Pioneer BDR-212EBK UHD support

[liquidacid]

Hello,

long time MakeMKV user here (license must be now over 10 years old).

I'm currently using two 5.25 inch drives in my server to rip optical media. One is a LG drive, the other one is a Pioneer drive. I recently added the first UHD media to my collection and encountered some problems while ripping.

The LG drive rips the discs fine, but the Pioneer doesn't even detect the discs. Hence I rule out a problem with the media itself.

The drive was purchased here in Germany as a Pioneer BDR-212EBK. According to the Pioneer product page the drive is at least BDXL compatible. I'm aware that this doesn't automatically imply UHD capability. I'm not finding good conclusive information that either confirms this (that UHD should be supported) or denies this, so I'm asking here.

MakeMKV drive information:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr1
Manufacturer: PIONEER
Product: BD-RW BDR-212M
Revision: 1.02
Serial number: <REMOVED>
Firmware date: 2022-03-09
Bus encryption flags: 1B
Highest AACS version: 81

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS8F00
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-212T
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.02/ID56
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

No disc inserted

sdftool output:

$ makemkvcon f --drive=dev_21:1 --info
SDF.bin version: 0x0098

Drive Tool SDF present

Drive Specific SDF present

[Drive Specific SDF] Embedded Info Strings:
8000:LibreDrive Information

8013:Status
8105:Enabled

8001:Drive platform
:RS8F00

8015:Firmware name
:PIONEER BDR-212T

8002:Firmware type
8106:Original (unpatched)

8003:Firmware version
:1.02/ID56

8005:DVD all regions
8100:Yes

8006:BD raw data read
8100:Yes

8007:BD raw metadata read
8100:Yes

8009:Unrestricted read speed
8100:Yes


[Drive Specific SDF] Embedded Status Message:
8099:Using LibreDrive mode (v%1 id=%2)
:01.0
:DDCB943EDED5


Identification SDF present

[Identification SDF] Embedded Info Strings:
8000:LibreDrive Information

8013:Status
8102:Possible, not yet enabled

8001:Drive platform
:Pioneer RS8F00

8003:Firmware version
:ID56


[Identification SDF] Drive autodetect string:
pioneer:SAT :8F00:ID56: :PIONEER :BD-RW BDR-212M1.02: 22/03/09 :-

I know that Pioneer has a newer firmware (1.05) on their website. But according to information I found newer firmware is most likely removing LibreDrive functionality altogether without any way of bringing it back. So I'm not planning on going down that road at the moment.

With best wishes,
liquid

[dcoke22]

I don't know if your Pioneer needs to be or can be cross flashed to support UHD. However, the person to talk to on this forum about it is Billycar11. You can find his email address in his signature on posts here or over at his seller page: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17831

[Yethidran]

you are in luck buddy, because your pioneer drive firmware is before the "Dreaded firmware lock" done by the stupid brainless Pioneer Management.
get in touch with Billycar11 or Martymcnuts or Coopervid.
they can "Liberate" your Pioneer drive to be "LibreEnabled" to read and rip 4K uhd discs.

[liquidacid]

Thanks for the replies. I contacted Billy, but his tooling seems to be Windows-only. Which does not help here, since all my optical drives are connected to a Linux headless system.

Any other ideas? It seems strange to me that this whole stuff is Windows-only, in particular because sdftool operates flawlessly on native Linux.

[MartyMcNuts]

Thanks for the replies. I contacted Billy, but his tooling seems to be Windows-only. Which does not help here, since all my optical drives are connected to a Linux headless system.

Any other ideas? It seems strange to me that this whole stuff is Windows-only, in particular because sdftool operates flawlessly on native Linux.

Pioneer flashing tool is Windows only and has nothing to do with MakeMKV.

Just temporarily connect them to a Windows machine.

[liquidacid]

I got rid of my last Windows system like 10 years ago. So that really isn't an option.

Like I said, the drive is in a headless system. I.e. it has no display. I access the drives via iSCSI over local network. I would need to setup a Windows VM on this machine and passthrough the iSCSI target. Which I have no idea if that could even work. Or buy some USB enclosure for the drive and then deal with the all the trouble that comes with USB-SATA bridge chips.

That sounds like a lot of trouble with uncertain outcome. If this whole Pioneer firmware business is so Windows centric, then the lesson for me is: Don't buy a Pioneer device again.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their input.

[MartyMcNuts]

I got rid of my last Windows system like 10 years ago. So that really isn't an option.

Like I said, the drive is in a headless system. I.e. it has no display. I access the drives via iSCSI over local network. I would need to setup a Windows VM on this machine and passthrough the iSCSI target. Which I have no idea if that could even work. Or buy some USB enclosure for the drive and then deal with the all the trouble that comes with USB-SATA bridge chips.

That sounds like a lot of trouble with uncertain outcome. If this whole Pioneer firmware business is so Windows centric, then the lesson for me is: Don't buy a Pioneer device again.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their input.

That's because the majority of people still use Windows. The tool was made for Windows only.

Don't you have any friends/family that have a Windows PC or laptop?

[liquidacid]

No, most of the people here have moved away from Windows. In particular after the ridiculous HW requirements that Windows 11 has. I could probably find someone who still has a laptop with a Windows 8.1 installation. But then I again need an USB enclosure. And I'm not willing to buy additional stuff just for this.

Guess I'm going to ask on CDRInfo.pl for access to this BDRFlash utility (which works with Wine according to my sources).

[Coopervid]

It's the identical thing.

[flojo]

I flashed in VMWare just fine.

Download Windows 10 from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/softwar ... ndows10ISO

Download VMWare from here (you need a free account): https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/ ... tation+Pro

You can try Virtualbox instead of VMWare, but at the time I had a problem with passing the drive through.