Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024

[dcoke22]

Found the SDFTool, but can you point me to the correct WH16NS60 1.02-MK?

Thanks,
Russ

The first post in this thread has a link to the MK firmware post (where it is in the old folder) or the 'all you need' firmware pack (where it is in the LG 5.25 desktop folder). They're next to the link for the SDF tool.

[russellsd]

And I think we have a winner...

Drive Information
OS device name: \Device\CdRom1
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH16NS60
Revision: 1.02
Serial number:
Firmware date: 2118-10-29 19:36
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 72

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.02
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

Disc Information
Label: Rear Window
Timestamp: 2020-07-07 12:32:57
Protection: AACS2.0/C v72
Data capacity: 89.23 Gb
Disc type: BD-ROM UHD
Number of layers: 3
Bus encryption flags: 80

Thank-you very much for your help.

[Keyboard]

Hey Guys,

Mac guy here trying to flash my LG BD-RE HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH16NS40 on a Mac while in terminal mode and I am a little lost on step 4

"copy sdf.bin and the firmware file extracted from theall you need firmware pack into /tmp folder."

Is there a command string in terminal to do that?
Does /tmp folder already exist or do I create it?
Tried creating /tmp folder on my desktop and shoving in the two file I needed in it but Terminal didn't see it

Thanks for any input. I don't use Terminal all that often





Mac/linux commands to flash.

1. download sdf.bin https://makemkv.com/sdf.bin
2. download the all you need firmware pack

3. Extract the file you need for your drive from the all you need firmware pack pick from the recommended firmware section.

4. then in terminal on the Mac
copy sdf.bin and the firmware file extracted from theall you need firmware pack into /tmp folder.

5. in terminal change directory "cd /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS"

6. type "./makemkvcon f -l"

This will show your drive identifier should look similar to this ''/IOBDServices/D5D25996'
Found 1 drives(s)
00: /IOBDServices/D5D25996, /dev/rdisk3, /dev/rdisk3
HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BU40N_1.01_211910161032_MOFK6283224


7. to perform the flash, type "./makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/D5D25996' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash main -i /tmp/your firmware filename here

[dcoke22]

Hey Guys,

Mac guy here trying to flash my LG BD-RE HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH16NS40 on a Mac while in terminal mode and I am a little lost on step 4

"copy sdf.bin and the firmware file extracted from theall you need firmware pack into /tmp folder."

Is there a command string in terminal to do that?
Does /tmp folder already exist or do I create it?
Tried creating /tmp folder on my desktop and shoving in the two file I needed in it but Terminal didn't see it

Thanks for any input. I don't use Terminal all that often

You can put those files anywhere you want; Desktop, Downloads, any where you want. '/tmp' is used in the example because it is a standard temp directory on Unix systems, including macOS.

Step 7:

Code: Select all

7. to perform the flash, type "./makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/D5D25996' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash main -i /tmp/your firmware filename here

Where ever those files are on your system, you have to put the right path in the command. Let's say you make a folder on your desktop called 'flash files' and you put both files in there. And let's say the username for you on your Mac is 'Keyboard'. Instead of:

Code: Select all

/tmp/sdf.bin

your command would include:

Code: Select all

/Users/Keyboard/Desktop/flash\ files/sdf.bin

Here's a tip for working with Terminal on the Mac. If you have a Finder window open and you want to include a fully qualified path to a file in a command in Terminal, you can drag the file from Finder into Terminal and the fully qualified path will appear on the command line.

Drag items into a Terminal window on Mac

That means you can start to type in the command for flashing your drive and when you get to the part where you have to type in the path to 'sdf.bin', where ever you have it on your system, drag it into the terminal window from Finder, keep typing the command and do the same for the firmware.

[Jellyfan]

Hey folks! I recently tried to rip my copy of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition and my drive is failing to read it. It basically just spins forever and won't let me open the drive until I reboot. I've ripped loads of other blurays in my collection without issues, so I think it might be the firmware...

