All Pioneer drives will be LibreDrive supported

[VA1DER]

Pioneer have destroyed their own market with their anti-LibreDrive firmware changes, so I doubt they've changed their minds now!

Pioneer wasn't operating in a vacuum - the firmware change wasn't a decision that was wholly theirs. They need to license from the BDA, which has more members that are content producers or content support than they have members which are drive manufacturers. Even LG/HLDS drives have encrypted firmware. No, that mandate came from the BDA.

I'm sure Pioneer would have loved to be more LibreDrive friendly - they know what side of the Blu-Ray their burns are buttered on. The more I think of it, the more I suspect there is some level of support for this LibreDrive announcement from Pioneer at some level of under-the-table-ness.

[MrPenguin]

Even LG/HLDS drives have encrypted firmware.

Of course the Movie Industry was involved, and yet LG is still in the drive business but Pioneer is not.

Pioneer destroyed their own market, but LG didn't. Same Movie Industry .

[Artefakt]

Then the Pioneer BDR - XS07UHD that I bought by mistake and has the damned firmware 1.03 would also work? That would be so incredible.......

[Amigaman]

Yes. But all currently existing Pioneer drives will soon be able to run LibreDrive, including those drives whose firmware people unwittingly upgraded .

I guess the real point is that it might now be worth investing in a new Pioneer drive, while stocks last...

makes me feel all warm inside knowing the £375.15 i just paid for the BDR-X13E-X External isn’t a total loss lol and yesterday I bought a BDR-XD08TG just because its usb c and I haven’t got one

maybe somebody should start a thread for the most outrageous price paid for a pioneer drive on ebay

[MrPenguin]

and yesterday I bought a BDR-XD08TG just because its usb c and I haven’t got one

I suspect that drive will need to be cross-flashed to support UHD.

[BrianDW]

Just to get this all straight. I just ordered this (it is on the MAKEMKV FORUM list)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FG ... YH3S&psc=1

Am I to understand that in the near future I will be able to rip UHD Blu-rays with it via MAKEMKV? Will I need to flash it?
Thanks for any replies.

[MrPenguin]

Am I to understand that in the near future I will be able to rip UHD Blu-rays with it via MAKEMKV? Will I need to flash it?

[A]ll Pioneer drives will be supported as LibreDrive drives in a relatively near future. ... Custom firmware flash with sdftool will be required.

I would say "yes" and "yes".

[smolpawel]

This is really good timing. I was actually researching drives to buy for the past 2 months because I am new to Blu-Ray ripping. Everyone said to buy LG because they are still flashable, but both LG and rebranded Verbaitim drives I tried ordering got stuck in limbo without going back into stock. I canceled both of them and just decided to buy a Pioneer since people say that the hardware is more reliable, and I would wait until the firmware is flashable.

Now that I got the drive today I came over to research more information and found this thread. I'm glad that Pioneer drives can be flashed soon, but also glad that I got the model I got when I did since it seems like they won't make them anymore.

MakeMKV says the firmware revision of my BD-RW BDR-XD08U is 1.02, which is a flashable version already from what I read on other threads if I remember correctly?

[ThatOutlaw573]

I bought the Pioneer BDR-XS08MB-S off ebay NEW from japan a couple months ago. Very happy I did with the Good news and the Bad news!

[dfhsff8]

Amazing news!!

Presumably these will be paid for firmware files and won’t be available to DIY crowd?

[MrPenguin]

MakeMKV says the firmware revision of my BD-RW BDR-XD08U is 1.02, which is a flashable version already from what I read on other threads if I remember correctly?

Firmware dated 2022-12 or later is not currently LibreDrive-compatible. AFAIK the most recent LibreDrive-compatible firmware for XD08U is 1.01.

[jacksans]

Wait, so does this mean that the Pioneer drives with the 1.05 firmware will be able to work? I mostly ask this since a few weeks ago I picked up a Pioneer BDR S13U-X (comes up as a S13J-X in MakeMKV for some reason) that said it wasn't supported and the forums claimed it wasn't happening for it to work yet. So if this is true and it will be supported, then great I didn't waste money on it though I did get it for a great price and can use it for something else if this is still the case. But if it will be supported then I am glad to hear this.

[SamuriHL]

That is what the announcement by Mike is promising, yes.

[blind-s33r]

This is great new in light of pioneer quitting the market, I do have a question though, on amazon I see a newer variant of the BDR-XS07UHD with a usb c port in lieu of a standard usb 3 micro port, will this be also easily flashable or should I grab one of the older versions of the BDR-XS07UHD?

[MrPenguin]

This is great new in light of pioneer quitting the market, I do have a question though, on amazon I see a newer variant of the BDR-XS07UHD with a usb c port in lieu of a standard usb 3 micro port, will this be also easily flashable or should I grab one of the older versions of the BDR-XS07UHD?

Mike has said that all Pioneers are going to be supported, so I would assume that does include the one you're seeing on Amazon.