Question about blu-ray drives.

[Alriightyman]

So, if I understand this correctly, the drives that are capable of ripping 4k/uhd discs are "disappearing", correct? Does that mean drives that can rip dvd and standard non-4k drives are not affected by this? And if so, would it make sense to get a 4k drive and ONLY use it to rip the 4k disc and get a "normal" drive for the rest of the content?

[MartyMcNuts]

So, if I understand this correctly, the drives that are capable of ripping 4k/uhd discs are "disappearing", correct? Does that mean drives that can rip dvd and standard non-4k drives are not affected by this? And if so, would it make sense to get a 4k drive and ONLY use it to rip the 4k disc and get a "normal" drive for the rest of the content?

Not just UHD compatible drives, all drives are quickly disappearing as no one is manufacturing them. Pioneer ceased manufacturing optical drives in 2024 and LG late 2025.

[DennisOlof]

@MartyMcNuts I hope you can help me.

I have given up on getting my hands on a Pioneer drive and I don't trust sellers in China. On top of that people don't want to ship abroad. Now that Pioneer and LG have shut down production what are my options for a good reliable optical drive. I know most people in this forum want to rip UHD but I have no interest in that. My main concern is backing up personal data, fotos, videos to optical for added security should anything happen to my hard drives. I use them as offline backups and I have multiple drives.

These are the only options I have unless I buy from Europe, sadly most drives are in China or USA and nobody is selling drives in Europe from what I can tell. At lest not second hand and online stores don't ship within Europe. It is also impossible to get a specific device as it is more luck of the draw what unit "inside" you actually get when buying these optical drives. Unless someone in the forum is willing to sell me a drive.

* ASUS BW-16D1X-U or ASUS BW-16D1H-U, hardware is same but some are BDR-212T and others have the MT1959
* I can also buy Verbatim 43888, some have UD04 (Pioneer) and others are MT1959
* I can also buy the LG BP55EB40 SVC EB52 slim drive with MT1959

The sad part is that the imgburn forums state there is a v3.11 of the Asus BW-16D drive, it was tested and much better compared to the v3.10 but there is no firmware update to go to v3.11 so it is only from factory you get that firmware. The UD04 drive seems to have a few different versions, 1.14 1.20 and I even found one that had 1.21

And as someone said people are not updating firmware any more or you can not even find updated firmwares for your device, tthis could be problematic as some media do not work well in some burners etc. The only option left is Verbatim (CMC Magnetics) as they seem to be the largest player left manufacturing optical discs. I will be looking at buying a second drive that can read bluray and is compatible with opti drive as I need to check my burns for quality but I don't know what drives are best for this option. There are no more Vinpower devices to buy as that would be optimal compared to the options I listed, and they don't ship to Europe.

What drive should I get and why ?

[Alriightyman]

So, if I understand this correctly, the drives that are capable of ripping 4k/uhd discs are "disappearing", correct? Does that mean drives that can rip dvd and standard non-4k drives are not affected by this? And if so, would it make sense to get a 4k drive and ONLY use it to rip the 4k disc and get a "normal" drive for the rest of the content?

Not just UHD compatible drives, all drives are quickly disappearing as no one is manufacturing them. Pioneer ceased manufacturing optical drives in 2024 and LG late 2025.

Well.... that sucks. I'll have to try and get a couple of drives from some of the guys here as soon as I am capable. I appreciate the clarification.

[Alriightyman]

Follow up question: I found that one of my local stores carries a LG WP50NB40 Blu-ray Writer. Can this be flashed and is there anything specific I need to look for before purchasing it?

[MartyMcNuts]

@MartyMcNuts I hope you can help me.

I have given up on getting my hands on a Pioneer drive and I don't trust sellers in China. On top of that people don't want to ship abroad. Now that Pioneer and LG have shut down production what are my options for a good reliable optical drive. I know most people in this forum want to rip UHD but I have no interest in that. My main concern is backing up personal data, fotos, videos to optical for added security should anything happen to my hard drives. I use them as offline backups and I have multiple drives.

