Hi all, new to Ripping and it's more so a question of the hardware. Pls bear in mind that I'm currently located in Germany and will be using the drive with my M2 MBP.
Being where I am there was little choice of what external optical drive is available to be purchased and it was really only this Verbatim #43888 model (an older model) via Amazon.de that could be purchased.
Through some websites I learned that it came with either an LG or Pioneer drive inside the Verbatim housing. The drive arrived and it's an LG, came with native region code 1 (the US) and that it was likely destined for the US as the EU market likely predominately shipped with a Pioneer. I did read somewhere that folks from the US have used Amazon Germany to order, to ensure they received the Pioneer.
I could send it back and hope for the best to get the Pioneer in the Amazon sweep stakes.
To those in the know, the Pioneer is meant to be a LibreDrive, making it easier to use out of the box for ripping? I spoke to Verbatim EU today and they also put forward that Pioneer hasn't updated the Firmware for quite some time and back in 2022/2023 an update killed many capabilities. Tech support also mention they rather get more complaints for ripping with the Pioneer due to the Firmware update. Also I sporadically read a mention of on the make MKV forum. I did find a site with instructions of flashing Libre Firmware onto the LG I have.
As you can tell I'm a newcomer to this and still in a return window. To those familiar with this model and choice of internals, please weigh in if the Pioneer or the LG (I have) is the better option to go for and sorry this post got lengthy.
Being where I am there was little choice of what external optical drive is available to be purchased and it was really only this Verbatim #43888 model (an older model) via Amazon.de that could be purchased.
Through some websites I learned that it came with either an LG or Pioneer drive inside the Verbatim housing. The drive arrived and it's an LG, came with native region code 1 (the US) and that it was likely destined for the US as the EU market likely predominately shipped with a Pioneer. I did read somewhere that folks from the US have used Amazon Germany to order, to ensure they received the Pioneer.
I could send it back and hope for the best to get the Pioneer in the Amazon sweep stakes.
To those in the know, the Pioneer is meant to be a LibreDrive, making it easier to use out of the box for ripping? I spoke to Verbatim EU today and they also put forward that Pioneer hasn't updated the Firmware for quite some time and back in 2022/2023 an update killed many capabilities. Tech support also mention they rather get more complaints for ripping with the Pioneer due to the Firmware update. Also I sporadically read a mention of on the make MKV forum. I did find a site with instructions of flashing Libre Firmware onto the LG I have.
As you can tell I'm a newcomer to this and still in a return window. To those familiar with this model and choice of internals, please weigh in if the Pioneer or the LG (I have) is the better option to go for and sorry this post got lengthy.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.