@maddy neorouter_woozy

@maddy btw i saw this bluray burner when i was doomscrolling aliexpress https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256810619666523.html

dunno if you're still looking for those but isn't 87 USD a good price for one?

tho it's aliexpres and there's little info so obviously kind of risky even tho it's legit according to comments

edit: well some comments say it's fake or defective so ​​

@jiub @maddy just get a secondhand used one smh my head

@[email protected] wasn't @maddy running into reliability issues or smth? she's using these drives a lot heavier than almost anyone with all the ripping she does

@jiub @maddy if you're hitting reliability problems i don't consider $65 aliexpress drives to be a guaranteed dependability boost, and secondhand drives cost about that much anyway

@[email protected] @jiub Triple-layer UHD and slimline drives specifically (so far). Regular Blu-ray and dual-layer UHD titles generally haven't been an issue. But yeah, I generally wouldn't trust aliexpress BD drives for anything but a last resort when there's nothing left of UHD-capable drives except what scalpers are selling.

I might eventually give them a shot for a compatible laser assembly replacement though.

@maddy @jiub oh, slimline.
sounds like a self-dug hole :\

@[email protected] @jiub I'd have more UHD-capable 5.25" drives if I could find them in stock and at a reasonable price, but I missed that boat a good year ago, if not longer.

@maddy @jiub ohhh so they've gotten a load worse? :(
shit
i was using 2022-ish prices when i thought through that because that's when i got a BD drive to rip some discs I imported

@[email protected] @jiub UHD-capable drives specifically, though you might have a tough time finding any SATA BD drive new.

Scalpers are selling slimline UHD-friendly drives for upwards of $250 CAD, and 5.25" drives are upwards of ~$350 CAD in my searches. I refuse to buy from them.

@maddy @jiub yeah mine's uhd capable (via the firmware thingy, i may have had to downgrade it on mine? I forgor)

@maddy @jiub mine was bought on a suspicion that i'd be able to downgrade it or whatever it was you have to do, and it turned out to be a correct prediction

@[email protected] @jiub Sounds like one with a MediaTek MT1959 chipset.
In case you missed it, you can give those drives more capabilities for raw reading, as well as support for proprietary game discs (Xbox/360, GameCube/Wii) while keeping LibreDrive compatibility - https://github.com/RibShark/OmniDrive/

Pre-compiled firmwares are available on archive.org

@maddy @jiub it reports WH16NS60, i think i bought it as a WH14NS40 or 16NS40 or something and changed the firmware out. Is that right for an MT1959?

@[email protected] @jiub Those models would be right, but only models with a manufacture date of late 2015 or later will be MT1959.
If you use MakeMKV, it'll tell you which chipset you have for sure on the information section when you open the program.

@maddy @jiub i have a version on their but their evil fucking license/registration key shit won't let me use it

@[email protected] @jiub In case you were unaware, they regularly post a (time-limited) beta key on the forums!
https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053

@maddy @jiub yes i know and it's fucking evil to make me keep doing that instead of just letting me use the goddamn software on a timebomb ("valid until end of may 2026" and then i have to fucking do it again)

@[email protected] @jiub Yeah, I don't fully understand the rationale behind it, but I do so much disc dumping with it I just ended up buying a perpetual license.

@maddy @jiub that's the purpose behind it. to make you pay

the purpose of a thing is what it does

@[email protected] @jiub Maybe so, but they've advertised as "free while in beta" from the start. I considered the time-limited key as a minor hiccup for what I got out of it.

I'm not happy that dumping the discs I've paid for is such a goddamn hassle, requiring proprietary software or poorly documented wizardry to get around the DRM, but their software makes the process trivial, so I was happy to pay.