[BDR-S12XLT vs BDR-212EBK - what's the difference?]

1 minute ago, dbminter said:

Yes, the NS60 is not commercially available anymore.  Even though LG claims to still sell it, the only way to get them is to send in existing NS60's for replacements.  Which means you must buy the NS40.  I haven't had an NS40 is a while, but a fatal flaw in them that existed for a long time was though they claim to support writing BD-R/RE DL, they will fail to write properly 9 times out 10.  Still, the NS40 is the least worst of what is available out there.  ALL BD drives have some sort of fatal flaw, but the NS40's was only the one: DL BD media.

 

So, basically, the only thing I recommend is the NS40.  Unless you never plan on writing DVD+R DL, then go with the ASUS or if you never plan on writing 8x DVD+RW, the Pioneer 213 appears to "work" now.

the pioneer drive can write DVD+RW at lower speeds or other speeds, yes? the flaw with that drive might be the most manageable

[BDR-S12XLT vs BDR-212EBK - what's the difference?]

1 hour ago, dbminter said:

The 213 only got worse!  Pioneer did update the firmware to fix BD-R, CD-R, and DVD+R DL, where the 213 WAS working with 8x DVD+RW FINALLY after TEN years... Pioneer BROKE 8x DVD+RW AGAIN in the 213! 

what current market drives would you recommend these days? that i could flash the firmware to use as a mkv libredrive. the WH16NS60 you recommended is basically a mythical creature now. some crazy websites have it listed for $1k which is laughable

[BDR-S12XLT vs BDR-212EBK - what's the difference?]

On 10/7/2022 at 6:55 PM, dbminter said:

Well, THAT was certainly unexpected.  As equally unexpected as 8x DVD+RW apparently finally working, the 213 does NOT properly write to Verbatim BD-R!    They either fail to read on Verify or fail to finalize due to a "Positioning Error Detected by Read of Medium."  NEVER saw that before with any drive.

 

Once again, Pioneer proves it has NO idea what it's doing! 

 

thank you for posting all your experiences with this, and especially for all the testing you've done. I was getting ready to pull the trigger and order one of these drives from a seller on the makeMKV forum but now I'm going to be looking at trying to get my own LG drive and flashing the firmware myself. should be way cheaper anyway