BluRay works excellent, and if you unlock your drive via LibreDrive (also on makemkv’s site) you can do discs from all regions and up to 4k.

I will buy foreign films off eBay and copy them into my media server. Also like to go to the library and find films that can be hard to obtain off Usenet or torrents

As for paying, it’s actually free if you keep checking the beta form, and getting a new key. The keys last a few months