So are Blu Ray players primarily all software based on price rather than hardware? Besides having a faster spinning drive etc. Seems odd to me that you can watch 4k blu rays on a "non" 4k blu Ray player. Do you still get the audio benefits like Dolby True HD and DTS? In summary: Is there really any major con to flashing cheaper Blu Ray players instead of paying for the expensive ones? Besides potentially bricking the players software.
The data is just data, so any features on the disc stay the same (soundtracks, subtitles, etc). The only thing you could encounter is when flashing an official drive (one that actually says 4K UHD Blu-ray on it... which are increasingly rare) to an _unofficial_ firmware. Once that is done, it can never be used with any software that requires an official drive. As far as I understand it, the only official software is PowerDVD. It also requires the use of a processor with SGX, so Intel only from 6th-10th generation. I go over that in more detail in the playback video, which is in the pinned comment (and also slightly out of date now that AnyDVD is defunct). So... TLDR: no real downsides, IMO.
TERRIFIC info and presentation! thanks! 🙂 [ SADLY...when activating SDFtoolFlasher, a pop-up appeared reading "the drive you have selected does not have the correct drive platform (MT1959) and cannot be flashed". DANG IT!!!! Its an external Matshita_BD-MLT_UJ260AF_1.00_HP46_015708 (man, I hate to type :-) ANY alternative, plz?] thru a USB3.0 plug. ughh ]
I typically recommend that people assemble their own drives and enclosures so you know what you have. In the near-ish future I will be showing a slim-style external enclosure.
"slim drives" cheap optics that might last a week. IcyBox??(aluminum case appears to be identical to your vandex)l Eliminated wall-wart with power wire spliced from SATA power cable. fwiw, Transtar enclosure has USB3B and eSATA
I would generally agree with that, but there are some practical reasons to consider something like an LG BU40N. I have a couple of them and will be covering them in a future video. I don't have any experience with Icy Box products, but their IB-525-U3 appears to be the same enclosure as my Vantec, but marketed in Europe under that brand name. If so, it's an excellent product. ETA: MANY people swear up and down that you absolutely MUST use external power for these drives. I'm of two minds on that one, but feel it's better to play it safe and use the external power. I believe the Vantec is USB 3.0 as well, but all of that is overkill for these drives. They can't outrun USB 2.0.
As for Handbrake? fwiw, Primary machine: Win10Pro64: Lenovo P520 Type 30BF - Intel Xeon W-2125 CPU @ 4.00GHz, 64GB DDR4, 2@ Samsung NVMe: SSD970Pro 2T, SSD990Pro 2T Second machine: Zorin 17.2Pro - Lenovo M82 Type2756 Zorin 17.2 pro Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.20GHz, 32GB DDR3... both with NVIDIA Quadro K1200 (SFF for M82)... or should I just keep driving my '94 Sedan de Ville?
I don't remux my rips. I keep them as native ISO as they came off of the disc and I just have an army of HDDs. Because of that, my other system requirements are really low.
Ok! I have done everything you did on video but now my Blu-ray player is able to read and rip discs, but it isn't playing them in software like PowerDVD and DVDFab. Do you know the reason?
Playback is a separate issue. I have a whole video on that where I explain it, which you will find linked in the pinned comment (although AnyDVD is now defunct).
Playback is a separate issue. I have a whole video on that where I explain it, which you will find linked in the pinned comment (although AnyDVD is now defunct).
Looking into it a little it seems there could be a need to flash it to that firmware, then cross-flash it as another model, and there may or may not be encryption issues? Since I haven't done one I can't really say for certain.
@@TheBrokenTech I really appreciate your help. I have been reading through forum posts for weeks now but I’m very new to Blu-ray ripping. It might as well be written in Russian. Would it help if I sent you the info in makemkv of the drive?
The forum is both a blessing and a curse. I understand your frustration. Sadly, there's not much more I can do other that quote what I found there back to you and it sounds like you probably already read it. Without me flashing one of those drives personally, I wouldn't be comfortable giving you the chapter and verse of what you "should" do since I don't really know. With that said, if you're in the return window you can always send that drive back, get a BU40N (which I do have a lot of experience with and is highly regarded by practically everyone), and it in your own enclosure. I'm planning a video where I will be doing exactly that... eventually. 😂
I have no idea, but it's nice they didn't just take your money and run. The last time I looked at their software, you had to read very, very, closely to see that it won't play 4Ks anymore on most systems.
Hi I was able to get my Pioneer drive flashed to see 4k discs but my power DVD software sucks and will not play them. Do you recommend some type of software that will play them. I am out of ideas.
@@TheBrokenTech Thanks you for these videos. If not for them I wouldn't be able to play my 4k discs. And on the other video in the comments got it working.
