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I have a BW-16D1X-U External 16X Blu-ray Writer with a pioneer BDR-209MBK inside. The firmware is as follows:

Drive Information
OS device name: I:
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: BW-16D1X-U
Revision: E113
Firmware date: 2020-07-21
Bus encryption flags: 1B
Highest AACS version: 82

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS8F00
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-212T
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: E113/ID76

I use this drive for making BD-R backups and occasionally for ripping. I also have a few Ritek DVD M-disc's that I'd like to burn.

While the 209MBK is a solid burner, I found out that it doesn't list the M-disc DVD as a supported media type . For context, M-Disc Blu-rays are writable by virtually any blu-ray writer, but an M-disc DVD needs a specialized writing strategy that is only available on certain dvd and blu-ray drives, mostly LG and ASUS drives. Most pioneer's don't appear to have support for them.

However, since my drive has a firmware named BDR-212T, and BDR-212 drives like the BDR-212UBK are compatible with M-disc DVD's (MID: MILLENIA001), does that mean my BDR-209MBK has the same write strategies as a BDR-212 drive, and is therefore able to write to M-disc DVD's properly?

The box the drive came in does reference M-disc DVD's in the max write speed's section as "DVD+R(SL, M-disc) 4x", but I'm wondering if this might be referring to the internal ASUS drive (ASUS BW-16D1HT) that sometimes ships with this enclosure, instead of the pioneer. There is also a disclaimer at the bottom saying "*product specifications are subject to change".

Thanks for any help, as the information is very scant on this niche medium.

your drive is a 212
for some reason asus rebranded it as a 209
it likely does support the dvd m disc but if you want to be 100% sure we can flash your drive to a s12 and it will also do 4K UHD discs then if you want it to

Billycar11 wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 1:30 am your drive is a 212
for some reason asus rebranded it as a 209

When I opened the enclosure, it clearly had it labelled as BDR-209MBK, MFD. September 2024. Are you saying that it uses the exact same hardware/firmware as a BDR-212, but is labelled as 209? Do you know this because of the platform module being RS8F00?

Thank you.

opticalsupremacy wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 5:58 am

Billycar11 wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 1:30 am your drive is a 212
for some reason asus rebranded it as a 209

When I opened the enclosure, it clearly had it labelled as BDR-209MBK, MFD. September 2024. Are you saying that it uses the exact same hardware/firmware as a BDR-212, but is labelled as 209? Do you know this because of the platform module being RS8F00?

Thank you.

yes 8f00 is 212 platform and it says 212 in the fw
please lets do this through email as the forum has been really slow for days

Thank you, that's excellent news! The drive is more capable than I thought. I will hold off on your flashing service for now, but will email if I need it.