www.makemkv.com

@Coopervid aha.

Ok, so I only use that device for reading or checking quality of the burn. I understand. Then I only have to get one of these drives, flash it and use it for quality checks.

@Coopervid aha, ok. Yeah from what I understand a Vinpower device is just better firmware for duplication (replication) but the hardware was the same as in a regular drive. On Amazon I can see in the comments that someone wrote Manufacture date: Nov. 2024 Manufacturer firmware: 1.V9 Sad that Vinpowe...

@Billycar11 thanks. That is good to know, I am happy with buying any Pioneer (5.25 or slim drive) at all. There are others who sell on Ebay but the price is high (even if I don't care) but the real problem is shipping to Europe. Last time I looked someone was asking 450 euros for a Pioneer bdr-213 d...

I had a closer look at the list under FAQ and checked my hardware. I have no hardware that will work with opti drive control. Besides I would need a BluRay unit anyway, it is OK if I need to patch a unit to get one working. It is only for checking the discs. It might get hold of a Verbatim drive nex...

I hope it is possible to get a un-patched original drive with latest updated firmware.

@MartyMcNuts aha. That is nice, perhaps there are no UD04 with 1.20 firmware. Who knows, the pictures on Ebay could be fake as there is no way of knowing for sure and all the sellers are in China. Good to know you have drives left, it would be easy to ship to my destination. I am holding out for Asm...

Is there anyone who can help me with this. What hardware still works with opti drive control. There seems to be other tools as well like Nero CD-DVD speed and Plextools or what the name was. Anyway there is a list on the opti site about hardware but it only has the CD, DVD hardware. I want to check ...

Is this the firmware you are looking for.

https://www.lg.com/us/support/product/lg-BU40N.AVAA10B

You have a verbatim but they contain a Pioneer or LG drive

Is it possible to book a unit now or is there no panic and I can wait for the website to open ?

What in-stock numbers are we looking at, if I may ask ?

@MartyMcNuts Thanks for that information. That is what I thought, Pioneer is the best option 5.25 or slim drive over other brands. Sadly the scalpers are asking too much for a Pioneer drive and are usually not willing to ship to Europe. I can understand you would have to pay double the price or more...

Oh, I am so sorry for that. Was unaware he was in hospital. I hope it was nothing serious. I have no problem buying older hardware like say s11 drive as long as I can get my hand on a genuine pioneer drive. And then ride out the chaos and hope that the market for hardware and optical discs calm done...

Has anyone done shopping from this site before here in the forums ? Was wondering what payment options you can use etc ? Is all done through the site or are there some special things to know about ? I would guess they are still working on getting the site up again, question is how much hardware they...

@MartyMcNuts I hope you can help me. I have given up on getting my hands on a Pioneer drive and I don't trust sellers in China. On top of that people don't want to ship abroad. Now that Pioneer and LG have shut down production what are my options for a good reliable optical drive. I know most people...

Hmm. I have watched some YT videos about this issue and trying to keep up with what is going on in the market. Here is my take. The worst part of the optical drive business is optical drives (CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R and so on). Once manufacturers like HP, Dell, Lenovo etc dumped the optical drives in the ...

The obvious thing to do fist is to connect the WH16NS58DUP drive to the computer with SATA in order to eliminate potential USB problems and other things. Sadly USB is notorious for not behaving like it should on computers (mostly windows) and I would only use that as a last resort for a external bur...