Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2026

[-Jim-]

Hi Gents,

Another Newbie to MakeMKV and the world of Flashing a Blu-ray Writer to make it read UHD. So here's the story.

I've been contemplating the move ever since Redfox / Slysoft failed (again) leaving a gap in my capabilities. I primarily rip Concerts that I buy, so I can take them to the Family Cabin and not worry about them. My preference has been to shrink them to fit on a single disk (Blu-ray or DVD depending on source) with the best 5.1 sound available. (The Cabin has a small 5.1 system with a Sony BX-510 Blu-ray Player.)

Things changed, and now I find myself buying 4K UHD disks, so time to move on to a new (to me) process. After reading hours of posts here, and viewing as many YouTubes as I could find, I think I understand the basics enough to get started. I've downloaded Setup_MakeMKV_v1.18.1, SDFtool Flasher (v1.3.6), HandBrake 1.10.0, and "The all you need firmware pack". The new concept is to Rip Blu-rays and 4K UHD Blu-rays and burn them on a single layer Blu-ray at 1080p with a great Audio Track. (My days of buying DVD concerts are done primarily due o the lossy audio tracks.)

Yesterday I came across a deal for an Asus BW-16D1HT so I bit the bullet and ordered it. It'll take it a while to get here, so that has given me time to pull everything I need together, as I know I'll be eager to get going once it arrives.

I've Flashed many Optical Drives over the years, but what I've seen on the SDFtool Flasher looks so easy. However, some of the videos indicate there's lots of different firmware in "The all you need firmware pack" whereas what I pulled down yesterday only has 5 => 4 LGs but thankfully the Asus BW-16D1HT is the 5th one. (What happened to all the rest?) Anyway the question is this firmware is listed as last modified 2020-10-01. Is this still applicable to a new Asus BW-16D1HT in 2025?

I just want to ensure I don't make a mistake and brick my new Optical Drive.

Your guidance would be appreciated. Thanks for the assist.

Regards,

Jim

[dcoke22]

Hi Gents,

Another Newbie to MakeMKV and the world of Flashing a Blu-ray Writer to make it read UHD. So here's the story.

I've been contemplating the move ever since Redfox / Slysoft failed (again) leaving a gap in my capabilities. I primarily rip Concerts that I buy, so I can take them to the Family Cabin and not worry about them. My preference has been to shrink them to fit on a single disk (Blu-ray or DVD depending on source) with the best 5.1 sound available. (The Cabin has a small 5.1 system with a Sony BX-510 Blu-ray Player.)

Things changed, and now I find myself buying 4K UHD disks, so time to move on to a new (to me) process. After reading hours of posts here, and viewing as many YouTubes as I could find, I think I understand the basics enough to get started. I've downloaded Setup_MakeMKV_v1.18.1, SDFtool Flasher (v1.3.6), HandBrake 1.10.0, and "The all you need firmware pack". The new concept is to Rip Blu-rays and 4K UHD Blu-rays and burn them on a single layer Blu-ray at 1080p with a great Audio Track. (My days of buying DVD concerts are done primarily due o the lossy audio tracks.)

Yesterday I came across a deal for an Asus BW-16D1HT so I bit the bullet and ordered it. It'll take it a while to get here, so that has given me time to pull everything I need together, as I know I'll be eager to get going once it arrives.

I've Flashed many Optical Drives over the years, but what I've seen on the SDFtool Flasher looks so easy. However, some of the videos indicate there's lots of different firmware in "The all you need firmware pack" whereas what I pulled down yesterday only has 5 => 4 LGs but thankfully the Asus BW-16D1HT is the 5th one. (What happened to all the rest?) Anyway the question is this firmware is listed as last modified 2020-10-01. Is this still applicable to a new Asus BW-16D1HT in 2025?

I just want to ensure I don't make a mistake and brick my new Optical Drive.

Your guidance would be appreciated. Thanks for the assist.

Regards,

Jim

The very first post in this thread is maintained and kept up to date. Assuming your drive passes the requirements laid out at the top of the post, the Guide says the Asus BW-16D1HT on any Firmware directly to > Asus BW-16D1HT 3.10MK via the SDFtool Flasher.

The thing to keep in my regarding firmware is that manufacturers have not been updating the firmware for their devices in order to make things better. They've been updating the firmware in an attempt to close the holes in the firmware to make it harder to rip discs. On Pioneer drives at the moment, if the firmware is too new, the drives can't rip 4K UHDs and the firmware can not be downgraded; you're stuck (for the moment).

