Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2025

[AvengerInfinite]

Hi,
so the BU40N will arrive and I need a case which one do you recommend ? I saw the list but there are not available (or not at a normal price) in my country. (FR)
thank you for your advice in advance

[Coopervid]

Hi,
so the BU40N will arrive and I need a case which one do you recommend ? I saw the list but there are not available (or not at a normal price) in my country. (FR)
thank you for your advice in advance

You can order in Germany:

https://www.amazon.de/Vantec-3-0-Slim-O ... r=8-1&th=1

If flashing in the enclosure is not important for you you can also try this:

https://www.amazon.de/techPulse120-exte ... C91&sr=8-3

ou plus chere en France:

https://www.amazon.fr/techPulse120-Bo%C ... 75&sr=8-17

[AvengerInfinite]

Hi,
so the BU40N will arrive and I need a case which one do you recommend ? I saw the list but there are not available (or not at a normal price) in my country. (FR)
thank you for your advice in advance

You can order in Germany:

https://www.amazon.de/Vantec-3-0-Slim-O ... r=8-1&th=1

If flashing in the enclosure is not important for you you can also try this:

https://www.amazon.de/techPulse120-exte ... C91&sr=8-3

ou plus chere en France:

https://www.amazon.fr/techPulse120-Bo%C ... 75&sr=8-17

Thanks ! I will try the techPulse120... and I probably will need to flash the drive so let's see if it will work.

[Coopervid]

Some reports on Amazon.de say that the drive inside the Techpulse can be flashed via USB. If it works, please report here so it can be added to the list in post #1.

[AvengerInfinite]

Some reports on Amazon.de say that the drive inside the Techpulse can be flashed via USB. If it works, please report here so it can be added to the list in post #1.

I will !

[asmcom]

Hi,
so the BU40N will arrive and I need a case which one do you recommend ? I saw the list but there are not available (or not at a normal price) in my country. (FR)
thank you for your advice in advance

You can order in Germany:

https://www.amazon.de/Vantec-3-0-Slim-O ... r=8-1&th=1

If flashing in the enclosure is not important for you you can also try this:

https://www.amazon.de/techPulse120-exte ... C91&sr=8-3

ou plus chere en France:

https://www.amazon.fr/techPulse120-Bo%C ... 75&sr=8-17

I can supply Vantec Case £12.99 plus postage.

NST-510S3-BK

Asmcom

[asmcom]

Hi,
so the BU40N will arrive and I need a case which one do you recommend ? I saw the list but there are not available (or not at a normal price) in my country. (FR)
thank you for your advice in advance

You can order in Germany:

https://www.amazon.de/Vantec-3-0-Slim-O ... r=8-1&th=1

If flashing in the enclosure is not important for you you can also try this:

https://www.amazon.de/techPulse120-exte ... C91&sr=8-3

ou plus chere en France:

https://www.amazon.fr/techPulse120-Bo%C ... 75&sr=8-17

Thanks ! I will try the techPulse120... and I probably will need to flash the drive so let's see if it will work.

Tech pulse is rebranded Enclosure which is manufacturered in China and assembled in Germany . The company in China provided me some samples in my early days of trading. The quality was very poor compared to Vantec, Archgon and the OWC which is manufactured in the US.

I contact the company to ask them how to remove the BU40 type optical slim drive and also how to replace main PCB if it went faulty.

The video is very funny and I still laugh to this day as it is adsurb the way they showed me how to remove the drive.

When I removed the drive it was dated 3 years old. Please see link for video for repair and servicing of slim optical drive inside this Chinese enclosure.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RM_2Dw ... p=drivesdk

The quality of the enclosure is inferior when compared to the likes of OWC, Vantec and Archgon.

If the enclosure fails you just throw away as PCB cannot be changed. To remove the drive the manufacturer show me the tricks of the trade to safely remove the slim BU40N!!!! If the main PCB goes faulty the manufacturer told me to bin the enclosure as the PCB cannot be replaced or repaired.

The lasers are very delicate in a slim BU40N.

Anyway thought I would share as I still laugh to this day every time I watch.

I was quoted around US $6.00 each for a order of 500 cases.

After receiving samples and watching video I did not progress any further. The video is funny those. The BU40N Laser assembly is very delicate and can easily be damaged in post if not securely wrapped.