I did a little reading and I'm not sure my drive is a candidate for custom firmware. It's an LG HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH14NS40 on v1.03 firmware ...but the sticker on the drive says it was made in 2013 and I've seen mention that drives have to be made in the year 2015 or later. Am I completely out of luck here?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[jonghotti]

Yes 2013 hardware cannot be flashed to 4K compatibility but should be ok as a standard “2K” blu ray ripper. Of course that drive is about ten years old right sounds like you’re ready for a new one.

[Jellyfan]

Yes 2013 hardware cannot be flashed to 4K compatibility but should be ok as a standard “2K” blu ray ripper. Of course that drive is about ten years old right sounds like you’re ready for a new one.

The drive works fine for other discs, and the disc in question plays fine in my dedicated bluray player. This disc isn't 4K content, so I'm not sure why it's not ripping when everything else is. It's pristine with no scratches, so my best guess is firmware.

If push comes to shove I'll replace the drive, but would prefer to use it until it keels over if possible.

[skutah]

Hi guys,

I'm insanely happy to see my external BD drive in the list of those that are UHD friendly and can be flashed.

However, I'm operating on Linux (Ubuntu Mate 20.04) and I have no idea how to adapt the command line guide from Mac to Linux.
Could someone, please, spell this out?

Edit: I did change the path in step 5 to the installation folder of MakeMKV on my machine but step 6 then returns an error message saying it can't find the file or directory, so I got stuck at that point.

Thank you!

[Chris Kelly]

It looks like this will be hit-or-miss. I asked Vantec about this and here's what they explained to me. I thought you might find it helpful.

"Hi Chris,

Thanks for asking.
Sorry, we do not know.

Let me explain, in a normal setup, these SATA optical drives installed into a system are connected to a SATA port directly, the optical drive manufacturer engineer test update, and design the firmware update program to write directly to the drive via SATA command.

Now the SATA optical drive is connected to a bridge chipset on the enclosure (just FYI, ALL USB storage that connects to a SATA device is using a bridge chipset between them). The bridge chipset sits and translates all the USB commands and SATA commands between the system and the SATA optical drive. This is another layer of “passing the command and data”.

Whoever the engineer that wrote the firmware program, if they follow and stay within the SATA command set, it will work. If they write outside the SATA command set (write directly to the optical drive using microcode), the bridge chipset may not be able to translate the command resulting in not being able to update the firmware.

I see these issues all the time in earlier days of firmware update software, but it is getting better and now. The only way is to try it out. If you have it connected and run the update software, and it can see the drive correctly, it should be fine.

Another wrinkle that can happen is the design of the bridge chipset, there are many models of the bridge chipset and need the right combination. No one has gone thru this process of screening every optical drive and chipset combination to test firmware update capability.

In answering your question, our enclosure does have a serial number that tracks the batch and I am not sure it can support optical drive firmware update until you try.





If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask and we will do our best to answer them.

Regards,

Technical Support
Vantec Thermal Technologies
Tel: 510-668-0368
Fax: 510-668-0367
www.vantecusa.com

From: Chris Kelly [mailto:chriskfromnj@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2022 8:42 AM
To: support@vantecusa.com
Subject: Question about NST-540S3-BK

Hello, I have questions about NST-540S3-BK

I have three drives. So I ordered three of these enclosures from Amazon a few days ago, and you guys happen to be the seller. I understand there is inconsistency from unit to unit as far as which units allow drive firmware upgrading and which ones don’t once the drive is installed in the enclosure. My enclosures haven’t arrived yet. Before I install the three drives, is there a manufacturing date or serial number which would determine which units will and will not support optical drive firmware upgrading?

Chris Kelly
"

Well, now that AnyDVDHD uses MakeMKV to make it compatible with my LG WH16NS60, I plan on flashing it from ASUS BW-16d1H-T 3.10 MK firmware back to WH16NS60 1.03 MK as soon as my enclosures arrive. So wish me luck.

