LibreDrive for Pioneer drives

[kuro2K20]

That's right ! ^^

However, which Pioneer model is natively compatible with UHD discs ?

Only those that include a letter "U" in their names...

This model : Pioneer BDR-S12UHT is good ?
But the price... OMG !!

[MartyMcNuts]

That's right ! ^^

However, which Pioneer model is natively compatible with UHD discs ?

Only those that include a letter "U" in their names...

This model : Pioneer BDR-S12UHT is good ?
But the price... OMG !!

Yes, it is good. I use one myself.

[goldenraf]

Hello, as Three14159, I am using the Japanese version : BDR-XD07J-UHD.
I am totally new at UHD ripping so please forgive my ignorance.
I just discovered that Pioneer drives may allow uhd ripping so I gave it a try but I keep getting a message saying the volume key is unknown for the disc.
Am I doing something wrong or maybe the drive is not yet supported ? My discs have been bought in France, I don't know if that makes a difference.
Thank you for your help.

[SamuriHL]

Follow the instructions here:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=24711

Your drive is working fine.

[asmcom]

Hi Everyone,

I had a bit time on my hands and decided I would run some comparisons on the new Hitachi drive models I have recently purchased. The 1st drive I tested was my new Verbatim USB 3.2 Ultra HD 4K Ultra Slim Drive vs the old faithful Hitachi LG-BU40N on firmware 1-03mk.



Conclusion: I am happy with my purchase of the Verbatim 43888 USB 3.2, Ultra HD Slim Drive. I will be using this new drive to burn all my disc media. I will be selling this model shortly on the MakeMKV website. Would I recommend the Pioneer BDR-UD04 to backup my 4K discs as my primary drive? I would have say no, however this drive could be a backup for difficult discs?
Great achievement and Congratulations to Mike Chen on this new achievement with the Pioneer Drives now being LibreDrive compatible. Another great milestone for Mike, which is one of many.

Update 1st April 2022: The more I use these Pioneer 4K UHD LibreDrive friendly drives, I am really impressed. The fact that they reads discs so quickly with no messing around, really impresses me.

You can hardly hear the drives as they are so silent in operation. I must say the desktop BDR-S12UHT is really impressive and looks nice in both Vantec Enclosures. The Verbatim is very high quality build and is a very stylish finish. I have backed up over 75 x BD100 discs, all with not a single problem between both the Pioneer drives. As SamuriHL said the following in a previous post "Since you're only backing up once who cares how long it takes" I agree with this as it really doesn't matter how long it takes to back up discs. The most important aspect of these drives is that they back up the discs without any read errors and do this reliablely every time with all your valuable discs. I must say, so far the Pioneer drives are ticking the boxes. I still think the Hitachi BU40N is a great wee drive.

Asmcom

[goldenraf]

Thank you for your help SamuriHL.
Something strange to me happenned this morning : I brought my laptop and the drive at the office and was about to try again to rip a disc to get the tgz file in order to send it to Mike.
But Makemkv ripped the disc ! I wonder if my home connection prevented me from accessing the hk, I will do some more testing this evening.
Anyway it is incredible to be able to use the drive without any modification to rip uhd discs. I guess prices will go up for these drives now, or maybe they will release a new firmware to lock them...
I regret I upgraded the firmware of my Pioneer LX500 to 1.16 as they removed the ability to play BDMV structure, where even the DV layer was ok.

[SamuriHL]

It's entirely possible something was blocking the connection to download the keys. Check DNS and if necessary try switching to a different DNS provider.

As for firmware, unless you have a VERY specific need to flash a new firmware, really the advice here is just don't. Newer is almost never better. And if the drive is working the way you want, then it's never better to flash a working drive. I've reverted all my LG drives to their respective 1.00 firmware and have absolutely no intention of flashing my Pio drive....like...ever. Once you've got LibreDrive working for a drive, leave it alone.

[kuro2K20]

Hi everybody ! ^^

I ended up buying the Pioneer BDR-S12UHT with a good price! ^^
I'm currently installing it...

Then I'm going to do some tests! ^^

I also bought another Hitachi-LG BH16NS55 that I will flash...

[CGooden]

I have a UHD DVD that I would like to rip but my drive does not detect the UHD DVD. The drive daqta from MakeMKV_log.txt is

SDF id v088: PIONEER_BD-RW___BDR-209D_1.50_RADL003639WL
Could someone please add this drive to the file so MakeMKV will work with my drive on UHD DVD. It does work on BluRay DVD's

Thank
Chuck Gooden

[Billycar11]

I have a UHD DVD that I would like to rip but my drive does not detect the UHD DVD. The drive daqta from MakeMKV_log.txt is

SDF id v088: PIONEER_BD-RW___BDR-209D_1.50_RADL003639WL
Could someone please add this drive to the file so MakeMKV will work with my drive on UHD DVD. It does work on BluRay DVD's

Thank
Chuck Gooden

See guide below only UHD pioneer drives do UHD for now that may change but not anytime soon yours is not a UHD drive

[gerard143]

great info here. I am about ready to pull the trigger on a pair of drives. Tossing the idea around between pioneer or going with some of the alternatives ASMCOM mentioned.