These are the only options I have unless I buy from Europe, sadly most drives are in China or USA and nobody is selling drives in Europe from what I can tell. At lest not second hand and online stores don't ship within Europe. It is also impossible to get a specific device as it is more luck of the draw what unit "inside" you actually get when buying these optical drives. Unless someone in the forum is willing to sell me a drive.

* ASUS BW-16D1X-U or ASUS BW-16D1H-U, hardware is same but some are BDR-212T and others have the MT1959
* I can also buy Verbatim 43888, some have UD04 (Pioneer) and others are MT1959
* I can also buy the LG BP55EB40 SVC EB52 slim drive with MT1959

The sad part is that the imgburn forums state there is a v3.11 of the Asus BW-16D drive, it was tested and much better compared to the v3.10 but there is no firmware update to go to v3.11 so it is only from factory you get that firmware. The UD04 drive seems to have a few different versions, 1.14 1.20 and I even found one that had 1.21

And as someone said people are not updating firmware any more or you can not even find updated firmwares for your device, tthis could be problematic as some media do not work well in some burners etc. The only option left is Verbatim (CMC Magnetics) as they seem to be the largest player left manufacturing optical discs. I will be looking at buying a second drive that can read bluray and is compatible with opti drive as I need to check my burns for quality but I don't know what drives are best for this option. There are no more Vinpower devices to buy as that would be optimal compared to the options I listed, and they don't ship to Europe.

What drive should I get and why ?

Asmcom will be opening his shop again in February so not much longer if you want a Pioneer. Otherwise, anyone of those drives will work for you. Pioneer are the superior readers and writers and you would be far better off with a Pioneer if you plan on writing discs often.

Depending on where you are located, I have some Verbatim 43887's available. These contain the Pioneer BDR-UD03 which have been cross-flashed to BDR-UD04 firmware for UHD compatibility. See my signature.

I have zero interest in writing discs and haven't done so in almost 20 years so cannot advise on which drive would be better, except to say in general, Pioneer are better readers and writers.

[DennisOlof]

@MartyMcNuts

Thanks for that information.

That is what I thought, Pioneer is the best option 5.25 or slim drive over other brands. Sadly the scalpers are asking too much for a Pioneer drive and are usually not willing to ship to Europe. I can understand you would have to pay double the price or more but not the crazy amount the scalpers are asking for. It is a bit much for a drive when I can buy a new one where I am for a resonable price, even if it is not a pioneer drive.

I hope Asmcom has some pioneer drives and can ship to Europe. A few weeks ago I wanted to buy a BDR-08XD but again no shipping to Europe.

Do you know what the difference is between BDR-UD03 and BDR-UD04 hardware, on Ebay there are some sellers of these drives but almost everyone is in China but the drives are not expensive. From what I can tell firmware 1.00 is the only version for BDR-UD03 i can find pictures of, but for the BDR-UD04 there seems to be several versions of the firmware 1.14 1.20 and even one that had 1.21 and because you can't update the firmware on the drives as far as I know I would want one that has as updated firmware as possible. Here on the forums it seems the 1.14 version is the most common.

Again my interest is in burning backups of personal data, not backups of movies and other stuff or ripping things and putting it on a NAS device etc.
You are right about burning, I have not done that for some time but it does happen. For me optical discs is an added protection for hard drive failure.

I better get multiple drives just to be on the safe side, Pioneer is gone and some say LG have shut down production of burners and if that is permanent I guess there is nobody manufacturing bluray burners any more. Asus and perhaps some other brands all had LG or Pioneer drives in them as far as I know.

Fingers crossed for Asmcom

[MartyMcNuts]

@MartyMcNuts

Thanks for that information.

That is what I thought, Pioneer is the best option 5.25 or slim drive over other brands. Sadly the scalpers are asking too much for a Pioneer drive and are usually not willing to ship to Europe. I can understand you would have to pay double the price or more but not the crazy amount the scalpers are asking for. It is a bit much for a drive when I can buy a new one where I am for a resonable price, even if it is not a pioneer drive.

