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Subject: DriveBrowser - Pioneer BD Drive Firmware Database + Community Project.


Hi everyone,

Fellow BD-ROM nerd here. I've been doing deep research on Pioneer BD drives and want to share something with the community — and more importantly, invite you to help build something together!

The idea:
A shared, community-maintained Pioneer firmware database where anyone can look up their drive, see which firmware to flash for UHD support, find safe crossflash targets, and contribute their own drive data. Think of it as the definitive Pioneer BD firmware reference — built by us, for us.
Love it! That's the real pitch — community building! Here's a revised version:

Subject: DriveBrowser - Pioneer BD Drive Firmware Database + Community Project

Hi everyone,

Fellow BD-ROM nerd here. I've been doing deep research on Pioneer BD drives and want to share something with the community — and more importantly, invite you to help build something together!

The idea:
A shared, community-maintained Pioneer firmware database where anyone can look up their drive, see which firmware to flash for UHD support, find safe crossflash targets, and contribute their own drive data. Think of it as the definitive Pioneer BD firmware reference — built by us, for us.

DriveBrowser is the tool to make this happen. It's a graphical database browser that connects to a shared cloud database. When YOU add or update a drive entry, everyone sees it immediately.

There are hundreds of Pioneer firmware variants across dozens of drive families — no single person can document them all. But together we can!

What DriveBrowser does:

Browse 365+ Pioneer BD firmware entries
See crossflash compatibility groups — which firmware can I flash on my drive?
Filter by UHD capable, LibreDrive, post-cutoff status
Shows kernel ID, platform, date, checksum for every entry
Add/edit/delete entries — your contributions go live instantly for everyone
Works on Windows natively and Linux via WINE (confirmed by Sayaka — thanks!)

Compile it yourself:

Windows (MSVC):

cl drivebrowser_win32.c /Fe:drivebrowser.exe /utf-8 ^
user32.lib gdi32.lib comctl32.lib comdlg32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib winhttp.lib

Linux (GTK3):

sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev
gcc drivebrowser_linux.c -o drivebrowser \
$(pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-3.0) -lcurl -lm

The crew:
A big thank you to the people already contributing to this project — MrPenguin for deep firmware analysis, cxplay for an incredible 1.4GB firmware archive, Sayaka for firmware hunting and WINE testing, and Coppervid for tireless support and testing. You guys are amazing!

This is just the beginning. More tools are coming — but first we need the best Pioneer firmware database in the community. Source code available on request, public GitHub coming very soon!
Both source files are ready. For the compiled binaries:

Windows — compile on your machine:

cl drivebrowser_win32.c /Fe:drivebrowser_win32.exe /utf-8 ^
user32.lib gdi32.lib comctl32.lib comdlg32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib winhttp.lib

Linux — compile in WSL Debian:

gcc drivebrowser_linux.c -o drivebrowser_linux \
$(pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-3.0) -lcurl -lm

Then upload both .exe and Linux binary somewhere — Google Drive, GitHub releases, or attach to the MakeMKV post directly.

Also include drives.json and compatibility.json so it works offline too if Supabase is unavailable!

Ready to post when you have the binaries compiled!

PS: We do not store the firmware files on the server, but anything else that they are - are there!

Good disclaimer to add at the end of the post! Something like:

Note: We do not store or distribute firmware files — those remain Pioneer's intellectual property. DriveBrowser only stores metadata about firmware versions (model names, checksums, dates, platform IDs, kernel IDs) to help you identify and verify firmware files you already have. The actual firmware files must be obtained from Pioneer's official website or other legitimate sources

You can download the software here! https://mega.nz/folder/19UmlDjS#fJsJUHjiJR1wK_Kn_znIfQ
if you hate it fine, if you love it, please give us a message
Who's in?

Regards,
cPix / Razor 1911

That protects the project legally and sets the right expectations! The checksums are useful precisely because they let you verify files you've found are authentic without us hosting the files themselves.

The community is ready. The tools are ready. Let's build the best Pioneer BD firmware resource on the internet!

Also, for WINE users (and possibly Windows users as well, I haven't tested this program on Windows yet - could you please tell me whether the following is the intended behavior on Windows as well, babayaga ?) : when saving the database, it may seem like the program is frozen and the computer may refuse to respond to certain commands (such as the Meta key on your keyboard). Just wait for a bit, eventually the database should be saved and things should go back to normal.

The native Linux version does not seem to have that issue, but admittedly I am not sure whether there is a "save whole database" feature on the Linux version, or if your changes get uploaded one by one.

Sayaka wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2026 4:49 pm Also, for WINE users (and possibly Windows users as well, I haven't tested this program on Windows yet - could you please tell me whether the following is the intended behavior on Windows as well, babayaga ?) : when saving the database, it may seem like the program is frozen and the computer may refuse to respond to certain commands (such as the Meta key on your keyboard). Just wait for a bit, eventually the database should be saved and things should go back to normal.

The native Linux version does not seem to have that issue, but admittedly I am not sure whether there is a "save whole database" feature on the Linux version, or if your changes get uploaded one by one.

I haven't noticed it, but im sure it's when its connected to the sql database, i should add a wrapper for it, then it would be solved, thanks for letting me know