LG WH16NS40 Flashing Success

[trleith]

After reading the Ultimate Flashing Guide about twelve times, I have managed to flash a LG WH16NS40 to WH16NS60. LibreDrive is enabled, direct access, unlimited speed. Everything looks great. Many thanks to everyone who made this possible. I'd bought the drive before I ever dreamed to acquire a 4K disc, or knew anything about flashing.

I seem to be getting about 4X speed ripping UHD; iostat says 17,000~18,000 rkB/s. I hoping for better, but I gather this is well within the expected range.

The Journey

I'm using MakeMKV within ARM (Automatic Ripping Machine) only, so I did the flashing operation from a command line inside the Docker container. It worked fine after copying files (SDF.bin, the firmware image for the drive) into the Docker container. One thing to note: you tell MakeMKV the path or directory where you want to save your dumped firmware. It chooses the filename; you can't override it.

Saving your old firmware looks like this

Code: Select all

trl@svr2:~$ sudo -i
[sudo] password for trl:
root@svr2:~/LGWH16NS40# docker exec -it arm-rippers bash

# Now I'm root in the Docker container
root@svr2:~# mkdir LGWH16NS40
root@svr2:~# cd LGWH16NS40/
# In another window, download sdf.bin and the Everything You Need firmware pack. Put these things in this directory.
root@3bff7f350e08:/home/arm/LGWH16NS40# /usr/local/bin/makemkvcon f -f ./sdf.bin --drive=dev_21:2 dump

Command produced 1 file(s)
  #00: size=70Kb name=dump_user_HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH16NS40_1.05_212005061440_M41MALA1616.tar

Flashing looks like this

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root@3bff7f350e08:/home/arm/LGWH16NS40# /usr/local/bin/makemkvcon f -f ./sdf.bin --drive=dev_21:2 rawflash enc --in=HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin

Reading input file HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Sending image in encrypted format
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH16NS40_1.05_212005061440_M41MALA1616
Ready to write drive flash memory.
Type "yes" to continue, "no" to abort
yes
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
 100% Operation finished
Operation started: Programming flash
 100% Operation finished
Done successfully
root@c87852fe1188:/home/arm/LGWH16NS40# ls -la
total 3504
drwxrwxr-x  2 root arm    4096 Dec  1 22:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 arm  arm    4096 Dec  4 15:41 ..
-rw-------  1 root arm   72192 Dec  1 23:15 dump_user_HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH16NS40_1.05_212005061440_M41MALA1616.tar
-rwxrwxr-x  1 root arm 2097152 Sep  1  2019 HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin
-rwxrwxr-x  1 root arm 1408816 Dec  1 22:54 sdf.bin
root@c87852fe1188:/home/arm/LGWH16NS40#

Verification looks like this

ARM comes with a symbolic link that equates "sdftool" with "makemkvcon". I used that syntax here.

Code: Select all

root@3bff7f350e08:/home/arm/LGWH16NS40# /usr/local/bin/sdftool --drive=dev_21:2 --info
SDF.bin version: 0x0097

Drive Tool SDF present

Drive Specific SDF present

[Drive Specific SDF] Embedded Info Strings:
8000:LibreDrive Information

8013:Status
8105:Enabled

8001:Drive platform
:MT1959

8002:Firmware type
8107:Patched (microcode access re-enabled)

8003:Firmware version
:1.02

8005:DVD all regions
8100:Yes

8006:BD raw data read
8100:Yes

8007:BD raw metadata read
8100:Yes

8009:Unrestricted read speed
8100:Yes


[Drive Specific SDF] Embedded Status Message:
8099:Using LibreDrive mode (v%1 id=%2)
:06.3
:7FA2657C7667


Identification SDF present

[Identification SDF] Embedded Info Strings:
8000:LibreDrive Information

8013:Status
8102:Possible, not yet enabled

8001:Drive platform
:MT1959


[Identification SDF] Drive autodetect string:
mtk:19:59:JB8 :HL-DT-ST:BD-RE  WH16NS60 1.02:NM00100:-

root@3bff7f350e08:/home/arm/LGWH16NS40#

I don't know why it says LibreDrive is not enabled. When you run MakeMKV later, it says it's using it. I would highlight that for you, but the BBS doesn't let you use color inside a "code" environment.

