WTB - PC Blu-ray UHD drive for use with MakeMKV

O

Orddie

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Looking for a drive to start ripping UHD Blu-rays. Im good with internal or external.

Heat
 
You got a budget you're looking to be around? I have about ~20 different drives here at the house that I've converted over to UHD (LibreDrive), budget would help me know what I try and offer you (ASUS, LG vs Pioneer, Internal or slim drive).
 
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cybrnook said:
You got a budget you're looking to be around? I have about ~20 different drives here at the house that I've converted over to UHD (LibreDrive), budget would help me know what I try and offer you (ASUS, LG vs Pioneer, Internal or slim drive).
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I'd be interested in one, too. Not sure about my budget, yet. Need to look at UHD Blu-rays some more.
 
El_Capitan said:
I'd be interested in one, too. Not sure about my budget, yet. Need to look at UHD Blu-rays some more.
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Sure! Not to pollute his WTB thread, but reach out to me if you're in the market. In a nutshell optical drive manf's ceased production back in 2025, so whatever inventory is out there now is it.... For what's on the market today (new), you have some Buffalo options, they have a 5.25 in an enclosure (BRXL16U3) or a slim drive (BRXLPUS6U3), both are UHD capable but you need to flash the firmware to unlock it. The slims are typically LG BU40N drives and the larger 5.25 variant can be either Pioneer or LG. Pioneer is the drive of choice, but the custom firmware is somewhat gatelocked. You can buy it for $40 per drive in the MakeMKV forums, or work with me as I already have mine flashed.

Asus also has a drive that was in stock not too long ago, the BW-16D1X-U which also typically comes with a pioneer.

All of mine are ready to go, just FYI......
 
Baenwort said:
Seems like I need to finally update my BD drive to UHD before it can't be done.

Going by how fast this went I'm guessing this is a scalpers market?
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There is a market for sure. Just take a look at the MakeMKV forums marketplace section or eBay, people are asking upwards of $1000+ for certain drives in there with the average being around $350. If you're specifically in the market for a 4K UHD drive to use with LibreDrive firmware (or OmniDrive, which is LG only) it's not impossible to find drives out there. I gave specific models above you can look for that typically come with drives that can be flashed to UHD. As well, Amazon and Ali have chineseium models that have a good chance of having the BU40N drives, it's there if you put the work in and then go find the firmware and tools to flash. However, if you land a pioneer drive, LibreDrive mode normally works out of the box for standard blurays. But if you want UHD then it needs to be crossflashed, and the tool to do that isn't readily available on the market. There are two users in the MakeMKV forums that are selling that "as a service" for $40 a drive, which is kind of high but that's their hustle so good on them. Just don't wait too long to pickup your drive as it's getting harder and harder to land them as the already made drives are drying up.
 
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Wish we could just buy MKV equiv downloads. Charge me $50 each, don't care, i hate ripping takes forever.
 
longblock454 said:
That appears to be DRMed/proprietary.
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That's what you get when you want someone to do it for you - they protect their work

It's also better than UHD quality in bitrate/some other factors as they get the studio masters or mezzanine or something to make their versions
 
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enzolt said:
Then rip your own content
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I currently do, but that's not going to be an option for much longer, plus the MakeMKV author has been on hiatus with no explanation, might be drying up fast.

Soon we're likely to have no option.
 
longblock454 said:
I currently do, but that's not going to be an option for much longer, plus the MakeMKV author has been on hiatus with no explanation, might be drying up fast.

Soon we're likely to have no option.
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I'm not sure there is really any other changes need to be done on an application level though...

All the changes needed moving forward, are based on the keys.db file
 
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