Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2026

[BootToggle]

For u/Billycar11 and u/MartyMcNuts, I'll pass along this experience, not sure if the general info in the first post needs to be tweaked.

The Ultimate UHD Flashing Guide only suggests: "BU40N on any Firmware directly to > BU40N 1.03MK".

Last month I purchased two "new, old stock" Hitachi/LG BU40N drives from China. Following the above advice I flashed them to BU40N 1.03MK. They then showed "LibreDrive: enabled", but I found that they would could not process 4K UHD disks, giving the "Can't read AACS VID from disc - most likely current AACS host certificate is revoked by your drive" error. The wrinkle is that they processed standard Bluray disks just fine.

I found a comment by u/MartyMcNuts on another thread, which suggested that a LG BU40N drive with original FR07 firmware should be flashed to the "DE_LG_BU40N_1.00" firmware. In other words it needs the 1.00 firmware, not the 1.03MK firmware. I tried this and everything works now, both drives now process 4K UHD Blurays as well as standard Bluray just fine.

The manufacturing dates for these two drives were September 2019 and November 2019. Here is the initial drive info:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: FR07
Serial number: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Firmware date: 2119-05-10 13:48
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 63

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

I don't know what the rule should be, I have a different BU40N that worked right out of the gate with 1.03MK. I don't know if it is significant that these particular drives shipped with "FR07" firmware, or if it might be just the manufacturing date, or something else. At any rate, I found two other postings by people who were confused that their BU40N drives had trouble with 4K UHD in spite of standard Bluray working. It might be helpful if the Ultimate UHD Flashing Guide hinted that DE_LG_BU40N_1.00 firmware might be necessary in some cases.

Regards!

[Billycar11]

For u/Billycar11 and u/MartyMcNuts, I'll pass along this experience, not sure if the general info in the first post needs to be tweaked.

The Ultimate UHD Flashing Guide only suggests: "BU40N on any Firmware directly to > BU40N 1.03MK".

Last month I purchased two "new, old stock" Hitachi/LG BU40N drives from China. Following the above advice I flashed them to BU40N 1.03MK. They then showed "LibreDrive: enabled", but I found that they would could not process 4K UHD disks, giving the "Can't read AACS VID from disc - most likely current AACS host certificate is revoked by your drive" error. The wrinkle is that they processed standard Bluray disks just fine.

I found a comment by u/MartyMcNuts on another thread, which suggested that a LG BU40N drive with original FR07 firmware should be flashed to the "DE_LG_BU40N_1.00" firmware. In other words it needs the 1.00 firmware, not the 1.03MK firmware. I tried this and everything works now, both drives now process 4K UHD Blurays as well as standard Bluray just fine.

The manufacturing dates for these two drives were September 2019 and November 2019. Here is the initial drive info:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: FR07
Serial number: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Firmware date: 2119-05-10 13:48
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 63

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

I don't know what the rule should be, I have a different BU40N that worked right out of the gate with 1.03MK. I don't know if it is significant that these particular drives shipped with "FR07" firmware, or if it might be just the manufacturing date, or something else. At any rate, I found two other postings by people who were confused that their BU40N drives had trouble with 4K UHD in spite of standard Bluray working. It might be helpful if the Ultimate UHD Flashing Guide suggested that DE_LG_BU40N_1.00 firmware might be necessary in some cases.

Regards!

this is a linux issue

[BootToggle]

Do you mean a "Linux issue" in flashing, or in using the resulting drives?

For what it's worth, I did flash these drives using Marty's tool in Windows.

I think the other postings I found from people who were having a similar issue, they were running Windows.

I'm not really setup to run MakeMKV on Windows, so I can't compare.

At any rate my drives now work and I appreciate your efforts.

[Billycar11]

Do you mean a "Linux issue" in flashing, or in using the resulting drives?

For what it's worth, I did flash these drives using Marty's tool in Windows.

I think the other postings I found from people who were having a similar issue, they were running Windows.

I'm not really setup to run MakeMKV on Windows, so I can't compare.

At any rate my drives now work and I appreciate your efforts.

for some reason linux does not work with alot of mk fw and you need to go to original old fw

[BootToggle]

"for some reason linux does not work with alot of mk fw and you need to go to original old fw"

Interesting, thanks for the tip.

