Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2023

[MartyMcNuts]

Hi All!

Thanks for the extensive guide posted here. I've tried a few things and it seems to be working so thanks for the help.

I do have a question, so after flashing with a USB cable (Unitek Y-3324) i flashed my new drive BH16NS55 with HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS55-1.05-NM00400-212004211049. When the drive is connected to the USB cable everything work as intended. But after i tried to connect it to the mainboard (with power and etc). It does not detect the drive anymore. Is this intended or should i trouble shoot my set-up further. (In other words, should it be possible to use the mainboard SATA connection for a flashed disk instead of the USB cable?)

Of course! Try power cycling the PC and see if that helps. You may need to check for any motherboard / sata controller updates.

Also, don't use BH16NS55 1.05-MK firmware as it is crap. Lots of regular read errors. If you want to use NS55 firmware go with 1.04-MK or DE 1.02. If you just want the best firmware for the drive, go with WH16NS60 1.02-MK as it's faster and removes the sleep bug.

[Urbshky]

Hi All!

Thanks for the extensive guide posted here. I've tried a few things and it seems to be working so thanks for the help.

I do have a question, so after flashing with a USB cable (Unitek Y-3324) i flashed my new drive BH16NS55 with HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS55-1.05-NM00400-212004211049. When the drive is connected to the USB cable everything work as intended. But after i tried to connect it to the mainboard (with power and etc). It does not detect the drive anymore. Is this intended or should i trouble shoot my set-up further. (In other words, should it be possible to use the mainboard SATA connection for a flashed disk instead of the USB cable?)

Of course! Try power cycling the PC and see if that helps. You may need to check for any motherboard / sata controller updates.

Also, don't use BH16NS55 1.05-MK firmware as it is crap. Lots of regular read errors. If you want to use NS55 firmware go with 1.04-MK or DE 1.02. If you just want the best firmware for the drive, go with WH16NS60 1.02-MK as it's faster and removes the sleep bug.

Hi!

Thanks for the feedback. I changed the firmware to DE1.02 and found the issue with my setup. It seems that for my mainbord the SATA port 0 is sharing the interface with the NVME disk. Once i changed the ports for the blu ray drive everything is working as expected! (And even better).

Thank you so much for the help!

[M_K_MKV]

Thank you for this guide. I got it to work with a BU40N with 1.04 firmware to 1.03 from the all you need firmware pack with the GUI flasher.

Also, if anyone from Europe is looking for a case for a slimline drive that supports flashing and ripping, I used this one and it worked perfectly:
https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B072WJ ... =UTF8&th=1

[greifunk]

Hey team!

I just wanted to clarify with the LG WH16NS60

I was having issues downgrading the drive to 1.02 >

After some digging I found the correct syntax for the line by putting a few lines of code together from what I could muster from the flash technique.

So in case anyone else gets stuck, here is how I flashed my Firmware 1.05:

./makemkvcon f --all-yes -d drivename -f /path/to/sdf.bin rawflash enc -i /path/to/flash-file.bin

I hope that helps someone else if they run into this issue!

[Tango]

I've been reading through the guide here and other posts. I don't feel comfortable flashing anything until I know I have everything set up properly, in case I could brick something.

I have a Mac and a Buffalo blu-ray reader/writer that, from what I see, should be flashable. I understand the actual device is different from what Buffalo uses to ID the device. When I use makemkvcon, I get:

01: /IOBDServices/0D003F4E, /dev/rdisk7, /dev/rdisk7
HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__BH16NS58_1.03_212005080933_KLHL3GB0520

From this thread (viewtopic.php?t=23129), my understanding is I need to download sdf.bin and get the proper firmware for my drive, then use makemkvcon to get the identifier info on my drive, then use the command line

./makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/0D003F4E' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash main -i /tmp/<bin_file_name>.bin

And that should flash my drive.

