Newbie suggestions for hardware

[Absolve6780]

Hi all,

I have never ripped before and saw this video by Jeff Geerling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ8ijmy3qPo) and it motivated me to do the same except the NAS part. I have seen the UHD post with the drive list and I was about to get the one Jeff mentions in the video (Pioneer BDR-XD07UHD 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Drive), but it seems a bit too pricey for me currently. I would like some assistance on hardware choice for what I would like to do:

- Rip 4k DVDs
- Rip DVDs of shows
- RIP Blueray disks

That's pretty much my plan currently. I did see the flashing hardware part in a thread as well. I hope it is similar to flashing an OS, and isn't as complicated as it seems. I will be keeping the raw files on a Hard drive. I don't currently plan on using handbrake, but I might in the long run if needed. Any suggestions for a disc reader for based on what I had mentioned above? Thanks in advance!!

P.S. I was curious as to why the drive he chose currently costs 270 on Amazon, while some others are 110 -150.

[dcoke22]

As you mentioned, the Flashing Guide has the recommended list of drives. If you're going to rip UHDs (aka 4k DVDs), you need one of those. Any of those drives will also work for regular blu-rays and DVDs.

The drives on that list can be divided into two categories; Pioneer drives that generally do not need to have their firmware flashed and just work out of the box & everything else that does need to have the firmware flashed to enable UHD ripping.

If you're on Windows, a user on this forum, MartyMcNuts, has made a handy tool, the SDFTool Flasher, that makes it pretty simple to flash a drive. If you're on a Mac or Linux, you'll have to use the command line.

The flashing guide also has a list of sellers on this forum who will sell you a flashed and tested drive that should just work if you don't want to mess with it.

If you have any intentions to burn data onto an optical disc, the Pioneer drives are held in high regard. All the other drives are not very good at burning.

Some of the sellers on this forum (who have hundreds of drives go through their hands every year) have mentioned that currently, in this messed up supply chain world, the LG BU40N and the Pioneers have a low defect rate. The other drives have a higher defect rate. That doesn't mean that if you buy a Pioneer you're guaranteed it won't have problems or that if you buy an ASUS drive that it will be broken; but it is just what they've noticed as a trend.

In my experience, no single drive will be perfect. I have 3 different optical drives. On the rare occasion when a disc won't rip in my 'main' drive, I try the disc in one of my other drives and it almost always works.

Finally, unless your movie & TV show collection is small, you will run out of hard drive space. As a rule of thumb, a 2 hour blu-ray movie is about 30GB. That same movie as a 4K UHD is about 60 GB. As a DVD, figure 5 GB for a 2 hour movie, but it can add up for TV shows. For example, I have all 4 seasons of Knight Rider (1982) on DVD and those rips total 170GB of space.
I'm not saying you have to transcode your rips. In fact, I keep all my rips (and I also transcode them). But the cost of storage for all this has easily exceeded the cost of optical drives for me.

[Absolve6780]

I appreciate the link to the SDFTool! I did not see that while I was browsing the forum. They have a lot of data on the flashing page, so I will definitely have to do more research on my end for it. I was interested in the BP60NB10, as it seems to be in my price range. I might end up going with it. In your experience, any cases of drive bricking? Like where it doesn't work after flashing. Or any other beginner mistakes?

Also, thank you so much for your response!! I am new to this process and I don't want to spend more than I need to or mess up anything.

[dcoke22]

It has been my observation that most of the time, drives are bricked when someone takes their existing drive (from 10 years ago), doesn't verify the service code or the platform and then flashes it. They usually have the wrong platform and end up in trouble. They've managed to somehow not read or understand the 5 items under the giant red letters that say "STOP READ BEFORE FLASHING" at the top of the flashing guide. Buying a new drive, you shouldn't have any trouble and the relevant info is easy to verify before you flash.

The flashing guide is information dense, but the info in there is vetted and correct. Just go slow and make sure you understand what you're doing before you do it and you'll be fine.

Side note, the SDFTool is using MakeMKV under the covers, so that has to be installed before it'll work.

[Absolve6780]

ah ok sounds good. I will follow the steps mentioned. Thanks for all your help! Wish me luck!

[bluedanes]

QQ and feels a good place to ask. If I don’t currently have any UHD blu-rays do I need to flash my drive?

[Woodstock]

If you have no UHD disks to worry about, you do not need to make your drive UHD-compatible. But... if you eventually get a UHD disk and have forgotten to update your drive, you MAY have to have an unpleasant memory.

[Zulith]

Thank you for the helpful thread, I have been looking at that same drive already for a month or so and I hadn't even seen the video in the OP. I just watched it and now I'm even more sold on that particular drive. I am now looking for the most economical way to get one.