Can't read AACS VID from disc

[NewMC]

Hello all,

I know this has been asked several times in the past, I've read through several of those threads but have not yet found a solution for my problem. I'm asking in a new thread in hopes that one of you fine people will be able to walk me through what needs to be done.

I'm using MakeMKV (v1.16.5 x64) to back up my own commercially purchased movies.

Up to this point I've been able to back up nearly all of my collection without issue. I'm getting to the end of my DVDs and have ~40 Blu-ray movies yet to back up. I've just recently installed a Lite-On DH-4B1S, being that it has a little slower read time I waited to install it until after I made it through most of my DVDs. The drive is running firmware revision 7P5B. I purchased this drive new in 2008/2009 and never really used it at the time. I understand from recent research that this is not great drive, but being essentially new I assume it is good enough to use for my small collection.

I've tried several discs and I continue to receive a string of errors in MakeMKV followed by a message that indicates the disc cannot be decrypted due to AACS host certificate revocation.

Can't read AACS VID from disc - most likely current AACS host certificate is revoked by your drive
Saved AACS dump file as D:/Video/MKB_v9_The_Dark_Knight_9156.tgz
The volume key is unknown for this disc - video can't be decrypted
Failed to open disc

This example shows MKB v9, the other log I have is for Onward (using MKB v68). Both fail with the same results. I am able to watch The Dark Knight with VLC, but it is unable to open Onward and fails with an AACS error.

I will gladly attach the logs for these discs if it will help, please let me know if you need specific files or the full .tgz/.tar.

From the Info tab within MakeMKV:

Drive Information
OS device name: \Device\CdRom0
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: ATAPI
Product: BD B DH4B1S
Revision: 7P5B
Serial number:
Highest AACS version: 68

Disc Information
Label: THE DARK KNIGHT
Timestamp: 2008-10-13 20:18:21
Protection: AACS v9
Data capacity: 37.93 Gb
Disc type: BD-ROM
Number of layers: 2
Channel bit length: 74,5 nm (25.0 GB max. per layer)

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated as I'm not familiar with how blu-ray is handled on Windows. Why would the AACS host certificate be revoked by the drive and how can this be resolved?

Thank you!

[Woodstock]

As an older drive, it will enforce revocation - if you insert a disk that has an AACS version that revokes a player key, it will refuse to read ANY Bluray after that, until a non-revoked key is presented by the player. This used to require a new version of MakeMKV, until LibreDrive came around, that can bypass the revocation process.

The most recent notation about AACS versions in the MakeMKV change log is:

MakeMKV v1.15.1 (15.4.2020 )
Added support for AACS v76 (for those poor souls without LibreDrive)
Improved handling for discs with mastering errors
Many internal improvements and small bugfixes
Bug fixes:
For some HD audio streams frames were dropped incorrectly on segment boundaries

If you have inserted a disk that used an AACS version after v76 (I've seen 77), then your old "new" drive is "stuck" right now, and will refuse BD ripping. Fastest solution is to get a drive that supports LibreDrive, OR borrow a drive that hasn't seen a disk after v76 AACS.

[NewMC]

Thanks for confirming Woodstock, this is pretty much what I had assumed but I'm a little confused as to why it's currently revoked. It's only had two blu-ray discs inserted, the highest of those was Onward with AACS v68. I received the errors when running MakeMKV v1.16.4, updated to v1.16.5 and tried again, received the same errors. If AACS v76+ is supported then perhaps it's not actually revoked, but something else is causing it. Any other ideas on root cause or should I start looking for LibreDrive compatible hardware.

I did see that the FindVUK online database contains ~20 disc-specific keys for both Onward movie and special features discs. Not sure if that provides any further insight or not.

[NewMC]

A bit of new information now that I've had some time to get into this. Before buying a new drive I wanted to try to confirm that this was indeed the issue, but it doesn't appear to be (as far as I can tell).

I tried DVDFab Passkey 9 after further reading/research and it will successfully bypass the AACS protection, allowing MakeMKV to then rip the data from the disc. So far I've been successful with both discs I've tried (MKBv25 and MKBv68 encryption), while MakeMKV reports that it cannot read from these discs when DVDFab Passkey is not running.

An example:
Info for drive [E:\] (DVDFab Passkey 9.4.2.7)
Vendor: ATAPI, Product: BD B DH4B1S
Revision: 7P5B, Vendor specific: R___
Drive region: 1 (RPC II), changes left: 4(user) / 4(vendor)
AACS v0, AGIDs: 0, revocation level: Unknown
Support: BUS_ENCRYPTION=NO BN_GENERATION=NO

Disc media: Blu-ray (BDMV)
Volume name: ONWARD

Region Code is removed. (Region A, Region Mask 'A ')
AACS protection (AACSLA) is removed. (MKBv68)
BD+ protection not found.
BluPath: full disc copy/play is supported.
Main playlist: 00800.mpls

I can continue to use this method, but I understand that this is not considered an ideal approach within the MakeMKV user base. I even received a warning from MakeMKV indicating that using a different decrypter may cause issues. I'm definitely open to thoughts on using this method before I purchase the DVDFab Passkey license.

It seems that I'm now back to my original question, what could be blocking MakeMKV from accessing the drive with the appropriate permissions required to successfully bypass/eliminate the AACS protection?

• Is Windows 10/11 Pro limiting MakeMKV from communicating with the drive (others have had this issue, but no verified solutions)?

• Is the drive just old enough that it isn't supported by MakeMKV (unlikely IMO)?

• Is there a drive firmware that I can install that would fix the issue (none that I've found)?

• Other possibilities?

• Is it worth purchasing the DVDFab Passkey and continuing to use it in conjunction with MakeMKV (cheaper than purchasing a new drive, but what problems could arise)?

These are just some of the questions that come to mind. I'm open to any discussions or suggestions you may have.

Thank you!

TLDR: OIder BD drive where DVDFab Passkey can bypass AACS encrypted discs while MakeMKV cannot. Would prefer to use only MakeMKV. What could be the issue?

[Dave77]

I've just hit this issue on my LG drive.

LibreDrive compatible drive is required to open this disc - video can't be decrypted.

Strange as my drive is actually showing LibreDrive as enabled. Does anyone know how I can resolve this please

Drive Information
OS device name: \Device\CdRom0
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.03
Serial number: M03J1SA4608
Firmware date: 2118-10-24 19:34
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 81

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.03
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

Disc Information
Label: XMEN FIRST CLASS
Timestamp: 2016-07-29 13:12:27
Protection: AACS2.0/C v61
Data capacity: 56.46 Gb
Disc type: BD-ROM UHD
Number of layers: 2
Bus encryption flags: 80

[Dave77]

Sorted, update to 1.04 and all good now