Page 1 of 1

EXTERNAL blu-ray drive hardware or software issue

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:59 pm
by fishbisquit
Hello,
My external drive has been acting up the last few weeks. It has been routinely not mounting blu-ray discs. Sometimes it takes me 10 tries to get a disc to mount. Once mounted it will rip fine with MAKEMKV.
Today I can not get it to mount any blu-ray discs at all. Yesterday I was able to rip 2 blu-rays. The weird thing is that it will mount dvds no problem. So could this be a hardware issue?
If it mounts dvds but not blu-rays does that mean the hardware is working so it must be a software issue?

Re: EXTERNAL blu-ray drive hardware or software issue

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:11 pm
by fishbisquit
Atempting to answer my own question. It appears as if blu-ray discs use a different laser then dvds do to be read. If this is true, then I'm assuming it could be an issue where the blue laser has stopped working and the red dvd laser is still working. Correct?

Re: EXTERNAL blu-ray drive hardware or software issue

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:56 pm
by Woodstock
Bluray drives use one laser, blue in color, for all reading. Most DVDs can be read with either red or blue light, although some don't work. That's why I keep a couple of DVD drives handy.

If your Bluray drive reads anything, the laser is probably fine.

Mounting BDs on MacOS can be problematic, in that MacOS itself can interfere with access, as it tries to enforce the AACS locks.