2019 Pioneer BDR-212UBK 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray computer drive (TOP OF THE LINE)

[HDTV1080P]

For the year 2019 Pioneer just updated their website and released the new top of the line 2019 Pioneer BDR-212UBK 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive. The Pioneer BDR-212UBK has a list price of $160 and currently is only for sale directly from Pioneer on their website (at the time of this post no other website has this new drive in stock). This new 2019 Pioneer BDR-212UBK drive replaces the 2017 Pioneer BDR-211UBK. This Pioneer BDR-212UBK computer drive supports 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback (special hard to find SGX motherboard/CPU is required for native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback), supports Blu-ray discs including BDXL 128GB, M-disc, DVD discs, and audio CD’s.

This new Pioneer BDR-212UBK spec sheet officially mentions for the very first time support for M-disc Blu-ray and DVD media. Which means that Pioneer officially supports M-disc technology which is designed to literally last up to 1,000+ years. According to the spec sheet the only advantage of the 2019 Pioneer BDR-212UBK when compared to the 2017 Pioneer BDR-211UBK is that the newer model officially supports M-Disc technology and comes bundled with newer software.


https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/P...ves/BDR-212UBK

[HDTV1080P]

This is real good news. Pioneer has officially just came out with 7 new optical Blu-ray drives for the United States market. Maybe it had something to do with the Sound United Deal merger not being approved. Sound United Deal to Acquire Onkyo & Pioneer Is Dead


If one checks the Pioneer website there is a new desktop 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive available, also many new portable drives (The portable Pioneer BDR-XS07UHD is Pioneers very first portable 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive for the USA market and it offers USB 3.1 interface technology). Pioneer is now officially supporting M-Disc technology in their spec sheet.


https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/P...omputer+Drives

[HDTV1080P]

The front face plate of the out of production BDR-211UBK and new BDR-212UBK looks exactly the same and perhaps maybe the new drive might use the exact same firmware (but that would need to be verified).

[HDTV1080P]

Even though the Pioneer BDR-212UBK drive officially supports M-Disc technology according to the specs, for some reason Pioneer decided not to place the M-Disc logo on the drives faceplate (LG is big on placing the M-Disc logo on the drives faceplate). Perhaps with the Ultra HD Blu-ray logo and the BDXL logo on the faceplate already, adding a M-Disc logo would have made the drive faceplate have a too crowed look to it.

[pab1219]

Would this work with iMac as a external 4K player?

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by pab1219

Would this work with iMac as a external 4K player?

One can purchase a external optical drive enclosure for desktop optical drives, however the problem is even if one connects it to a MAC there is no native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray software for a MAC plus no Apple computer has SGX security technology which is a BDA requirement to play native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray's. So even if one was running a Windows 10 emulator on a MAC, only standard Blu-ray, DVD, and audio CD's would play since the MAC motherboards do not have SGX technology. 99% of consumers with high-end Intel based motherboards cannot even play native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs since the SGX technology is not placed on X299 and X99 motherboards and no AMD motherboards.

[HDTV1080P]

New Egg website has the 2019 Pioneer BDR-212UBK for a list price of $139.99.

[BijouMan]

Are any of you willing to download a program called Nero DiscSpeed? Make sure it's the last version (7.0.2.100.) If so, post a screenshot of the graphs with a BD-66 and a BD-100 disc and see if the ScanDisc function works. I am thinking of getting a drive eventually and would like to know if I can use it to check if a new disc has a pressing defect before I go to watch it for the first time.

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

One can purchase a external optical drive enclosure for desktop optical drives, however the problem is even if one connects it to a MAC there is no native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray software for a MAC plus no Apple computer has SGX security technology which is a BDA requirement to play native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray's. So even if one was running a Windows 10 emulator on a MAC, only standard Blu-ray, DVD, and audio CD's would play since the MAC motherboards do not have SGX technology. 99% of consumers with high-end Intel based motherboards cannot even play native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs since the SGX technology is not placed on X299 and X99 motherboards and no AMD motherboards.

For a possible future method of playing Ultra HD Blu-ray discs on Mac computers, see my post on this thread.

[BijouMan]

Can one of you post a sound clip of your drive burning a BD-R 25 at 16x speed?

[PouringHankie]

When my drive has a Blu-ray disc in it, it make 2 types of sound. One is a loud, low deep hum and the second is a louder, high-pitched sound. I don't like it.

Even when it's not burning anything but the drive is simply starting to play a Blu-ray disc, it makes the high-pitched sound. And, it's pretty loud.

I know that all drives are make noise but this is distinctly louder than that.

When it plays DVDs, it doesn't make these sounds but the regular sounds that drives make. I can totally deal with this but the sound when Blu-ray discs are in the drive are pretty annoying.

Does this happen to any of you, guys?

My case doesn't screw in the drive so I'm wondering if I should take steps and do it myself.

Originally Posted by BijouMan

Can one of you post a sound clip of your drive burning a BD-R 25 at 16x speed?

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by PouringHankie

When my drive has a Blu-ray disc in it, it make 2 types of sound. One is a loud, low deep hum and the second is a louder, high-pitched sound. I don't like it.

Even when it's not burning anything but the drive is simply starting to play a Blu-ray disc, it makes the high-pitched sound. And, it's pretty loud.

I know that all drives are make noise but this is distinctly louder than that.

When it plays DVDs, it doesn't make these sounds but the regular sounds that drives make. I can totally deal with this but the sound when Blu-ray discs are in the drive are pretty annoying.

Does this happen to any of you, guys?

My case doesn't screw in the drive so I'm wondering if I should take steps and do it myself.

Welcome to the Blu-ray forum!

Pioneer's Blu-ray drives have much more insulation than company "L's" drives from what I can tell, and as far as I am aware, their drives limit the read speed to 2x CLV (4000 rpm max) for BD-25 and BD-50 and 3.4x (Default Transfer Rate) or 4x (High Transfer Rate zone) CLV (5000 rpm max) for BD-66 and BD-100 when the drive detects AACS encryption. These are the same speeds that a typical standalone Ultra HD Blu-ray player spins the disc at. The drive also limits the DVD read speed to 2x CLV (~2800/3000 rpm max (DVD-5/DVD-9)) when CSS encryption is detected.

[MrRom92]

I recently ordered one of these drives but have yet to receive it. I can’t even really take advantage of the 4K playback as I’m building an AMD system, but maybe in the future there will be some way to handle that without an Intel board. Official or otherwise. Really I just wanted another reliable CD ripping drive to compliment my WH16NS60, but from a totally different manufacturer. There’s really only LG and Pioneer, so, slim pickings.