Beginner friendly UHD Drive

[Lucaro]

Hey I`m new to this forum.
I thought about starting to Rip my own Blu Rays, but im a bit overwhelmed and confused on how to find a compatible UHD Drive. I`ve already read the Guide to Flashing but I`m still confused. Does someone has a recommendation on which Drive to buy which maybe works out of the box or is easily Flashable?

[Woodstock]

Drives are drives. They don't care who uses them. So your choice is mostly "What can I get without being an expert?"

Right now, the "best" UHD drive is a two-year-old Pioneer. Anything newer means getting firmware that locks you out of reading UHD disks unless you use "approved" software, which won't let you save what you read.

Second best is variations on drives sold under different brands (mainly Asus and LG), which can have problems reading really large (as in 3 layers) disks.

[Lucaro]

Would it be Possible to use a New Pioneer Drive and flashing it? Do I then need to look out for a special one?

[Woodstock]

If the Pioneer was manufactured after December 2022, no, not at this time. Pioneer screwed with the software to lock it out from ripping UHD.

Several of the people selling drives here have Pioneers manufactured prior to the cut-off on firmware, though.