Need advice on new drive

[mlynn]

Hi, I'm new here and I've just bought a Pioneer BDR-212EBK for £61. It's capable of BDXL but obviously not 4k and I bought it without realising that 4k required a different drive, I know I should have researched more and I rushed it a bit. Anyway, I can still send it back as I've only had it 3 days and not used it yet.

I just need some advice on which is the best one to get out of the UHD "friendly" drives. I'm mainly looking at the internal LG BH16NS55 and the ASUS BW-16D1HT as they are more affordable. I just don't really know what the pluses and minuses of them are. I've been reading posts here but it's a bit overwhelming trying to find what's relevant. Is one any faster than the other, more reliable, or more compatible with software etc? Or should I just stick with the Pioneer given that I wouldn't really be using too many 4k discs as it's mainly for data backups? I would still like to have the option of reading UHD discs though and don't mind paying the extra for it.

I'm now aware of the sleep bug but that's not a major concern if it only affects UHD discs. Are there any other negatives to these drives over the Pioneer? What do people here recommend?

Thanks for any advice.

[Coopervid]

Hi, I'm new here and I've just bought a Pioneer BDR-212EBK for £61. It's capable of BDXL but obviously not 4k and I bought it without realising that 4k required a different drive, I know I should have researched more and I rushed it a bit. Anyway, I can still send it back as I've only had it 3 days and not used it yet.

I just need some advice on which is the best one to get out of the UHD "friendly" drives. I'm mainly looking at the internal LG BH16NS55 and the ASUS BW-16D1HT as they are more affordable. I just don't really know what the pluses and minuses of them are. I've been reading posts here but it's a bit overwhelming trying to find what's relevant. Is one any faster than the other, more reliable, or more compatible with software etc? Or should I just stick with the Pioneer given that I wouldn't really be using too many 4k discs as it's mainly for data backups? I would still like to have the option of reading UHD discs though and don't mind paying the extra for it.

I'm now aware of the sleep bug but that's not a major concern if it only affects UHD discs. Are there any other negatives to these drives over the Pioneer? What do people here recommend?

Thanks for any advice.

If you want to burn 50GB discs you should keep the Pioneer since the ASUS / LG mess up at the layer break.

For reading UHDs either buy the ASUS or the LG- which one is more affordable in your country. Then you can even cross-flash these make an ASUS from and LG etc. I stayed most of the time with the ASUS 3.10 MK firmware but my impression is that flashing BH16NS60 firmware on any of those handles 3-layer discs(<= 100GB) better by reading in. The other firmwares have more trouble for the read-in process and need a lot of time while the BH16NS60 firmware has less.

Also: If you flash BH16NS60 to an BH16NS55 or ASUS the sleep bug is gone.

[mlynn]

Thanks. Is there any disadvantage to flashing the ASUS with BH16NS60, would it disable anything and would it still have the layer break problems you mentioned?

And out of curiosity, is there any advantage to a "UHD friendly" drive over an actual official one other than maybe price? I've read that official ones are actually faster.

[Billycar11]

Thanks. Is there any disadvantage to flashing the ASUS with BH16NS60, would it disable anything and would it still have the layer break problems you mentioned?

And out of curiosity, is there any advantage to a "UHD friendly" drive over an actual official one other than maybe price? I've read that official ones are actually faster.

All the LG and Asus desktop UHD/friendly drives are nearly the same + or - an aacs2 chip that's it.
You might lose the ability to burn on the Asus flashed to an LG because the cal data is different

[Coopervid]

Thanks. Is there any disadvantage to flashing the ASUS with BH16NS60, would it disable anything and would it still have the layer break problems you mentioned?

And out of curiosity, is there any advantage to a "UHD friendly" drive over an actual official one other than maybe price? I've read that official ones are actually faster.

All the LG and Asus desktop UHD/friendly drives are nearly the same + or - an aacs2 chip that's it.
You might lose the ability to burn on the Asus flashed to an LG because the cal data is different

I can confirm that flashing a LG to ASUS has no influence on the burning of discs. I can't tell if flashing ASUS to LG has an impact. But I doubt it. I know this has been reported by SamuriHL.

[Coopervid]

If there are any concerns flashing from one LG to another like LG16NS55 to LG16NS60 I can offer to do some quality tests regarding the burns. I can also offer quality tests of LGBH16NS55 flashed to ASUS but can not vice versa. I still doubt that flashing an ASUS to LG has an impact on the burning quality since it hasn`t any impact the other way.

[mlynn]

Thanks for the replies, it's useful. As data backups are more important to me, including potentially 50GB discs, I think I might just keep the Pioneer. I don't want to risk burning loads of coasters on DL discs, and don't really fancy the potential hassles the LG and ASUS might cause; if I've got it right, it's a gain with UHD reading on one hand but still a risk of losses when it comes to burning UHD and 50GB > on the other hand.

And thanks for offering to do quality tests Coopervid

I can always buy a UHD drive if and when I need one in the future.

Cheers.

[Coopervid]

Thanks for the replies, it's useful. As data backups are more important to me, including potentially 50GB discs, I think I might just keep the Pioneer. I don't want to risk burning loads of coasters on DL discs, and don't really fancy the potential hassles the LG and ASUS might cause; if I've got it right, it's a gain with UHD reading on one hand but still a risk of losses when it comes to burning UHD and 50GB > on the other hand.

And thanks for offering to do quality tests Coopervid

I can always buy a UHD drive if and when I need one in the future.

Cheers.

For 50GB burns use your Pioneer at 2x and use 50GB Verbatim Japan discs. Please also read through that thread in another forum:

https://forum.redfox.bz/threads/bd-50gb.80418/

[mlynn]

Thanks.

Ok, so I've read that thread, and from what I see, the layer break problem is mainly (only) with burning a large file that crosses over both layers right? And the LG (ASUS) drives are poor at that. So I would still be better off with the Pioneer even if I'm only backing up data files? Have I got that right?

One thing I would NEVER be using it for is burning a movie bigger than 25GB, not even 4GB. I was more interested in being able to read a 4k disc and backing up in a smaller format (mp4 etc), as well as backing up data to dual layer discs (including large files, maybe larger than 25GB).