Questions about LibreDrive

[squattingcamera]

Hi, I am looking to buy my first drive and have a few questions about LibreDrive.

• As I understand it, LibreDrive enables MakeMKV to read the disc as-is without restrictions. It does not, however, directly allow decrypting any of the contents of the disc and only skips "smaller" annoyances such as region locks. Is that correct?
• LibreDrive is required for (many?) UHD drives, but not for non-UHD drives with non-UHD discs, correct?
• To use LibreDrive, no manual flashing is required, as MakeMKV automatically uploads a firmware blob to the drive's volatile memory. Does this mean, applications other than MakeMKV can use a drive in LibreDrive mode, if MakeMKV has previously uploaded said firmware blob and the drive has not been powered off since then? If yes, what kind of information still needs to be provided to the drive in order to retrieve the VUK for a disc? Is a host key/certificate or anything else required in that case?
• Are there any caveats related to LibreDrive with USB drives versus internal drives, if the drive's name is listed as supported on the What is LibreDrive? page?
• For now, I plan to rip 1080p discs only; should I prefer a LibreDrive-compatible drive when looking for external drives or not?

[MartyMcNuts]

Hi, I am looking to buy my first drive and have a few questions about LibreDrive.

• As I understand it, LibreDrive enables MakeMKV to read the disc as-is without restrictions. It does not, however, directly allow decrypting any of the contents of the disc and only skips "smaller" annoyances such as region locks. Is that correct?
• LibreDrive is required for (many?) UHD drives, but not for non-UHD drives with non-UHD discs, correct?
• To use LibreDrive, no manual flashing is required, as MakeMKV automatically uploads a firmware blob to the drive's volatile memory. Does this mean, applications other than MakeMKV can use a drive in LibreDrive mode, if MakeMKV has previously uploaded said firmware blob and the drive has not been powered off since then? If yes, what kind of information still needs to be provided to the drive in order to retrieve the VUK for a disc? Is a host key/certificate or anything else required in that case?
• Are there any caveats related to LibreDrive with USB drives versus internal drives, if the drive's name is listed as supported on the What is LibreDrive? page?
• For now, I plan to rip 1080p discs only; should I prefer a LibreDrive-compatible drive when looking for external drives or not?

1. Yes but not so much region locks. LibreDrive stops the drive's certificate from being revoked when a newer AACS revision disc is inserted.
2. Libredrive is required for UHD discs but not for other disc types, although it is recommended for blu-ray discs as per above reasoning.
3. Some drives are LibreDrive supported as is, most need to be flashed to enable LibreDrive. Yes, other applications can use the drive while in LibreDrive mode. Nothing changes in regards to the AACS decryption process.
4. No.
5. Yes.

[squattingcamera]

Thank you very much!