Page 1 of 3

UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 9:19 am
by nicolaidenmark
Hi all,

I have a Pioneer BD-RW BDR-209D revision 1.34 which works great fore 1080P BDs.

However, as 4K disc releases are increasing in number, I was wondering if there's an inexpensive, easy way to get a drive that will do this?

Previously, I was told on this forum that my current drive cannot be made UHD Friendly?

I see there's a list of UHD friendly drives, however, most of them are internal and as I cannot fit an internal in my PC, I would have to buy an enclosure ( just like I did with the Pioneer.

The cost of Internal + enclosure adds up, so I was thinking, are there any external USB (preferably 3.x) that'll work?

The majority of the drives listed on this forum is hard to come by in Denmark but I found an external 4k labeled Verbatim:

Would this work?

https://www.verbatim-europe.co.uk/en/pr ... ter-43888/

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 8:02 pm
by DVD Maniac
My advice is to ditch backing up optically. It is unreliable and more expensive per GB. If you have a reasonably large collection backing up to HDD makes much more sense providing you triple your redundancy - high initial investment but pays you back in under 3 months with media costs in mind. If you want an external turn key solution try my shop at https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/uhdtechnologyservices. I ship to your country and provide full support.

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 10:09 am
by nicolaidenmark
DVD Maniac wrote:
Wed Nov 27, 2019 8:02 pm
My advice is to ditch backing up optically. It is unreliable and more expensive per GB. If you have a reasonably large collection backing up to HDD makes much more sense providing you triple your redundancy - high initial investment but pays you back in under 3 months with media costs in mind. If you want an external turn key solution try my shop at https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/uhdtechnologyservices. I ship to your country and provide full support.
I'm not sure I understand your post: I do backup from BD Disc to NAS HDD in Lossless MAKEMKV .mkv files. I'm not talking about copying discs to discs ;)

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:49 am
by pmhCH
nicolaidenmark wrote:
Wed Nov 27, 2019 9:19 am
Hi all,

I have a Pioneer BD-RW BDR-209D revision 1.34 which works great fore 1080P BDs.

However, as 4K disc releases are increasing in number, I was wondering if there's an inexpensive, easy way to get a drive that will do this?

Previously, I was told on this forum that my current drive cannot be made UHD Friendly?

I see there's a list of UHD friendly drives, however, most of them are internal and as I cannot fit an internal in my PC, I would have to buy an enclosure ( just like I did with the Pioneer.

The cost of Internal + enclosure adds up, so I was thinking, are there any external USB (preferably 3.x) that'll work?

The majority of the drives listed on this forum is hard to come by in Denmark but I found an external 4k labeled Verbatim:

Would this work?

https://www.verbatim-europe.co.uk/en/pr ... ter-43888/
I have exactly this drive and while it works perfectly with Blu Rays, UHDs are so far not recognised.

And although labeled "Verbatim" it is a Pioneer drive: "BD-RE PIONEER BD-RW BDR-UD04 1.11d"

I already sent in a dump of the firmware. So if you need a drive working now with UHDs, better go with the Asus.

Update: with the new 1.46 release MakeMKV starts to read an UHD but then says that a libre-compatible drive is needed...

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:54 pm
by mike admin
pmhCH wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:49 am
I already sent in a dump of the firmware. So if you need a drive working now with UHDs, better go with the Asus.
Update: with the new 1.46 release MakeMKV starts to read an UHD but then says that a libre-compatible drive is needed...
Do you get a "keep fingers crossed" status on the right pane? If yes, you might get a working drive in a foreseeable future...

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:56 pm
by Coopervid
mike admin wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:54 pm
pmhCH wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:49 am
I already sent in a dump of the firmware. So if you need a drive working now with UHDs, better go with the Asus.
Update: with the new 1.46 release MakeMKV starts to read an UHD but then says that a libre-compatible drive is needed...
Do you get a "keep fingers crossed" status on the right pane? If yes, you might get a working drive in a foreseeable future...
That's what I call a good sense of humour. Great!!!

