HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N

Discussion of LibreDrive mode, compatible drives and firmwares
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uryyq
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2025 2:55 pm

HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N

Post by uryyq »

Hello everyone...

I stumbled across something really interesting to me, which is owning a Blu-ray disc and the player itself, I had a HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N from Dell OEM, I bought this at a used market and it found this forum by trying to play one of my Blu-ray collection on my BD drive. According to MakeMKV software, I am running the GA08 firmware, which is kind of odd because this is my hardware revision, not the firmware itself. I tried using other disc ripping software and it shows the same thing. (the firmware)

Since nobody covered about this hardware revision, the GA08. I am thinking of updating to the latest firmware but I am not ready yet because I don't want to risk bricking the optical drive. But, what I know from my test is that this firmware is possibly earlier like around 2014-2015? The latest AACS 1.0 is at v43. I am only limited to playing older Blu-ray disc with a lower AACS version.


I have some questions:

1) Is it safe to flash an official HL firmware inside this Dell OEM? Will it brick? This drive is made by HL but it was a Dell OEM so we can expect this drive to be a Dell OEM which they used their own version of the firmware, possibly some slight changes.

2) Do you think that this BH40N should be updated to the latest version? I kind of want to rip Blu-ray in the future. But I believe that I am running the older firmware because the Device Manager said 'GA08' as the firmware, very strange.

3) When updating to custom firmware, you must backup your firmware if the flashing process went wrong?

4) Even this drive using the MT1939 chipset, it's not guaranteed to work when crossflashing a firmware of a different drives despite having the same chipset like this? It would resulted the drive to be unstable & bricked?
Coopervid
Posts: 2909
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:32 pm

Re: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N

Post by Coopervid »

uryyq wrote:
Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:31 pm
Hello everyone...

I stumbled across something really interesting to me, which is owning a Blu-ray disc and the player itself, I had a HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N from Dell OEM, I bought this at a used market and it found this forum by trying to play one of my Blu-ray collection on my BD drive. According to MakeMKV software, I am running the GA08 firmware, which is kind of odd because this is my hardware revision, not the firmware itself. I tried using other disc ripping software and it shows the same thing. (the firmware)

Since nobody covered about this hardware revision, the GA08. I am thinking of updating to the latest firmware but I am not ready yet because I don't want to risk bricking the optical drive. But, what I know from my test is that this firmware is possibly earlier like around 2014-2015? The latest AACS 1.0 is at v43. I am only limited to playing older Blu-ray disc with a lower AACS version.


I have some questions:

1) Is it safe to flash an official HL firmware inside this Dell OEM? Will it brick? This drive is made by HL but it was a Dell OEM so we can expect this drive to be a Dell OEM which they used their own version of the firmware, possibly some slight changes.

2) Do you think that this BH40N should be updated to the latest version? I kind of want to rip Blu-ray in the future. But I believe that I am running the older firmware because the Device Manager said 'GA08' as the firmware, very strange.

3) When updating to custom firmware, you must backup your firmware if the flashing process went wrong?

4) Even this drive using the MT1939 chipset, it's not guaranteed to work when crossflashing a firmware of a different drives despite having the same chipset like this? It would resulted the drive to be unstable & bricked?
As a prerequisite you should post your Makemkv info. MT1939 drives can't be flashed to be UHD compatible. DO NOT TRY!
uryyq
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2025 2:55 pm

Re: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N

Post by uryyq »

Image

I am sorry for the previous post, which I stated the drive to be 'GA08' which is non-existent, anyways, the correct firmware is the GA03 as you can see from the screenshot I attached. Should have to be more careful next time. But what I know that there are some people who actually covered about this drive before this post.
Coopervid
Posts: 2909
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:32 pm

Re: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N

Post by Coopervid »

Not flashable for UHD and not possible to enable Libredrive.
uryyq
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2025 2:55 pm

Re: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N

Post by uryyq »

I won't be using this for 'UHD hacks' on this drive. But the firmware am I running is quite dated, I want to update this to the latest firmware but the latest firmware which is A1B2, doesn't enable you to 'go back' or downgrade to older firmware, I need the last firmware for this drive that is compatible with LibreDrive.
Coopervid
Posts: 2909
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:32 pm

Re: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH40N

Post by Coopervid »

uryyq wrote:
Tue Jun 24, 2025 1:13 pm
I won't be using this for 'UHD hacks' on this drive. But the firmware am I running is quite dated, I want to update this to the latest firmware but the latest firmware which is A1B2, doesn't enable you to 'go back' or downgrade to older firmware, I need the last firmware for this drive that is compatible with LibreDrive.
There is no firmware for MT1939 that is Libredrive compatible.
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