[Billycar11]

Hello, I have questions about NST-540S3-BK


Chris Kelly
"

Yeah the new ones work too for flashing just haven't added them to the list as it's become sort of irrelevant as any case that supports optical drives will support flashing with LG drives because of the new encapsulated flashing support.
But if it were the old way where before Mike added encapsulated flashing not it would not flash drives.
Flashing other drives like pioneer will remain to be seen but for now it's not needed so nothing to worry about

[Coopervid]

Hello, I have questions about NST-540S3-BK


Chris Kelly
"

Yeah the new ones work too for flashing just haven't added them to the list as it's become sort of irrelevant as any case that supports optical drives will support flashing with LG drives because of the new encapsulated flashing support.
But if it were the old way where before Mike added encapsulated flashing not it would not flash drives.
Flashing other drives like pioneer will remain to be seen but for now it's not needed so nothing to worry about

Interesting, Billy. Can you elaborate what "encapsulated flashing support" means in easy words? Sure - no details. Nobody wants to add a new factor to the cat and mouse game.

[Billycar11]

Interesting, Billy. Can you elaborate what "encapsulated flashing support" means in easy words? Sure - no details. Nobody wants to add a new factor to the cat and mouse game.

It bypasses the USB to SATA chips because it talks to the drive directly so the interface can't mess with the commands but not passing them through

[Coopervid]

Interesting, Billy. Can you elaborate what "encapsulated flashing support" means in easy words? Sure - no details. Nobody wants to add a new factor to the cat and mouse game.

It bypasses the USB to SATA chips because it talks to the drive directly so the interface can't mess with the commands but not passing them through

Sweet! Again fantastic work by Mike!!

[Chris Kelly]

It looks like this will be hit-or-miss. I asked Vantec about this and here's what they explained to me. I thought you might find it helpful.

"Hi Chris,

Thanks for asking.
Sorry, we do not know.

Let me explain, in a normal setup, these SATA optical drives installed into a system are connected to a SATA port directly, the optical drive manufacturer engineer test update, and design the firmware update program to write directly to the drive via SATA command.

Now the SATA optical drive is connected to a bridge chipset on the enclosure (just FYI, ALL USB storage that connects to a SATA device is using a bridge chipset between them). The bridge chipset sits and translates all the USB commands and SATA commands between the system and the SATA optical drive. This is another layer of “passing the command and data”.

Whoever the engineer that wrote the firmware program, if they follow and stay within the SATA command set, it will work. If they write outside the SATA command set (write directly to the optical drive using microcode), the bridge chipset may not be able to translate the command resulting in not being able to update the firmware.

I see these issues all the time in earlier days of firmware update software, but it is getting better and now. The only way is to try it out. If you have it connected and run the update software, and it can see the drive correctly, it should be fine.

Another wrinkle that can happen is the design of the bridge chipset, there are many models of the bridge chipset and need the right combination. No one has gone thru this process of screening every optical drive and chipset combination to test firmware update capability.

In answering your question, our enclosure does have a serial number that tracks the batch and I am not sure it can support optical drive firmware update until you try.





If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask and we will do our best to answer them.

Regards,

Technical Support
Vantec Thermal Technologies
Tel: 510-668-0368
Fax: 510-668-0367
www.vantecusa.com

From: Chris Kelly [mailto:chriskfromnj@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2022 8:42 AM
To: support@vantecusa.com
Subject: Question about NST-540S3-BK

Hello, I have questions about NST-540S3-BK

I have three drives. So I ordered three of these enclosures from Amazon a few days ago, and you guys happen to be the seller. I understand there is inconsistency from unit to unit as far as which units allow drive firmware upgrading and which ones don’t once the drive is installed in the enclosure. My enclosures haven’t arrived yet. Before I install the three drives, is there a manufacturing date or serial number which would determine which units will and will not support optical drive firmware upgrading?

Chris Kelly
"

Well, now that AnyDVDHD uses MakeMKV to make it compatible with my LG WH16NS60, I plan on flashing it from ASUS BW-16d1H-T 3.10 MK firmware back to WH16NS60 1.03 MK as soon as my enclosures arrive. So wish me luck.