So a few questions. They're simple and, honestly, I may have just overloaded myself with information and lost track of things:

1) Is this still up to date and the best way to flash my drive on the Mac?
2) I'm not clear about sdf.bin. It's an image file, right? I see where I can download, for Windows, the sdf GUI tool that does everything, but I don't see where I can get sdf.bin specifically. Also, is it a os agnostic file, or does it matter if I'm using Windows or macOS?
3) Almost the same questions for the firmware. Without using an "all-in-one" file, I'm not clear if I should get that file and extract the files I need from it or if I need to download the two files (sdf.bin and the firmware file for my device) somewhere else.

[FatNFuri0us1]

What do I do now? This is my first time doing this. I think I need to downgrade the firmware?

makemkv.png (35.68 KiB) Viewed 7769 times

[MartyMcNuts]

@Billycar11,

I can confirm that the Unitek Y-1039 SATA to USB powered adapter is no longer compatible with optical drives at all.

I can also confirm that the Unitek Y-3324 SATA / IDE to USB powered adapter is still compatible with optical drives and also works fine for flashing.

[Carl Johan]

Hello,

I flashed my drive as per instructions.

Screenshot 2022-02-10 at 17.04.12.png (309.09 KiB) Viewed 7671 times

Everything seemed to work, but it looks like the firmware did not change and the drive remains incapable of reading UHD disks.

Screenshot 2022-02-10 at 17.20.37.png (535.53 KiB) Viewed 7671 times

I assumed VLC should be able to play the film on a flashed drive w. MakeMKV VLC integration checked.

I did this on an M1 Max Macbook Pro with MacOS Monterey 12.1. The drive is an Archgon BD-RE BU40N.

What do I do?

Best Regards CJ

[dcoke22]

What do I do?

Did you power cycle the drive after the flash? Unplug it, wait a few moments and plug it back in.

[MartyMcNuts]

Hello,

I flashed my drive as per instructions.
Screenshot 2022-02-10 at 17.04.12.png

Everything seemed to work, but it looks like the firmware did not change and the drive remains incapable of reading UHD disks.
Screenshot 2022-02-10 at 17.20.37.png

I assumed VLC should be able to play the film on a flashed drive w. MakeMKV VLC integration checked.

I did this on an M1 Max Macbook Pro with MacOS Monterey 12.1. The drive is an Archgon BD-RE BU40N.

What do I do?

Best Regards CJ

I'd say you have the encrypted 1.02 on your BU40N. In your command change "main"to "enc" and try again.

[Carl Johan]

What do I do?

Did you power cycle the drive after the flash? Unplug it, wait a few moments and plug it back in.

Yes. I tried flashing again using the USB-A connectors. No dice.

CJ

[Carl Johan]

I'd say you have the encrypted 1.02 on your BU40N. In your command change "main"to "enc" and try again.

That did it:

Screenshot 2022-02-11 at 12.59.27.png (496.18 KiB) Viewed 7606 times

Thanks a lot
CJ

[dcoke22]

Is there a recommended Pioneer drive? I've seen the list of working drives in the first post. I think I'm going to order a BDR-212UBK and put it in a OWC Mercury Pro case, but perhaps there's a 'better' Pioneer drive to get?

[Billycar11]

Is there a recommended Pioneer drive? I've seen the list of working drives in the first post. I think I'm going to order a BDR-212UBK and put it in a OWC Mercury Pro case, but perhaps there's a 'better' Pioneer drive to get?

not really that should be pretty much the best pioneer desktop drive
just know for UHD they seem to be limited 4x speed even with the performance utility set to performance also just fyi for everyone makemkv speed control works on these drives also but does not get around the 4x UHD limit but if you are one of the unlucky few that the pioneer utility does not work for your drive makemkv can set the drive performance mode but for now it can not write it to the drive like the pioneer one can.

[MartyMcNuts]

Is there a recommended Pioneer drive? I've seen the list of working drives in the first post. I think I'm going to order a BDR-212UBK and put it in a OWC Mercury Pro case, but perhaps there's a 'better' Pioneer drive to get?

That or the BDR-S12UHT. They are both very similar, just the S12UHT looks a bit nicer, I reckon. Both are good internal drives and yeah, as Billy said, UHD is max 4x speed but they are very quiet!!