually_quiet]

Rip a few discs, just for you, since I rarely rip anything? That is an unreasonable request.

I devoted 21 min. to ripping one commercial DVD (6.53 GB) and another 26 min. to ripping one commercial Blu-Ray (31.4 GB). (I decrypted and copied the entire contents of these discs.) That will have to do. My drive is rip locked, but not to 2x. The maximum read speed it reached while ripping the Blu-ray was 6.7x, but the drive is capable of 12x read speeds.

It'd not be just for me, for community as well, at least this topic is public, isn't it? But if it's just for me, I have not a single problem with that

I'm not interested in ripping more discs for the community's benefit either. However, since you think it is vital for the community to see ripping test results, please feel free to do a comprehensive study of everything you rip and post the results, since you will apparently be ripping many discs.

[ZikO]

I'm not interested in ripping more discs for the community's benefit either.

OK. Thanks for letting me know about it. Because I was and am really fine with that, that comment wasn't really necessary.

However, since you think it is vital for the community to see ripping test results, please feel free to do a comprehensive study of everything you rip and post the results, since you will apparently be ripping many discs.

I don't think there will be a "comprehensive study" based on one optical drive. As stated, I will definitely be ripping some discs and my experience will grow in time. I will also be happy to share my observations, every now and again.

[Kerry56]

One of the admins at MyCE recently bought an external LG drive, the full sized LG BE14NU40. It has riplock, but is still reasonably fast for ripping Blu-ray, with a 43gb movie ripped in approximately 20 minutes. A double layer DVD took very nearly the same amount of time to rip, with a 6.8gb movie taking 18 minutes.

She's using USB 3 by the way.

So this is an example of a modern LG drive and its ripping speed, though this is an external model. Should give you and others a starting point for comparison.

[HemLok]

I make use of a Pioneer BDR-205 and BDR-2209 (BDXL model). I've never run into riplock issues although I'm also always running AnyDVD. My system is far from top of the line and I can copy a disc to my HDD just shy of 8x (36 MB/s) as per the specs for read speed for BD-ROM DL on the 2209.

If I had to decide between LG or Pioneer then I'd go with Pioneer. I loved my older LG DVD burners although my Samsung DVD burner was the best reader I ever used but I prefer Pioneer for Blu-ray reading/burning.

[ZimsBrew]

I have the LG WH14NS40 and the read/rip rates are no where close to where they are advertised. Both Blu Ray and DVD Disc are capped out at 4x. Extremely frustrated as I bought this to help speed up moving my personal movie collection to my server so that I could stop having to mess around with finding discs. Has anyone figured out a solution to getting around the Riplock protection? My old Toshiba SH-224DB rips DVD's twice as fast. Someone above stated that the WH14NS40 did not have riplock, they are inaccurate unless they mean the original firmware did not include it.

[KarMa]

My WH14NS40 is great, can go above 10x when reading or writing but I usually do 4x-6x writes on purpose though. Maybe you need to install an older firmware. I'm pretty sure that this model can be used for UHD Bluray ripping too.

I run the 1.02 version.
http://www.firmwarehq.com/LG/WH14NS40/files.html

[Sosukodo]

LG blu ray drives rip fast and the Pioneers rip ultra slow but you may want to think twice about getting an LG; they don't last long in my experience.

I've burned through 2 LG drives in the last year. They work really well for a while and then slowly stop reading discs altogether. My last LG lasted less than 6 months.