LG Electronics WH16NS40 16X Blu-ray/DVD/CD Multi compatible Internal SATA Rewriter Drive, BDXL, M-DISC Support, Black

As I write this review, Amazon is currently not offering this drive for sale themselves and only has it available via resellers. If your only question is "Is this drive reliable for writing to CD/DVD/BD/BD-XL discs?" then the answer is "Yes". If your question is "Can this drive have the firmware downgraded to UHD friendly firmware for ripping?" then the answer is also "Yes", but you're not going to like what I had to do to accomplish this. This drive shipped to me with firmware version 1.05, which is encrypted and is not considered to be "UHD friendly" for ripping UHD discs. Please note that I can't guarantee you that if you buy this drive and follow my directions that you will have success downgrading the firmware. I have over 30 years of IT work experience and I still had problems downgrading the firmware. First I tried using the SDFtool program that MakeMKV recommended. It failed. It did start up, but it displayed weirdly, not looking much like it was supposed to, although it did try to patch the LG drive. It failed with some kind of weird 5-6 digit hex error code. I didn't write down the code because there is no way to look up the code and see what it means. Not sure what the writer of SDFtool was thinking of in having it display this kind of error code. Then I did some internet searching and one guy swore that you couldn't use the graphical SDFTool but if you did command line patching instead, it would work. It didn't. Generated a different 5-6 digit hex code for failure. I checked and the firmware remained on 1.05. At this point I am running out of options, so I found that DVDFab says it can patch the firmware for you, but the tool to do so costs about $100. Sigh. I bought a package of this tool and UHD ripping software and hoped for the best. And spent a lot more than $100 on said package. On my first attempt to patch, it did start and seemed to run OK without generating an error code but the program became a run away and never ended. After 30 minutes I tried everything I could to cancel the program and nothing worked. I even tried throwing the power switch on LG drive and the program still refused to stop. DVDFab documentation said it should only take 2-3 minutes to patch. So I forced a hardware interrupt and rebooted my PC. At this point I think the LG drive was actually successfully patched, but I forgot to check, so I ran the DVDFab patching program again. Same response - it started and after 2-3 minutes it ran away, never to end. I left it alone for 30 more minutes and forced another hardware interrupt/reboot. At this point I remembered to check the firmware and it was downgraded to 1.02. The drive has worked flawlessly since the downgrade and can rip UHD discs successfully to my hard drive. Note that I used Vantec external device enclosures with a power supply on my BD drives. Some people have reported having problems changing firmware on BD drives in Vantec enclosures, but it did work OK for me. If you're not sure if paying this money to DVDFab and trying this is for you, MakeMKV does list some resellers who downgrade firmware on drives they sell. This drive has done everything I need it to do so I do recommend buying it.

First, a quick heads up, because some people might expect the drive to immediately be able to play Blu-Rays: as is always the case with Blu-Ray movie discs, you'll need additional software to actually watch films on them, regardless of how good or bad the drive is (unless someone out there has done some amazing aftermarket engineering I'm unaware of). Thank Sony for that barrier to usage. For a small headache (if you're new to playing with system files, etc.) you can get VLC media player to play Blu-Rays that are at least a year old or so. This drive worked natively for me in macOS Sierra, Windows 10, and Linux (Ubuntu 16). I didn't have to do anything at all with drivers or kexts. It working for me in macOS is a big deal--compatibility is a consistent concern for Hackintoshes. My previous Blu-Ray writer/reader, which had been somewhat recommended by the Hackintosh community, worked only about 70% of the time in macOS--not showing up after startup, disappearing after sleep, or having totally phantom discs "appear" in it. Conversely, this LG drive has never had any of those said issues!! Very minor hiccup: Occasionally when you click "import" in iTunes it says there's an error of some kind. Just wait 2-4 seconds and try again. For me it never permanently failed or crashed iTunes. This sucker is loud when ripping or initially reading a disc. But I read that it's because the drive doesn't throttle its own speed to keep quiet. I very much prefer high read/write speed to quiet operation. It's plenty quiet when there's no disc in there or it's finished initial reading of a disc and is simply playing it back at single speed (like listening to a CD or watching a Blu-Ray). But when you're ripping discs, it's a freakin chainsaw. And I love it. It rips those discs so darned fast, even when they're a bit scratched (I haven't tested any seriously scratched discs yet). It's far too early for me to address durability. But so far so good. It feels like it weighs less than other Blu-Ray drives, but that's not really a legitimate indicator of inferior quality. I'm not gonna be the lawyer in Jurassic Park lecturing a kid about night vision goggles, "Are those heavy?? Then they're expensive!"

