Pioneer Electronics BDR-X13U-S USB 3.2 Gen1 External Blu-Ray BD/DVD/CD Writer, Black

The new product I ordered was actually used. The cables weren’t bound with wire, the plastic cap wasn’t on the electric plug, all the rubber feet (both for the bottom and sides) were already installed (and not in the suggested places), the protective plastic on the front was already removed, and the firmware was 2 months newer than the manufacturing date. Somebody probably unwittingly broke libredrive with the update and returned it, which then Pioneer resold again as new.

This review is for the product not the seller.I had a very reliable LightScribe blue ray burner that also did up to BD-R DL and I wanted an upgrade so I can burn BD-R XL 100GB/128GB discs. Initial experience is great, burned a Verbatim 100GB BD-R XL M-Disc 6x in about an hour, and it also passed file verification when done. Case is plastic and drive is very quite but, some minor sound resonance can be hear if plastic case is a bit loose or touching something other than flat on it's rubber feet. I bought the external unit for future proofing and being able to move it from system to system. I do own a case that has 5.25" bays if I need to mount it internally. That is the great thing about this external unit, that if you take it apart you can remove drive and mount it internally in a computer case if you want to. It is powered by SATA data connection and SATA power connector too. Case has two back screws and to remove you just slide the two plastic halves of lids front to back to separate, the rest is easy. I chose not to installed any software or additional drivers and worked out of the box in Windows 10 with BurnAware no problems. Shipped firmware is v1.01.Update: I can confirm drive is LibreDrive enabled in MakeMKV with above listed firmware and I was able to backup personal copies of 4K UHD Blu-ray disks as well as regular Blu-ray movies.

I bought this drive solely to take advantage of the Kaleidescape Disc to Digital program. I first tried another (cheaper) drive Kaleidescape recommended, the Buffalo Mediastation, and it crapped out on me within just a few days of use.The drive works just fine for my intended purpose.Please note your Strato will need to be on and in the Disc to Digital mode (blinking Kaleidescape logo) before this player's drive door will operate. Also, since this drive supports UHD, I recommend you try reading your UHD discs too for the Kaleidescape library, as I found some of them are actually supported despite Kaleidescape officially saying otherwise.

The drive is over-priced, the power cable is awkward, Drive Utility is still effectively Windows-only, and LibreDrive compatibility is broken at the moment…But the drive itself is excellent. It is significantly faster than my beloved BDR-XD05, and much better at (accurately) reading through nicks and scratches.It's the next best thing to an old-fashioned internal drive.