Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2023

[Billycar11]

Come on man! Just say no to Amazon give the sellers on this board your business before making the little bald man richer!
It’s all about community here! Sure we argue a Lil bit in public but so does every family

Haha I appreciate the offer but I would like to learn how to do this. Between the LG WH14NS40 and ASUS 16D1HT, is one of them better? is one easier to use/flash?
Thanks

Same in every way hardware everything it's just a rebrand

[smush]

Come on man! Just say no to Amazon give the sellers on this board your business before making the little bald man richer!
It’s all about community here! Sure we argue a Lil bit in public but so does every family

Haha I appreciate the offer but I would like to learn how to do this. Between the LG WH14NS40 and ASUS 16D1HT, is one of them better? is one easier to use/flash?
Thanks

Same in every way hardware everything it's just a rebrand

Thanks

[OllieBaba]

Was trying out DVD Fab and they say they have a tool to downgrade firmware and make a drive usable. Have an Asus 16D1HT. Has anyone ever used this tool and if so did it work? Thanks

[jonghotti]

Was trying out DVD Fab and they say they have a tool to downgrade firmware and make a drive usable. Have an Asus 16D1HT. Has anyone ever used this tool and if so did it work? Thanks

Stop what you’re doing do not spend 109 dollars on that tool I will help you with this for free.
Email or text me info is in my signature. Don’t PM me here I don’t check them much.
The

[jonghotti]

Come on man! Just say no to Amazon give the sellers on this board your business before making the little bald man richer!
It’s all about community here! Sure we argue a Lil bit in public but so does every family

Haha I appreciate the offer but I would like to learn how to do this. Between the LG WH14NS40 and ASUS 16D1HT, is one of them better? is one easier to use/flash?
Thanks

Yes ASUS is both easier to flash (can use a different easier flasher for the ASUS) and is a much higher quality (faster, longer lifespan) device to begin with.

[garmin123]

So I took the easier way and used the sdftool_flasher and the mk-firmware-pack-20200720.

Ran the tool and flashed to HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-NM00900-212005061440 from the "HL-DT-ST" folder with the enc option checked (after forgetting to click it the first time)

Then flashed to HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936 from the "old" folder without enc checked.

No errors and drive seems to be working fine. Is 1.02 still the best firmware to be on or should I flash to the DE 1.00 or MK 1.01? I only use MakeMKV for ripping.

I just got the same drive with 1.05, and perhaps you can offer some help.

1) I'm assuming I can just attach this to a SATA port on my MB and do this in Windows 10? Or must I boot with a 32-bit OS (I believe there's a 32-bit version of windows 7 for this purpose

2) Why wouldn't you go straight to the 1.02? Why is it easier to to use the (presumably) hacked version of 1.05 and then downgrade?

3) I assume you first grabbed the original 1.05 from the drive to flash back in case something failed?

[MartyMcNuts]

So I took the easier way and used the sdftool_flasher and the mk-firmware-pack-20200720.

Ran the tool and flashed to HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-NM00900-212005061440 from the "HL-DT-ST" folder with the enc option checked (after forgetting to click it the first time)

Then flashed to HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936 from the "old" folder without enc checked.

No errors and drive seems to be working fine. Is 1.02 still the best firmware to be on or should I flash to the DE 1.00 or MK 1.01? I only use MakeMKV for ripping.

I just got the same drive with 1.05, and perhaps you can offer some help.

1) I'm assuming I can just attach this to a SATA port on my MB and do this in Windows 10? Or must I boot with a 32-bit OS (I believe there's a 32-bit version of windows 7 for this purpose

2) Why wouldn't you go straight to the 1.02? Why is it easier to to use the (presumably) hacked version of 1.05 and then downgrade?

3) I assume you first grabbed the original 1.05 from the drive to flash back in case something failed?

1. Yes, can be flashed straight from windows 10 using SDFtool Flasher.

2. You can flash WH16NS60 1.02-MK directly if you want. It's just less confusing for some (especially those that don't want to use WH16NS60 1.02-MK) to flash the MK version of 1.05 first due to firmware encryption.This is because only a few (of the many) firmwares are able to be flashed directly from an encrypted firmware.

3. It is not possible to extract the stock 1.05 firmware.

[smush]

Come on man! Just say no to Amazon give the sellers on this board your business before making the little bald man richer!
It’s all about community here! Sure we argue a Lil bit in public but so does every family

Haha I appreciate the offer but I would like to learn how to do this. Between the LG WH14NS40 and ASUS 16D1HT, is one of them better? is one easier to use/flash?
Thanks

Same in every way hardware everything it's just a rebrand

Got the ASUS drive and have fitted it in my PC I've also downloaded MakeMKV. Just wondering what my next steps should be didn't want to go ahead without checking in here so as not to brick the drive.
I put a UHD disk in and MakeMKV says "No disk inserted"
Device Information in MakeMKV states revision is 3.10 firmware date is 2119-01-04

[Billycar11]

Haha I appreciate the offer but I would like to learn how to do this. Between the LG WH14NS40 and ASUS 16D1HT, is one of them better? is one easier to use/flash?
Thanks

Same in every way hardware everything it's just a rebrand

Got the ASUS drive and have fitted it in my PC I've also downloaded MakeMKV. Just wondering what my next steps should be didn't want to go ahead without checking in here so as not to brick the drive.
I put a UHD disk in and MakeMKV says "No disk inserted"
Device Information in MakeMKV states revision is 3.10 firmware date is 2119-01-04

You can email me for a self flash kit but the info is here

[garmin123]

So I took the easier way and used the sdftool_flasher and the mk-firmware-pack-20200720.

