WH16NS40 & HLDS BU40N Experience
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:36 pm
Let me start by saying thanks to all the effort put into getting the Libredrive firmware working in the various optical drives we use. The work you've done is so far beyond my ability to do myself, it is greatly appreciated. Here's my experience with two drives that have come into my possession recently.
LG WH16NS40 with ROM v1.05 - I was able to flash Libredrive using the GUI, and the drive seemed willing to try and decrypt UHD videos, could do some of a disc, but would ultimately fail, unable to read sectors. AFAIK, these aren't marketed as being UHD-capable, so I'm not too put out by it. Perhaps LG has started using lower quality components in their drives, or maybe mine is a one-off incapable of sustained UHD reads. Flashed on a 64-bit Win10 machine.
Hitachi LG HLDS BU40N with v.102 firmware - This took a little more effort to flash, as I hadn't researched it enough, or my research hadn't revealed that v1.02, although a lower version number, is actually a recent firmware release that is encrypted. As such, it shows up on the GUI flasher as unencrypted, I had to manually select encryption to flash the "slim drive" Libredrive firmware properly. Without encryption, it would apparently flash, state success, but would still remain the old firmware. Flashed on a 64-bit Win10 machine.
Thanks again, my foray into 4k ripping begins...
.
LG WH16NS40 with ROM v1.05 - I was able to flash Libredrive using the GUI, and the drive seemed willing to try and decrypt UHD videos, could do some of a disc, but would ultimately fail, unable to read sectors. AFAIK, these aren't marketed as being UHD-capable, so I'm not too put out by it. Perhaps LG has started using lower quality components in their drives, or maybe mine is a one-off incapable of sustained UHD reads. Flashed on a 64-bit Win10 machine.
Hitachi LG HLDS BU40N with v.102 firmware - This took a little more effort to flash, as I hadn't researched it enough, or my research hadn't revealed that v1.02, although a lower version number, is actually a recent firmware release that is encrypted. As such, it shows up on the GUI flasher as unencrypted, I had to manually select encryption to flash the "slim drive" Libredrive firmware properly. Without encryption, it would apparently flash, state success, but would still remain the old firmware. Flashed on a 64-bit Win10 machine.
Thanks again, my foray into 4k ripping begins...
.