Is the BU40N still the best overall choice?

[cxplay]

Hello everyone, I’m new here, and I’m from China. I recently needed to back up some Blu-ray discs, which is what got me started exploring this field.

Since China is the world’s largest manufacturer of optical drives, there are actually a lot of options here, but it’s hard to guarantee quality unless you go for brand-new machines, which would be a waste of money. After doing some research, it seems the BU40N and BU50N are still among the top choices? Is there a significant difference in lifespan between slim optical drives and 5.25-inch drives?

[barnstarmer]

LG and Pioneer are no longer manufacturing optical media drives for PC's.

The BU40N is one of the more inexpensive drives available that is capable of ripping blu-rays and UHD's with libredrive firmware.

There are a few tradeoffs with the drive.

1) It's a slim drive. Slim drives are known to cause scratches on discs if they're not provided consistent power input.
2) The only firmwares available for the BU40N include the "jamless playback" feature, which isn't ideal if you're trying to recover data from a damaged disc.

I prefer LG internal drives with the MT1959 chipset and ASUS libredrive firmware, and Pioneer internal drives that can read UHD's with libredrive firmware provided by coopervid and billycarr11. These firmwares do not have "jamless playback". ASUS firmware has the "sleep bug", but it's not an issue if I'm using Makemkv or Xreveal. Pioneer firmwares don't have the sleep bug.

[cxplay]

LG and Pioneer are no longer manufacturing optical media drives for PC's.

The BU40N is one of the more inexpensive drives available that is capable of ripping blu-rays and UHD's with libredrive firmware.

There are a few tradeoffs with the drive.

1) It's a slim drive. Slim drives are known to cause scratches on discs if they're not provided consistent power input.
2) The only firmwares available for the BU40N include the "jamless playback" feature, which isn't ideal if you're trying to recover data from a damaged disc.

I prefer LG internal drives with the MT1959 chipset and ASUS libredrive firmware, and Pioneer internal drives that can read UHD's with libredrive firmware provided by coopervid and billycarr11. These firmwares do not have "jamless playback". ASUS firmware has the "sleep bug", but it's not an issue if I'm using Makemkv or Xreveal. Pioneer firmwares don't have the sleep bug.

Thank you for your experience, I will study it carefully!

[wtof_]

目前这个时间点我建议使用5.25in的华硕的BW-16D1HT（实际上机芯是LG的光驱，华硕贴牌），淘宝上应该还能买到一些全新的库存。现在的机箱普遍没有光驱位，所以可能需要额外配一个USB光驱盒。
固件也很好刷，如果只是用MakeMKV抓盘的话sleep bug的问题我个人用下来影响不大。

Translate：

At this point, I would recommend the 5.25-inch ASUS BW-16D1HT. Internally, it actually uses an LG optical drive mechanism, with ASUS branding on it. You should still be able to find some brand-new old stock on Taobao.

However, most modern PC cases no longer have 5.25-inch optical drive bays, so you may also need to get an external USB enclosure for it.

The firmware is also quite easy to flash. If you are only using it to rip discs with MakeMKV, the sleep bug has not been a big issue in my personal experience.

[Mucio]

Hi.
What firmware should I install on my LG HLDS BU40N.ARAA10B? Should I install (HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.03-NM00000-211810241934), (DE_LG_BU40N_1.03_MK), or finally (DE_LG_BU40N_1.00)?

[Sayaka]

First, you should open MakeMKV and post your drive info.

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.03-NM00000-211810241934

DE_LG_BU40N_1.03_MK

These two are actually the exact same file, just with different names.

Please don't flash anything just yet, though. Post your drive info here first (if you don't want to post the serial number that's fine, we don't need that one).

It should be something that looks like this, roughly :

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.00
Serial number: [redacted]
Firmware date: 2116-12-20 15:28
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 82

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.00
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

No disc inserted

[Mucio]

I'll provide information about the drive, but I probably won't receive the package until Friday. Thanks

[Mucio]

It provides information about the drive.