I hope Asmcom has some pioneer drives and can ship to Europe. A few weeks ago I wanted to buy a BDR-08XD but again no shipping to Europe.

Do you know what the difference is between BDR-UD03 and BDR-UD04 hardware, on Ebay there are some sellers of these drives but almost everyone is in China but the drives are not expensive. From what I can tell firmware 1.00 is the only version for BDR-UD03 i can find pictures of, but for the BDR-UD04 there seems to be several versions of the firmware 1.14 1.20 and even one that had 1.21 and because you can't update the firmware on the drives as far as I know I would want one that has as updated firmware as possible. Here on the forums it seems the 1.14 version is the most common.

Again my interest is in burning backups of personal data, not backups of movies and other stuff or ripping things and putting it on a NAS device etc.
You are right about burning, I have not done that for some time but it does happen. For me optical discs is an added protection for hard drive failure.

I better get multiple drives just to be on the safe side, Pioneer is gone and some say LG have shut down production of burners and if that is permanent I guess there is nobody manufacturing bluray burners any more. Asus and perhaps some other brands all had LG or Pioneer drives in them as far as I know.

Fingers crossed for Asmcom

I think the only difference in hardware is the UD04 has the AACS 2 chip since it is an official UHD drive. All of the UD03 and UD04 drives I have personally seen have had v1.14 firmware on them.

I do ship to some countries in Europe but not all and still have some Verbatim 43887's available.

[DennisOlof]

@MartyMcNuts aha.

That is nice, perhaps there are no UD04 with 1.20 firmware. Who knows, the pictures on Ebay could be fake as there is no way of knowing for sure and all the sellers are in China. Good to know you have drives left, it would be easy to ship to my destination.

I am holding out for Asmcom for now and I do want to try and get my hands on a XD08 drive. It is possible to get them else where but it comes down to shipping. The Asus ASUS BW-16D they tested in the imgburn forums seems to be great if you manage to get the v3.11 version but I think it has a LG drive in it. Sad that Asus don't have a firmware update for that drive it could be a good unit then.

As far as I can tell the Verbatim units with the UD04 seem great compared to other options but getting one is more difficult, there are plenty of sellers online but I suspect they don't know how to check or they want to sell you a new unit that is untouched. Some sell patched drives but it still does not say if it is the 1.14 version of the drive, only that is has UHD friendly firmware.

[MartyMcNuts]

@MartyMcNuts aha.

That is nice, perhaps there are no UD04 with 1.20 firmware. Who knows, the pictures on Ebay could be fake as there is no way of knowing for sure and all the sellers are in China. Good to know you have drives left, it would be easy to ship to my destination.

I am holding out for Asmcom for now and I do want to try and get my hands on a XD08 drive. It is possible to get them else where but it comes down to shipping. The Asus ASUS BW-16D they tested in the imgburn forums seems to be great if you manage to get the v3.11 version but I think it has a LG drive in it. Sad that Asus don't have a firmware update for that drive it could be a good unit then.

As far as I can tell the Verbatim units with the UD04 seem great compared to other options but getting one is more difficult, there are plenty of sellers online but I suspect they don't know how to check or they want to sell you a new unit that is untouched. Some sell patched drives but it still does not say if it is the 1.14 version of the drive, only that is has UHD friendly firmware.

There are no longer any Verbatim's with the Pioneer BDR-UD04. Hasn't been since about May/June 2025. There are some that contain a Pioneer BDR-UD03 such as the Verbatim 43887 model I have available.

Yes, the ASUS BW-16D1HT is a LG WH16NS40 with ASUS firmware. There is no libredrive enabled or UHD compatible version of the 3.11 firmware, only the 3.10 firmware (3.10-MK). Again, we don't care about writing discs, we care about LiberDrive and UHD compatibility.