CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/UHD Blu-Ray - LG WH14NS or Other - Troubleshooting/Advice

[MacMarshall]

Finally got around to trying to use the above referenced disc drive in my Hackintosh and can't make it work. It shows up as a SATA device in System Information and MakeMKV can see it, but when I put a disc in (tried both CD and DVD) the disc spins for awhile and the drive spits it back out. That set me to looking around for information on disc drives for Hackintoshes and there is not a lot of info out there. Lots of information about firmware downgrades to make UHD work in a MakeMKV forum, so I started down that path, but when I hook the drive up to a Windows machine (via USB to SATA cable, with power) a similar problem, can see the drive in Device Manager, and it shows as a device with removable storage in File Manager, but I can't get it to mount and MakeMKV (and sdftool_flasher) can't see it.

It's a new drive, maybe a bad one?

I don't see much on Blu-Ray drives in the Buyer's Guide here either. If I want to be able to rip CDs/DVDs/Blu-Rays/UHD Blu-Rays on my Hackintosh anyone have a view on a drive that would work well for that?

Thanks!

 

[Going Bald]

I have had good luck with the Hitachi-LG CT40N, but it may not be available anymore.
For a case with full sized optical bay try the LG Super-Multi GH24NSBO or the LG Super-Multi GH24NSC0.

 

[MacMarshall]

If I want to be able to rip CDs/DVDs/Blu-Rays/UHD Blu-Rays on my Hackintosh anyone have a view on a drive that would work well for that?

I picked up a LG WH16NS60 and it works fine in my Hackintosh. Easy to downgrade the (locked) firmware and rips UHD Blu-Rays (and so presumably predecessor formats) with no fuss.

 

[abhijitpat]

I picked up a LG WH16NS60 and it works fine in my Hackintosh. Easy to downgrade the (locked) firmware and rips UHD Blu-Rays (and so presumably predecessor formats) with no fuss.

MacMarshal, could you kindly let me know how you downgraded the firmware? I have a similar issue. the drive is pretty much useless right now

 

[MacMarshall]

MacMarshal, could you kindly let me know how you downgraded the firmware? I have a similar issue. the drive is pretty much useless right now

I think I followed the guide that is here. The MakeMKV discussion boards have lots of info on this. I think I used the Windows application to flash the firmware, and it actually worked doing that from a Parallels Windows VM on my Mac laptop, plugging the drive in with a SATA to USB adapter, then once I downgraded the firmware I put the drive in my desktop Hackintosh. Works great, as I mentioned it reads UHD 4K blu-rays just fine, and pretty much anything else DVD, including DVD-Audio.

 

[Juno]

I downgrade and it works, alternative I fix it via this error.