First of all, thank you so much for posting this video. Your entire channel has been super helpful in deciding what to purchase regarding BD Drives and Enclosures, and your videos have been very straightforward and easy to follow. I just wanted to come in and say that I think I might have found a Playback solution which works super well for me. I only have one 4k bluray (Belladonna of Sadness), and it's quite a obscure anime movie that got an English distribution just this year. As such, this may not be representative of the rest of 4k blurays, but this is what worked for me: - MPC-HC + MadVR (Internal Renderer), installed with K-Lite Codec (madVR installed seperately) - I mostly followed Kokomins' guide for Anime on Wordpress (just google "mpc-hc anime guide") to tinker with the specific video settings - I installed MakeMKV, used the Beta Key, and went to Preferences --> Integration, and just checked everything on (system, system 32bit, mpc-hc, mpv) (i do not have vlc installed) - I then followed your other video, and installed the proper firmware update to my ASUS BW-16D1HT Drive in that Vantec enclosure. I did not need to do a cold turn off, then on. - I inserted the 4kbd of Belladonna, waited like 30 secs, opened MPC-HC and went File --> Open DVD/BD, selected the BD Drive (it recognized that it was Belladonna), waited another 30 secs for it to load and it took me straight to the movie, no menus or nothing. Idk if this also contributes to anything, but I already had java installed for other purposes (but i havent updated it since 2023), I'm using DisplayPort (idk the exact protocol), but I'm getting 1440p 165hz HDR (hdr turned off tho), so its whatever cable that supports all those specifications. EDIT: Also, the movie's aspect ratio is in 4:3, so there were black bars on the side, but even without that, there didnt seem to be any issues with subtitle playback on mpc-hc. In fact, i'd say it worked perfectly becuase for this movie in particular, whenever the narrator spoke, the subtitles were a Greyish-font with a black outline, and whenever a character spoke, the subtitles were a Yellowish-font with a black outline. Again, this would probably fare differnetly for most other 4kBDs, but I was suprised to see that everything wasnt in one basic white/yellow color, and that there were custom switching colors.
and they think they will get my money when they create such artificial walls behind the hardware I guess if I wanted to do it the way they want I would pay for a bluray player not $50 but $500? Pathetic.
@@TheBrokenTech I think there is blame on both sides but yeah u r right fact is that Hollywood will be the main instigator, thats why i love my lil asus for 40$ with whom i can do whatever i want with EAC and MakeMKV and with few funny files i can even watch it on VLC without ripping. i still need check if UHD is possible because i dont own any today... i really want try with Untergang(2004) UHD 2024 edition, but this BD/DVD player says it can read XL and Mdisk sooo I think it has the potential to work. funny how digital streaming media is anti-consumer, and when someone decides to give it up and traditionally buy physical media legally, they hit an even bigger anti-consumer wall... they really want me to start getting culture for free because it's the most convenient way right now... and they complain about how much of a crisis they are in... a complaining monologue, sorry, have a nice day. and also thank you for ur video.
I've seen the Jackson LOTR movies on UHD Blu-ray and thought they looked good. Nothing struck me as exceptional in either direction, except for the older CGI being older CGI. The 4K discs I've seen the most recently that struck me as being exceptionally well done are all older titles: _300, Chinatown, Bringing out The Dead_ and _A Clockwork Orange_ are all very good updates, IMO. The only modern* thing that comes to mind is maybe _Civil War..._ but the movie itself is so "meh" that I don't know that I'd actually recommend it. *Depending on how loose you want to use the term "modern", all of the John Wick and Purge movies are outstanding on UHD Blu-ray. The John Wick movies have always been visual masterpieces and the Purge movies are all so dark (almost all of them are night scenes) that it gives your HDR a chance to come into its own.
@@TheBrokenTech Sorry I was so stupid. I would like to know if there are any differences in characteristics between the two models, or if one is superior to the other. But don’t worry; I appreciate your attention.
Between the ASUS and the LG? There really shouldn't be, but that one ASUS of mine seems to just be a better drive than the others I own. I don't know why.
Just purchased the drive (ASUS) - followed the instructions and checked multiple times. No joy sadly! Any suggestions? Identified the issue - the drive was connected via usb. Despite updating the firmware as per the instructions, it did not work. However, opened up the computer and connected to the internal sata cables, followed the same process and voila it all works. Very pleased! To check, I connected the drive via usb after the upgrade and it would not work so key point is connection via sata to the motherboard. Many thanks for this very helpful video.
I only just now saw your edit... That's an interesting problem. I've flashed these drives with 2 or 3 different USB converters and haven't had an issue with any of them. Glad you got it working though! 👍
Regardless I recommend using Handbrake and compressing them instead of leaving them MKVs, you can get a benefit of lower space while keeping the quality for the most part anyways, alot of the bonus is the clarity but as long as you have 10bit color you wont see banding. Also MP4 is more widely player friendly.
