Pioneer Drive

[rafaelsmith]

Hello,

I currently have two ripping drives....a ASUS and a LG....lately several new discs have failed to rip on one or both of the drives....so something has gone bad.

I seriously doubt I have been so unlucky as to have gotten 4 or 5 discs in a row that were "bad". I have used all the usual cleaning methods...and verify the disc themselves play well in my Panasonic 420 UHD player.

So thinking time for a new drive....Pioneer seems to come recommended but there are a lot of models.

Curious which model....preferably top-loading/lid model would be the goto now for reliability ..not so much concerned about speed?

[Billycar11]

New pioneers now need to be flashed unless you get lucky and get an old one. There is currently no way for the public to flash pioneer drives.
You would need to buy a pioneer from one of the flashers if you want it guaranteed to be on the right firmware.
But I do really like these pioneers not 1 bad in 150+ tested could never dream of that with the Asus and LG drives always was exchanging those with my suppliers because they failed my testing

[matttowns509]

Billy,

Im new to all of this and have ripped a few movies and a tv show with my Pioneer BDR-XD07UHD Portable 6X Ultra HD 4K.

Can you clear up a couple things for me:

• Do I have to still have the drive flashed? I thought I got one ready out of the gate (my fault for not asking)
  
  What does this actually do?
  
  Now that I have bought it can I work with you to do a flashing?

Thanks in advance for the help!

-matt

[Billycar11]

Billy,

Im new to all of this and have ripped a few movies and a tv show with my Pioneer BDR-XD07UHD Portable 6X Ultra HD 4K.

Can you clear up a couple things for me:

• Do I have to still have the drive flashed? I thought I got one ready out of the gate (my fault for not asking)
  
  What does this actually do?
  
  Now that I have bought it can I work with you to do a flashing?

Thanks in advance for the help!

-matt

no it cant be flashed currently
it may be fine depends if it has new or old fw
best to post the makemkv drive info for the drive to see if its on 1.00 to 1.02 works 1.03+ right not does not

[matttowns509]

Billy,

Im new to all of this and have ripped a few movies and a tv show with my Pioneer BDR-XD07UHD Portable 6X Ultra HD 4K.

Can you clear up a couple things for me:

• Do I have to still have the drive flashed? I thought I got one ready out of the gate (my fault for not asking)
  
  What does this actually do?
  
  Now that I have bought it can I work with you to do a flashing?

Thanks in advance for the help!

-matt

no it cant be flashed currently
it may be fine depends if it has new or old fw
best to post the makemkv drive info for the drive to see if its on 1.00 to 1.02 works 1.03+ right not does not

Thanks Billy! I’ll post in the morning!!

[matttowns509]

Billy, OK so I guess I have 1.03.

So can you clarify what this means for me? What exactly am I missing then?

edit: I have been successful in ripping so I guess my question really is what am I missing what the firmware would do? Kill the ability to rip?

-matt.

[Billycar11]

You have been ripping UHD discs? it looks like it's from 2020 the fe so should be fine

Edit
Was thinking of xs07s/UHD
The xd07 1.05 is the one that kills it

[htpc_rookie]

I have two LG drives but decided that I needed a non-LG as backup, so I wanted Pioneer.
I ordered a Verbatim 43888 from Amazon UK on 14th April 2023, which they had in their warehouse from a 3rd party seller. I figured that if I were to do it, delay was not recommended. I got a Pioneer BDR-UD04 with firmware BDR-US04 1.14 dated 15 Jun 2020.
It ripped 4k discs with no problem, a good result.

[matttowns509]

You have been ripping UHD discs? it looks like it's from 2020 the fe so should be fine

Edit
Was thinking of xs07s/UHD
The xd07 1.05 is the one that kills it

Yep, UHD! I understand what you mean now, got it! So what you're saying is I should go out and immediately brick this thing by updating the firmware! HAHAHAHAHA!

[rafaelsmith]

I picked up a BDR-XD08U with f/w 1.00 which thus far as been able to rip two of the discs I have been having issues with.

[saywhen58]

New pioneers now need to be flashed unless you get lucky and get an old one. There is currently no way for the public to flash pioneer drives.
You would need to buy a pioneer from one of the flashers if you want it guaranteed to be on the right firmware.
But I do really like these pioneers not 1 bad in 150+ tested could never dream of that with the Asus and LG drives always was exchanging those with my suppliers because they failed my testing

I'm new here -- this is literally my first post. I just ordered a new Pioneer BDR-S13UBK and an OWC enclosure off of Amazon --- before I understood the need to find one that had pre-December 2022 firmware. Dang...how did I miss that?!?!? Well, I am at least encouraged by seeing that user richardlansing recently got one off of amazon that works/has 1.03 firmware: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27378&start=525 I'm assuming the answer is "no," but by chance is there any known way to determine the firmware/production date without opening the package of my en-route BDR-S13UBK and actually hooking it up (i.e., might there be any codes, etc. on package)? *I understand that this particular drive does not need to be flashed to rip UHD discs, correct?*

If the one that arrives from Amazon has the dreaded 1.04 firmware, I might just toss the dice again... which has me already wondering if perhaps ordering a BDR-XD08UMB-S or BDR-S13U-X might give me any better shot at getting one with older firmware (based on what's likely in stock/shipping now)? Of course, I could just order an older pre-flashed drive from one of our sellers...but I'd prefer to see if I can find a BDR-S13UBK, as my perhaps incorrect notion is that it's likely to be more durable and possibly provide a better burn, than say a BDR-XD08UMB-S.

[dcoke22]

I'm new here -- this is literally my first post. I just ordered a new Pioneer BDR-S13UBK and an OWC enclosure off of Amazon --- before I understood the need to find one that had pre-December 2022 firmware.

My Pioneer drive did not fit in an OWC enclosure. This is mentioned in the enclosure section of the Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide

I'll be curious if your Pioneer fits. My Pioneer drive was too long for the enclosure; the Pioneer drive is longer than my LG drive.

[saywhen58]

My Pioneer drive did not fit in an OWC enclosure. This is mentioned in the enclosure section of the Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide

I'll be curious if your Pioneer fits. My Pioneer drive was too long for the enclosure; the Pioneer drive is longer than my LG drive.

Well, I guess that case is likely to go back as soon as it gets here. I missed that detail -- thanks!
We'll see...but I'll probably now just get a BDR-X13U-S from BHPhoto.

[saywhen58]

Ok... even though my recently acquired BDR-X13U-S is a UHD-rated drive, I think this info (below) means that I can use it (+makeMKV) to rip only regular Blu Ray discs right now, because LibreDrive is "not yet enabled" on my drive, and it (LibreDrive) is needed to defeat the encoding on UHD discs? I see the Firmware is 1.03, so at least that part is GTG.

Assuming I've got things right so far, can this drive be sent off to be flashed to enable LibreDrive/the ripping UHD drives? Sorry for all the questions -- just when I think I understand how these things work, I start to second guess myself.

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-X13U
Revision: 1.03
Serial number: CBDL000194UC
Firmware date: 2022-12-12
Bus encryption flags: 1B

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: Pioneer RS9401
Firmware version: ID29

No disc inserted

[Cherokee]

Here's what I get, and it works just fine with UHD discs.
Note the firmware version -> 1.02

Code: Select all

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-S13U
Revision: 1.02
Serial number: xxxxx
Firmware date: 2022-02-16
Bus encryption flags: 1B
Highest AACS version: 77

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS9201
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-213T
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.02/ID43
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes