Hi in the UK and looking to backup my discs and am completely lost on what drive to get, i read the faq and no further forwards, no burning discs and i have no drive bay on the pc. As far as i can see the pioneers are the go to but just looking for some help
Thanks
newbie what drive is recommended
Re: newbie what drive is recommended
If I understand correctly, I think you read this: Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide
The Pioneer drives on the list don't have to have their firmware flashed in order to rip 4k UltraHD Blu-rays (UHDs), which makes them fairly easy to use. The other drives from LG (and other brands although they're almost all LG drives inside) will need to have firmware flashed onto them. Flashing firmware onto a drive isn't all that difficult, especially on Windows (where there's a GUI tool; command line tools on macOS and Linux), but it can be a bit intimidating for some. The guide also contains a list of sellers who will sell you a flashed and tested drive if you don't want to mess with it at all.
Pioneer drives aren't the fastest drives at ripping. If speed is your most important consideration, you're going to need a LG drive.
Pioneer drives are the best at burning optical discs if that's important to you.
If you want to use other ripping software in addition to MakeMKV, you should make sure the drive you choose works with all the software you might want to use.
In my experience, some discs just don't like some drives. I have three different drives. When a disc won't rip in my main drive, I try a different drive. Often (but not always) the disc will rip fine in another drive. If the disc won't rip in any of my drives, I gently clean the disc. Almost always one of my drives will rip the disc then. My main drive manages to rip probably >90% of my discs. Having the other drives makes it easier for me to deal with the small percentage of discs that fail.
Full sized, internal, 5.25 inch optical drives can be put in an external powered enclosure and connected to your computer via USB (The guide linked above has a list of enclosures to consider). All three of my drives are this way. USB powered drives can work just fine, but usually require two high powered USB-A ports to fully power the drive. There might be some Pioneer USB-C connected & powered drives that only need the single USB-C connection.
The Pioneer drives on the list don't have to have their firmware flashed in order to rip 4k UltraHD Blu-rays (UHDs), which makes them fairly easy to use. The other drives from LG (and other brands although they're almost all LG drives inside) will need to have firmware flashed onto them. Flashing firmware onto a drive isn't all that difficult, especially on Windows (where there's a GUI tool; command line tools on macOS and Linux), but it can be a bit intimidating for some. The guide also contains a list of sellers who will sell you a flashed and tested drive if you don't want to mess with it at all.
Pioneer drives aren't the fastest drives at ripping. If speed is your most important consideration, you're going to need a LG drive.
Pioneer drives are the best at burning optical discs if that's important to you.
If you want to use other ripping software in addition to MakeMKV, you should make sure the drive you choose works with all the software you might want to use.
In my experience, some discs just don't like some drives. I have three different drives. When a disc won't rip in my main drive, I try a different drive. Often (but not always) the disc will rip fine in another drive. If the disc won't rip in any of my drives, I gently clean the disc. Almost always one of my drives will rip the disc then. My main drive manages to rip probably >90% of my discs. Having the other drives makes it easier for me to deal with the small percentage of discs that fail.
Full sized, internal, 5.25 inch optical drives can be put in an external powered enclosure and connected to your computer via USB (The guide linked above has a list of enclosures to consider). All three of my drives are this way. USB powered drives can work just fine, but usually require two high powered USB-A ports to fully power the drive. There might be some Pioneer USB-C connected & powered drives that only need the single USB-C connection.
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TheMKVMaker
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:56 pm
Re: newbie what drive is recommended
I'm considering a verbatim slim external 4k uhd drive or a pioneer internal UHT drive