Hi,

As the title says: can you recommend a virtual burner / virtual BD-R ?

Now, the whys : I often record TV programs (mostly music concerts, documentaries, and Japanese dramas) with my HDD/BR recorder. I then rip the BD-RE discs with MakeMKV. It's not very difficult, but can be rather time consuming. Also, I have to buy new discs regularly, and the ripping sometimes fails.

I'd like to try a new workflow and buy a TV tuner/recorder for my computer. Main problem : I would still have to buy discs, and the ripping process could still end up failing from time to time.
I'll probably buy this model https://www.pixela.co.jp/products/xit/brk100w/ (not that we have much of a choice in Japan anyway).

Annoying part is that the TV tuner comes with its own BD burning tool. It's not possible to use a 3-rd party burning software.

My idea is to use a virtual burner that also simulates the presence of a blank BD-R inside said virtual burner. That way I could hopefully burn a virtual video Blue-ray disc and then be able to use MakeMKV to rip this virtual BR disc, without having to buy new "real" discs. It's still going to be time consuming, it may still fail sometimes, but at the very least I would save some money.

Does anyone know about a software that would suit my needs? Something preferably free, or not too expensive.
So far I've found something called Phantom Drive ( https://www.phantom-drive.com/en/default.cfm ) which isn't free, and I also have no real idea about how to use it, if it's good or bad etc. I have yet to find feedback, so any alternative is welcome.

As to why I just don't keep the recorder TV programs on my HDD and skip the burning/ripping phase altogether : it can be done, but programs can only be watched with the built-in video player due to the copy protection laws we have to deal with here. I fear what will happen if the manufacturers discontinues the product. I just don't know if it would be possible to watch the recorder TV shows with another video player, even a commercial one.

Thanks!
Philip