bliznyansky
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I ran across this customer review of the above Pioneer drive on Amazon when I was thinking of purchasing one:
"My purpose for this blu-ray player is to be attached to a Raspberry Pi for a variety of purposes. I also know that most people do not run Debian Linux in their everyday lives, so I will be reviewing this device both for use on both Windows 10 and Linux.
Both operating systems had no problems detecting that this was an external blu-ray drive. As well, loading a DVD in both operating systems successfully mounts the drive for use. Windows will gladly play DVDs at this point.
Here's where things go off the rails. Because of copyright law and disc copyright protection, Linux will not play any discs and Windows will not play blu-rays.
In the case of Windows, the solution recommended by Pioneer in the owner's manual is Cyberlink Media Suite. It's a bundle of software that would normally cost a couple hundred dollars. Your purchase of the drive includes a product key to get it at no cost, printed on the back of the owner's manual. It does get the job done in as few steps as possible, but I feel like a ginormous suite of software that includes photo editing, video editing, cloud storage, social media integrations, audio editing software, etc. is some big overkill for playing and burning discs.
For Linux to play DVDs, it is necessary to obtain libdvd-pkg and reconfigure it to install the real goal, libdvdcss. Videolan's website has details on how to accomplish this with VLC player. At this point, Linux will play DVDs.
For anyone interested in a more lightweight way to get blu-rays working, the current best, free alternative to play blu-rays is to install a program called MakeMKV which will integrate with VLC player as an arbiter service to decrypt the discs in real time on both operating systems. Blu ray functionality on MakeMKV [will be] a paid function for $60, but currently while the program is considered "beta" they will provide a free registration key on their forum. You can find an install of MakeMKV at (makemkv dot com slash download), and the "News and Announcements" section of their forum will provide the free beta key on a topic named "MakeMKV is free while in beta." Open MakeMKV's preferences, go to the Integration tab, check the box by VLC; then open MakeMKV's Help menu and insert the registration code you found. Now you can play blu-rays in VLC.
All of the above is absolutely a rigmarole, but this is simply the result of oppressive copyright law and is not the responsibility of Philips or any other disc drive manufacturer.
What I will hold against Philips is that neither operating system could supply enough power on a USB 3 connection to make the device function. The blu-ray player will power on, then when a disc is inserted it will attempt to draw more power than is available to read the disc then momentarily power off. It will then recognize a disc is loaded on power up and repeat the process. This makes both operating systems think you are rapidly connecting and disconnecting the drive over and over again. It is specifically noted in the product description that a power cable is not included, but it does seem to be required. Plan to buy one to make any use of this device. I personally a bunch of IBERLS USB to DC power adapters (Amazon product B07J6NQ1KN) on hand for just these sorts of devices.
So now that we've got this drive working, time to try it out. I'm one of the 7 people on the continent who still uses Netflix's DVD by mail service, so I had opportunity to put two discs in this drive that were in pretty bad condition. They worked flawlessly, one being 1985's Pale Rider and the other 2021's Free Guy. I also tried out a Deadpool 2 blu-ray I own as well as a DVD of Idiocracy, and experienced no problems on playback. Burning content to a DVD-R progressed with no problems, but I unfortunately own no writable blu-rays.
The drive works extremely well once you go through the trouble of setting it up. Its only downsides are the short 13 inch data cable and lack of power cable that is required to make any use of it. The DCA-003 power cable recommended in the manual is $33 before shipping."
The problem is, the customer was a bit shortsighted in his review, never bothering to think that his own setup may be to blame for the drives' poor performance. I bought two of these drives about 6 months ago to use with my Windows 10 Dell computer. Even without an external power supply, they have both worked flawlessly. (They're attached to USB 3.0 ports.) Anyone thinking of buying one of these Pioneer drives (or their successors for that matter) should try them out on their own machines before purchasing an outboard power supply, which may turn out to be unnecessary.
"
"My purpose for this blu-ray player is to be attached to a Raspberry Pi for a variety of purposes. I also know that most people do not run Debian Linux in their everyday lives, so I will be reviewing this device both for use on both Windows 10 and Linux.
Both operating systems had no problems detecting that this was an external blu-ray drive. As well, loading a DVD in both operating systems successfully mounts the drive for use. Windows will gladly play DVDs at this point.
Here's where things go off the rails. Because of copyright law and disc copyright protection, Linux will not play any discs and Windows will not play blu-rays.
In the case of Windows, the solution recommended by Pioneer in the owner's manual is Cyberlink Media Suite. It's a bundle of software that would normally cost a couple hundred dollars. Your purchase of the drive includes a product key to get it at no cost, printed on the back of the owner's manual. It does get the job done in as few steps as possible, but I feel like a ginormous suite of software that includes photo editing, video editing, cloud storage, social media integrations, audio editing software, etc. is some big overkill for playing and burning discs.
For Linux to play DVDs, it is necessary to obtain libdvd-pkg and reconfigure it to install the real goal, libdvdcss. Videolan's website has details on how to accomplish this with VLC player. At this point, Linux will play DVDs.
For anyone interested in a more lightweight way to get blu-rays working, the current best, free alternative to play blu-rays is to install a program called MakeMKV which will integrate with VLC player as an arbiter service to decrypt the discs in real time on both operating systems. Blu ray functionality on MakeMKV [will be] a paid function for $60, but currently while the program is considered "beta" they will provide a free registration key on their forum. You can find an install of MakeMKV at (makemkv dot com slash download), and the "News and Announcements" section of their forum will provide the free beta key on a topic named "MakeMKV is free while in beta." Open MakeMKV's preferences, go to the Integration tab, check the box by VLC; then open MakeMKV's Help menu and insert the registration code you found. Now you can play blu-rays in VLC.
All of the above is absolutely a rigmarole, but this is simply the result of oppressive copyright law and is not the responsibility of Philips or any other disc drive manufacturer.
What I will hold against Philips is that neither operating system could supply enough power on a USB 3 connection to make the device function. The blu-ray player will power on, then when a disc is inserted it will attempt to draw more power than is available to read the disc then momentarily power off. It will then recognize a disc is loaded on power up and repeat the process. This makes both operating systems think you are rapidly connecting and disconnecting the drive over and over again. It is specifically noted in the product description that a power cable is not included, but it does seem to be required. Plan to buy one to make any use of this device. I personally a bunch of IBERLS USB to DC power adapters (Amazon product B07J6NQ1KN) on hand for just these sorts of devices.
So now that we've got this drive working, time to try it out. I'm one of the 7 people on the continent who still uses Netflix's DVD by mail service, so I had opportunity to put two discs in this drive that were in pretty bad condition. They worked flawlessly, one being 1985's Pale Rider and the other 2021's Free Guy. I also tried out a Deadpool 2 blu-ray I own as well as a DVD of Idiocracy, and experienced no problems on playback. Burning content to a DVD-R progressed with no problems, but I unfortunately own no writable blu-rays.
The drive works extremely well once you go through the trouble of setting it up. Its only downsides are the short 13 inch data cable and lack of power cable that is required to make any use of it. The DCA-003 power cable recommended in the manual is $33 before shipping."
The problem is, the customer was a bit shortsighted in his review, never bothering to think that his own setup may be to blame for the drives' poor performance. I bought two of these drives about 6 months ago to use with my Windows 10 Dell computer. Even without an external power supply, they have both worked flawlessly. (They're attached to USB 3.0 ports.) Anyone thinking of buying one of these Pioneer drives (or their successors for that matter) should try them out on their own machines before purchasing an outboard power supply, which may turn out to be unnecessary.
"
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