[-Jim-]

Thanks for the quick reply. The issue is not only the date being 5 years ago, but the name of the file is "ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin"

I was expecting it to be something like Asus BW-16D1HT 3.10MK.bin

My mindset is from the instructions:

Recommended Firmware to flash for MakeMKV: Asus BW-16D1HT on any Firmware directly to > Asus BW-16D1HT 3.10MK from viewtopic.php?p=74718#p74718

I'm just trying to be extra cautious.

By the way, I'm assuming that once Flashed correctly, the now capable UHD Drive will be available to be run by other UHD capable programs like PowerDVD, DVDFab, etc., without MakeMKV running in the background. Am I correct here?

Thanks for the assist. I do appreciate the effort.

Regards,

Jim

[MartyMcNuts]

Thanks for the quick reply. The issue is not only the date being 5 years ago, but the name of the file is "ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin"

I was expecting it to be something like Asus BW-16D1HT 3.10MK.bin

My mindset is from the instructions:

Recommended Firmware to flash for MakeMKV: Asus BW-16D1HT on any Firmware directly to > Asus BW-16D1HT 3.10MK from viewtopic.php?p=74718#p74718

I'm just trying to be extra cautious.

By the way, I'm assuming that once Flashed correctly, the now capable UHD Drive will be available to be run by other UHD capable programs like PowerDVD, DVDFab, etc., without MakeMKV running in the background. Am I correct here?

Thanks for the assist. I do appreciate the effort.

Regards,

Jim

It's the exact same firmware! It's just easier to say MK than WM01601-211901041014.

No, MK firmware only works with MakeMKV and Xreveal for UHD discs. For UHD ripping with other software such as DVDFab you should flash the drive to: BW-16D1HT 3.10-MK then to either BW-16D1HT 3.02 or WH16NS60 1.00. These two are original firmware, not MK.

It will never work with PowerDVD for UHD discs! Direct UHD disc playback is never recommended as it will wear out your drive rather quickly, though, if you must, use an unofficial player such as VLC, MPC-HC among others.

[mmortal03]

Direct UHD disc playback is never recommended as it will wear out your drive rather quickly, though, if you must, use an unofficial player such as VLC, MPC-HC among others.

Why will it wear the drive out quickly? Are there other threads in this forum discussing this issue?

[MartyMcNuts]

Direct UHD disc playback is never recommended as it will wear out your drive rather quickly, though, if you must, use an unofficial player such as VLC, MPC-HC among others.

Why will it wear the drive out quickly? Are there other threads in this forum discussing this issue?

Well, rip it once compared with playing it possibly/probably multiple times??

[-Jim-]

It's the exact same firmware! It's just easier to say MK than WM01601-211901041014.

No, MK firmware only works with MakeMKV and Xreveal for UHD discs. For UHD ripping with other software such as DVDFab you should flash the drive to: BW-16D1HT 3.10-MK then to either BW-16D1HT 3.02 or WH16NS60 1.00. These two are original firmware, not MK.

It will never work with PowerDVD for UHD discs! Direct UHD disc playback is never recommended as it will wear out your drive rather quickly, though, if you must, use an unofficial player such as VLC, MPC-HC among others.
[/quote]

Yikes! That's a curve ball Not that I'm any sort of expert but I've never heard of Firmware that's Software dependent before. (Shows just how far behind the curve I am...)

Currently in my Main Box I have a couple old Optical Drives. A Samsung TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223F, and an LG HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 which I used in my Slysoft / Redfox days. (I migrated them both into my latest computer rebuild a year or so ago.) The LG does work for (non- 4K UHD) disks with the DVDFab Demo version, hence the reference earlier. I do have MPC-HC and CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra 24 installed.

It sounds like I may have made a hasty purchase on the Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray Burner based on my false assumptions, and have a decision to make before any firmware changes are made.

Thanks for the assist, and clarification on the Firmware name. I certainly do appreciate the effort.

Regards,

Jim

[MartyMcNuts]

It's the exact same firmware! It's just easier to say MK than WM01601-211901041014.

No, MK firmware only works with MakeMKV and Xreveal for UHD discs. For UHD ripping with other software such as DVDFab you should flash the drive to: BW-16D1HT 3.10-MK then to either BW-16D1HT 3.02 or WH16NS60 1.00. These two are original firmware, not MK.

It will never work with PowerDVD for UHD discs! Direct UHD disc playback is never recommended as it will wear out your drive rather quickly, though, if you must, use an unofficial player such as VLC, MPC-HC among others.

Yikes! That's a curve ball Not that I'm any sort of expert but I've never heard of Firmware that's Software dependent before. (Shows just how far behind the curve I am...)

