UHD Drive from Amazon?

[WillyMk]

Is there a reliable UHD drive I can buy today from Amazon in the US that can work with MakeMkv? If so, which one should I get.

To be clear, I'm not interested in a drive from a forum user. I would like to buy one from Amazon.

[Woodstock]

Buying from Amazon will not get you a "UHD-capable" drive directly, without after-market help.

Pioneer drives will not be "downgradable" to remove the blocks against general UHD reading, but non-Pioneer drives can have their firmware replaced to enable UHD reading.

[WillyMk]

So a non pioneer drive such as LG Electronics WH16NS40 should be something I can change the firmware on and make usable?

[Woodstock]

Yes. Any current drive out there will refuse to read UHD disks, except under certain conditions. Non-Pioneer drives can have their firmware updated to remove that restriction.

That said, the Pioneer drives are reportedly better at reading UHD disks than the LG/Asus drives, especially 3-layer disks. You just need to find one with firmware older than December 2022, which you are unlikely to do at Amazon nowadays. Some of the third-party vendors you have excluded have access to non-US sources, and can obtain drives with the older (working) firmware.

[WillyMk]

Yes.

OK thanks. It's unfortunate these optical formats are so error prone. But if the drive fails to read discs that it should be able to I'll just return it.