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Model: LG Electronics 14x SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter without Software, Black (WH14NS40)
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For people like myself that are tired of paying for too many streaming services but like the convenience of opening an app to play my media, I use this drive to rip my DVDs, Blu Rays, and UHD Blu ray and store the media on a NAS to watch on JellyFin.
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from gamingdroid
:
You'll likely pay way more for blu-ray content though. I don't really see it as a replacement for me, but rather adding a high quality option of content that I really love and want to have access to. Streaming is really good quality these days, but Blu-Ray is still king for the most part.
Oh, and the 3D movies I've been trying to get more of.
You never know what streaming service the shows you want to watch are on at any given moment these days - if at all (looking at you, Disney) - so they expect you to subscribe to ALL of them. If I own the physical discs, they can't be disappeared at a moment's notice. Same reason I don't rent my software. "Buy once, cry once" as they say.
In for 1. Was eyeballing the WH16NS40 going for $69.99 but MakeMKV forums say this has the same rip speed and can also be flashed for UHD.
I have that WH16NS40 which I burnt almost a thousand DVD's for the past couple of years. Not a failed one yet. Perhaps I'd stick with it again when the drive goes bad. The WH14NS40 can be flashed the same firmware but have quite a few recent negative reviews on Amazon. $20 more for the peace of mind worth it?
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from FancyMint8485
:
You never know what streaming service the shows you want to watch are on at any given moment these days - if at all (looking at you, Disney) - so they expect you to subscribe to ALL of them. If I own the physical discs, they can't be disappeared at a moment's notice. Same reason I don't rent my software. "Buy once, cry once" as they say.
I'm not going to tell you what is better or worse, as I think it's up to people to determine it for themselves. What I can say is that as an older fart with tubs of physical media that takes up a lot of space, I've largely gone away from this mindset. I used to swear never to go all digital, then I was forced out of necessity and I've largely 95% digital.
Here are my reasons (which I'm sure you undoubtedly already considered, but for discussions sake):
a) Physical media takes a lot of space and creates clutter. Collects dust, increase cost for storage, maintenance and also creates pollution to manufacture (although the latter is arguable as some studies indicate digital is worse 🤷 ♂️).
b) Physical media also essentially become obsolete in some cases, such as DVDs are replaced by Blu-Ray and then again by UHD Blu-Ray. If I watch something again, I want to watch it at the best fidelity reasonably available to me.
c) Software in particular is problematic, because the buy once model means it eventually stops getting support. Security updates, new features or even have an save/export file format that is no longer supported. It may stop functioning on the latest OS and etc.
d) For streaming services like Netflix, there's a lot of surprise content that I wouldn't have bought otherwise, but end up loving. I watch a lot of Korean shows now, which I never thought I would like. I would probably never have bought it, but now I might.
Of course, the down side is with subscription or online streaming, you're at the mercy of the provider. There really should be laws to protect consumer content, and even transfer rights. Xbox One launch back in 2013 tried something like that to an extent and was met with a crap-storm of shortsightedness so we're stuck with the status quo.
So I've resorted to getting comfortable with content loss risk (which is likely extremely rare and hopefully stays that way) for the convenience and increased life quality.
I've also been rethinking how my hoarding/collection habits in terms of my mortality. To try to enjoy in the moment rather than worry about the future, or lament the past.
I don't exactly agree with the justifications posted to buy this. I think digital copies of videos on hard discs/NAS (with backup) are a better solution. However, I have one of these things. Even bought a new one a couple of years ago because my old one stopped working / reading discs. If you're in my generation (X), it's possible you got more than a few old discs (movies, music, games) lying around. And you're too lazy like me to convert them to digital files because it'll take you months, maybe years. Some of those old games have on-disc copy protection, making it tough to create a disc iso image for the hard drive. And ive tried several disc "rippers" without success. I just don't feel like buying it again in digital download format. If they're cheap, I've done that, but some are so old and obscure I can't find them for repurchase.
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That was a very good deal. I don't think the price will drop that low because optical drives are not produced in large volumes which would result in lower prices. Inflation has also driven up prices. Most people watch online streaming/digital downloads instead of dvd/bluray.
Does the bluray drive you bought in 2016 still work?
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from gamingdroid
:
How easy is it to flash the firmware for UHD/4k Blu-Ray ripping?
Any better valued blu-ray drive as in not lower price, but perhaps a little more cost gives a lot more value?
I just did so with the WH16NS40. Went to the MakeMKV forums and did some research, reading, and downloading to make sure I got everything right and so that I didn't brick my drive. All in all maybe an hours worth of effort and now I'm ripping my UHD discs with no issues
I just want to know, who is buying this in 2024, and what are you doing with it?
Not trolling, just honestly curious about physical media.
Maybe you're backing up home movies, maybe you have years of tv shows you want to store on blu-ray, I don't know.
