Confused About my Drive !!!

[Starbeam 1000]

Hi Everyone
Keeping it short here
Bought a drive as i am sure many others did on Amazon
The drive itself ,on the outside plastic case says is Model BD015 ( Not to be confused with BU50N , the drive is the one with all the additional USB ports and Micro SD card slot on the side), sorry if that a stupid Newbie statement, but worth mentioning
Cutting a very long story short , I plugged this baby into my computer, ran it through MKV, MKV says the drive is a This :

Drive Information
OS device name: E:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU50N
Revision: GE03
Serial number: MZZJ3BG3427
Firmware date: 2118-01-22 14:36
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 70

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

No disc inserted

Which is fine ! , except , I took this thing apart , i mean i opened it up to get to the actual drive inside it , carefully removed it , peeled off the large big black blank sticker the manufacturer put on it, and to my surprise i have a 2017 LG BU40N , it says that on the original manufacturers sticker on the actual drive , Which is an LG Drive
So my dilemma is this , Make MKV says its a BU50N , the Physical drive itself says a BU40N
So as the info generated on the Make MKV clearly says i can update the drive ,Which Firmware do i use 50 N or 40 N Firmware ?
( Just as a side note , anyone that bought this drive on Amazon, i would be very interested in what you have inside your drive because i bought this very recently , like on the 22nd Sept 2026)
Thank you in advance

[zittrig]

Flash to BU40N 1.03MK for use with MakeMKV or BU40N / BU50N 1.00 for use with MakeMKV or DVDFab e.g.. BU40N and BU50N are only different names 'cause of different distribution ways. But the same hardware.

[Starbeam 1000]

Hi
Thank you for responding
I will only be using Make MKV, Not a fan of the others, been using MKV for years, first time at 4K UHD though, So, I'll be using the BU04N MK 1.03 version then , incidentally, do manufacturers do this often , Not really mad about what was inside the case , I just did not want to brick the drive , obviously !

[Starbeam 1000]

Just placing this here as an update , for those that may or may not have had this issue, and like me who has been doing this for many years , and willing to admit that "Hey" you learn something new everyday, right ?
Well, anyway flashing the firmware on my Amazon Bought Bluray Writer Drive Model No. BD015 ( suggested by zittrig , thank you for that by the way !) to " DE_LG_BU40N_1.03_MK.bin " worked a treat ! , I tested the drive on a 4K UHD version of " Star Wars - A New Hope " disc and it completed fine , No errors !

[zittrig]

You're welcome. Enoy your drive.

[Starbeam 1000]

I felt compelled to write down my final thoughts here.............
I may not seem as naive as the next guy , i am old enough to have owned and built many computers from a 286 to present day gaming PC's ( Yes ! i am that old !!! ), but from this experience, it erk's me that manufacturers of so called " Buy New and improved 2026 Bluray- UHD Drive !!!! " statements are essentially BullS*** my case in particular , there is a sticker on the outside of the the actual plastic case of the drive before i opened it up to get to the actual drive , that says a manufacturing date of " June 2026 ", but the actual drive inside of this plastic facade was a 2017 LG Drive, which obviously means manufacturers ( If we should even be calling them that ) are re-purposing old drives labelling them as new ones
Look !!...........i understand how the world works, but like me and many others have spent a lot of money on what is supposed to be a modern up-to-date flashy ( all sing and dancing ) Bluray drive only to find at the heart of it , in my case a 2026 marked drive with a 9 year old drive at the heart of it inside it
My Hope ( Though I fear in vein ! ) is that these so called manufactures of these modern drives stop using old technology ( its old for a reason !!! ) Yeah ! Yeah ! yeah! , I know wasting my time even mentioning it , still worth mentioning, even just to Vent !!!! Huh !

[Billycar11]

I felt compelled to write down my final thoughts here.............
I may not seem as naive as the next guy , i am old enough to have owned and built many computers from a 286 to present day gaming PC's ( Yes ! i am that old !!! ), but from this experience, it erk's me that manufacturers of so called " Buy New and improved 2026 Bluray- UHD Drive !!!! " statements are essentially BullS*** my case in particular , there is a sticker on the outside of the the actual plastic case of the drive before i opened it up to get to the actual drive , that says a manufacturing date of " June 2026 ", but the actual drive inside of this plastic facade was a 2017 LG Drive, which obviously means manufacturers ( If we should even be calling them that ) are re-purposing old drives labelling them as new ones
Look !!...........i understand how the world works, but like me and many others have spent a lot of money on what is supposed to be a modern up-to-date flashy ( all sing and dancing ) Bluray drive only to find at the heart of it , in my case a 2026 marked drive with a 9 year old drive at the heart of it inside it
My Hope ( Though I fear in vein ! ) is that these so called manufactures of these modern drives stop using old technology ( its old for a reason !!! ) Yeah ! Yeah ! yeah! , I know wasting my time even mentioning it , still worth mentioning, even just to Vent !!!! Huh !

it is very frustrating the amount of fakes and recases
but this is not lg/pioneer there is mass faking of them over in china

only reliable way is to get from a reputable seller

are you in the usa? if so B&H has and amazon from buffalo Americas dont buy from 3rd party sellers

[Starbeam 1000]

.............Sorry Billycar 11 for the delay in responding , to answer your question..............was in the states for 20 years, returned to my native country recently !.........availability of drives was better in the states than where i am now , bought from Amazon as i mentioned before , have to be honest didn't check the 3rd party seller thing but after this experience , will be paying way more attention next time . My final comments , I wrote before , was designed to highlight to others that may be thinking of buying these Blu-ray drives, to be vigilant , do your homework !, my experience turned out for the good , i am happy to say , but i guess could have been worse !
I intend to back up my 4k UHD Blu-ray movie collection ( Why, you ask ! ), because i was reading a review on Amazon about a Verbatim drive i was thinking of buying and it said that a customer had bought the Verbatim drive and it had spun so fast it had cracked the disc , got me thinking ! about backing up
Anyway, thank you Make MKV community for your help, to you Billycar 11, good to know there are still decent people in the world who genuinely want to help others out.