This works great! It reads / writes all common blu-rays and was easy to set up just like any other internal optical drive. And it still works after 1 year of occasional use!

Well, this isn't a fancy piece of tech and no one would jump in joy for the sight of an optical drive these days. It just does its job and does it well. I bought it several years ago and so far had no issues. If you buy an optical drive in the 2020s it makes no sense to buy a DVD drive and not pay those few extra bucks and get a Blu-Ray drive instead. This drive is really not expensive and will allow you to watch HD movies on your PC, as well as burn BD-R discs with up to 50GB of storage on a single disc. It is, of course, backwards compatible with both CD and DVD for both reading and writing. "Easy to install" gets 3/5 just because it's an internal drive and you will need to open the computer's case to install it, however that goes for any internal drive, it's not like this specific model has a different installation method. Also note that many newer computer cases don't have 5.25'' drive bays anymore, so make sure your computer has one before you order any internal drive. A few extra things that aren't part of the official specs but would be interesting for some: Pros: * Reads Playstation 3 discs - One of the very few models that is able to ready original PS3 game discs. If you happen to have a PS3 with a broken drive, you can use this to create ISOs of said games on your computer. * Can be flashed with LibreDrive firmware and used with MakeMKV or AnyDVD HD to read UHD movies. Note that this would probably void your warranty. Cons: * No bitsetting support for DVD+R - That could be an issue if you have an old standalone DVD player that refuses to play burned discs. Bitsetting is a method to fool such players into thinking that a DVD+R disc is a pressed DVD-ROM, but unfortunately this drive doesn't support it, even with firmware updates.

I go with LG only, and this older 2013 model has always been the most reliable. Especially for M-Disc archival work. It works well in a computer case and coupled with an OWC Mercury Pro enclosure it's also a reliable external bluray burner. I use it to save older restored animation. You will need your own burning software. If you can still get a copy of DVD Architect 5 or 6, It's proven to work well with it. No drivers required. Capable of high speeds, but I keep it at 4x speed for total data reliability. I just bought this one to replace a defective knock-off. Don't cheap out on a reliable drive.

Added this to an older desktop tower in addition to an existing DVD drive to give it a new lease of life as a media server. Simple installation, fits perfectly and have yet to find a disc it won't play (scratched up coasters an exception). For some reason the firmware that comes installed on this unit removes the ability to play HD Bluray but curious, persistent and courageous owners will find ways around this. Totally unrelated, you can flash the firmware with the correct software for this drive. Fair warning - doing so may invalidate any warranty and doing it incorrectly could brick your drive. Built as well or better than every disc drive I've ever installed, and I've installed a few. Would recommend.

**UPDATE: Looks like LG changed their bundles on this drive. If you order the "Bare Bones" version you will NOT get any included software. **UPDATE 2: I'm now on Windows 10. Everything below still applies.** **UPDATE 3: Added software alternatives in bottom of the review. Amazon removes any links in a review, but you can find any of the software named below easily by typing the name of it into Google.** Most of the software included in these drives have better, free alternatives, or can be found in newer versions than what you'd get in the bundles, so this does not change my score.** I read some of the other reviews and want to comment on "compatibility" issues with Windows 8.1. It seemed odd to me, because windows uses a standard driver for optical drives and for this reason they rarely, if ever, suffer from the compatibility issues that less standardized hardware, such as printers and scanners, suffer from. Reading the reviews further I want to clarify that it seems the software that comes with the drive is not compatible with Windows 8.1 The drive itself works fine, as I can attest to. Truth is this drive costs way less than its competitors with similar features. For burning discs, lots of free software is available. For playback of Blu-Ray/DVD movies, you can use the money you save to purchase just about any suite you want, and get a full version for any OS. The drive itself works great. Much faster than my old Panasonic drive. Works with both Windows and Linux without incident. Low price. Recommended. Update: I recently tried out the software that comes with the drive. The drive is packed in with CyberLink Power Suite 10- most prominently PowerDVD10. That's an impressive bundle for an OEM drive. Unfortunately, as reported, PowerDVD 10 will not load in Windows 8.1 That being said, it WILL install, and by going through the program's menus I was given a link to purchase the far more powerful and Windows 8.1 compatible PowerDVD 13 Ultra at 50% off. Not too shabby. This being an OEM drive it's impressive it even comes with software. Hence, I provide this warning for potential buyers, but this issue does not affect my score. SOFTWARE: I've added in software that will work for this drive. I don't have a Mac so my recommendations are windows only. 1. For burning DATA disks (to be used on a computer): A. Windows 10 has built in support that works just fine. B. For Windows 8, and probably anything before that, you can use the free CDBurnerXP. 2. For movie playback: A. For DVD on Windows 10 you MAY be eligible for a free player from Microsoft. VLC MIGHT work, your mileage may vary: B. For Blu-Ray there are not any free players- mostly. There are complicated workarounds beyond the scope of this review. I recommend Cyberlink PowerDVD.

