ASUS BW-12B1ST a

[MusicMan]

I was cleaning out a closet and found a brand new retail boxed bluray burner. I installed it today to test it with MakeMKV, and it says this:

Drive Information
OS device name: H:
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: BW-12B1ST a
Revision: 1.00
Serial number: K********
Firmware date: 2113-04-23 11:47
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 81

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1939
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.00
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Partial
Unrestricted read speed: Yes
-----------------------------------------------------

So.... if LibreDrive is Enabled, shouldn't it work? It works okay with blurays but it can't seem to see 4K discs. I know it can 100GB discs since I inserted a 100GB burned data bluray disc. I was able to copy the files off the disc onto my hard drive. So.... Not sure what to do. It came with a CDROM that has a firmware flasher on it, but it says it will connect to the internet to check for newer firmware. I was afraid to do anything with that yet. There is a similar BC-12B1ST (BC instead of BW) drive that seems to have newer firmware, but even the ASUS website doesn't even list my BW-12B1STa drive despite it being retail boxed...? I don't get it. Anyone have any advice?

[Billycar11]

way to old to do 4K leave it alone it can only do regular BD
do not flash it
it will die

[MartyMcNuts]

I was cleaning out a closet and found a brand new retail boxed bluray burner. I installed it today to test it with MakeMKV, and it says this:

Drive Information
OS device name: H:
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: BW-12B1ST a
Revision: 1.00
Serial number: K********
Firmware date: 2113-04-23 11:47
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 81

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1939
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.00
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Partial
Unrestricted read speed: Yes
-----------------------------------------------------

So.... if LibreDrive is Enabled, shouldn't it work? It works okay with blurays but it can't seem to see 4K discs. I know it can 100GB discs since I inserted a 100GB burned data bluray disc. I was able to copy the files off the disc onto my hard drive. So.... Not sure what to do. It came with a CDROM that has a firmware flasher on it, but it says it will connect to the internet to check for newer firmware. I was afraid to do anything with that yet. There is a similar BC-12B1ST (BC instead of BW) drive that seems to have newer firmware, but even the ASUS website doesn't even list my BW-12B1STa drive despite it being retail boxed...? I don't get it. Anyone have any advice?

Firmware date: 2113-04-23 11:47

Drive platform: MT1939

Your drive is too old! It is pre 2016 and has the old MT1939 drive platform. It's hardware is simply too old. Must be MT1959 and 2016+ (or late 2015) for UHD compatibility.

Also BDXL does not equal UHD.

[MusicMan]

way to old to do 4K leave it alone it can only do regular BD
do not flash it
it will die

Yeah, RIP ASUS drive. It's very slow compared to the newer drives. Guess I'll have to trash it and get a new LG drive before they stop making them if they haven't already. They are going out of stock everywhere it seems. Thanks for the advice. I didn't realize how old the drive was.

[MusicMan]

I was cleaning out a closet and found a brand new retail boxed bluray burner. I installed it today to test it with MakeMKV, and it says this:

Drive Information
OS device name: H:
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: BW-12B1ST a
Revision: 1.00
Serial number: K********
Firmware date: 2113-04-23 11:47
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 81

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1939
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 1.00
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Partial
Unrestricted read speed: Yes
-----------------------------------------------------

So.... if LibreDrive is Enabled, shouldn't it work? It works okay with blurays but it can't seem to see 4K discs. I know it can 100GB discs since I inserted a 100GB burned data bluray disc. I was able to copy the files off the disc onto my hard drive. So.... Not sure what to do. It came with a CDROM that has a firmware flasher on it, but it says it will connect to the internet to check for newer firmware. I was afraid to do anything with that yet. There is a similar BC-12B1ST (BC instead of BW) drive that seems to have newer firmware, but even the ASUS website doesn't even list my BW-12B1STa drive despite it being retail boxed...? I don't get it. Anyone have any advice?

Firmware date: 2113-04-23 11:47

Year 2113 sounds quite modern.

[Billycar11]

Yeah, RIP ASUS drive. It's very slow compared to the newer drives. Guess I'll have to trash it and get a new LG drive before they stop making them if they haven't already. They are going out of stock everywhere it seems. Thanks for the advice. I didn't realize how old the drive was.

i would not trash it even those are going for $100+ now
are they worth that no but they are

[MusicMan]

Yeah, RIP ASUS drive. It's very slow compared to the newer drives. Guess I'll have to trash it and get a new LG drive before they stop making them if they haven't already. They are going out of stock everywhere it seems. Thanks for the advice. I didn't realize how old the drive was.

i would not trash it even those are going for $100+ now
are they worth that no but they are

That's shocking! If I'm being completely honest, it doesn't seem like a high quality drive. The motor seems to labor just opening the tray. It sounds weak. This case has 3 optical drive spaces, and I also have an ancient Plextor DVD burner in there. It's WAY older, but it sounds better when working if that make sense. The ASUS just sounds like it's laboring to work. I'm not exactly sure what to do. USB drives are more convenient, but the internal drives do seem more robust in general. I have 4 10TB SATA hard drives to backup all my media, so I'm out of SATA ports. I'd be happy to just get $50 out of the ASUS drive if I could sell it.

[RibShark]

These "a" drives as well as other drives from China seem to often (but not always) be the JB7-board (MT1939) even if the date on the sticker is >=2016. Here is an example of a BW-16D1HT from China that was manufactured December 2023 and yet is JB7/MT1939:



You can recognise these drives by looking at the casing around the label, for the JB7 board there is a rounded square indent around the entire label where the JB8 has four small diagonal indents around the label.

[Billycar11]

These "a" drives as well as other drives from China seem to often (but not always) be the JB7-board (MT1939) even if the date on the sticker is >=2016. Here is an example of a BW-16D1HT from China that was manufactured December 2023 and yet is JB7/MT1939:



You can recognise these drives by looking at the casing around the label, for the JB7 board there is a rounded square indent around the entire label where the JB8 has four small diagonal indents around the label.

But it's not made in 2023 it's re stickered they stopped making those in 2015

[RibShark]

But it's not made in 2023 it's re stickered they stopped making those in 2015

The pre-2016 JB7s use the same casing as the JB8 drives, this new casing that is seen on these 2023-dated JB7 drives suggests they are new, and I doubt the effort would be taken to resticker a whole bunch of drives. Perhaps they found some leftover boards they needed to use up?

[Billycar11]

But it's not made in 2023 it's re stickered they stopped making those in 2015

The pre-2016 JB7s use the same casing as the JB8 drives, this new casing that is seen on these 2023-dated JB7 drives suggests they are new, and I doubt the effort would be taken to resticker a whole bunch of drives. Perhaps they found some leftover boards they needed to use up?

Officially production stopped of mt1939 drives in 2015
I think they are just recasing them not sure why I guess to sell used stuff as new