Currently in my Main Box I have a couple old Optical Drives. A Samsung TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223F, and an LG HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 which I used in my Slysoft / Redfox days. (I migrated them both into my latest computer rebuild a year or so ago.) The LG does work for (non- 4K UHD) disks with the DVDFab Demo version, hence the reference earlier. I do have MPC-HC and CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra 24 installed.

It sounds like I may have made a hasty purchase on the Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray Burner based on my false assumptions, and have a decision to make before any firmware changes are made.

Thanks for the assist, and clarification on the Firmware name. I certainly do appreciate the effort.

Regards,

Jim
[/quote]

It's not that it's software depenent, it's just that DVDFab is shit and MK firmware doesn't work with it.

If you flash the BW-16D1HT to 3.10-MK then to 3.02 it will work with UHD discs on all popular ripping software (MakeMKV, Xreveal, DVDFab, AnyDVD) but you cannot use PowerDVD to play UHD discs. I'm not up with PowerDVD versions but Cyberlink removed the ability to playback UHD discs a couple of years ago. You can however, use an unofficial player such as VLC, MPC-HC etc. Although, direct UHD playback is not recommended.

[-Jim-]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like flashing it twice is the best of both worlds.

Will the SDFtool Flasher (v1.3.6) handle the Flashing to BW-16D1HT 3.02 if I can find it? Or would WH16NS60 1.00 add more capability /stability instead?

I just found "All You Need Firmware Pack (MartyMcNuts)" from 2023. It has DE_ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.02.bin and DE_LG_WH16NS60_1.00.bin. Are they suitable?

Perhaps you are not up on PowerDVD 24 Ultra? They claim 4K Ultra HD with Hardware Acceleration: Intel 3rd generation Core i5. They claim 8K Video Playback with an Intel 7th Generation Core i7 (Kaby Lake) with HD (UHD) Graphics 630.

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powe ... en_US.html

Thanks again.

Regards,

Jim

[MartyMcNuts]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like flashing it twice is the best of both worlds.

Will the SDFtool Flasher (v1.3.6) handle the Flashing to BW-16D1HT 3.02 if I can find it? Or would WH16NS60 1.00 add more capability /stability instead?

I just found "All You Need Firmware Pack (MartyMcNuts)" from 2023. It has DE_ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.02.bin and DE_LG_WH16NS60_1.00.bin. Are they suitable?

Perhaps you are not up on PowerDVD 24 Ultra? They claim 4K Ultra HD with Hardware Acceleration: Intel 3rd generation Core i5. They claim 8K Video Playback with an Intel 7th Generation Core i7 (Kaby Lake) with HD (UHD) Graphics 630.

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powe ... en_US.html

Thanks again.

Regards,

Jim

Either of those firmware files will work. The WH16NS60 1.00, being official UHD drive firmware, will also remove the sleep bug but you may have trouble if you want to burn discs. If you don't care about writing disccs and are only interested in ripping discs (like 99% of us!) it will be fine.

Don't forget to flash the drive to either BW-16D1HT 3.10-MK (or WH16NS60 1.02-MK) first to remove the existing firmware encryption.

So UHD playback is still in PowerDVD but only for those older Intel CPU's from about 6-7 years ago?!? A Lot of folk use more modern PC's nowadays! I did read somewhere a while back that UHD playback was removed from PowerDVD and only works in an older version of it.

[AlTheRipper]

Hey everyone i tried to post a reply here before creating an entirely new post. I've bought a Verbatim 43888 on Amazon and makemkv specified this drive info:

"Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/rdisk4
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.05
Serial number:
Firmware date: 2124-04-23 13:47
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 77

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

No disc inserted"

I am a complete noob, have never flashed before, can someone help me download the right firmware to flash libredrive and enable ripping 4k UHD's?

Also, am I correct in assuming this will void my warranty? Could i theoretically factory reset the thing?

Thanks in advance

[d00zah]

Hey everyone i tried to post a reply here before creating an entirely new post. I've bought a Verbatim 43888 on Amazon and makemkv specified this drive info:

"Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/rdisk4
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.05
Serial number:
Firmware date: 2124-04-23 13:47
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 77

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

No disc inserted"

I am a complete noob, have never flashed before, can someone help me download the right firmware to flash libredrive and enable ripping 4k UHD's?

Also, am I correct in assuming this will void my warranty? Could i theoretically factory reset the thing?

Thanks in advance

The 1st post of this thread is maintained/current & includes instructions/links to FW & tools/instructional videos.

Hint... your current FW is encrypted & will require special treatment to flash the recommended FW.

