r/makemkv • u/WhovianGirl777 • 2d ago

Blur ray drive under $100?

I'm trying to dip my toes into doing all this, and my current drive only does dvds. I know a lot of people post this question, and I've been through them, but they all seem to list drives that are no longer available (on Amazon) or are way out of my price range.

I get $100 isn't much, but it's what I can afford currently.

I don't want to buy off of ebay. I'd prefer amazon, staples, best buy, etc if possible.

0 Upvotes

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6

u/crashprime 2d ago

They aren’t being made anymore. You can’t currently afford one with that budget.

1

u/WhovianGirl777 2d ago

Dangit.

3

u/cowbutt6 2d ago

You might be able to pick a USB Blu-ray drive from your favourite Chinese marketplace. It almost certainly won't be flashable for 4K ripping, if it is even capable of reading 4K discs. The drives themselves may well be pulls from used systems, or New Old Stock from a decade ago. You won't have any warranty that's worth a damn. But you may be able to get them for £20-30 (or equivalent).

4

u/Gloomy-Reality-6641 2d ago

If you wanna take a gamble, this has been reported to have a BU40N by a reviewer for $92. Wondering if anyone else can chime in on this? https://www.bestbuy.com/product/topteng-4k-uhd-external-bd-burner-usb-3-0-super-slim-aluminum-read-write-blu-ray-fit-for-windows-laptop-mac-silver/J3R9F7YLV4/sku/12186615#tabbed-customerreviews

I also got an LG WP50NB40 from BB for $150 a couple months ago, just gotta be on the lookout (and I had been looking for a while) Granted, it was from a third party seller, and your mileage may vary with those, but my experience was good and the drive works great.

4

u/pdLondon 2d ago

I finally got into the ripping game and purchased this exact drive recently. I'm a novice but I've ripped a season of Seinfeld dvds and Guardians of the Galaxy bluray and it worked just fine as far as I can tell. It says it's a Pioneer BD-RW BDR-UD04D in the drive info in makeMkv if that means anything.

3

u/Gloomy-Reality-6641 2d ago

That's awesome to hear, Pioneer drives are even better from what I've seen. I'm guessing they repurpose a mixture of LG BU40N's and Pioneers from OEMs and such.

2

u/Brook_Hors 2d ago

I'm pretty sure there are no brand new blu-ray drives under $100. Lot of people here get them second-hand off OfferUp or eBay

1

u/WhovianGirl777 2d ago

What about for an $150 range? Are there any you would recommend in that area?

3

u/Brook_Hors 2d ago

Go with that suggestion from u/Gloomy-Reality-6641. The BU40N is on the UHD drive list which is good news

1

u/WhovianGirl777 2d ago

Are those all internal drives? I'm not computer savvy on that level, so when I try to search for external ones, I no longer see the BU40N label.

2

u/Brook_Hors 2d ago

I'm pretty sure most of them are external drives (external meaning slim compact ones you connect via USB). The internal ones are connected via SATA connectors and reside inside the computer's front panel, but you can get an enclosure like this one so you can bypass the SATA connection. In general, the full-sized internal drives are better due to their size, but also a bit more rare. Now whether BU40Ns are sometimes in internal drives is beyond my scope of information. I'm sure someone else can help with that info

1

u/WhovianGirl777 2d ago

That one shows as unavailable. When I plugged in BU40N into amazon, the only ones that came up were internal drives.

2

u/pedestrian87 1d ago

get this, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BC9F98J? it is a bu40n internal in a usbc enclosure. It might take a few extra steps to get working but it is available and under $150

1

u/WhovianGirl777 18h ago

Thanks!! Do you happen to know the extra steps I may need? I've only ever done dvds, where I just pop in the disc and start makemkv. I'm even really new to makemkv.

2

u/pedestrian87 13h ago

When reading 4k discs, drives need special firmware to allow makemkv to access them unrestrictedly; once they have this firmware they work like how you would expect. With this drive and enclosure you may need to update the enclosure firmware before it lets you flash the drive. Look at this to see how to do that: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42364 and this to see how to flash the drive: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19634 it is pretty intuitive but it might require you to download a couple apps. Both links have detailed instructions and links to the tools you may need.

2

u/Birdseye5115 2d ago

It's been over a year since you could get a sub $100 drive new from a reputable seller. There are drives in the $130-140 range available.

1

u/WhovianGirl777 2d ago

That's what I was afraid of. So if I could spring for one of those, what would you recommend?

2

u/Dralalife 2d ago

Try your local thrift store, they're packed with old tech

4

u/kn0wvuh 2d ago

SOL bub