www.makemkv.com

I would like to start ripping some 4k bluray but I am a complete stranger to this. Now that Pioneer drives can be use plug-n-play with MakeMKV to rip 4k blu-ray I am wondering if I should buy this Verbatim Slim Drive 43888. Currently at ~100USD on Amazon, it is the cheapest Pionner drive I could find that should support UHD. Is it a good idea?

Other options are the Verbatim 43889 and Verbatim 43890 that appear to be mostly the same drive (and price) but I didn't find any info on what drive is actually inside. For the Verbatim 43888, multiple people claimed it contains a Pioneer BDR-UD04 (in the UHD Official list) (cf MakeMKV forum).

So what do you advice?

Should be OK.

Model 43890 has an USB3.0 connection and an additional power supply.
Model 43889 and 43888 have an USB 3.1 GEN1 USB-C connection.
Both Models 43889 und 43888 dont need a power supply and have no connection for a power supply.

So go with 43888 if your PC has USB-C. Otherwise with 43890 you might need the power supply.

I just bought one myself, so I'm waiting to see how it works myself.

Any comeback on this drive?

I have been re-ripping my UHD collection lately, about 50 discs, and I have had two flahed ASUS BW-16D1HT drives (two, because some discs are problematic to rip and sometimes it works when changing the drive. I have also had one of those ASUS drives die on me so it seemed prudent with some redundancy).

However, two discs, Batman Begins and Spectre just would not let me rip them. I have tried all my little tricks and nothing worked. Fail, always at the same point, but then I found the posts here about the Verbatim 43888, was intrigued and I ordered one yesterday. It arrived today and I have now ripped both my problematic discs, both at 4x speed without any issues. There is no need to flash the drive or anything, it just works out of the box.

So, I have very limited experience from this drive, but so far I am very happy! It is small, quiet and connects via USB-C. It came with a blank 25GB BD-R in jewel case and Nero is included, but I have not installed it yet. The included cable is a USB-C to USB A with an adapter from USB A to USB-C (so that it emulates a USB-C to USB-C cable). That did appear to be a bit bulky for me though, so I have just used a USB-C to USB-C cable I had laying around.