Best External Blu Ray Drive

[mikejs78]

I'm looking for recommendations on a good, reliable, fast external Blu Ray drive that does not have riplock. Any recommendations?

[Woodstock]

So, do you want it to be USB-powered, or are you looking for something in an internal drive that is stuck in a case with a separate power supply?

I ask because "fast" and the USB-powered units seems to be conflicting ideas. The USB units are essentially laptop drives in an enclosure, and small size/low power are the design criteria.

I'm testing an inexpensive LG USB-powered unit, BP50NB40, which is "adequate". On a USB 3 port (it's a USB 2 drive), I've seen 4x speeds on BD rips. But it draws enough current to require two fully-powered USB 2 ports or a USB 3 port to run at full speed, so hitting its claimed top speed might cause problems. I'm testing it on a $100 "wintel" computer (10cm square, 3cm high) as a low-power ripping system, where its performance actually exceeds what the computer can do, because the computer doesn't have gigabit networking. Weird seeing the network saturated to 100% like that...

The internal-drives-in-a-case can actually be less expensive for better performance. But they will have a separate power supply, limiting portability.

[mikejs78]

An external power supply is fine. No need to be portable, just external. I just don't have an extra enclosure in my desktop to put an internal one in.

[Woodstock]

If you buy the enclosure separately, you can choose any drive you want, really. I like LGs, others here prefer Pioneer, there are some Sony and Samsung advocates. In my experience, none of these brands have riplock, although Pioneer likes to put their drives into "quiet mode" by default, which limits rip speed until you turn it off.

If you have USB3 ports on your machine, definitely go for a USB3 capable enclosure (or complete drive). If you don't, it's probably a good idea to go USB3 for the future, anyway.

[User18]

I'm also interested in this thread because my USB-powered Samsung TSST SE-506CB/RSBD is hit-and-miss with blu ray rips using MakeMKV. I run into about a 20% failure rate, meaning 1 in 5 discs display UNCORRECTABLE ERROR several times and fail. I've made sure they're clean, but so far, if any disc fails once, it will never succeed.

Some examples of failed rips:

[*]Gangs of New York
[*]The Wind Rises
[*]Cast Away
[*]Valkyrie

Obviously if there's a drive recommendation to improve my success rate, I'm all ears.

[Burrito78]

I had the Samsung SE-506CB/RSWDE but it was always slow (sometimes up to 3 hours for one Blu-ray) and it died on me after 1.5 years without warning signs.

I replaced it with the new LG BE16NU50.AUAE10B 16x External Blu-ray DVD Writer "Retail" and i could not be happier. The drive is bulky, big, heavy and a little noisy but it rips with up to 8x (mostly 5-7.5x) and the Blu-ray is done in 20-30 minutes. Highly recommended!

[brellyn2]

I'm also interested in this thread because my USB-powered Samsung TSST SE-506CB/RSBD is hit-and-miss with blu ray rips using MakeMKV. I run into about a 20% failure rate, meaning 1 in 5 discs display UNCORRECTABLE ERROR several times and fail. I've made sure they're clean, but so far, if any disc fails once, it will never succeed.

Some examples of failed rips:

[*]Gangs of New York
[*]The Wind Rises
[*]Cast Away
[*]Valkyrie

Obviously if there's a drive recommendation to improve my success rate, I'm all ears.

I doubt it's the drive. I've ripped all of those titles on an externally mounted USB 2.0 Pioneer BDR-209M with no problems whatsoever (I also have an internally mounted BDR-209D). Send the disks back to Netflix/Redbox and get another copy. Usually that will solve the problem. Cleaning the disk actually is a worthwhile endeavor. First wet the disk and use a regular damp paper towel and a tiny dot of Dawn liquid and scrub forcefully. dry and then use Eyeglass cleaner and lint free cloth. It's been roughly 70% success rate for me.

[BigTulsa]

I have recently purchased a Pioneer BDR-XD05 that is powered via USB only. However...it's a USB 3.0 drive and I have it connected to the USB 3.0 port on my pc. I've ripped about 10 BR sofar since having this and have had zero problems with it.

I would suggest however that you make sure you plug it in to a 3.0 port, as the power requirements of USB 3.0 are probably enough to meet the power requirements of a BR.

From what I can tell, it doesn't have riplock, although I had to download a utility to change the power setting from quiet to performance because in quiet mode, it was taking nearly 2 hours to backup. I'm averaging ripping discs to 30gb mkv files in about 25 to 30 minutes each now with the new setting.

[dgmelvin]

I have had Pioneer BDR-XD05B for about 6 months and it is the most reliable external drive I have ever used. I have ripped about 200 DVD, Blu Ray and CD discs with it and it has worked without fail. It comes with a USB 3.0 plug, but if all you have is 2.0 there is a second port that can be plugged into a second 2.0 port to provide sufficient power.

I cannot say anything bad about this drive.

[rbphelan]

I have had Pioneer BDR-XD05B for about 6 months and it is the most reliable external drive I have ever used. I have ripped about 200 DVD, Blu Ray and CD discs with it and it has worked without fail. It comes with a USB 3.0 plug, but if all you have is 2.0 there is a second port that can be plugged into a second 2.0 port to provide sufficient power.

I cannot say anything bad about this drive.

Another vote for the Pioneer.

[outwar6010]

Apparently my pioneer has rip lock and so do many other blu ray drives. Can anyone recommend a drive without riplock?

[trumpet205]

Apparently my pioneer has rip lock and so do many other blu ray drives. Can anyone recommend a drive without riplock?

It is not a rip lock. It is simply quiet mode.

Go to Pioneer website and download appropriate drive utility to disable the quiet mode.

[Meister_Proper]

I have an Asus BW-12S1S-U and I ripped about 70 BDs without a single problem. I also burned a lot of BDs with it and it never failed me.
It has USB 3.0 and comes with a solid stand.

Strange fact: It can write BDs faster than it can read.

[brellyn]

Go to Pioneer website and download appropriate drive utility to disable the quiet mode.

Unfortunately, Pioneer does not have a utility that works with the BDR209x drives. I have a 209D and a 209M

[BigTulsa]

Go to Pioneer website and download appropriate drive utility to disable the quiet mode.

Unfortunately, Pioneer does not have a utility that works with the BDR209x drives. I have a 209D and a 209M

Yeah, the external and internal drives likely have different firmwares, as the 209 from what I can tell is an internal SATA drive.