LibreDrive for Pioneer drives

[Coopervid]

I have the drive below. Is it possible to make it UHD capable?

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-212BK
Revision: 1.00
Serial number: SEDL004572WL
Firmware date: 2019-01-10
Bus encryption flags: 1B
Highest AACS version: 77

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS8F00
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-212T
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.00/ID81
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

PM sent.

[zaybdr]

Before learning about makeMKV, is it possible to update the firmware to make the following drive UHD compatible?

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-XD05
Revision: 3.11
Serial number: **********
Firmware date: 2023-03-03
Bus encryption flags: 1B

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: Pioneer RS8232
Firmware version: ID35

[Billycar11]

Before learning about makeMKV, is it possible to update the firmware to make the following drive UHD compatible?

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-XD05
Revision: 3.11
Serial number: **********
Firmware date: 2023-03-03
Bus encryption flags: 1B

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: Pioneer RS8232
Firmware version: ID35

sure email me that info and all others email me no need to post your info here just reach out to me directly
see below for email

[babayaga]

I must ask a quick question, am I to understand that MOST current Pioneer drives doesn't need a firmware update to play/rip UHD discs, that this is ok in its original firmware? like the PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-211M? I see these have been added to the sdf.bin and that should be it? or am i missing something

[tomty89]

No, but the drive of your concern should be fine (ripping with MakeMKV / playing with libmmbd which is really also MakeMKV) out of the box with UHD.

LibreDrive is just a requirement for UHD ripping. It doesn't mean that all LibreDrive drives come with a firmware with UHD support.

One of the reasons why the whole Pioneer story seems so complicated is that the company had different "UHD policy" for their generations of drives. The "11th gen" AFAIK is the most "lenient" one, meaning that even the "cheapest" such as the 211EBK/UBK has firmware with UHD support.

However, when it comes to the "12th gen" (and probably also the 13th), only a certain model/firmware (e.g. S12UHT) is built with the UHD support, while "hardware-wise" all of them can do the job. (Essentially drives with "full" BDXL support is UHD-capable -- some early drives only has "partial" BDXL support.)

Similarly the 8th and 9th gen is actually UHD-capable but none of them came with firmware that supports UHD, which is why people would crossflash them with a 11th gen firmware.

(And the 7th gen is even more complicated. There's like just one model, S07XLT, that doesn't have BDXL support, while others do. Yet because of the bigger "generation gap" or so, none of them can be "upgraded" for UHD support.)

P.S. Note that "UHD support" itself is somewhat complicated as well because different software might leverage different approach / technique, while a certain firmware can support/allow one but not another, for example some people are still after "official" support like playing back with PowerDVD on a computer with Intel SGX. What I referred to was just the usage with MakeMKV.

Another P.S. What I said might be only correct for internal drives. I have never really studied the case of their external (portable/slim) drives.

[babayaga]

No, but the drive of your concern should be fine (ripping with MakeMKV / playing with libmmbd which is really also MakeMKV) out of the box with UHD.

LibreDrive is just a requirement for UHD ripping. It doesn't mean that all LibreDrive drives come with a firmware with UHD support.

One of the reasons why the whole Pioneer story seems so complicated is that the company had different "UHD policy" for their generations of drives. The "11th gen" AFAIK is the most "lenient" one, meaning that even the "cheapest" such as the 211EBK/UBK has firmware with UHD support.

However, when it comes to the "12th gen" (and probably also the 13th), only a certain model/firmware (e.g. S12UHT) is built with the UHD support, while "hardware-wise" all of them can do the job. (Essentially drives with "full" BDXL support is UHD-capable -- some early drives only has "partial" BDXL support.)

Similarly the 8th and 9th gen is actually UHD-capable but none of them came with firmware that supports UHD, which is why people would crossflash them with a 11th gen firmware.

(And the 7th gen is even more complicated. There's like just one model, S07XLT, that doesn't have BDXL support, while others do. Yet because of the bigger "generation gap" or so, none of them can be "upgraded" for UHD support.)

P.S. Note that "UHD support" itself is somewhat complicated as well because different software might leverage different approach / technique, while a certain firmware can support/allow one but not another, for example some people are still after "official" support like playing back with PowerDVD on a computer with Intel SGX. What I referred to was just the usage with MakeMKV.