Asmcom LOL

[AvengerInfinite]

So I purchased the techPulse120 and it's not the best case effectively… let's see with the time.

but good news, it's working ! I received a BU40N build in may 2022. so a fresh one with 1.04 version.


after lot of reading and googling I succeed to downgrade to 1.03MK


and the result :


so thanks guys for the help and happy ripping :p (and sharing of course !)

[ranger671]

As the Pioneer are listed on the first page of this post, I just received and have tested the new BDR-S13UBK and it seems to work flawlessly with Makemkv. I have ripped both BR and 4K with no issues. The Libredrive information is below.

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS9201
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-213T
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.02/ID43
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

I have to say, I started this ride with LG drives, and these are night and day better. Pioneer initializes faster, they display fewer errors and they rip at the same speed. Also, as they just work, there's no fighting to apply firmware updates and this keeps them fully under warranty. If anyone asks, I'll be recommending Pioneer drives for the foreseeable future.

[asmcom]

As the Pioneer are listed on the first page of this post, I just received and have tested the new BDR-S13UBK and it seems to work flawlessly with Makemkv. I have ripped both BR and 4K with no issues. The Libredrive information is below.

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: RS9201
Firmware name: PIONEER BDR-213T
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.02/ID43
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes

I have to say, I started this ride with LG drives, and these are night and day better. Pioneer initializes faster, they display fewer errors and they rip at the same speed. Also, as they just work, there's no fighting to apply firmware updates and this keeps them fully under warranty. If anyone asks, I'll be recommending Pioneer drives for the foreseeable future.

As one would say, "The proof is in the pudding"

Totally agree with you.

Asmcom

[Coopervid]

Perfect! But plum pudding is one of the worst dishes I ever had. Brrrrrrrrr!

[asmcom]

Perfect! But plum pudding is one of the worst dishes I ever had. Brrrrrrrrr!

LOL...........

[SillyWabbit]

So, you see, there's this thing called "instructions", that when actually read, will tell you how to use a tool and if there are any other features a tool may have....

There're also things known as RESPONSES WITH MORE THAN THREE CHARACTERS and a concept known as NOT CHANGING BASIC GUI ELEMENTS SO THEY'RE UNRECOGNIZABLE AS FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS. I mean, I'm super-impressed you know how to change a checkbox to not even look like a checkbox, but it's that sort of thing that makes tech generally less accessible to a lot of people in a LOT of other applications.

I just noticed this response while I was scouring this forum for an answer to another issue I have. I don't post here very often. I scoured the hell out of that original post and was very detailed in breaking down what I tried, and I scour the hell out of this forum pretty often. How much is considered a reasonable amount for someone to read to get an answer? And how is it worth anyone's time to type ENC on a form on which that sequence of three letters appears a billion times? I understand that there're probably instructions for EVERYTHING mentioned on this forum, but you're underestimating how difficult those are to find.

I appreciate what you guys do in making all the tools and whatnot on this forum available, and I know you're not obligated to respond to anyone who posts here, but I've got a great idea: if you're going to give half-hearted or smarmy responses to people who've clearly TRIED finding a solution, then maybe don't bother responding to them at all.

I'm not sure if this is directed at me or Billy (or both of us) but if you had of actually tried to find a solution as you claim, you would (should) have read the instructions in the very same post where you downloaded the SDFtool flasher from which tells you everything you need to know about how to use it and you would never have had to ask that question.

I'm going to second this response, with a little less bile. It's a great tool - happy to have got it working. But like the poster above, I spent way too much time overlooking an invisible checkbox. It's cool that you put in in the notes, but you've added an invisible element to your GUI, and most people with any amount of computer savvy will skim the notes and just cruise through the GUI on their own. I'd suggest making the blank checkbox clearly visible - I actually tried three different firmware revisions before realizing there -was- a checkbox there.

[MasterControl]

Hi everyone, first post here.

Add another Pioneer to the list - BDR-S13J-X

Works like a charm!

[Billycar11]

Hi everyone, first post here.

Add another Pioneer to the list - BDR-S13J-X

Works like a charm!

wow a $250 optical drive sure lol dont think there will be many buyers though.
do these get faster than 4x read speed on UHD?