Ran the tool and flashed to HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-NM00900-212005061440 from the "HL-DT-ST" folder with the enc option checked (after forgetting to click it the first time)

Then flashed to HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936 from the "old" folder without enc checked.

No errors and drive seems to be working fine. Is 1.02 still the best firmware to be on or should I flash to the DE 1.00 or MK 1.01? I only use MakeMKV for ripping.

I just got the same drive with 1.05, and perhaps you can offer some help.

1) I'm assuming I can just attach this to a SATA port on my MB and do this in Windows 10? Or must I boot with a 32-bit OS (I believe there's a 32-bit version of windows 7 for this purpose

2) Why wouldn't you go straight to the 1.02? Why is it easier to to use the (presumably) hacked version of 1.05 and then downgrade?

3) I assume you first grabbed the original 1.05 from the drive to flash back in case something failed?

1. Yes, can be flashed straight from windows 10 using SDFtool Flasher.

2. You can flash WH16NS60 1.02-MK directly if you want. It's just less confusing for some (especially those that don't want to use WH16NS60 1.02-MK) to flash the MK version of 1.05 first due to firmware encryption.This is because only a few (of the many) firmwares are able to be flashed directly from an encrypted firmware.

3. It is not possible to extract the stock 1.05 firmware.

Thanks for the reply.

1) When you say the SDFTool, is it the one in the MakeMKV program directory? Is it the SDFTool or the SDFTool64?

2) Must the SATA channel be set to IDE in the BIOS?

[Billycar11]

Thanks for the reply.

1) When you say the SDFTool, is it the one in the MakeMKV program directory? Is it the SDFTool or the SDFTool64?

2) Must the SATA channel be set to IDE in the BIOS?

1. No it's linked on first page sdftool
2.no leave it as default

[smush]

Same in every way hardware everything it's just a rebrand

Got the ASUS drive and have fitted it in my PC I've also downloaded MakeMKV. Just wondering what my next steps should be didn't want to go ahead without checking in here so as not to brick the drive.
I put a UHD disk in and MakeMKV says "No disk inserted"
Device Information in MakeMKV states revision is 3.10 firmware date is 2119-01-04

You can email me for a self flash kit but the info is here

So I download the latest version of the MK firmware pack and use the ASUS BW-16D1HT .bin file for flashing using this guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyQV1aPlbow ? I'm assuming the firmware I have 3.10 is encrypted and so need to use "enc" in the flashing command?

[Billycar11]

Got the ASUS drive and have fitted it in my PC I've also downloaded MakeMKV. Just wondering what my next steps should be didn't want to go ahead without checking in here so as not to brick the drive.
I put a UHD disk in and MakeMKV says "No disk inserted"
Device Information in MakeMKV states revision is 3.10 firmware date is 2119-01-04

You can email me for a self flash kit but the info is here

So I download the latest version of the MK firmware pack and use the ASUS BW-16D1HT .bin file for flashing using this guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyQV1aPlbow ? I'm assuming the firmware I have 3.10 is encrypted and so need to use "enc" in the flashing command?

No it's not ecrypted where does anyone say that read the guide that firmware is not listed under the encrypted list

[smush]

You can email me for a self flash kit but the info is here

So I download the latest version of the MK firmware pack and use the ASUS BW-16D1HT .bin file for flashing using this guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyQV1aPlbow ? I'm assuming the firmware I have 3.10 is encrypted and so need to use "enc" in the flashing command?

No it's not ecrypted where does anyone say that read the guide that firmware is not listed under the encrypted list

Ok I see now was just having difficulty with how some of it was worded.

The part that says
"LG 1.04+ / BU40N 1.03 / Asus 3.10+ and similar
The newer OEM firmwares cannot be flashed easily due to the additional downgrade checks implemented by the drive/firmware manufacturer. If your drive has one of these firmwares, and there is no MK version of the same firmware/drive model or higher number, you will have to sidegrade to Asus 3.10MK "

Since my firmware is 3.10 and there's a 3.10 MK I'm good to go - download the MK firmware pack and flash using the ASUS BW-16D1HT .bin file? I can use the SDFtool instead of command line right? (not using the "enc" option)

[atrus821]

Hi all - I wanted ask some of the resident experts here what combo of drives you use as your go-to for blu-ray mkv rips. I have been using an LG BP50NB40, which is a usb powered drive. I've recently added the ASUS BW-16D1HT with an OWC Mercury Pro 5.25" Optical Drive External Enclosure. I'm also considering adding an LG WH16NS60 to the mix as well. I am only ripping my Blu Rays and no UHDs at this point (so flashing has not been relevant for me yet).

So, what drives to you all regularly use? Are any more tolerant/effective? How to you mount these - external enclosures or internal in a PC? There are many posts here about long lists of compatible drives, but I'd love to know which specific models the most frequent posters use.