Archiving photos and home movies. Yes, I've got them stored online on multiple cloud sites, on SSD/ HDD both external/internal and on-site/off-site. However, every media format, including this one can fail, get corrupted. In case of cloud based, companies get hacked, lose your data, expired subscription or go out of business. Not to mention something can happen to your home. In a disaster, the only two things that truly matter is life and photos/home videos. Everything else can be replaced in some fashion. You can't get those moments in time back.
A little time spent now digitizing and archiving old family pictures staves of possible future loss of those memories.
PS. If you have an old laptop, this software allows to you create a picture slide viewer of all your locally stored pictures. Settings include random, start automatically and it picks up where it left off.
I just did so with the WH16NS40. Went to the MakeMKV forums and did some research, reading, and downloading to make sure I got everything right and so that I didn't brick my drive. All in all maybe an hours worth of effort and now I'm ripping my UHD discs with no issues
Are you ripping them as original source, or re-encoding them?
Also, the drive is it a recent drive or do you have to get an older drive with older firmware?
I have that WH16NS40 which I burnt almost a thousand DVD's for the past couple of years. Not a failed one yet. Perhaps I'd stick with it again when the drive goes bad. The WH14NS40 can be flashed the same firmware but have quite a few recent negative reviews on Amazon. $20 more for the peace of mind worth it?
Does the WH16 have any other advantages over the WH14 besides not needing to flash it?
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from DataJager
:
I just want to know, who is buying this in 2024, and what are you doing with it?
Not trolling, just honestly curious about physical media.
Maybe you're backing up home movies, maybe you have years of tv shows you want to store on blu-ray, I don't know.
Backing up is #1 usage (legally and illegally) No one's really using them for burning movie blurays. I planned to use it to burn mdisc blurays for my personal photos and videos. I just haven't gotten around to doing so.
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Definitely cons/pros with any approach, personally I'm slowly shifting back to local content mixing in a subscription to one streaming service per month (rotating between netflix, hulu, and max). Even local content comes with the various costs of both money and time. I stopped with 1080p my Blu-Ray content, but might try to start ripping some of my 4k stuff.
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank Emanon458
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank FancyMint8485
Oh, and the 3D movies I've been trying to get more of.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank LastButNotLeast
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank gamingdroid
Here are my reasons (which I'm sure you undoubtedly already considered, but for discussions sake):
a) Physical media takes a lot of space and creates clutter. Collects dust, increase cost for storage, maintenance and also creates pollution to manufacture (although the latter is arguable as some studies indicate digital is worse 🤷 ♂️).
b) Physical media also essentially become obsolete in some cases, such as DVDs are replaced by Blu-Ray and then again by UHD Blu-Ray. If I watch something again, I want to watch it at the best fidelity reasonably available to me.
c) Software in particular is problematic, because the buy once model means it eventually stops getting support. Security updates, new features or even have an save/export file format that is no longer supported. It may stop functioning on the latest OS and etc.
d) For streaming services like Netflix, there's a lot of surprise content that I wouldn't have bought otherwise, but end up loving. I watch a lot of Korean shows now, which I never thought I would like. I would probably never have bought it, but now I might.
Of course, the down side is with subscription or online streaming, you're at the mercy of the provider. There really should be laws to protect consumer content, and even transfer rights. Xbox One launch back in 2013 tried something like that to an extent and was met with a crap-storm of shortsightedness so we're stuck with the status quo.
So I've resorted to getting comfortable with content loss risk (which is likely extremely rare and hopefully stays that way) for the convenience and increased life quality.
I've also been rethinking how my hoarding/collection habits in terms of my mortality. To try to enjoy in the moment rather than worry about the future, or lament the past.
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Does the bluray drive you bought in 2016 still work?
Average CCC price is $62.30
https://www.amazon.com/OWC-Mercur...06XRCC
But then you're looking at $50 for the drive and $50 for the enclosure.
You can get an LG USB Blu-ray writer drive for $90 :
https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electro...01132
Might be cheaper / better options out there.
I don't know how speeds compare and what you can get for max write speeds when using USB interface.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank SiennaHeat7685
Any better valued blu-ray drive as in not lower price, but perhaps a little more cost gives a lot more value?
Not trolling, just honestly curious about physical media.
Maybe you're backing up home movies, maybe you have years of tv shows you want to store on blu-ray, I don't know.
A little time spent now digitizing and archiving old family pictures staves of possible future loss of those memories.
PS. If you have an old laptop, this software allows to you create a picture slide viewer of all your locally stored pictures. Settings include random, start automatically and it picks up where it left off.
https://www.irfanview.c
Also, the drive is it a recent drive or do you have to get an older drive with older firmware?
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank sdaddict001
Not trolling, just honestly curious about physical media.
Maybe you're backing up home movies, maybe you have years of tv shows you want to store on blu-ray, I don't know.
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