Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2025

[keydb_helper]

Just so I can categorise the issue correctly, is this an issue with the flash, with the flashed 1.03 firmware, with the original 1.05 firmware or something else inside the drive?

The firmware which you flashed to your drive is cryptographically signed. If there was any corruption with the firmware flash, your drive would boot into a very limited recovery mode. That is not what happened to you. Remember, re-flashing the firmware did not fix anything that power cycling couldn't. Your drive is still running the exact same code as it was before you re-flashed it with the same MK firmware binary.

You need to think of your drive as essentially being a very small, low power computer running its own software stack or firmware. It is entirely possible that there are no significant issues in the firmware code. But just like a desktop computer overclocked beyond the point of stability, transient power supply issues can lead to problems and unexpected behaviour in otherwise stable code.

This is most likely what happened with your drive. It is effectively the same as running a stress test like Prime95 or Furmark on a barely stable overclock and observing a crash in Microsoft Outlook. Restarting the computer will address the issue and allow Outlook to function normally. Improving the stability by bolstering the power supply will reduce the likelihood of a repeat incident.

So if you must categorise your issue, I'd call it a temporary glitch caused by insufficient power supply.

In my 10 years of using my old drive, in many of which I used makeMKV, I never had any such problems, but that was a standard blu-ray drive and even with this issue I was still able to rip standard blu-rays.

To backup UHD discs, MakeMKV uploads a small 'blob' of code to your drives volatile memory. This is what I referred to as the LibreDrive microcode earlier.

The MakeMKV software which runs on your Linux/Mac/Windows computer can interact with this microcode to perform several functions, such as reading the AACS volume ID (VID) or preventing the drive from performing bus encryption.

This microcode based approach has been strict requirement for AACS2 (UHD) discs but it has not been mandated for AACS1 (regular BD) disc decryption as there has always been an abundance of AACS1 host certificate/keys. This may be why you never noticed such quirks in the past when backing up standard BD discs as even when LibreDrive is unavailable the native AACS fallback path is usable.

The overall stability of the microcode approach doesn't quite match that of native AACS authentication, but it is worth it to be functionally immune from AACS host certificate revocation.

[jatenk]

Just so I can categorise the issue correctly, is this an issue with the flash, with the flashed 1.03 firmware, with the original 1.05 firmware or something else inside the drive?

The firmware which you flashed to your drive is cryptographically signed. If there was any corruption with the firmware flash, your drive would boot into a very limited recovery mode. That is not what happened to you. Remember, re-flashing the firmware did not fix anything that power cycling couldn't. Your drive is still running the exact same code as it was before you re-flashed it with the same MK firmware binary.

You need to think of your drive as essentially being a very small, low power computer running its own software stack or firmware. It is entirely possible that there are no significant issues in the firmware code. But just like a desktop computer overclocked beyond the point of stability, transient power supply issues can lead to problems and unexpected behaviour in otherwise stable code.

This is most likely what happened with your drive. It is effectively the same as running a stress test like Prime95 or Furmark on a barely stable overclock and observing a crash in Microsoft Outlook. Restarting the computer will address the issue and allow Outlook to function normally. Improving the stability by bolstering the power supply will reduce the likelihood of a repeat incident.

So if you must categorise your issue, I'd call it a temporary glitch caused by insufficient power supply.

In my 10 years of using my old drive, in many of which I used makeMKV, I never had any such problems, but that was a standard blu-ray drive and even with this issue I was still able to rip standard blu-rays.

To backup UHD discs, MakeMKV uploads a small 'blob' of code to your drives volatile memory. This is what I referred to as the LibreDrive microcode earlier.

The MakeMKV software which runs on your Linux/Mac/Windows computer can interact with this microcode to perform several functions, such as reading the AACS volume ID (VID) or preventing the drive from performing bus encryption.

This microcode based approach has been strict requirement for AACS2 (UHD) discs but it has not been mandated for AACS1 (regular BD) disc decryption as there has always been an abundance of AACS1 host certificate/keys. This may be why you never noticed such quirks in the past when backing up standard BD discs as even when LibreDrive is unavailable the native AACS fallback path is usable.

The overall stability of the microcode approach doesn't quite match that of native AACS authentication, but it is worth it to be functionally immune from AACS host certificate revocation.

Thank you very much for the elaborate information, that's exactly what I'm looking for! I think I get it, except for the part where the drive wouldn't read any UHDs anymore at all, and is now reading every disc perfectly again. If the issue is found in a temporary power delivery issue combined with code injection every time a UHD disc is read, wouldn't that limit the issue to occurring only on every individual disc read attempt, instead of working several times, and suddenly not working at all anymore, until power cycling it? Or is the idea of what might have happened that the first faulty disc read attempt accidentally injected faulty microcode, because of some power issue, and that faulty code (presumably because of being faulty) then didn't reset itself once the disc was ejected and persisted into the following attempts, and only got flushed from the drive's system upon power cycling it?