My three Vantec 540s arrived yesterday. For someone with limited eyesight who uses screen readers and reads Braille, it took me a total of three hours and twenty-eight minutes to get all three drives installed and assemble the enclosures. I ddecided to use one USB cable and power supply and connect them to whatever drive I want to use because using three USB cables and three power supplies was making my work area messy. But if the power input jack and USB port on each enclosure is too fragile for swapping, I'd learn to deal with the mess. When using the latest version of the modified ASUS flasher, I was able to flash my LG WH16NS60 from the ASUS BW-16D1H-T 3.10 MK back to LG WH16NS60 1.03 MK. Speaking of MK firmware: I understand MakeMKV now works with Pioneer drives which don't require modified firmware. Any plans for MakeMKV to work with unmodified firmware?

[MartyMcNuts]

It looks like this will be hit-or-miss. I asked Vantec about this and here's what they explained to me. I thought you might find it helpful.

"Hi Chris,

Thanks for asking.
Sorry, we do not know.

Let me explain, in a normal setup, these SATA optical drives installed into a system are connected to a SATA port directly, the optical drive manufacturer engineer test update, and design the firmware update program to write directly to the drive via SATA command.

Now the SATA optical drive is connected to a bridge chipset on the enclosure (just FYI, ALL USB storage that connects to a SATA device is using a bridge chipset between them). The bridge chipset sits and translates all the USB commands and SATA commands between the system and the SATA optical drive. This is another layer of “passing the command and data”.

Whoever the engineer that wrote the firmware program, if they follow and stay within the SATA command set, it will work. If they write outside the SATA command set (write directly to the optical drive using microcode), the bridge chipset may not be able to translate the command resulting in not being able to update the firmware.

I see these issues all the time in earlier days of firmware update software, but it is getting better and now. The only way is to try it out. If you have it connected and run the update software, and it can see the drive correctly, it should be fine.

Another wrinkle that can happen is the design of the bridge chipset, there are many models of the bridge chipset and need the right combination. No one has gone thru this process of screening every optical drive and chipset combination to test firmware update capability.

In answering your question, our enclosure does have a serial number that tracks the batch and I am not sure it can support optical drive firmware update until you try.





If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask and we will do our best to answer them.

Regards,

Technical Support
Vantec Thermal Technologies
Tel: 510-668-0368
Fax: 510-668-0367
www.vantecusa.com

From: Chris Kelly [mailto:chriskfromnj@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2022 8:42 AM
To: support@vantecusa.com
Subject: Question about NST-540S3-BK

Hello, I have questions about NST-540S3-BK

I have three drives. So I ordered three of these enclosures from Amazon a few days ago, and you guys happen to be the seller. I understand there is inconsistency from unit to unit as far as which units allow drive firmware upgrading and which ones don’t once the drive is installed in the enclosure. My enclosures haven’t arrived yet. Before I install the three drives, is there a manufacturing date or serial number which would determine which units will and will not support optical drive firmware upgrading?

Chris Kelly
"

Well, now that AnyDVDHD uses MakeMKV to make it compatible with my LG WH16NS60, I plan on flashing it from ASUS BW-16d1H-T 3.10 MK firmware back to WH16NS60 1.03 MK as soon as my enclosures arrive. So wish me luck.

My three Vantec 540s arrived yesterday. For someone with limited eyesight who uses screen readers and reads Braille, it took me a total of three hours and twenty-eight minutes to get all three drives installed and assemble the enclosures. I ddecided to use one USB cable and power supply and connect them to whatever drive I want to use because using three USB cables and three power supplies was making my work area messy. But if the power input jack and USB port on each enclosure is too fragile for swapping, I'd learn to deal with the mess. When using the latest version of the modified ASUS flasher, I was able to flash my LG WH16NS60 from the ASUS BW-16D1H-T 3.10 MK back to LG WH16NS60 1.03 MK. Speaking of MK firmware: I understand MakeMKV now works with Pioneer drives which don't require modified firmware. Any plans for MakeMKV to work with unmodified firmware?

You could still use all 3 cables, just cable tie them together to help with the clutter.

Only Pioneer UHD drive models are compatible and there are no firmware changes required.

Also, MakeMKV does work with unmodified ASUS/LG firmware. Just look at all the available "DE" firmware versions ie: ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.02, BH16NS55 1.02 WH16NS60 1.00 etc....