This is a great drive for the money. Having said that. In 2017 they started shipping them with a firmware update (v1.03) that killed its ability to read 4k bluray movies. If you are slick and computer savvy you can roll back the driver to version 1.02 but it's not as easy as going to the Driver download page on LGs site and downloading the older firmware. LG locked the firmware in so you can only update, NO roll back. All hope is not lost! I have personally completed the roll back process. It was NOT easy and there were many speed bumps along the way but I did complete the process successfully and have been able to read several 4k Blu Ray movies without issue. If you google something called "dosflash patched". It should bring up a site with "myce dot com" in the address. You can read the instruction for the roll back. You will need to sign up if you want to download the files needed. This procedure is only for advanced computer geeks only. You can brick your drive easily. If you don't know what your doing, find someone who does. Don't say I didn't warn you. I will give you one bit of advice since the instructions for doing this do not make this part expressly clear. You MUST use a 32 bit (x86) version of windows to perform the roll back. It just will not work on 64 bit (x64) versions of windows. Don't try, don't wast your time. I spent two days trying to make it work. It won't. I used 7, so I can only validate that it will work on win7 32 bit. You can always partition your HDD and install x86 win7 on there and boot into it. Again, only for advanced computer users. I hope this helps any of you out there that think a firmware patch claiming to increase comparability, but in fact cripples a perfectly good 4k drive is wrong and want to show LG that this underhanded and sleezy trick won't be tolerated!

ディスクドライブの不調による交換&某サイトでPS3のROM吸出しに対応しているということでこの製品を購入。DVD/BDの視聴からディスク作成、PS3のゲーム吸出しまで何でもこなす優秀なドライブです。高いだけの価値はあります。

El producto llegó antes de lo esperado ya lo instalé y funciona a la perfección el único pero que le pongo es que no venía en su empaque original pero aún así venía muy bien protegido y se compensa con que traía software cyber link en su versión oem que viene muy completo para grabar proyectos en Blu Ray cosa que el que viene en empaque original no lo trae se les agradece el detalle

Ottimo lettore bluray facile da installare che ha letto senza problemi tutti i dischi che gli ho fatto ingoiare. Soddisfatto.

Alle von mir gekauften Blue-Rays werden gerippt und auf einem NAS gesichert, um auf diversen Abspielgeräten im Haus zur Verfügung zu stehen. Da der externe Samsung Blue-Ray-Player schon recht betagt und ziemlich langsam war, habe ich den LG WH16NS40 (in ein Gehäuse von Icy Box verbaut) nun erstmals getestet und bin begeistert. Plus: Der Lautstärkepegel ist zwar etwas höher als beim Samsung, aber das wird durch die gut dreifache Lesegeschwindigkeit des LG mehr als wett gemacht (max. 300 gegenüber max. 80 FPS im Ripper). Minus: Der LG ist zickiger mit verunreinigten Discs. Die haben den Samsung nicht im mindesten irritiert, der LG (bzw. das Rip-Programm) produziert öfter mal Fehlermeldungen. Erfordert also etwas gründlichere Inspektion der Disc auf Fingerabdrücke oder sonstigen Dreck.

Fast