[felix488]

I am looking for which drive to purchase in 2025 that can read 4k, Blueray, and DVD. The first post is confusing me because it says the you need to flash all of the listed drives, but right next to that it says that most of them can no longer be flashed anymore. I was looking at BU40N (but I have no where to mount this, I was thinking I would just 3D print an enclosure and plug in SATA) or alternatively the Verbatim 34888 I have seen mentioned in other threads. I just want confirmation, please, if I buy one of these 2 am I guaranteed to be able to flash the firmware so that I can use it for all my discs? I am in the U.S.

[liamtoh1]

Felix488,
You can get the Verbatim. If it comes with an LG (most of them now are LG), then it can be flashed to allow you to rip 4K using MakeMKV. If it comes with Pioneer, then it can be flashed viewtopic.php?f=16&t=37848. The Verbatim is available on Amazon in like new condition from Amazon Warehouse.

[Myriad]

Recently started to search for DVD and Blu-Ray copies of shows I watched growing up after finding that some of my favourite titles were becoming more untraceable over the last few years online (you know the drill. old internet infrastructure goes down, servers get wiped and repurposed, orphaned sites become undetectable to google searches, recent bloat just making old topics more difficult to locate etc).

Found this forum after I started gathering physical copies and worried the discs themselves rotting or degrading eventually. Really appreciate all the work and effort put in by the resident experts here towards preserving our media library for the years to come. Will prove really useful in getting my mom's vast DVD collection digitized so she can watch her favourite shows in high quality again with her computer (keeps getting cheap players and TV's that are just criminally poor experiences to stream shows on)

After having an issue with amazon sending me the wrong item, Used verbatim's website to find a local retailer that stocked the model 43888 (LG drive) and followed the extremely well documented and clear guide on how to revert the firmware from 1.05 back to 1.03 so it will work with MakeMKV.
I don't have any immediate plans for 4K UHD Blu-Rays, but never knew when I might find something I cannot risk losing so wanted to be futureproofed. May look at flashing back to 1.00 if there is ever a need, but honestly MakeMKV looks like it can do just about everything I need.

really looking forward to searching second hand stores for any DVDs and Blu-Rays that have been handed in that will never be available on streaming sites.

[biosehnsucht]

I am looking for which drive to purchase in 2025 that can read 4k, Blueray, and DVD. The first post is confusing me because it says the you need to flash all of the listed drives, but right next to that it says that most of them can no longer be flashed anymore. I was looking at BU40N (but I have no where to mount this, I was thinking I would just 3D print an enclosure and plug in SATA) or alternatively the Verbatim 34888 I have seen mentioned in other threads. I just want confirmation, please, if I buy one of these 2 am I guaranteed to be able to flash the firmware so that I can use it for all my discs? I am in the U.S.

I just bought a WH14NS40 with 1.05 firmware off Amazon a few weeks ago in April (manufacture date of March 2025) and after some initial problems that had nothing to do with the drive itself (using makemkvcon under Linux to flash, even running 1.17.7 it didn't want to work on my Manjaro system to do this, but worked under Debian just fine) I was able to flash it to a WH16NS60 1.02. Though at the moment the listing I bought from doesn't immediately show a price anymore, now it says "not competitively priced", but clicking "See all buying options" there's still various sellers. When I bought it, it was some random seller with a decent price ("Nspire Store") and now there's others with similar pricing under $80. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VPGL5U is the listing, searching for the model now I don't find that listing though, so, and the only ones that come up are more expensive than the cheaper sellers on that listing... YMMV

[HotJuicyBurgers]

Hey all, been trying to flash my drive in linux, but my drive name is different than everyone elses. Anyone know what is up?

[root@8c4041fefc7c bin]# ./makemkvcon f -l
Found 1 drives(s)
00: dev_21:2, /dev/sr0, /dev/sr0
HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH14NS40_1.05_212005061444_KX1OC9E4345

Checking to see if anyone has some expertise in this, never was able to flash, and i'm guessing it is because i'm not identifying the drive correctly? When running to flash it nothing ever happens (Although it seems to do so) but just hangs for a day+, and when I force quit it, drive isn't bricked or anything

[MartyMcNuts]

Hey all, been trying to flash my drive in linux, but my drive name is different than everyone elses. Anyone know what is up?

[root@8c4041fefc7c bin]# ./makemkvcon f -l
Found 1 drives(s)
00: dev_21:2, /dev/sr0, /dev/sr0
HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH14NS40_1.05_212005061444_KX1OC9E4345

Checking to see if anyone has some expertise in this, never was able to flash, and i'm guessing it is because i'm not identifying the drive correctly? When running to flash it nothing ever happens (Although it seems to do so) but just hangs for a day+, and when I force quit it, drive isn't bricked or anything

Probably easier to just find someone with a Windows PC and connect it to that for the 2 minutes it'll take to flash it.