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DennisOlof wrote: Sat Jan 17, 2026 8:05 pm Hi MartyMcNuts.

In case you don't know there seems to be plenty of 5.25 BDR-UD04 and BDR-UD03 for sale on Ebay, most are China. I think you can patch these drives and sell them as is.

Or if you want, find good a good external USB3 5.25 optical slim case. Hard to know what case is good as it depends on what USB3 chip they use.

I think the same can be said for LG. But as you say that Verbatim drive is probably out of production for now, or if they release a new batch it will be LG drives only.

nicholfd wrote: Sat Jan 17, 2026 11:03 pm

DennisOlof wrote: Sat Jan 17, 2026 8:05 pm Hi MartyMcNuts.

In case you don't know there seems to be plenty of 5.25 BDR-UD04 and BDR-UD03 for sale on Ebay, most are China. I think you can patch these drives and sell them as is.

Or if you want, find good a good external USB3 5.25 optical slim case. Hard to know what case is good as it depends on what USB3 chip they use.

I think the same can be said for LG. But as you say that Verbatim drive is probably out of production for now, or if they release a new batch it will be LG drives only.

5.25" drives are desktop drives, designed to fit into a PC style case & do not fit in slim USB cases. Slim cases are designed for laptop style drives (which are not 5 1/4") - two completely different things.

Verbatim does not manufacture optical drives. They brand & sell drives that are OEM'd by LG & previously Pioneer (before the stopped). I'm not sure current production status of Verbatim branded drives is known.

Thanks,
Frank

DennisOlof wrote: Sun Jan 18, 2026 9:27 am Opps. I was of course talking about the optical slim drives.

But now I thought about something, I wonder if the BDR-UD03 and BDR-UD04 they have for sale on Ebay could be fake drives ? They could just put a sticker on it that is a copy, sell it like a Pioneer but a different brand. And also the could use fake pictures as well.

Is LG is shutting down optical manufacturing just like Pioneer ?

DennisOlof wrote: Mon Jan 19, 2026 7:36 pm Are you sure about this ? So they shut down production In October of 2025 ?

Ok, so are they out forever or is it just that they do not have a production run at the moment ?

Is there any manufacturer left at all ?

You are right about them drives are probably fake. At the moment it seems that the only option left is Asus BW-16D1H-U, there are units out there with the Pioneer BDR-212T that are genuine. But who knows for how long, I am going to buy one of these and hope it has genuine Pioneer drive in it. I just need to find a place where they sell older stock of these drives.