Question Need Help Choosing a 4K Blu-ray Optical Drive

[jealousy91]

This thread is in response to this one

Question - What's a Good External 4K UHD Blu-Ray Optical Drive?

I'm looking for a good external 4K UHD Blu-ray drive for my laptop so that I can rip 4K Blu-rays onto it.

forums.anandtech.com

After searching different make/models, I was able to narrow my choices down to these two 4K Blu-ray drives

Archgon MD-8107-U3YC-UHDB-S
LG BP60NB10

Since the specs for both are identical, what it just comes down to now is the features. The LG supports BDXL-R/BDXL-RE while the Archgon has "plug and play",‧which means no driver software is required, which can make setup easier due to DRM.

 

[OlyAR15]

All blu ray drives are plug and play. Windows already has the drivers for them. However, that has nothing to do with drm, nor does it allow you to watch UHD blu rays on your pc. Those are two different things.

 

[jealousy91]

All blu ray drives are plug and play. Windows already has the drivers for them. However, that has nothing to do with drm, nor does it allow you to watch UHD blu rays on your pc. Those are two different things.

So if I were to go with the LG, how would I be able to watch a UHD Blu-ray?

 

[OlyAR15]

Playing 4k blu-rays on a computer is not fun. You can do it the "official" way, using PowerDVD, but it has a host of very restrictive hardware requirements. Or you can use MakeMKV + VLC + Java, but it can be flaky at times. Or you can rip the blu ray to disc with MakeMKV. It would require a firmware flash on the drive to get MakeMKV to be able to rip the 4k disc, most likely. There is a FAQ on their forum. You can also buy pre-flashed drives, which is what I did.

In either case, you really want a good HDR monitor in order to take advantage of the discs. And keep in mind that Windows doesn't handle Dolby Vision, so you are stuck with basic HDR. If you just want to watch 4k blu rays, it's simpler to just buy a 4k player like the Panasonic DP-UP820K and hook it up to your 4k tv.

 

[jealousy91]

Last question, is BDXL supported by all UHD BD drives or is it just the ones that have it listed?

 

[OlyAR15]

I'd imagine that if the drive supported BDXL, it would advertise it. I don't think it's a standard feature. However, I have to admit that I don't use my drive to write discs. I haven't written an optical disc in decades. I use mine exclusively to rip my UHD movies to my NAS in order to watch them on my HTPC hooked up to my OLED tv.

 

[jealousy91]

I'd imagine that if the drive supported BDXL, it would advertise it. I don't think it's a standard feature.

Then I'll be going with the LG BP60NB10.