I leave mine as straight ISO, which is the primary reason I prefer AnyDVD (RIP). No compression, no remux. Then I can mount them as drives and they show up just like a physical disc would and I can play them back with any software I want. That said... It *is* the more expensive way to go, but it's not that horrible. About 200 4Ks will fit on a 16TB drive and I've been getting refurbished enterprise drives for about $150/ea. There are presently only about 2000 4K titles on the market, so if you bought literally all of them, it would cost about $1500 of HDDs to back them up with no compression. Acceptable, IMO.
@@TheBrokenTech I was going to say most raw MKVs will be 11-40GB, that said for the average of about 550 movies on 16TB. Now that isn't terrible, I noticed what really eats up space is Series either TV or Web, and well Anime tends to chew through GBs. Honestly I don't like renewed or refurbished drives as I have personally seen most of them die in months to a couple years but if you get a good enough deal and maintain something like a SHR synology Raid I cannot see it being too terrible an issue.
For TV shows and stuff, 1080 is fine with me so the size isn't typically "that" bad. I consider that stuff to be more like candy, where as movies are a main course so I keep the quality up there. Regarding the drives, part of the magic of having a RU-vid channel is I get paid (not a lot... but I appreciate it) to take risks and let you guys know how it works out. I have several refurb drives in rotation right now and one just about to go in for vendor warranty (so far, the vendor has been extremely good). I keep 100% fully redundant backups of everything, so there is no RAID and no complications. 1:1 complete parity across 2 different drives. Even 2 used drives is cheaper than one new one, so, it's a risk worth considering. Plus only one drive of each pair is really getting the hours put on. The other sits on a shelf most days. We'll see how it goes. 😅
on the mail they sent me with the shipping instructions, they say they "Replacement products are factory-repaired products" which sounds different from what you got. did they change their policy or were you just lucky?
It's not an actual firmware dump... That's one of the details I was mistaken about. However, I think when you dump whatever it actually is that it just spits it out into a folder in the parent directory where the flasher tool is located.
No, you can write BD-XL discs right out of the box. Getting them formatted for proper playback as an actual movie disc, and getting them to record correctly, is another topic. I typically just encourage people to share their videos on USB sticks. Burning discs is far more expensive and less reliable.
The DVDFab business model is too vague for me to be able to recommend their software and I've had poor customer service experiences with them in the past. I can't speak to the legality of any of it. The laws are different everywhere.
Agreement, from another perspective...old CAD-designer here (since '82) who cannot imagine spending one more minute staring at a screen after work :-) btw...the BEST, most-affordable pro CAD is...ActCAD. Screw the greedy CAD-monsters. Young Designers shouldn't have to "pirate" (don't lie) for their necessary tools. I still miss...pencil-on-vellum :-)
Industry has kind of caught up with us there. Fusion 360 (which I don't much care for personally, but...) being free for individuals seems to have shook up the CAD market pricing. DS now offers a $100/yr (I think) home license of Solidworks for those who use it professionally through an employer. They also have a competing low-end product to 360 for $50/yr, though I haven't tried it. For professional use, I think you can buy a month of SWx for about 250 bucks. WAY better than the extortionist days of AutoCAD being the only game in town and being forced to shell out thousands of dollars every couple of years for not much more than you could do with a pencil.
@@TheBrokenTech ActCAD2025 Prime is a clone of ACAD, @ $399 The Standard-version is $249 (lifetime). Give a young Designer the tools he can own, NOT "rent" and they'll amaze us. And we need "better"...badly! I started on a surplus NASA workstation in '82, in Boca Raton, FL. Down the road from where IBM's facility there devised their first PC. My Timex Sinclair just couldn't compete 🙂
DS offers Draftsight for free, which is their AutoCAD clone. In the 3D world, I think the hole in the market is presently being served by Fusion 360. In both cases, it's hard to do better than free. You could make money with them for sure. You're preaching to the choir as far as the subscription model goes, but that IS how it has gone. The flip side of that is when I was a younger man I could have afforded a monthly subscription had I needed the software, but I could have never paid for a stand alone license to get started. In the beginning I was a Catia V5 user and I think a seat, even back then, was over 20 grand. UG and Pro-E/Creo were priced the same or more. Solidworks (and probably Inventor and SolidEdge) was the "budget" option for only a couple grand... It's a lot easier to come up with a couple hundred to start off that many thousands. Anyhow... Free is way better and we have really good options these days. 😂
haaaa...TERRIFIC story-telling and info. After 42-years of PC-screwin around, I just learned that the Context Menu has an "Eject" item. Old dog, new trick! tanx! sub'd/liked :-)
