Newbie advice for ripping Blu-Ray

[Dazza762]

Hi All.
First post so sorry for the ignorance. I'm looking to get an external drive capable of ripping my Blu-Ray collection. I'm a Mac user so I'll no doubt be limited in my options compared to a PC user. I've been looking at the Pioneer drives BDR-XD08TB, BDR-XS07TUHD and BDR-XD08EMB-S. I know ripping 4k BR isn't an option for Pioneer drives with the latest drivers but would any of these be fine for ripping standard BR on a Mac system? Current OS is Sonoma 14.2.1 if it matters.

[dcoke22]

You can use any drive on your Mac, even 'internal' drives. Just get an enclosure for the drive and plug it in via USB. You don't have to use a drive that's specifically made to be external, although you certainly can.

One possible enclosure: OWC Mercury Pro It works great, but is too small for Pioneer drives.
Vantec also makes nice enclosures that will work with Pioneer drives: https://www.vantecusa.com/products.php?pc_id=4

Some more thoughts on drives:
https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=147364#p147364

MakeMKV will probably work with just about any blu-ray optical drive for ripping blu-rays and DVDs. If you've got an old one you can press into service, by all means do so. If you're going to buy a new drive, then you might as well get one that's LibreDrive capable. If you have the means, getting a Pioneer drive that's LibreDrive enabled is way to go. Also, MakeMKV can use more than one drive at the same time (turn on 'ask for single drive mode' in preferences), so there's nothing wrong with multiple drives.

[Dazza762]

Thanks for the response. So what's the chances of there being a workaround for the current Pioneer firmware? I guess what I'm asking is: is there any point buying the BDR-XS07TUHD with the hope of there being a fix to re-enable LibreDrive on them? If not I may as well save some cash and just get the BDR-XD08TB or BDR-XD08EMB-S.

You can use any drive on your Mac, even 'internal' drives. Just get an enclosure for the drive and plug it in via USB. You don't have to use a drive that's specifically made to be external, although you certainly can.

One possible enclosure: OWC Mercury Pro It works great, but is too small for Pioneer drives.
Vantec also makes nice enclosures that will work with Pioneer drives: https://www.vantecusa.com/products.php?pc_id=4

Some more thoughts on drives:
https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=147364#p147364

MakeMKV will probably work with just about any blu-ray optical drive for ripping blu-rays and DVDs. If you've got an old one you can press into service, by all means do so. If you're going to buy a new drive, then you might as well get one that's LibreDrive capable. If you have the means, getting a Pioneer drive that's LibreDrive enabled is way to go. Also, MakeMKV can use more than one drive at the same time (turn on 'ask for single drive mode' in preferences), so there's nothing wrong with multiple drives.

[dcoke22]

If you want a Pioneer drive, the best thing to do is buy from one of the sellers that have one with the old firmware. For the most part, drives sitting on shelves in stores or on Amazon all have newer firmware that disables LibreDrive.

Is the case of Asmcom, the best thing to do is contact them via their email address. If you read back to December in Asmcom's thread, you'll see that his brother died unexpectedly. They're still doing business via email from the forums, but the eBay store is 'paused' for the moment.

The author of MakeMKV, Mike, has stated that he's working on enabling LibreDrive on current Pioneer firmware but has given no estimate of when it might be available. It might be a long time. In my view, it is best to buy things for their capabilities now and not expect extra functionality in the future since it may never come.

[Dazza762]

Thanks for the reply. Where can I get Asmcom's email address from. I tried sending a PM on here but it's stuck in the outbox and I can't seem to "send" it.

[dcoke22]

Thanks for the reply. Where can I get Asmcom's email address from. I tried sending a PM on here but it's stuck in the outbox and I can't seem to "send" it.

The sellers typically maintain the first post in their threads and it includes contact info.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19387

[Dazza762]

Thanks for the reply. Where can I get Asmcom's email address from. I tried sending a PM on here but it's stuck in the outbox and I can't seem to "send" it.

The sellers typically maintain the first post in their threads and it includes contact info.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19387

Thanks. They've contacted me directly.