Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2026

[MartyMcNuts]

Just bought a BP50NB40 NB52. I bought and ran Marty's flasher which seemed way too easy to use. Find the drive and hit start. I didn't get any errors, but it still shows up as a BP50NB40 in MAKEmkv. It's currently reading Blu-Ray but will not read 4K UHD. So it looks like the cross flash didn't take, what would I be missing?

Watch the GIF in the first post.

[ChampaignCowboy]

I've been looking at all this "libredrive" stuff and am thoroughly confused. Can someone create me a step by step for this unit, where the flashing software is, where the new firmware is, and whether or not my drive has encrypted firmware, or whatever that means?

I have an LG Drive with the following showing in MakeMKV

HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH149S40
Rev 1.05
Firmware date of 2120-05-06 14:44
Bus Encryption flast 17
Highest AACS Version 76

LibreDrive Info
Status: Possible (with patched firmware)
Drive Platform: MT1959
Hardware Support: Yes
Firmware support: No
Firmware Type: Original (patched version available)
Firmware Version 1.05
DVD All Regions , BD Raw Data Read, BD Raw MetaDataread, and Unrestricted Read Speed all have Possible (with patched firmware)


Any and all assistance is appreciated. I bought this drive so I could get my 4k movies into my Plex.

[Mr_Orange]

I assume that your drive is actually a WH14NS40?

If so, flash it to WH16NS60 1.02MK.

SDF Tool will auto detect encryption, etc, so just select the above firmware and hit flash.

If you follow through Post #1 of this thread, it's pretty clear.

[Cor3000000323]

Would anyone offer a recommendation?

I'm planning to rip a thousand movie collection. About 15 4K Blu-rays (not a lot but I do not want to wait to rip them), over 500 DVDs and the rest are blu-rays.

Would one drive be better suited for this situation than another?

I'm in Canada btw.

[Billycar11]

Would anyone offer a recommendation?

I'm planning to rip a thousand movie collection. About 15 4K Blu-rays (not a lot but I do not want to wait to rip them), over 500 DVDs and the rest are blu-rays.

Would one drive be better suited for this situation than another?

I'm in Canada btw.

pretty much the only drives you should consider are pioneers with old fw if you not able to get those then a BU40N/W/BP50/60 or just get the cheapest lg/asus they are the same

but yeah pioneers are best very glad not to be dealing with the LG/asus any more replacing drives for everyone constantly

[Cor3000000323]

Would anyone offer a recommendation?

I'm planning to rip a thousand movie collection. About 15 4K Blu-rays (not a lot but I do not want to wait to rip them), over 500 DVDs and the rest are blu-rays.

Would one drive be better suited for this situation than another?

I'm in Canada btw.

pretty much the only drives you should consider are pioneers with old fw if you not able to get those then a BU40N/W/BP50/60 or just get the cheapest lg/asus they are the same

but yeah pioneers are best very glad not to be dealing with the LG/asus any more replacing drives for everyone constantly

Thanks a lot for the quick response.
I'd love a pioneer the only thing holding me back is the big price difference ordering from a seller to ship here in canada, and the apparent slow speed of the drives (considering it's a thousand movies to be ripped). If the reliability of the BU40N is close to those that makes me hesitate.

Billy, one thing I don't understand is how come the BDR-213EBK, for example, isn't shown in the list of pioneer drives that work in the guide here, yet asmcom does sell it as a flashed UHD drive. I'm guessing there's something obvious I'm missing since it's not the only one, for example the BDR-XD07TS is also not on the list.

[Billycar11]

Would anyone offer a recommendation?

I'm planning to rip a thousand movie collection. About 15 4K Blu-rays (not a lot but I do not want to wait to rip them), over 500 DVDs and the rest are blu-rays.

Would one drive be better suited for this situation than another?

I'm in Canada btw.

pretty much the only drives you should consider are pioneers with old fw if you not able to get those then a BU40N/W/BP50/60 or just get the cheapest lg/asus they are the same

but yeah pioneers are best very glad not to be dealing with the LG/asus any more replacing drives for everyone constantly

Thanks a lot for the quick response.
I'd love a pioneer the only thing holding me back is the big price difference ordering from a seller to ship here in canada, and the apparent slow speed of the drives (considering it's a thousand movies to be ripped). If the reliability of the BU40N is close to those that makes me hesitate.