FWIW, I have a third BU40N that works just fine on 1.03MK. I didn't think to copy down all of its parameters before I first flashed it though, so I don't know how it differs from these last two.

At any rate, I'm happy to have all 3 drives working for 4K now. Thanks!

[keydb_helper]

for some reason linux does not work with alot of mk fw and you need to go to original old fw

My recollection is that the MK firmware issues are very much a 'MakeMKV for Linux' issue, rather than an issue or shortcoming of Linux itself. Alternatives to LibreDrive have no such MK compatibility issues on Linux.

[Billycar11]

Guide update removed :
Unitek Y-3324

reason no longer properly passes through drive info to makemkv 2 reports here: https://www.reddit.com/r/makemkv/commen ... iving_the/

[babayaga]

can this be downgraded, or nothing at all because of the firmware?

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.05
Serial number: MOAP8IG1429
Firmware date: 2124-04-23 13:47
Bus encryption flags: 17

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

[Billycar11]

can this be downgraded, or nothing at all because of the firmware?

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.05
Serial number: MOAP8IG1429
Firmware date: 2124-04-23 13:47
Bus encryption flags: 17

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

Yes it can see 1st post
Or email me or Marty for an automated flasher

[babayaga]

can this be downgraded, or nothing at all because of the firmware?

Drive Information
OS device name: D:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.05
Serial number: MOAP8IG1429
Firmware date: 2124-04-23 13:47
Bus encryption flags: 17

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

Yes it can see 1st post
Or email me or Marty for an automated flasher

The owner will contact you, thanks!:)

[pope75]

Apologie this must have been asked before I have a working LG BU40N on libredrive 1.04MK
It does read discs but is quite noisy at start up (awful seek noises). Would it benefit from a downgrade to 1.03MK ?
Sorry again if this has been asked 100 times:)

[lmwardx]

Hello,

I am also having trouble with my BP50NB40 SVC NB52 (manufactured 1/2026). I cannot seem to locate the BP50NB40 (NB52) 1.03-MK bin file. Can someone point me in the direction of where to find this? I only see the HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP50NB40-NB50-1.03-NM00800-212005070917.bin located in the "The all you need firmware pack". Full disclosure - I downloaded this to my drive on accident already.

I also downloaded the "Hybrid_Firmware_for_BP50NB40_to_BP60NB10" pack but those were not successful either. I need the BP50NB40 (NB52) 1.03-MK file still in order to proceed with flashing, I think? Once I have that, I see I need to crossflash by recovering the drive first, as previously stated by MartyMcNuts.

Any and all help welcome! I'm a bit of a newbie, so any and all instruction/feedback welcome

Thank you!

[Billycar11]

Apologie this must have been asked before I have a working LG BU40N on libredrive 1.04MK
It does read discs but is quite noisy at start up (awful seek noises). Would it benefit from a downgrade to 1.03MK ?
Sorry again if this has been asked 100 times:)

Probably won't make a difference

[videogameguru]

Hey everyone! I was looking on the front page and noticed that there's a bunch of new firmwares since I flashed my LG WH16NS60 7 odd years ago. Its on version 1.01. is there any reason for me to update it? If so am I safe to do so without risk of bricking? These units are long discontinued now and I'd hate to ruin an otherwise perfectly running drive. Thanks!

[MartyMcNuts]

Hello,

I am also having trouble with my BP50NB40 SVC NB52 (manufactured 1/2026). I cannot seem to locate the BP50NB40 (NB52) 1.03-MK bin file. Can someone point me in the direction of where to find this? I only see the HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP50NB40-NB50-1.03-NM00800-212005070917.bin located in the "The all you need firmware pack". Full disclosure - I downloaded this to my drive on accident already.

I also downloaded the "Hybrid_Firmware_for_BP50NB40_to_BP60NB10" pack but those were not successful either. I need the BP50NB40 (NB52) 1.03-MK file still in order to proceed with flashing, I think? Once I have that, I see I need to crossflash by recovering the drive first, as previously stated by MartyMcNuts.

Any and all help welcome! I'm a bit of a newbie, so any and all instruction/feedback welcome

Thank you!

No, you want the BP50NB40 NB50 1.03 MK firmware, not NB52.

Everything you need is in my all you need firmware pack along with the gif showing you what to do in the first post of the SDFtool Flasher thread.