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[12-04-2023 06:33:46] DEBUG ARM: makemkv.run_makemkv Ripping with the following command: makemkvcon mkv --directio=true --cache=2048 --debug -r --progress=/home/arm/logs/progress/402.log --messages=-stdout dev:/dev/sr0 all /home/arm/media/raw/The-Last-Waltz --minlength=0
MSG:1005,0,1,"MakeMKV v1.17.3 linux(x64-release) started","%1 started","MakeMKV v1.17.3 linux(x64-release)"
MSG:1004,131072,1,"Debug logging enabled, log will be saved as file:///home/arm/MakeMKV_log.txt","Debug logging enabled, log will be saved as %1","file:///home/arm/MakeMKV_log.txt"
MSG:1003,32,3,"DEBUG: Code 0 at j)b;2hEW?9IdZYnmhdZN9y:29393631","DEBUG: Code %1 at %2:%3","0","j)b;2hEW?9IdZYnmhdZN9y","29393631"
MSG:5075,131072,2,"The new version 1.17.5 is available for download at http://www.makemkv.com/download/","The new version %1 is available for download at %2","1.17.5","http://www.makemkv.com/download/"
DRV:0,0,999,0,"DVD+R-DL HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22LS40 LL00 DCF3AFEB8990","","/dev/sr1"
DRV:1,2,999,12,"BD-RE HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH16NS60 1.02 M41MALA1616","THE_LAST_WALTZ","/dev/sr0"
DRV:2,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:3,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:4,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:5,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:6,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:7,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:8,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:9,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:10,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:11,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:12,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:13,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:14,256,999,0,"","",""
DRV:15,256,999,0,"","",""
MSG:1011,0,1,"Using LibreDrive mode (v06.3 id=7FA2657C7667)","%1","Using LibreDrive mode (v06.3 id=7FA2657C7667)"
MSG:3007,0,0,"Using direct disc access mode","Using direct disc access mode"
MSG:5085,0,0,"Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files.","Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files."
MSG:3307,0,2,"File 00001.mpls was added as title #0","File %1 was added as title #%2","00001.mpls","0"
MSG:3307,0,2,"File 00230.m2ts was added as title #1","File %1 was added as title #%2","00230.m2ts","1"

[TheAlmightyCurd]

I have the same drive and UHD worked on 1.17.4 but after the 1.17.5 update UHD discs stopped working.

[MartletM]

I have a WH16NS40. I think mine was working with the 1.17.5.

Have two issues. My bought MakeMKV licence expired, can't seem to contact anyone to resolve.

The CDROM laser seems to have failed in mine. Was going through some old Audio CDs and it stopped recognizing them, after about 3 discs. Still recognizes Blu-Ray and UHD disc's.

[Woodstock]

The paid MakeMKV license does not expire, only the beta license does.

Make sure when you paste the license from the email into MakeMKV, though, you ONLY get the key itself - some email programs also copy in formatting information that causes problems with reading the key.

I've been doing "copy-paste" operations using Windows Notepad to "fix" this, but Microsoft is "fixing" Notepad to "fix" this "problem", so no telling how long that will work.

[MartletM]

Thanks. The license thing seems to have resolved itself with a fresh install (of the same version).

[dasunsrule32]

This looks like you are coming from the LG fw 1.05. Is that correct? I got a new one from Amazon today and it is loaded with v1.05 as well. So should I be fine in getting it downgraded and loaded with the libre firmware?

[Lumisheer]

@dasunsrule32, thinking of buying this drive myself from Amazon.
Could you please let me know if you get this working and the steps you took? I'll buy if it works.
Thanks!

[dasunsrule32]

@dasunsrule32, thinking of buying this drive myself from Amazon.
Could you please let me know if you get this working and the steps you took? I'll buy if it works.
Thanks!

Yeah, I'm going to attempt it today with the automated tool. If that doesn't work, I'll try this method.

[dasunsrule32]

@dasunsrule32, thinking of buying this drive myself from Amazon.
Could you please let me know if you get this working and the steps you took? I'll buy if it works.
Thanks!

Ok, I just finished flashing using SDFtool Flasher and here is the output from MakeMKV:

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Drive Information
OS device name: E:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH16NS60
Revision: 1.02
Serial number: KL8NAI95823
Firmware date: 2118-10-29 19:36
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 15

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.02
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

Looks like everything is working fine. Going to test a bluray and DVD now to make sure it's working as intended.

[dasunsrule32]

@dasunsrule32, thinking of buying this drive myself from Amazon.
Could you please let me know if you get this working and the steps you took? I'll buy if it works.
Thanks!

Just ripped the Jane Eyre (2011) bluray for my wife. It took about 26 minutes for the entire rip using MakeMKV. Pretty solid. Drive is surprisingly quiet as well.

[Lumisheer]

Thank you for responding. I've ordered it hehe