[Toscaclarinet]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like flashing it twice is the best of both worlds.

Will the SDFtool Flasher (v1.3.6) handle the Flashing to BW-16D1HT 3.02 if I can find it? Or would WH16NS60 1.00 add more capability /stability instead?

I just found "All You Need Firmware Pack (MartyMcNuts)" from 2023. It has DE_ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.02.bin and DE_LG_WH16NS60_1.00.bin. Are they suitable?

Perhaps you are not up on PowerDVD 24 Ultra? They claim 4K Ultra HD with Hardware Acceleration: Intel 3rd generation Core i5. They claim 8K Video Playback with an Intel 7th Generation Core i7 (Kaby Lake) with HD (UHD) Graphics 630.

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powe ... en_US.html

Thanks again.

Regards,

Jim

Either of those firmware files will work. The WH16NS60 1.00, being official UHD drive firmware, will also remove the sleep bug but you may have trouble if you want to burn discs. If you don't care about writing disccs and are only interested in ripping discs (like 99% of us!) it will be fine.

Don't forget to flash the drive to either BW-16D1HT 3.10-MK (or WH16NS60 1.02-MK) first to remove the existing firmware encryption.

So UHD playback is still in PowerDVD but only for those older Intel CPU's from about 6-7 years ago?!? A Lot of folk use more modern PC's nowadays! I did read somewhere a while back that UHD playback was removed from PowerDVD and only works in an older version of it.

Marty, I think PowerDVD is being misleading in what they are advertising. New versions of PowerDVD will not play UHD discs directly. Older versions of 22 played UHD discs via the "official" SGX method (8th-10th gen Intel cpus), but patches towards the end of 2023 removed capability, and now unless you have a system already set up and don't update PowerDVD, change BIOS or change CPU there is no way of activating official UHD playback due to the Intel servers being terminated. The UHD playback advertised seems to refer to 4k files rather than discs, and that is not CPU specific.

[MartyMcNuts]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like flashing it twice is the best of both worlds.

Will the SDFtool Flasher (v1.3.6) handle the Flashing to BW-16D1HT 3.02 if I can find it? Or would WH16NS60 1.00 add more capability /stability instead?

I just found "All You Need Firmware Pack (MartyMcNuts)" from 2023. It has DE_ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.02.bin and DE_LG_WH16NS60_1.00.bin. Are they suitable?

Perhaps you are not up on PowerDVD 24 Ultra? They claim 4K Ultra HD with Hardware Acceleration: Intel 3rd generation Core i5. They claim 8K Video Playback with an Intel 7th Generation Core i7 (Kaby Lake) with HD (UHD) Graphics 630.

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powe ... en_US.html

Thanks again.

Regards,

Jim

Either of those firmware files will work. The WH16NS60 1.00, being official UHD drive firmware, will also remove the sleep bug but you may have trouble if you want to burn discs. If you don't care about writing disccs and are only interested in ripping discs (like 99% of us!) it will be fine.

Don't forget to flash the drive to either BW-16D1HT 3.10-MK (or WH16NS60 1.02-MK) first to remove the existing firmware encryption.

So UHD playback is still in PowerDVD but only for those older Intel CPU's from about 6-7 years ago?!? A Lot of folk use more modern PC's nowadays! I did read somewhere a while back that UHD playback was removed from PowerDVD and only works in an older version of it.

Marty, I think PowerDVD is being misleading in what they are advertising. New versions of PowerDVD will not play UHD discs directly. Older versions of 22 played UHD discs via the "official" SGX method (8th-10th gen Intel cpus), but patches towards the end of 2023 removed capability, and now unless you have a system already set up and don't update PowerDVD, change BIOS or change CPU there is no way of activating official UHD playback due to the Intel servers being terminated. The UHD playback advertised seems to refer to 4k files rather than discs, and that is not CPU specific.

Ah, ok, 4k files. That makes sense. I thought they removed UHD disc playback a few versions ago!

[osvii]

Hello

So i have a BH16NS55 which i have flashed (connected directly to SATA and power) and works.
But since my Case doesn't support a drive bay i want to connect the drive via USB, its a pain every time to take the back of the case out and connect the drive.
I'm from Romania so the suggested "USB enclosures/sata adapters that work with optical drives and flashing" are very expensive with the transport + vat + taxes.

I have two options
1. Will this work for everything else other than flashing (since its already flashed)
https://www.vinted.ro/items/6867158701- ... er=catalog
2. An SATA Data/Power Extension cable and find a way to get it out from the back of the case, but will look so bad. Maybe find and print an enclosure
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001155 ... 02335147_2

What are your suggestions