[sasakisadako]

Hello everyone, and to the makemkv team, thank you for your hard work and support.

I'm writing into this post since I have the same drive as mentioned in the first post.

I get the following information in Makemkv:

Code: Select all

OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU50N
Revision: GE03
Serial number: KZ7I6DE2040
Firmware date: 2118-01-22 14:36
Bus encryption flags: 1F

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

No disc inserted

I did not open it since it felt like I would break the case, so I am trusting the information I received from Makemkv here.

I know it's a bit risky, but I tried to flash the mentioned firmware BU40N 1.03MK from the MK package.

I am using Linux, and for the flashing, I was using the Makemkv version 1.17.7 on my Debian Linux and before on my Steam machine with SteamOS and the following happened on both systems when trying to flash the drive:

The problem I am facing is that, according to the command line, the flashing runs through and is successful. But when I unplug the drive and wait a while and plug it back in to start Makemkv nothing changed, and the Libredrive information is still the same as above.

Code: Select all

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

Here is the command line output i recieve:

Code: Select all

/home/sadako/Downloads/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.03-NM00000-211810241934.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Sending image in encrypted format
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BU50N_GE03_211801221436_KZ7I6DE2040
Ready to write drive flash memory.
Type "yes" to continue, "no" to abort
yes
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
 100% Operation finished                                
Operation started: Programming flash
 100% Operation finished                                
Done successfully

If it's not really fitting into this topic, please let me know, and I will just open a new one with the specific question.

Thank you in advance and best wishes

[Billycar11]

Hello everyone, and to the makemkv team, thank you for your hard work and support.

I'm writing into this post since I have the same drive as mentioned in the first post.

I get the following information in Makemkv:

Code: Select all

OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU50N
Revision: GE03
Serial number: KZ7I6DE2040
Firmware date: 2118-01-22 14:36
Bus encryption flags: 1F

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

No disc inserted

I did not open it since it felt like I would break the case, so I am trusting the information I received from Makemkv here.

I know it's a bit risky, but I tried to flash the mentioned firmware BU40N 1.03MK from the MK package.

I am using Linux, and for the flashing, I was using the Makemkv version 1.17.7 on my Debian Linux and before on my Steam machine with SteamOS and the following happened on both systems when trying to flash the drive:

The problem I am facing is that, according to the command line, the flashing runs through and is successful. But when I unplug the drive and wait a while and plug it back in to start Makemkv nothing changed, and the Libredrive information is still the same as above.

Code: Select all

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

Here is the command line output i recieve:

Code: Select all

/home/sadako/Downloads/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.03-NM00000-211810241934.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Sending image in encrypted format
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BU50N_GE03_211801221436_KZ7I6DE2040
Ready to write drive flash memory.
Type "yes" to continue, "no" to abort
yes
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
 100% Operation finished                                
Operation started: Programming flash
 100% Operation finished                                
Done successfully

If it's not really fitting into this topic, please let me know, and I will just open a new one with the specific question.

Thank you in advance and best wishes

no enc your drive is not 2020+

[sasakisadako]

Thank you for you answer. I will try the command without the "enc" later when I'm back from work.

I just bought the drive from Amazon.co.jp and the description mentioned its a "new" one. I'm not complaining and since it was a cheaper drive I have to expect everything as in the posts before already mentioned.

[MartyMcNuts]

Thank you for you answer. I will try the command without the "enc" later when I'm back from work.

I just bought the drive from Amazon.co.jp and the description mentioned its a "new" one. I'm not complaining and since it was a cheaper drive I have to expect everything as in the posts before already mentioned.

replace enc with main

[sasakisadako]

Thank you for you answer. I will try the command without the "enc" later when I'm back from work.

I just bought the drive from Amazon.co.jp and the description mentioned its a "new" one. I'm not complaining and since it was a cheaper drive I have to expect everything as in the posts before already mentioned.

Im glad that I not bricked it for now
but Theres still a chance thank you for the comment and I can't wait to try it when im finished my work
replace enc with main

Edit:
. I removed the enc command and tried the flashing again. It worked flawless and Makemkv shows Libredrive enabled now. So everything is fine.

Thank you again for the help everyone

[Starbeam 1000]

Hi sasakisadako
I am the original poster on this thread, I never mentioned the main reason why i took the drive out of the manufacturers case in the first place to flash update the drive
The reason was ( .........and i am not an expert here !! ) was because i read somewhere a long time ago, that if you tried to flash the drive from the outside , so to speak through, plugging it via the USB port , somehow the USB board inside the drive messes with the firmware update and you have to flash the drive directly using a Sata adapter ( also available on Amazon )
One flashed , i can't see a reason why you can't just put it back in the case and use it as intended
Hope this helps