Billy, one thing I don't understand is how come the BDR-213EBK, for example, isn't shown in the list of pioneer drives that work in the guide here, yet asmcom does sell it as a flashed UHD drive. I'm guessing there's something obvious I'm missing since it's not the only one, for example the BDR-XD07TS is also not on the list.

guide is focused on usa drives and the EBK is not an offical UHD drive its crossflashed no one except the flashers can crossflash the pioneers so no point telling the public it works when it wont unless you buy a modified one

[bkboudreau]

Hello,

I purchased an ASUS BC-12D2HT (Model #: B99V827) as I had been told that it can read 4k blurays however none of the 4k discs that I have seem to work in it and when searching I found this thread. Can someone please confirm if this drive is capable and safe to flash?

Thanks!

[Billycar11]

Hello,

I purchased an ASUS BC-12D2HT (Model #: B99V827) as I had been told that it can read 4k blurays however none of the 4k discs that I have seem to work in it and when searching I found this thread. Can someone please confirm if this drive is capable and safe to flash?

Thanks!

Yes it it's mt1959 you can flash it to Asus 3.10 you might need enc depending on fw date 2020+ needs it

[Koubafire]

Hello,

I have ASUS BW-16D1HT with mk firmware LG WH16NS60 (because of sleep bug) but burning of 50gb blurays with nero express sometimes fail with DAO error - cant write at once (or something like that ) at the end. Should I get other firmware of another LG drive? Can you recomend good firmware for me? Asus firmware has a sleep bug.

[MartyMcNuts]

Hello,

I have ASUS BW-16D1HT with mk firmware LG WH16NS60 (because of sleep bug) but burning of 50gb blurays with nero express sometimes fail with DAO error - cant write at once (or something like that ) at the end. Should I get other firmware of another LG drive? Can you recomend good firmware for me? Asus firmware has a sleep bug.

If you want to write discs, use the ASUS firmware or get another drive to use as a writer.

[natra]

Hi guys, will my drive work.

Drive Information

Manufacturer: ASUS

Product: BW-16D1H-U

Revision: E114

Serial number: RFDL020701WL

Firmware date: 2017-12-21

Bus encryption flags: 1B

Highest AACS version: 76


LibreDrive Information

Status: Enabled

Drive platform: RS8601

Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-209

Firmware type: Original (unpatched)

Firmware version: E114/ID71

DVD all regions: Yes

BD raw data read: Yes

BD raw metadata read: Yes

Unrestricted read speed: Yes


No disc inserted


[Billycar11]

Hi guys, will my drive work.

Drive Information

Manufacturer: ASUS

Product: BW-16D1H-U

Revision: E114

Serial number: RFDL020701WL

Firmware date: 2017-12-21

Bus encryption flags: 1B

Highest AACS version: 76


LibreDrive Information

Status: Enabled

Drive platform: RS8601

Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-209

Firmware type: Original (unpatched)

Firmware version: E114/ID71

DVD all regions: Yes

BD raw data read: Yes

BD raw metadata read: Yes

Unrestricted read speed: Yes


No disc inserted


Yes but not with this guide as it's a pioneer email me for a flasher see below

[bd-one]

Sorry if this is answered elsewhere/many times in this monster thread. I just purchased and flashed a LG WH14NS40. It came with encrypted 1.05 firmware. Thanks to MakeMKV and the SDFlasher, It flashed just fine to the suggested WH16NS60 1.02MK firmware.

Is the drive safe with this firmware for burning all media? I understand the WH14 is supposed to have 14x speed, whereas the WH16 has 16x speed.

My current Bluray media is limited to 6x, so the drive is not the limiting factor right now as the media dictates the burn speed.

Thanks!

[MartyMcNuts]

Sorry if this is answered elsewhere/many times in this monster thread. I just purchased and flashed a LG WH14NS40. It came with encrypted 1.05 firmware. Thanks to MakeMKV and the SDFlasher, It flashed just fine to the suggested WH16NS60 1.02MK firmware.

Is the drive safe with this firmware for burning all media? I understand the WH14 is supposed to have 14x speed, whereas the WH16 has 16x speed.

My current Bluray media is limited to 6x, so the drive is not the limiting factor right now as the media dictates the burn speed.

Thanks!

Yep, should be fine for reading and writing.