BD Drive for non UHD Ripping

[charlie2025]

I need to get a blu-ray drive. All the hoopla seems to be about UHD. If I will be ripping a handful of Full HD (1080p) Blu-ray in addition to a couple hundred DVDs, does the drive used matter?

[MrPenguin]

I need to get a blu-ray drive. All the hoopla seems to be about UHD. If I will be ripping a handful of Full HD (1080p) Blu-ray in addition to a couple hundred DVDs, does the drive used matter?

Pioneer drives are still preferable, if you can get one. You can rip/play BDs without needing LibreDrive only so long as you have both an unrevoked device key and host certificate for AACSv1. But bear in mind that inserting a disk that uses MKBv82 will also revoke every publicly-known AACSv1 host certificate for your drive.

[charlie2025]

Pioneer drives are still preferable, if you can get one. You can rip/play BDs without needing LibreDrive only so long as you have both an unrevoked device key and host certificate for AACSv1. But bear in mind that inserting a disk that uses MKBv82 will also revoke every publicly-known AACSv1 host certificate for your drive.

I'm new to this. How do I know if I have an unrevoked device key and host certificate for AACSv1? What does it mean if it is revoked?
How do I know if a disc uses MKBv82?

[MrPenguin]

How do I know if I have an unrevoked device key and host certificate for AACSv1?

MakeMKV has its own device key(s) and host certificate(s) for AACSv1, which will be updated - or not - in later MakeMKV releases. Alternatively, there's a public KEYDB.cfg file which you can add AACSv1 host certificates and device keys to. AFAIK all the publicly known host certificates are revoked by MKBv82, although there is still a working device key available.

But as a new user, perhaps it's better to let MakeMKV manage your keys initially?

What does it mean if it is revoked?

You will no longer be able to use the revoked device key or host certificate to decrypt your disk. This is why the Open Source libaacs code caches the keys that it calculates - so that it only needs to calculate them once.

How do I know if a disc uses MKBv82?

Either you consult a public database to see if it has a likely entry for your particular disk, or you insert the disk into your drive and examine its AACS/MKB_RO.inf file. Obviously neither or these strategies is perfect . Ultimately, you will want to decode a disk that uses the "bad" version.

[charlie2025]

If I understand this correctly, the only way to know for certain if a disk uses MKBv82 is to insert it into the drive so I can examine its AACS/MKB_RO.inf file.... which, if it does use MKBv82, is going to revoke the AACSv1 host certificate for the drive, and disks can no longer be decrypted? If I have that right, I agree, that is far from perfect.

What does it mean if a disk can no longer be decrypted? It can neither be ripped nor played and watched with that drive? Is it recoverable or is the drive effectively a brick at that point?

I did come across the keydb.cfg file and downloaded it. While I don't understand everything going on in it, it looks like MKBv82 is pretty new, a couple years maybe. I have not bought any blu-rays in the past 4 or 5 years and probably longer than that. Perhaps this will not even be an issue for me, in the immediate future.

[SamuriHL]

It's a bit more complicated than that. Let's unpack all this so you have a better understanding of the process and what, if anything, you can do to protect yourself.

Your premise is correct...once a drive "sees" an MKB v82 disc, the MKB is written to the drive as an update. That means all known (i.e. public) host certificates will now be revoked. So what does this mean? The host certificate is used to authenticate with the drive and allow you to read protected areas of the disc like the Volume Identifier (VID). The VID is required for AACS decryption as we'll see in a minute.

A device key, which we DO have for MKB v82 is what is used to read the media key from the MKB. This does not require a valid host certificate. But it does require a valid device key.

The VID is combined with the Media Key to create the Volume Unique Key which is what MakeMKV uses to decrypt the unit keys and decrypt the titles on the disc. Having the VUK is game over. You will always be able to decrypt a disc if you have the VUK.

Now, let's talk about that host certificate a bit more. If you have a LibreDrive enabled drive, the host certificate becomes irrelevant. This is because LibreDrive can read the protected parts of the disc WITHOUT having to authenticate with the drive. So MakeMKV can read the VID. If you know how to parse that data from MakeMKV, you can use that with the v82 device key to decrypt all your discs. This is what my KeyDB Helper tool does. If the device key is added to your keydb.cfg, my tool will parse the VID using MakeMKV and then it can retrieve the Media Key using the device key you add to your keydb.cfg. After that it calculates the VUK and decrypts the unit keys. But this requires the use of a LibreDrive. For reference you can find my tool here:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16883&p=166510#p166510

To review, if you don't insert a v82 disc you can continue using the current host certificate. But once you do, even accidentally, it will be revoked.

[flojo]

Please explain "LibreDrive". Can the drive's firmware still be flashed to a "LibreDrive" if the host key is revoked? Can non-UHD drives be flashed to a "LibreDrive"? Can a "LibreDrive" be utilized in "Libre" fashion by other programs besides MakeMKV? Where did "LibreDrive" originate (IRC, Forum, etc.)?

[SamuriHL]

I mean, there's a whole section of this forum dedicated to the topic of LibreDrive. I suggest reading this:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18856

[charlie2025]

I ordered a Pioneer BDR-212V, which looks like it should work for the movies I own and can be flashed to enable libredrive functionality, if I need it.

One thing that wasn't answered is what exactly does it mean if the drive becomes revoked? It will no longer read data? Can it be restored by reflashing the firmware (or other means), if available?

For reference you can find my tool here:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16883&p=166510#p166510

I did download the tool. I don't know if i will need it but like to try to be prepared.