Recommendation for best (most reliable and versatile) LibreDrive for 2024?

[stevemlester]

I'm building a new PC and would like a recommendation on a new internal 5.25" SATA drive. I live in the USA.

Steve

[Billycar11]

I'm building a new PC and would like a recommendation on a new internal 5.25" SATA drive. I live in the USA.

Steve

i recommend the s13UBK see below for one with old fw

[buttergolem]

Good evening,
my country of residence is Germany and i need a recommendation for a reliable libre-drive friendly, external Pioneer drive.
Thank you in advance!

Have a good one!

Verbatim 43888

Thx Coopervid for the recommendation. I bought this drive at a local store, pluged it into my laptop, installed makemkv and ripped flawlessly my first BluRay!

[peng4l]

Looking for a good drive in Canada to back up my collection, Mainly dvd/blurays but have some UHD. doesnt matter if internal or external.

thanks for any advice

[MartyMcNuts]

Looking for a good drive in Canada to back up my collection, Mainly dvd/blurays but have some UHD. doesnt matter if internal or external.

thanks for any advice

Check the seller threads.

I’ve shipped a few to Canada.

[Drybonz]

Hey guys... I've been looking over some of these threads, but I'm a bit overwhelmed and can't really decide what drive I should buy.

I'm in the US and will buy it from Amazon. I need an external drive because my computer case is more recent and it has no drive bays. I want to have access to bluray DVD and UHD. I also need region free because we like movies from other countries. I may want to rip movies with makemkv as well.

I know you all have answered these questions before, so thanks for bearing with me and helping me along. I appreciate it.

[Billycar11]

Hey guys... I've been looking over some of these threads, but I'm a bit overwhelmed and can't really decide what drive I should buy.

I'm in the US and will buy it from Amazon. I need an external drive because my computer case is more recent and it has no drive bays. I want to have access to bluray DVD and UHD. I also need region free because we like movies from other countries. I may want to rip movies with makemkv as well.

I know you all have answered these questions before, so thanks for bearing with me and helping me along. I appreciate it.

212v with a vantec DX2 or or if you want the latest pioneers order one from me have the S13 series drives with old fw still. and still get vantec DX2 from amazon
43889 can also be flashed by me

[Drybonz]

212v with a vantec DX2 or or if you want the latest pioneers order one from me have the S13 series drives with old fw still. and still get vantec DX2 from amazon
43889 can also be flashed by me

Ok, great... thanks for the straightforward answer... that helps me out a lot. That drive has all the features out of the box? I've found those on Amazon and I have some gift card bucks, but if I need anything in the future I will definitely remember you. Thanks again for the help.

[Billycar11]

212v with a vantec DX2 or or if you want the latest pioneers order one from me have the S13 series drives with old fw still. and still get vantec DX2 from amazon
43889 can also be flashed by me

Ok, great... thanks for the straightforward answer... that helps me out a lot. That drive has all the features out of the box? I've found those on Amazon and I have some gift card bucks, but if I need anything in the future I will definitely remember you. Thanks again for the help.

212v and 43889 both need to be flashed professionally.
my if you buy a drive from me its already flashed and tested
i can take amazon gift cards as payment if needed.

[Drybonz]

212v and 43889 both need to be flashed professionally.

Oh ok... is that the remote flashing service that you have listed for $25? How does that work?

[Billycar11]

212v and 43889 both need to be flashed professionally.

Oh ok... is that the remote flashing service that you have listed for $25? How does that work?

Yeah.
you just email me your makemkv drive info then I send you a flasher

[anderstn]

I want to back up some UHD disks. I currently have a Samsung SE-506CB that works fine with regular blu-ray discs, but my understanding is that this won't work with UHD. I have found a Verbatim 43888 slim line drive which I understand to be compatible from other comments here, but it's very expensive and if the libredrive firmware work through generic SATA to USB chips I would prefer to just have a 5.25" drive to get higher read speeds. I don't really have an enclosure for one nearby, but I can always make one

A cursory search on a site indexing prices from various vendors tells me that these BDXL drives are available (in addition to the Verbatim drive):


I live in Norway so cross border shipping is a pain. Which of these would be the best choice. I don't mind ordering a custom software + firmware to install locally, but for sending stuff overseas to get the job done is not an option.

[dcoke22]

I want to back up some UHD disks. I currently have a Samsung SE-506CB that works fine with regular blu-ray discs, but my understanding is that this won't work with UHD. I have found a Verbatim 43888 slim line drive which I understand to be compatible from other comments here, but it's very expensive and if the libredrive firmware work through generic SATA to USB chips I would prefer to just have a 5.25" drive to get higher read speeds. I don't really have an enclosure for one nearby, but I can always make one

A cursory search on a site indexing prices from various vendors tells me that these BDXL drives are available (in addition to the Verbatim drive):


I live in Norway so cross border shipping is a pain. Which of these would be the best choice. I don't mind ordering a custom software + firmware to install locally, but for sending stuff overseas to get the job done is not an option.

The reason people like the Verbatim 43888 is because it has an older Pioneer drive inside (most of the time). Generally speaking, Pioneer drives are held in high regard.
As for read speeds, getting a successful rip, even if it is a bit slower, is more useful than having a failed rip faster. That isn't to say that the LG or ASUS drives won't have successful rips; they will, but for a marginal disc, the odds of a successful rip are higher with a Pioneer. If you have a lot of discs to rip, MakeMKV can be used with more than one optical drive at the same time (turn on 'ask for single drive mode' in MakeMKV's preferences).
Regarding your list of drives… I don't have any experience with the LG BP55EB40, but generally speaking LG's mobile drives are considered better than LG or ASUS desktop drives these days.

Undoubtedly, others will post on this thread and share additional opinions!

[anderstn]

I get the reasoning behind buying the Verbatim drive, but for context it's literally twice the price of these options and from past experience I'm much more sure that a 5.25" drive will work forever. A slimline drive just seems far less durable in my experience. So again I'm wondering are any of these options alternatives assuming somebody here can sell me a flasher to remove any limitations in the firmware.

[Coopervid]

I get the reasoning behind buying the Verbatim drive, but for context it's literally twice the price of these options and from past experience I'm much more sure that a 5.25" drive will work forever. A slimline drive just seems far less durable in my experience. So again I'm wondering are any of these options alternatives assuming somebody here can sell me a flasher to remove any limitations in the firmware.

If you can get it buy the Vinpower 212V or Pioneer 212V sold by Vinpower. It can be flashed to S12U which removes all limitations of it.