Could someone help confirm which drives are capable of UHD ripping and available in the UK please?
Having looked in the forums here to see what the current recommended drives are I was shocked to read that these drives are no longer being manufactured. My ASUS drive is failing leaving me with just one (much better) Pioneer BDR-212V and I would like to purchase a backup (or two!).
Apologies if I have missed the info posted already on here (there are many, many posts!!) but are there any drives still available in the UK that are UHD compatible (either out of the box or flashable)? Additionally, do I still need to watch the manf date / firmware versions or do the flashers now deal with that problem?
Thanks for any pointers!
HB
UHD capable drive - UK based
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DennisOlof
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2025 5:59 pm
Re: UHD capable drive - UK based
As I was crawling on ebay a lot the last two days I have this information for you.
The Verbatim 43888 drive is on sale from a user called "ultrahd-drives" on ebay (UK) site. That drive is pre-patched and works for UHD ripping, looks like they are asking 275£ for a unit. This is external slim drive over USB. There are some 5.52 LG units you can find there as well. It seems possible to still find Pioneer BDR-XD drives, even though I suspect some listings probably are selling fake one.
There are people on for forum also selling hardware, go and have a look there.
Check ebay for LG, Asus as there are still drive out there. For now at least.
The Verbatim 43888 drive is on sale from a user called "ultrahd-drives" on ebay (UK) site. That drive is pre-patched and works for UHD ripping, looks like they are asking 275£ for a unit. This is external slim drive over USB. There are some 5.52 LG units you can find there as well. It seems possible to still find Pioneer BDR-XD drives, even though I suspect some listings probably are selling fake one.
There are people on for forum also selling hardware, go and have a look there.
Check ebay for LG, Asus as there are still drive out there. For now at least.
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Headbanger
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:52 am
Re: UHD capable drive - UK based
Thanks Dennis.
There are Verbatim 43888s available on various UK sites for around £100. Are these all flashable or only certain ones (manf date / firmware version)?
I looked here for a UK seller of a pre-configured drive but there only seems to be one https://shop.uhdfriendlydrives.co.uk/ and they seem to be closed atm.
Are any Pioneer drives now flashable if I find one? I've seen some Japanese BDR-S13J-X but old posts on here seem to suggest that they cannot be flashed. There are loads of Ebay listings for various Pioneers but I suspect most are selling fake, cloned drives.
Failing that, are all of the ASUS and LG drives now able to be flashed?
HB
There are Verbatim 43888s available on various UK sites for around £100. Are these all flashable or only certain ones (manf date / firmware version)?
I looked here for a UK seller of a pre-configured drive but there only seems to be one https://shop.uhdfriendlydrives.co.uk/ and they seem to be closed atm.
Are any Pioneer drives now flashable if I find one? I've seen some Japanese BDR-S13J-X but old posts on here seem to suggest that they cannot be flashed. There are loads of Ebay listings for various Pioneers but I suspect most are selling fake, cloned drives.
Failing that, are all of the ASUS and LG drives now able to be flashed?
HB
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DennisOlof
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2025 5:59 pm
Re: UHD capable drive - UK based
Yes, you can flash some drives on your own. There is plenty of information here on the forums and you can get help from other users. They also offer flashing help where you pay some money and (I guess) they send you what you need with instructions on what to do etc.
The issue now is getting hold of a drive in the first place. Verbatim (who now use LG hardware from what I understand) is possible to flash and also LG drives. Also the Pioneer BDR-XD drives can be patched for UHD, billycar11 in the "drives for sale" subforum have the XD08 pre-patched for sale. It seems that there are more Pioneer slim drives still out there but they have become expensive as well. I have no issue paying a lot of money for a drive as long as I get one that is genuine and that is the issue. To many fake driver out there and sellers in China.
It seems that LG and Asus do have 5.25 drives that you can find on Ebay etc. There are genuine drives out there but I am not sure I can trust sellers from China as there are to many fake drives out there. I would prefer a genuine Pioneer BDR-S11 or BDR-211 or newer as long as it has a decent manufacturing date. I want to use that for creating quality backups of personal information, UHD ripping is not something I am interested in.
Are there not any other second hand electronics site in the U.K. or it it only ebay ?
The issue now is getting hold of a drive in the first place. Verbatim (who now use LG hardware from what I understand) is possible to flash and also LG drives. Also the Pioneer BDR-XD drives can be patched for UHD, billycar11 in the "drives for sale" subforum have the XD08 pre-patched for sale. It seems that there are more Pioneer slim drives still out there but they have become expensive as well. I have no issue paying a lot of money for a drive as long as I get one that is genuine and that is the issue. To many fake driver out there and sellers in China.
It seems that LG and Asus do have 5.25 drives that you can find on Ebay etc. There are genuine drives out there but I am not sure I can trust sellers from China as there are to many fake drives out there. I would prefer a genuine Pioneer BDR-S11 or BDR-211 or newer as long as it has a decent manufacturing date. I want to use that for creating quality backups of personal information, UHD ripping is not something I am interested in.
Are there not any other second hand electronics site in the U.K. or it it only ebay ?