www.makemkv.com

5*'s Purchased drive from BIlly and it works well with MakeMKV. Billy was helpful both pre and post sale. I plan to but at least one more drive from him.

SUMMARY
I just received my drive from Billy, which is my 2nd purchase from him over the last five years. As before, Billy is very fast and responsive. Once he received the payment via Zelle, I had a LibreDrive 4 days later. As usual, Billy delivers and the drive is a top-performer in my books.

Concerns
I was concerned about two things before purchasing the drive: what the make would be, and the interface. It turns out it's an LG BU40N drive, exactly as the drive I'm replacing, which was great to know because the LG BU40N has sustained high-speed reading.

Make of the Drive
It turns out it's an LG BU40N drive, exactly as the drive I'm replacing, which was great to know because the LG BU40N is one of the very few portable drives that can sustain high-speed reading over a long period of time. I've had great success with the BU40N drive, and from the forums, it seems to be one of the the easiest to work with. The drive ships with firmware 1.00, and while version 1.03 is available, I've never had any issues with 1.00, so I'm not concerned about upgrading the firmware.

USB Interface and Power
For a portable drive, the only way to get high speeds is to have good, solid, strong power supplied through the USB cable. I thought I was getting a USB 3.x type-A cable to a USB-C connector for the drive, but the connector into the drive is a micro-USB 2.0 connector, similar to what cell phones used to have prior to upgrading to USB-C. The provided cable had two USB-A merging into a single mini-USB, which meant that power to the drive would be supplied by two USB-A ports. Dell laptops in the early 2000's were notorious for under-powering their USB ports and would routinely require external devices to consume two USB-A ports to provide sufficient power for the device, so I was very concerned that the speed would be significantly reduced because of a lack of power even though I was using a desktop with an outstanding Dell monitor, which has a powerful USB hub. I didn't bother with the provided cable, but instead, used my own USB-A to micro-USB cable, and I'm not disappointed at all.

Test Drive
As soon as I connected the drive, I performed a test on a DVD that was very problematic for my old drive, which was encountering a significant number of media errors on this particular DVD, but the new drive flew right through with no issues, which meant that my old drive really was failing, as I suspected. The biggest surprise was that the sustained read speeds were always near the top read speed for the media, DVD, dual-layer DVD, Blu-ray, etc. I intentionally set the Windows registry to default to the fastest possible speed (0=99) knowing that MakeMKV would slow down if it encountered errors. But I was completely amazed because I've seen a sustained read speed of 15.5x while my old LG BU40N could only sustain about 5.5x. I'm super-thrilled at the distinct improvement. On side-by-side comparisons copying two DVDs simultaneously, the new drive always finished twice as fast as my old drive.

Purchasing this drive to replace my older LibreDrive was a fantastic investment, one I'm very glad I made. Thank you, Billy!

A man of his word, Mr. Carlson promptly shipped and provided the drive once the money was sent. He uses Zelle and Google pay, both which are the same as cash and offer no recourse if you are scammed by someone. Paypal and Venmo are safer but can be used by scammers to charge back to the vendor just to get free merch. But Mr. Carlson has a long history and I had no issues. Item arrived on time. For this size purchase it is fine.

The price is very fair and he makes very little per sale. It is not much more than Microcenter price and once you factor in the flashing fee if you buy your own it is close to the same. Worth doing.

I received the Pioneer BP60NB10 , ultra slim. Get the optional usb c cable from him. The unit ships from vendor with only the usb cable, so the single usb c cable is a lot more convenient. I ordered it and got a cable matters usb c to mini something that fit. Excellent brand I use for my networking job. He send one 3 feet long. A little too short for my use, so I then went on to Amazon and bought the 6 feet version for better routing with my rig.

I also own the $290 dollar PIONEER BDR-S13U-X Premium . So why would I buy a SECOND drive?? I rip old tv shows. Like Andromeda and Battle Star Galactica. Andromeda was 25 blue rays. And here is where it gets interesting. BOTH drives had 2 or 3 bluerays they could not rip. Bad sector this or that. Always towards the middle. Retrying 4 or 5 times changed nothing. BUT if i just moved it over to the other drive, it worked first time. This scenario played out in both directions, so no one drive was better than the other. I use ANYdvd to create the iso. I have dvdfab and makemkv registered but for just ISO making Anydvd is great.

