Blu Ray Drives vs "UHD Friendly/Official" Drives vs Libredrive?

[androzz]

Hello everyone,

I've recently been reading up about blu ray drives via the MakeMKV forums, but I'm still having trouble parsing everything I've come across, so here's a couple things I hope people can break down.

I've heard conflicting reports about the status of Blu Ray drives being able to read UHD, and what MakeMKV's got also is a bit confusing. I get that some of the top of the line, like WH16NS60, work, but say that a few lower end ones, like the BH16NS55, can as well, or can if flashed right. Are they correct?

I'm also not too sure as to what Libredrive is and how it differs from regular blu ray ripping. Something about accessing the data from the disc directly? Is it for UHD only?

[Woodstock]

LibreDrive does not, necessarily, mean it can read UHD disks. A lot of drives that do not have UHD capability can be run via LibreDrive.

UHD-capable drives aren't necessarily LibreDrive-capable.

Most UHD-capable drives can do "regular" Bluray and DVD as well. I cannot think of any that won't.

If a drive's firmware says it's older than 2014, it won't do UHD. 2015, it PROBABLY won't do UHD. 2016 and newer can be UHD-capable, if it was built as one. Not all were. Those that are UHD-capable will not necessarily SAY that they are UHD-capable on their face; none of mine do.

[dcoke22]

I'm also not too sure as to what Libredrive is and how it differs from regular blu ray ripping. Something about accessing the data from the disc directly? Is it for UHD only?

As Woodstock has suggested, it can be a little complicated.

The short, short answer is, if you get a new drive from the list of the drives that support both UHD and LibreDrive, then you'll be able to rip 4K UHD discs. First the drive has to be able to read a UHD then the drive needs to support LibreDrive to be able to defeat the encryption.

The requirements for regular blu-ray and DVD are much lower. However, if you're going to buy a drive, might as well get one that does all the things.