LG WH14NS40 Drive purchused 2014 Firmware 1.03

[JTRock]

Hello,
I am in the process of learning how I can make my Drive read the data of off a UHD. The first Note of the "BEFORE FLASHING" section says
1. Make sure your Drive was built after 2016 on label or late 2015 if you want to risk it.

I would assume that if I bought my drive in 2014, this disqualifies me from downgrading the firmware to 1.02(Which to my understanding is what I need)?

Can't I install the LG firmware by following the guidelines on LGs site for changing the firmware, or are their instructions made with the assumption that one is upgrading rather than downgrading the Firmware.

Thank you for the feadback.

[Woodstock]

You won't get any better performance out of a 2014 drive as far as UHD is concerned - the drive can't do it. You'll find that the controller chip doesn't handle UHD encoding.

It will handle "regular" BD just fine, with no firmware changes. I haven't bothered changing any of my pre-UHD drives, and they work as they always have.

[Billycar11]

Hello,
I am in the process of learning how I can make my Drive read the data of off a UHD. The first Note of the "BEFORE FLASHING" section says
1. Make sure your Drive was built after 2016 on label or late 2015 if you want to risk it.

I would assume that if I bought my drive in 2014, this disqualifies me from downgrading the firmware to 1.02(Which to my understanding is what I need)?

Can't I install the LG firmware by following the guidelines on LGs site for changing the firmware, or are their instructions made with the assumption that one is upgrading rather than downgrading the Firmware.

Thank you for the feadback.

do not upgrade your fw lgs old flasher has no checks in it i know they have a new online flasher but i think the old one is one the site and it will brick an old drive.
i think the new online flasher only comes with the new drives on the disc so it wont be saving any of the old ones lol

[JTRock]

You won't get any better performance out of a 2014 drive as far as UHD is concerned - the drive can't do it. You'll find that the controller chip doesn't handle UHD encoding.

It will handle "regular" BD just fine, with no firmware changes. I haven't bothered changing any of my pre-UHD drives, and they work as they always have.

Thanks for the Reply. Looking at the scu list of drives, it says my drive could do it. I guess LG used the same product name for this drive even though later creations of it were technically different?

[Woodstock]

It isn't the first time they've re-used a model number. There is a "portable" drive they have sold for years, but the hardware that make it has changed in that time.

My version from 2017 couldn't do UHD; later ones can.

Late 2015 was when UHD drives started to appear, with 2016 being when they became common enough in retail. 2014 is just too old.

[JTRock]

It isn't the first time they've re-used a model number. There is a "portable" drive they have sold for years, but the hardware that make it has changed in that time.

My version from 2017 couldn't do UHD; later ones can.

Late 2015 was when UHD drives started to appear, with 2016 being when they became common enough in retail. 2014 is just too old.

Thank you for the extra info. I suppose it’s pointless for me to try to flash the drive to 1.02, and try? It’s a bummer, because it’s so close to 2015, which if I read the form correctly, is the absolute oldest that I would want to attempt this.

If I were to buy the same model today, how would I know it was manufactured after 2017?
I assume it’ll be a safe bet, but any Drive I buy from a reputable seller.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

[Woodstock]

MOST drives that can do UHD will have that listed on the box. They just "require" a UHD-capable system (i.e., Intel system with Windows and proper software). The manufacturers really want to sell that capability.

The tricky bit is Pioneer drives - late model ones (after November 2022) have software installed to prevent MakeMKV and similar programs from using their UHD capability... Still some stuff being developed on that front.

[JTRock]

MOST drives that can do UHD will have that listed on the box. They just "require" a UHD-capable system (i.e., Intel system with Windows and proper software). The manufacturers really want to sell that capability.

The tricky bit is Pioneer drives - late model ones (after November 2022) have software installed to prevent MakeMKV and similar programs from using their UHD capability... Still some stuff being developed on that front.

Thanks for the info, Woodstock.