Another P.S. What I said might be only correct for internal drives. I have never really studied the case of their external (portable/slim) drives.

Thank you so much for clearing this up for me, I think i understand it a bit better now, so the list of current working pioneer drives is still the same as in the UHD flashing guide of 2026 I'm trying to get a internal pioneer drive for a friend of mine, is the Pioneer BDR-211EBK and BDR-211UBK the same unit, just different countries? I found a BDR-211EBK I could buy.

[tomty89]

Well I'm not 100% sure but I think the bottom line is you should be fine with either a 211UBK or 211EBK, as AFAIK they share the exact same fimware.

(There's another "side story" with the 9th and 11th gen: there are two different "revisions" for each generation. I don't really know whether is like UBK being one revision and EBK being another, or if it's like EBK and UBK are just the same thing but they are "revised" at a point. However if you are getting a 11th gen drive, and you are not after e.g. extracting the firmware of a specific revision through some special method, it shouldn't matter anyway.)

so the list of current working pioneer drives is still the same as in the UHD flashing guide of 2026

Yeah although it might not necessarily cover all the drive that could work (especially when you count those can be crossflashed), the list wouldn't really change anymore, as the UHD support comes with the firmware and IIRC Pioneer never updated a firmware to give UHD support to a drive that didn't originally have it.

AFAIK the only time that it (temporarily) changed was when e.g. some more updated firmware "revoked" the LibreDrive support on the drives, but mike has eventually "caught up" with most if not all of them, as per the list here: viewtopic.php?p=79712#p79712. (In other words, if you are NOT after crossflashing and/or UHD ripping, OR are getting an 11th gen drive, you shouldn't need to worry that a drive come with a firmware that is "too new".)

P.S. I don't know for sure if Pioneer has ever stripped the UHD support from some firmware, but I never saw any concrete post stating that it did. (I saw only one person once claimed that a new firmware for 211UBK/EBK prevented a crossflashed 209/S09 from gaining the UHD support, but I suspect that it was just because at the time mike hasn't caught up with it yet.)

(Btw I was sort of wrong about Pioneer was lenient with the 11th gen. More like that generation was the one with the least variants, so probably they just didn't care enough to "differentiate"...)

[babayaga]

Well I'm not 100% sure but I think the bottom line is you should be fine with either a 211UBK or 211EBK, as AFAIK they share the exact same fimware.

(There's another "side story" with the 9th and 11th gen: there are two different "revisions" for each generation. I don't really know whether is like UBK being one revision and EBK being another, or if it's like EBK and UBK are just the same thing but they are "revised" at a point. However if you are getting a 11th gen drive, and you are not after e.g. extracting the firmware of a specific revision through some special method, it shouldn't matter anyway.)

so the list of current working pioneer drives is still the same as in the UHD flashing guide of 2026

Yeah although it might not necessarily cover all the drive that could work (especially when you count those can be crossflashed), the list wouldn't really change anymore, as the UHD support comes with the firmware and IIRC Pioneer never updated a firmware to give UHD support to a drive that didn't originally have it.

AFAIK the only time that it (temporarily) changed was when e.g. some more updated firmware "revoked" the LibreDrive support on the drives, but mike has eventually "caught up" with most if not all of them, as per the list here: viewtopic.php?p=79712#p79712. (In other words, if you are NOT after crossflashing and/or UHD ripping, or getting an 11th gen drive, you shouldn't need to worry that a drive come with a firmware that is "too new".)

P.S. I don't know for sure if Pioneer has ever stripped the UHD support from some firmware, but I never saw any concrete post stating that it did. (I saw only one person once claimed that a new firmware for 211UBK/EBK prevented a crossflashed 209/S09 from gaining the UHD support, but I suspect that it was just because at the time mike hasn't caught up with it yet.)

I see! The best deal I found was a Pioneer BDR-S11JX - I hope that drive firmware isn't too new, and that i can crossflash the drive if needed, my biggest use is ripping my BD/UHD collection, sent a message to bill and to see if he knew the Pioneer BDR-S11JX usually is flashable or not

[udma2]

Have a BDR-209 and looking to get 4K disc support going. Drive does BD-25/BD-50 perfectly, thanks!