I connected the burner to the USB-C port on the back of my computer. It's red on the Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z790 EAGLE AX, because I heard that the LG BU40N burner requires a stable connection and power when ripping 4K UHD Blu-rays. Did I do the right thing?

[Sayaka]

I connected the burner to the USB-C port on the back of my computer. It's red on the Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z790 EAGLE AX, because I heard that the LG BU40N burner requires a stable connection and power when ripping 4K UHD Blu-rays. Did I do the right thing?

I will let someone with more experience regarding SATA to USB-C connections answer that.

It provides information about the drive.

You are using Windows, so I would recommend flashing to DE_LG_BU40N_1.03_MK.bin with encryption (SDFTool Flasher should auto-detect the need for encryption though). If you have a second computer with Linux and also require Linux compatibility, and/or you need DVDFab compatibility on Windows, you should then flash to DE_LG_BU40N_1.00.bin without encryption after doing the previous flash. However, you should also be aware of the fact that DE_LG_BU40N_1.00.bin does have more trouble with some difficult discs.

EDIT : To clarify, you would just use "Write" in SDFTool Flasher. No bootloader flash, no RECOVER Drive. This would be the equivalent of a rawflash main,enc,slim for DE_LG_BU40N_1.03_MK.bin followed by a rawflash main,slim (if needed) for DE_LG_BU40N_1.00.bin. No rawflash full here.

(You might already be aware of this, but you should also flash the drive as little as possible, so constantly switching between firmwares would not be a good idea. Pick one and try to stick with it as much as possible.)

[Mucio]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm using Windows 11.

[Mucio]

Current drive information. I also restarted the computer.

[Mucio]

Something went wrong with the attachment previously.
Updated drive information. I also restarted my computer.

[Sayaka]

Congratulations ! LibreDrive is now enabled and your drive can now read UHDs as well.

[PapaReese]

I appear to have a similar drive:

Drive informatie
Naam OS-apparaat: I:
Huidig profiel: BD-ROM
Fabrikant: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revisie: 1.05
Serienummer: ============
Firmware datum: 2124-04-23 13:47
Bus encryptie flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 82

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

Disc Informatie
Label: THE WARNING
Tijdstempel: 2026-04-13 15:28:39
Beveiliging: AACS2.0/C v82
Data capaciteit: 91.77 Gb
Disctype: BD-ROM UHD
Aantal lagen: 3
Bus encryptie flags: 80

It is a "Verbatim Ultra HD 4K External Slimline Blue-ray Writer" with USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector.

SDFtool Flasher detects a MT1959 Platform with encrypted firmware. When I select "DE_LG_BU40_1.03_MK.bin" to start flashing, it immediately returns the following error: "Command produced error code 0xff056103"

I am somewhat drowning in information here, so if someone could point me in the right direction, I'd be ever so grateful.

[Billycar11]

I appear to have a similar drive:

Drive informatie
Naam OS-apparaat: I:
Huidig profiel: BD-ROM
Fabrikant: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revisie: 1.05
Serienummer: ============
Firmware datum: 2124-04-23 13:47
Bus encryptie flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 82

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

Disc Informatie
Label: THE WARNING
Tijdstempel: 2026-04-13 15:28:39
Beveiliging: AACS2.0/C v82
Data capaciteit: 91.77 Gb
Disctype: BD-ROM UHD
Aantal lagen: 3
Bus encryptie flags: 80

It is a "Verbatim Ultra HD 4K External Slimline Blue-ray Writer" with USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector.

SDFtool Flasher detects a MT1959 Platform with encrypted firmware. When I select "DE_LG_BU40_1.03_MK.bin" to start flashing, it immediately returns the following error: "Command produced error code 0xff056103"

I am somewhat drowning in information here, so if someone could point me in the right direction, I'd be ever so grateful.

take the disc out