I'll strictly be ripping and could care less about burning. However, I want quality reads. I don't want to waste time with read errors. Sounds like the pioneers do a good job at read quality.

So it's either between a pioneer BDR-s12uht, BDR--212ubk or from asmcom's post.... "H16NS55 Cross-Flashed to WH16NS60 1-02mk and the Hitachi BU40N wins hands down in my opinion when it comes to reading and backing up 4K discs."


I can say I want to put these drives in a rack mount chassis whichever way I go so being able to mount whatever I go with is important too.

The BDR-S12UHT sure is a pretty looking drive. Availability here in the US is not good on them however. The few you can find are really pricey.

hmmm the choices in life. what to do. what to do.

[FrankfurtDave]

Juast wanted to drop a line to say thanks to Asmcom for the great service. I opted for the USB 3.0 External Vantec DX2 Enclosure 5.25" (Black) with the Pioneer BDR-S12UHT.

Drive came promptly (within 6 days and that was out to Germany), and securely, with great packaging and documention (both included and by email following the order). The drive was flashed with firmware 1-01 and so far I have had no mis-reads or disc errors using it with makemkv.

I have to say it is absolute joy to use as it is so quiet and fast compared to my older LG drive that was not UHD friendly.

drive3.jpg (725.37 KiB) Viewed 11036 times

Picture does not really do it justice and please ignore the dust they are not scratches or marks

[asmcom]

Juast wanted to drop a line to say thanks to Asmcom for the great service. I opted for the USB 3.0 External Vantec DX2 Enclosure 5.25" (Black) with the Pioneer BDR-S12UHT.

Drive came promptly (within 6 days and that was out to Germany), and securely, with great packaging and documention (both included and by email following the order). The drive was flashed with firmware 1-01 and so far I have had no mis-reads or disc errors using it with makemkv.

I have to say it is absolute joy to use as it is so quiet and fast compared to my older LG drive that was not UHD friendly.

drive3.jpg

Picture does not really do it justice and please ignore the dust they are not scratches or marks

Hello FrankfurtDave,

I am delighted to hear that you are happy with your new Vantec DX2 enclosue with a new Pioneer BDR-S12UHT fitted to the enclosure. This drive is absolutely amazing and as one of our true veterans on this forum"TeddyRaspin" stated on an earlier post (Pioneer BDR-S12UHT (or 212UBK) can read even "stones". It is silent and able to perfectly read/write any UHD 4K Blu-Ray, expecially triple or quad layer, while LG sometimes fails)

I would totally agree with what Teddy says about the Pioneer drive. This drive is really amazing it is truly on another level compared to the Hitachi / ASUS drives, the drive is truly awesome, I am so happy with my own upgrade and it has not missed a beat or failed on any disc. Please see the picture below of the Vantec DX2 with the Pioneer BDR-S12UHT that really does the product justice. When I was researching this drive I was speaking to my Hitachi contact for Europe and he told me that Pioneer had put a considerable amount of investment and research into this particular model. He told me that the product had a longer product life with improved drive software & firmware and that Pioneer were very happy with the finished product.

The following is taken from the website "To reduce deterioration of reading performance of disc due to dust and cigarette smoke with high dustproof performance and improved drive software. With this, the S12UHT has a prolonged life about twice of conventional models." Please see screenshot below from Hitachi website. I thought this was just promotional buff and did not take any heed. But now that I have had this drive for 4 weeks I can see exactly what the Hitachi Techinal Manager meant.







Kind Regards

Asmcom

[TeddyRaspin]

Today afternoon, I've tried to rip a 4K Blu-Ray with my BDR-S12UHT.

I've opened, as I always do, MakeMKV and inserted film inside my unit.
After detecting disc it is dead. Tray doesn't open anymore (I had to use
an attach in order to eject disc), it seems like is not power connected.
I've tried everything, changing molex power cable as well as the SATA one,
it seems really dead.

I've contacted seller on Amazon and I hope it will change my unit as it is under
warranty. But I'd like to understand what is happened to this drive.

[asmcom]

Today afternoon, I've tried to rip a 4K Blu-Ray with my BDR-S12UHT.

I've opened, as I always do, MakeMKV and inserted film inside my unit.
After detecting disc it is dead. Tray doesn't open anymore (I had to use
an attach in order to eject disc), it seems like is not power connected.
I've tried everything, changing molex power cable as well as the SATA one,
it seems really dead.

I've contacted seller on Amazon and I hope it will change my unit as it is under
warranty. But I'd like to understand what is happened to this drive.

Hello TeddyRaspin,

This is unusual from what I gather from talking to technical support for Europe.

The warranty is good with Pioneer so I will exchange any faulty drives in the 1st 12 months. Should have Vantec DX2 enclosure for you shortly. Hope all is good. I to, would like to know what happened to your drive. Hopefully the seller might tell you.

Asmcom