Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2026

[d00zah]

Pioneer UHD drives are now supported more info about that will be coming from the developer and once the info is out i will update stuff here

I've been on this forum since 2011 but I can't log into my old BigPines account for some reason and password reset doesn't seem to work so I had to create a new account.

I have been unable to find much info on flashing Pioneer drives despite the claim that they are the most reliable. All I see is PMs going around. I would like to use Marty's SDF tool but there are no Pioneer firmware files in the "all you need" firmware pack.

I have gathered from reading that the BDR-212V and BDR-212DBK can be cross-flashed to BDR-212JBK or BDR-S12JBK to enable UHD capabilities but exactly how eludes me. Have I simply missed this info?

I am considering these two drives. Not sure if there is any advantage of one over the other:

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDR-212V ... 08R89FN61/
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDR-212D ... 081R5CS4L/

Any information is appreciated. Unfortunately, I will not be able to respond to PMs because this is a new account. If anyone can help me get my old account back, that would be preferred. I requested help but I don't know if anyone is reading those contact emails these days.

Thanks in advance.

Due to this, there are limitations WRT Pioneer drives. IF you are lucky enough to get a drive w/ FW prior to late 2022 (IIRC?), the flashing method is not public & must be requested, posting your specific drive info. If you want a known-good Pioneer drive, local sellers are your best bet.

Having said that, the Pioneer-BDR-212DBK drives from Amazon have been coming w/ an older FW, but there's no guaranty that's still the case.

[BigPines1]

I understand the need for older Pioneer firmware in order to do any useful flashing.

Thank you for confirming that the Pioneer flashing solution has not been made public. That is really what it boils down to and all I need to know. I think this fact should be added to the initial post of this thread for clarity. The way it reads right now is that this information is known and will be added but it sounds like it actually will not be. It seems like a cross-flash shouldn't be that hard to do if we had the firmware for BDR-212JBK or BDR-S12JBK but whatever. It doesn't really matter.

I can continue to flash Asus drives until they are no longer available. They have been reliable for me and I don't actually know that a Pioneer drive would be better anyway. I was just interested in trying.

[d00zah]

I understand the need for older Pioneer firmware in order to do any useful flashing.

Thank you for confirming that the Pioneer flashing solution has not been made public. That is really what it boils down to and all I need to know. I think this fact should be added to the initial post of this thread for clarity. The way it reads right now is that this information is known and will be added but it sounds like it actually will not be. It seems like a cross-flash shouldn't be that hard to do if we had the firmware for BDR-212JBK or BDR-S12JBK but whatever. It doesn't really matter.

I can continue to flash Asus drives until they are no longer available. They have been reliable for me and I don't actually know that a Pioneer drive would be better anyway. I was just interested in trying.

See Recommendation for best (most reliable and versatile) LibreDrive for 2024? for a taste of what's 'in'.

[leonderooij]

Code: Select all

makemkvcon f -d 'dev_21:1' -f sdf.bin rawflash enc -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin

That should have worked.

Power off the drive for 5 mins by using the power switch on back and then try again if the firmware did not change

Hi, thanks for replying so quickly

Well this is a little embarrassing, the USB connector on rear of the enclosure was half loose That explains it not showing up when plugging into my laptop..

So now I see it being recognized after properly plugging it in, dmesg shows the same output as in my previous post, however still on 1.05 firmware.

But I think this happened after trying to flash.

I just now tried to do it again using the `enc` variant and it again hung. Then tried it on my workstation and again the same result. I also notice it takes 100% cpu:

Code: Select all

top - 21:32:56 up 17 days, 10:57,  2 users,  load average: 1.37, 1.04, 0.56
Tasks: 551 total,   2 running, 549 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  4.7 us,  0.3 sy,  0.0 ni, 94.9 id,  0.0 wa,  0.1 hi,  0.1 si,  0.0 st 
MiB Mem :  63461.3 total,  15824.7 free,   8435.7 used,  40179.8 buff/cache     
MiB Swap:   4096.0 total,   3108.4 free,    987.6 used.  55025.5 avail Mem 

    PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                 
 631017 ldr       20   0  325188  27092  17140 R 100.0   0.0   0:18.67 makemkvcon                       
 ...
 

Will try some other USB ports, see if it makes a difference. Otherwise, native SATA connecting and if that doesn't work maybe I'll have to dust off my windows partition, see if that still boots and try it from there :>

Should I not do something else to downgrade from 1.05 to 1.02 ?

