Looking for Recommendations: External 4K BluRay Drive (USB)

[BradleyMacDonald]

Description of problem or question:
Not really a hand brake question - but I figure a lot of you would have suggestions on this topic. I am looking for a good, reliable, 4K bluray drive (External) that I can plug into my Laptop (preferably via USB?) to use HandBrake on with some new 4K movies I have gotten. I currently have an external bluray drive - but I do not believe it will do anything with 4K movies??

I have a laptop with Windows 10, 17" screen and the proper resolution for 4K (UHD). I have the storage space for the movies. I think what I need is an external drive (preferably on the small physical size) - that will read 4K movies. I figure then - with either Handbrake or MakeMKV - I can rip the movies to disk. Yes - I will probably lose some quality - but I am noticing that DVDs and regular blurays movies are being replaced by the 4K versions.

So - any thoughts as to what others are using at this point?
How well does Handbrake deal with the 4K discs?
Any comments or suggestions are welcome

Bradley


Steps to reproduce the problem (If Applicable):
N/A



HandBrake version (e.g., 1.0.0):
Latest



Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Windows 10 Creators Update):
Windows 10

[mduell]

MakeMKV forums would be the place to go for questions like this, as well as dealing with AACS2 in general.

HB does not deal with 4K disks at all. Even after ripping to a video file, HB has various shortcomings with the 10 bit HDR material: no 10 bit video pipeline so it's all downsampled to 8 bit, and no support for HDR.

[BradleyMacDonald]

Mduell. Thank you - I was not aware of this!!

I was thinking that with DVD and BluRays disappearing in favour of 4K discs - I could use something like MakeMKV to do the initial ripping - then HandBrake to then downsize the file... But apparently I may not be able to do that...

Thank you

[ukmark62]

StaxRip can handle HDR and 4k with 10bit. Never done it myself but I use StaxRip along with HB.

Checkout the StaxRip forum

[Nomis101]

I had the same question some month ago. After reading a lot in the MakeMKV forum, I decided for a Asus BW-16D1HT and an external USB adaptor for my UHD BluRays. But, the firmware is very important. Read in the MakeMKV forum, which version is best and downgrade, if your firmware is too new. And, if UHD ripping works with your drive, never ever change the firmware version of your drive.