Blu-ray Drive Questions & Recommendations

[TheL1GHTSiDE]

I'm looking for a Blu-ray drive and enclosure that I could use with my new PC to rip blu-rays. I found the thread that recommended drives and enclosures, I'll probably get one of the vantec enclosures but the drives are all UHD. Currently I'm ripping mostly DVDs and some blu-rays, I don't have any UHD blu-rays which means I don't have a need for an UHD Drive. I've been reading about LibreDrive and I'd like a drive that is compatible if it's beneficial when ripping DVDs and 1080p blu-rays. Thank you for your help ahead of time!

1. What blu-ray drives would you recommend near or under $100 US? (newegg, amazon, B&H, etc.)
2. Is LibreDrive only necessary for UHD drives?
3. I know firmware versions are very important for LibreDrive support, is it possible to downgrade firmware?

UHD Thread: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634

[Billycar11]

if you have no future use for UHD and you are sure you will never want it

sata
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDR-212V ... r=8-1&th=1

usb
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... riter.html

the 212 can be flashed professionally to do UHD just email me for that but with a USB case it would be over $100

[TheL1GHTSiDE]

I saw the drives you had for sale, just couldn't see myself spending close to $300 for pre-flashed drive + USB enclosure. This is assuming a new drive wouldn't be able to be downgraded. I would prefer to spend under $200 total.

It's not that I will never want UHD just that it's more than I would like to spend right now. I would consider the Pioneer BDR-2213 if it could be flashed later $120 amazon. How much would flashing a 212 cost?

[Billycar11]

I saw the drives you had for sale, just couldn't see myself spending close to $300 for pre-flashed drive + USB enclosure. This is assuming a new drive wouldn't be able to be downgraded. I would prefer to spend under $200 total.

It's not that I will never want UHD just that it's more than I would like to spend right now. I would consider the Pioneer BDR-2213 if it could be flashed later $120 amazon. How much would flashing a 212 cost?

2213 cant be flashed later it will have new fw same as the xd08 cant be flashed
the 212 can its $25 for the flash
dont bother with the lg/asus drives

[NotaNumber]

The Pioneer BDR-212V is a 212 drive with firmware by VinPower Digital and is optimized for disc duplication. At the moment the latest firmware version available on the VinPower Digital website is v1.02 with an internal date of June 21, 2022 and can be cross-flashed to support LibreDrive and UHD discs. Until VinPower incorporates Pioneer's firmware code the prevents LibreDrive from working and cross-flashing the 212V is you best bet for buying a brand new Pioneer drive that can be cross-flashed.

You can buy some other Pioneer drive one from various online vendors and hope it has a version of firmware that can be cross-flashed though the likelihood of that gets lesser as time goes.

You can buy a pre-flashed drive from one of the resellers in your region (for regional compatibility)

Refer to the following threads:
viewtopic.php?p=146549
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=33192

[wyzxvnv]

Guys, I saw somewhere here on the forum that BDR-212DBK has a plastic lens and high rate of failure. How 212V?

[MartyMcNuts]

Guys, I saw somewhere here on the forum that BDR-212DBK has a plastic lens and high rate of failure. How 212V?

Same drive as far as I am aware. Just different firmware.

[Coopervid]

Guys, I saw somewhere here on the forum that BDR-212DBK has a plastic lens and high rate of failure. How 212V?

The rate of failure only applies if a cross-flashed drive is used to burn XL (100GB) BD-Rs.

[NotaNumber]

I'm guessing if you want to burn BDXL you need to start off with a nnnUxx drive with a more powerful laser and accurate head mechanism.

The 212DBK and 212V do not natively support BDXL according to the spec sheets.

[Coopervid]

Burning BD discs is so much yesterday. First - burning discs is much more expensive than playing from hard dsik. Second - disc quality especially for discs >=50 GB has gone south. Third: Only one player can play all three layers of a BD-R, only a few 2 of them (<= 66GB). So don't burn and the cross-flashed drive just perform perfectly.

[MartyMcNuts]

Burning BD discs is so much yesterday. First - burning discs is much more expensive than playing from hard dsik. Second - disc quality especially for discs >=50 GB has gone south. Third: Only one player can play all three layers of a BD-R, only a few 2 of them (<= 66GB). So don't burn and the cross-flashed drive just perform perfectly.

So yesterday, Coop? I would have thought decades ago!! I haven't written a BD disc since 2008!

[NotaNumber]

This is my first Blu-ray burner so I've never burned a BD yet. It's been a year or two since I've burned and DVDs. I still burn an occasional audio CD or boot recovery CD but that's it.

If you catch them on sale you can get enterprise level 16-20 TB HDDs for $260 USD or less. If you spin them up and run them for a bit every few months and run a maintenance program like SpinRite once or twice a year they should last many decades.