Maybe you have some other tips ?

thanks again,

Leon

[rimmi2002]

Hi excellent guide. I was a little confused about this section below.

Newer OEM Firmwares and encrypted:

New Encrypted firmware
List of Know Encrypted firmware (so far, any firmware with date in 2020 is encrypted)

For the drives whose firmware is flashable (listed on top of the thread)...do I need to be careful of which drive I purchase or can a brand new Thin BP50NB40 or Internal LG WH16NS40 / ASUS BW-16D1HT be flashed after jumping through enough hoops.

Basically wondering if there are drives (of the recc'd UHD Friendly list) now from other brands which can't be flashes due to encrypted firmware.

Thanks!

[leonderooij]

Code: Select all

makemkvcon f -d 'dev_21:1' -f sdf.bin rawflash enc -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin

That should have worked.

Power off the drive for 5 mins by using the power switch on back and then try again if the firmware did not change

Woohoo!! So I tried the same thing when connected to SATA on my workstation (also running Arch) but with same result, 100% cpu load.

I then booted to windows and tried the `SDFtool Flasher` with the same firmware `HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin` (while it was still connected to SATA) and it worked immediately!!

I'm currently ripping one of my uhd bd's so happy that I didn't brick it :>

Thanks for the help and nice software!

[Phoenix0870]

I have new USB Adapter from Amazon.
I bought this USB 3 3.0 to SATA 3.
It can flash to USB 3.0 and also USB 2.0.

WAVLINK USB 3,0 auf SATA Adapter
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B09PV5 ... prod_image

Picture:

[Coopervid]

The BENFEI adapter is 2 Euros cheaper and has a combined USB-C / USB-A connector. It also works for flashing optical drives.

[Tristanna]

The BENFEI adapter is 2 Euros cheaper and has a combined USB-C / USB-A connector. It also works for flashing optical drives.

It's not the same product !
Your adapter is for NVME disks : https://www.amazon.de/BENFEI-Geh%C3%A4u ... ast_sto_dp
and his is for 2.5“ or 3.5” SATA hard disks (or drive/writer): https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B09PV5 ... prod_image

[Coopervid]

The BENFEI adapter is 2 Euros cheaper and has a combined USB-C / USB-A connector. It also works for flashing optical drives.

It's not the same product !
Your adapter is for NVME disks and his is for 2.5“ or 3.5” SATA hard disks (or drive/writer).

It's not the same but better and cheaper and works with optical drives very well. As I wrote. But you picked the wrong one.

https://www.amazon.de/BENFEI-SATA-USB-K ... r=1-1&th=1

[Billycar11]

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[Billycar11]

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[drknight71]

Hi,

I have an LG BH16NS40 firmware ver 1.03 would like to flash to allow UHD compatibility but confused on a couple things. Firstly its enclosed in a NST-536S3-BK and read that there are compatibility issues with this enclosure if the firmware of the enclosure is jmicron chipset pcb version 1V00D F0901. Wonder how you verify this? Second where do you find the appropriate firmware to use on the drive?

Fwiw I may not want to take the risk considering I don't have any UHD drives and I already nudered my favorite Pioneer drive by updating the firmware. Stupid me..

Thanks

[Billycar11]

Hi,

I have an LG BH16NS40 firmware ver 1.03 would like to flash to allow UHD compatibility but confused on a couple things. Firstly its enclosed in a NST-536S3-BK and read that there are compatibility issues with this enclosure if the firmware of the enclosure is jmicron chipset pcb version 1V00D F0901. Wonder how you verify this? Second where do you find the appropriate firmware to use on the drive?

Fwiw I may not want to take the risk considering I don't have any UHD drives and I already nudered my favorite Pioneer drive by updating the firmware. Stupid me..

Thanks

Your fine with any version of that case now. Makemkv's flasher was updated to work with it.

Email me if you want the correct fw if you don't want to flash it yourself.

I also have pioneers with old fw see below for email and auto flasher.

[d00zah]

... Second where do you find the appropriate firmware to use on the drive?

Fwiw I may not want to take the risk considering I don't have any UHD drives and I already nudered my favorite Pioneer drive by updating the firmware. Stupid me..

Thanks

WH16NS40 on any Firmware directly to > WH16NS60 1.02MK

WH... vs BH..., same hardware. Difference is how it's sold. OEM vs Retail.

IF runnining Windows, use the SDFtool Flasher.