What blu ray drive for 4k discs?

[alastc]

Hi everyone,

I've got an internal blu-ray drive (the standard PCS one), which I use for writing discs as a seprarate backup for my RAW pictures.

This drive doesn't read the newer 4k movie discs though, is there an internal drive out there that reads 4k discs and writes to any blu-ray type disc?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi everyone,

I've got an internal blu-ray drive (the standard PCS one), which I use for writing discs as a seprarate backup for my RAW pictures.

This drive doesn't read the newer 4k movie discs though, is there an internal drive out there that reads 4k discs and writes to any blu-ray type disc?

This is about the only one I can find that reads UHD Blurays and has decent write support, but it's pricey at £132:

Pioneer 16x Internal Blu Ray Writer with UHD Playback

Buy from Scan - Pioneer BDR-S12UHT 16x Blu Ray Writer with UHD Playback, Internal BD/DVD/CD Burner, M-Disc/BDXL Support, Retail

www.scan.co.uk

But supports writing BDXL discs which are the large 128Gb Bluray writable discs.

 

[alastc]

That looks good, do you happen to know if reading BDXL discs means that MakeMKV would read a 4k UHD disc?

 

[SpyderTracks]

That looks good, do you happen to know if reading BDXL discs means that MakeMKV would read a 4k UHD disc?

I'm not 100% sure, there's a decent article here that breaks down what all the different formats are:

What is BD-R, BD-RE, BD-XL and Ultra HD Blu-ray?

Even though most people still have CD and DVD burner drives in their computers, you've probably bought a movie that is in Blu-ray format. Due to the cost, you'll only see Blu-ray drives installed on custom PCs or on higher-end machines from companies like Dell or HP. If you like watching movies...

www.online-tech-tips.com

External storage is not my bag though, haven't used it for about 15 years.

 

[alastc]

Yea, there's a disconnect (or not an easy connection) between a BD-XL disk and a 4k UHD disc. Could be the same thing, but it's hard to tell.

Given the prices of discs, I'm happy burning picture backups to (relatively) cheap 25GB discs, it's good to have a non-magnetic backup. I have a 42Mpix camera, with my usage that's a disc or two per month.

It would be nice if the same drive could read 4k UHD discs. However, now I've worked out there's a difference, I think I need to work backwards from what MakeMKV would need, e.g. https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634

 

[alastc]

If anyone is interested, this is the drive I went for: https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1271398330?iid=264728850516
Apparently comes with firmware for reading UHD discs, and can still burn regular blu ray discs.

 

[ropeccool]

If anyone is interested, this is the drive I went for: https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1271398330?iid=264728850516
Apparently comes with firmware for reading UHD discs, and can still burn regular blu ray discs.

So whats the catch with it? Its half the price of the one suggested to you by SPYDERTRACKS so im thinking there must be some sort of reason why is significantly cheaper

 

[SpyderTracks]

So whats the catch with it? Its half the price of the one suggested to you by SPYDERTRACKS so im thinking there must be some sort of reason why is significantly cheaper

I'd be interested in how you got on too, it is good value if it does the above.

 

[alastc]

Just saw a notification, happy to report back: The one above didn't work for UHD disks.

I got in touch with the guy from this MakeMKV thread, and purchased one for just under £120. It is a LG BH16NS40 with custom firmware. Message me for an email address.

It's a good drive, I've ripped over 200 blu rays with it without issue, and it is a fair bit faster than the previous drive.

HOWEVER, although I can rip 4k disks, I haven't found a good process for compressing them. They can be 50-80GB in size, so compression really is a necessary. Running through Handbrake I was getting about 4 frames a second, compared to ~70 for a standard blu-ray. There are probably better tools than Handbrake for 4k/UHD sources, I haven't had time to investigate and experiment.

Thankfully almost all the 4k discs I've bought came with a standard blu-ray as well, so that's what I backup to plex. You can even rip both to disk, and use MKVToolsNix to transfer over the ATMOS soundtrack that you tend to get on the 4k version. So you have a good 1080p video with Dolby ATMOS soundtrack. I think my ears are better than my eyes ;-)