Code: Select all

Drive Information
OS device name: \Device\CdRom0
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-209D
Revision: 1.34
Serial number: QHDLxxxxxxxx
Firmware date: 2016-04-25
Bus encryption flags: 13
Highest AACS version: 25

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS8600
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-209
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.34/ID61
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

[Billycar11]

sure email me that info and all others email me no need to post your info here just reach out to me directly
see below for email

[tomty89]

Shouldn't need to crossflash it for UHD since it's the most "premium" 11th gen model, and mike has apparently caught up with even its latest firmware (both "revisions"?) for LibreDrive:

PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S11JX-1.54-1A867E4C-8801ID72-20230123
PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S11JX-1.54-1D7AD494-8800ID72-20230208

(with which you can't crossflash / downgrade anyway unless maybe if you pay Billy Carr with a rumor-has-it-substantial amount of money)

[babayaga]

Shouldn't need to crossflash it for UHD since it's the most "premium" 11th gen model, and mike has apparently caught up with even its latest firmware (both "revisions"?) for LibreDrive:

PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S11JX-1.54-1A867E4C-8801ID72-20230123
PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S11JX-1.54-1D7AD494-8800ID72-20230208

(with which you can't crossflash / downgrade anyway unless maybe if you pay Billy Carr with a rumor-has-it-substantial amount of money)

One of the drives that i found is manufactured in 2024, so it's tempting to say it will have the latest firmware, but I guess that doesn't matter if it will work with UHD anyway So darn boring to order that drive, get it, and it wont rip dvd, bd or uhd Well, i guess the flashing is mainly for uhd, not bd or dvd, but still.

[tomty89]

To be frank, I myself would be somewhat worried that the drive is some kind of counterfeit (or some other model "re-labeled") with that kind of manufacturing date. Not that I have concrete information confirming that it would be the case though. Just a "hunch" / me being paranoid. (For the -X drives *at least* check that it has black casing with "honeycomb".)

[MartyMcNuts]

Shouldn't need to crossflash it for UHD since it's the most "premium" 11th gen model, and mike has apparently caught up with even its latest firmware (both "revisions"?) for LibreDrive:

PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S11JX-1.54-1A867E4C-8801ID72-20230123
PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S11JX-1.54-1D7AD494-8800ID72-20230208

(with which you can't crossflash / downgrade anyway unless maybe if you pay Billy Carr with a rumor-has-it-substantial amount of money)

One of the drives that i found is manufactured in 2024, so it's tempting to say it will have the latest firmware, but I guess that doesn't matter if it will work with UHD anyway So darn boring to order that drive, get it, and it wont rip dvd, bd or uhd Well, i guess the flashing is mainly for uhd, not bd or dvd, but still.

More than likely one of the fake drives from China. All of these Pioneer models ceased production in late 2023/early 2024 so any with a more recent date are most likely fake. It could still work though.

I've heard of many people having luck with them but also many that have received a totally bogus, fake drive that is not/cannot be made UHD compatible.

[babayaga]

Shouldn't need to crossflash it for UHD since it's the most "premium" 11th gen model, and mike has apparently caught up with even its latest firmware (both "revisions"?) for LibreDrive:

(with which you can't crossflash / downgrade anyway unless maybe if you pay Billy Carr with a rumor-has-it-substantial amount of money)

One of the drives that i found is manufactured in 2024, so it's tempting to say it will have the latest firmware, but I guess that doesn't matter if it will work with UHD anyway So darn boring to order that drive, get it, and it wont rip dvd, bd or uhd Well, i guess the flashing is mainly for uhd, not bd or dvd, but still.

More than likely one of the fake drives from China. All of these Pioneer models ceased production in late 2023/early 2024 so any with a more recent date are most likely fake. It could still work though.

I've heard of many people having luck with them but also many that have received a totally bogus, fake drive that is not/cannot be made UHD compatible.

Hehe, yea, I can spend one hundred dollar extra and get one safe from the US of course, but from reading the feedbacks on that actual item (same item sold many times), the people write that they have no issues with it, that it reads uhds just fine and so on, so i might just try, its only money