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2019 1:24 pm
by nicolaidenmark
mike admin wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:54 pm
pmhCH wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:49 am
I already sent in a dump of the firmware. So if you need a drive working now with UHDs, better go with the Asus.
Update: with the new 1.46 release MakeMKV starts to read an UHD but then says that a libre-compatible drive is needed...
Do you get a "keep fingers crossed" status on the right pane? If yes, you might get a working drive in a foreseeable future...
That's what I get on my Pioneer BDR 209D. You mean there's a chance?

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2019 2:17 pm
by pmhCH
mike admin wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:54 pm
pmhCH wrote:
Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:49 am
I already sent in a dump of the firmware. So if you need a drive working now with UHDs, better go with the Asus.
Update: with the new 1.46 release MakeMKV starts to read an UHD but then says that a libre-compatible drive is needed...
Do you get a "keep fingers crossed" status on the right pane? If yes, you might get a working drive in a foreseeable future...
Indeed there's a "keep fingers crossed" - I do it all the time, so far no luck ;)

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:26 am
by nicolaidenmark
I just realized: I can't seem to find any info that my BDR-209D(BK) supports BD-XL? Isn't BDXL compatibility required for even the slightest chance of my drive becoming UHD Friendly in the future?

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:41 am
by MartyMcNuts
nicolaidenmark wrote:
Wed Nov 27, 2019 9:19 am
Hi all,

I have a Pioneer BD-RW BDR-209D revision 1.34 which works great fore 1080P BDs.

However, as 4K disc releases are increasing in number, I was wondering if there's an inexpensive, easy way to get a drive that will do this?

Previously, I was told on this forum that my current drive cannot be made UHD Friendly?

I see there's a list of UHD friendly drives, however, most of them are internal and as I cannot fit an internal in my PC, I would have to buy an enclosure ( just like I did with the Pioneer.

The cost of Internal + enclosure adds up, so I was thinking, are there any external USB (preferably 3.x) that'll work?

The majority of the drives listed on this forum is hard to come by in Denmark but I found an external 4k labeled Verbatim:

Would this work?

https://www.verbatim-europe.co.uk/en/pr ... ter-43888/
If you are looking for a plug'n'play external drive, you should consider the Buffalo BRUHD-PU3-BK or the Archgon MD-8107S-U3-UHD.

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:00 am
by nicolaidenmark
nicolaidenmark wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:26 am
I just realized: I can't seem to find any info that my BDR-209D(BK) supports BD-XL? Isn't BDXL compatibility required for even the slightest chance of my drive becoming UHD Friendly in the future?
No answer to this?

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:12 am
by Billycar11
nicolaidenmark wrote:
Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:00 am

No answer to this?
exactly what the libredrive info section shows maybe in the future

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2019 4:52 pm
by nicolaidenmark
So, my drive is BDXL compatibile?

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2019 7:54 pm
by st4evr
nicolaidenmark wrote:
Wed Dec 18, 2019 4:52 pm
So, my drive is BDXL compatibile?
"I can't seem to find any info that my BDR-209D(BK) supports BD-XL?"

Can't find info? A quick and simple Google search returns several sources on this. Example:

https://goughlui.com/2014/08/02/review- ... ay-writer/

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... JEQ4dUDCAo

In short, no BDXL support on that drive. Libredrive is NOT a magic pill or a "fix for all my problems" solution for UHD backup/ripping. Buy a proper UHD compatible drive from the guide to ensure compatibility now and in the future. Not all drives may be compatible for this and some never will be.

Or use one of these services to obtain a ready to go drive:

https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=20

Re: UHD Friendly / Official 4K

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:08 am
by Woodstock
BDXL support does not necessarily mean UHD is possible. There are two "flavors" of BDXL, and UHD uses the higher-density one that became available in late 2015.

There are a lot of old-version BDXL drives out there... I own some.