Great service, speedy response and easy to work with. Excellent all around!!

Billy responded quickly and I got my drive within a week of reaching out. Works great for 4k as well! Highly recommend.

cappy2112 wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:20 pm

Hi,

I've only been using Plex for just under 2 years, and don't have as much experience ripping DVDs for use in Plex as most of you.

Before I found this forum, I had arbitrarily bought an Archgon USB drive from Amazon, which has been pretty successful ripping 98% of
all of the DVDs / BRs I own and/or borrowed from local libraries.

When I found this forum and that other drives were available, I ended up buying a
https://www.amazon.com/PIONEER-BDR-XS07 ... omSmile=1 from Billy Carlson.

I am very happy with this drive. It has been able to rip all of the discs which the Archgon could not (with only 1 exception).
I didn't know if the discs were damaged (even though they visibly looked good/clean) or the MakeMKV decryption failed.

When I tried ripping the Picard Season 2 DVD, I had tried DVDs from 2 different libraries, as well as 1 BluRay Disc.
Disc 3 always failed, so I gave up. After getting the Pioneer drive I tried again, it ripped with NO problem at all.

Additionally, the Pioneer drive rips slightly faster than the Archgon and is a bit more quiet.
The only thing missing from the Pioneer drive is an LED that would let me know when the ripping has completed, but
I can live without it.

All in All, I'm very happy with this purchase as well as the transaction with Billy Carlson.
I recommend him to others and would do future transactions with him as well.

Thanks for the review.

As of today I am now officially selling flashed and tested pioneer drives details and pricing is now in the first post

Purchased a Pioneer drive from Billy. He shipped it the next morning, arrived very quickly. Drive is new, with all manufacturer packaging. Tested it right away and I'm on my 10th disc (4k and Blu-ray)--works perfectly. Very cool.

--Darin

Are the cable came with the pioneer driver 3.0 or 2.0?

Motoxxx wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:03 pm

Are the cable came with the pioneer driver 3.0 or 2.0?

USB 3

Billycar11 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:54 pm

Motoxxx wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:03 pm

Are the cable came with the pioneer driver 3.0 or 2.0?

USB 3

Got your Pioneer XS07S in mail last. What write speed usually you get for ripping 4k movie? Max I got 4x

Motoxxx wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 17, 2023 1:07 am

Billycar11 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:54 pm

Motoxxx wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:03 pm

Are the cable came with the pioneer driver 3.0 or 2.0?

USB 3

Got your Pioneer XS07S in mail last. What write speed usually you get for ripping 4k movie? Max I got 4x

4x is max for pioneers see speed test in guide
it reads discs very well compared to other drives

Fast service and Billy was very helpful with the couple of questions I had. I've got the drive hooked up to a makemkv docker on unraid and it's *brilliant*, completely turn key solution for UHD rips.

Drive was quickly shipped out and worked perfectly. I'm running through my collection and have had no issues with any disc so far. I would strongly recommend getting one of these drives as it really was as simple as plug play.

Thank you Billy!
I bought a flashed Pioneer BDR-XS07S from Billy. Billy was a pleasure to work with and I actually received my drive a day sooner than expected.
I bought the discounted MakeMKV software. Although I've used MakeMKV for many years, I like to support the developers for all their hard work. I've used it to re-rip some of my old DVDs and Blu Rays, and a few new Blu Rays. I am pleased with everything so far. I don't have any 4K Blu Rays yet, but I expect the drive to work fine.

Thumbs up in buying drives from Billy, this being my 2nd one. My older LG BU40N drive started giving me power issues on both Mac and Windows for some reason, so had to get a replacement. Got the Pioneer drive and highly recommend it - it’s more expensive but worth it IMHO. Love the USB-C connection - recommend going C to C with the connection as it seems to perform better. I just wish Pioneer put a light on it to know when it’s running - really my only (minor) complaint. Very easy, quick and friendly transaction with Billy - shipped super fast and couldn’t be happier. Definitely my favorite drive! : )