Best UHD Friendly Drive to Flash To?

[CIR Engineering]

So I've read a ton and was able to buy and flash an LG WH16NS40 NS50 1.04 to the UHD friendly 1.03 firmware today. Everything went fine and the drive is now reading UHD discs perfectly.

In my reading, it quickly became obvious that lots of folks like to crossflash their drives to different models, and I even saw someone say that you can use any firmware on any drive?

Here is my question... What I have't figured out yet is if there is any good reason to crossflash an LG WH16NS40 NS50 to a different model drive? Is there a reason and should I crossflash it. I'm not at all intimidated by the techniques so I don't consider the work a factor, but is there any benefit in my case? The 1.03 firmware I installed does not have the "sleep bug" either.

Faster ripping and / or higher quality reads would be two reasons why I may want to do it. I would like to retain write capabilities if possible, but it's not essential. If I can get better quality or faster reading I'd give up writing if it came to that.

Please advise as I simply cannot stand to read anymore threads!

Thanks and kind regards,
craigr

[d00zah]

There are discussions like this regarding cross-flashing to achieve marginal gains:

Ultimate UHD Drives Guide Updated 2019 post #81

[CIR Engineering]

There are discussions like this regarding cross-flashing to achieve marginal gains:

Ultimate UHD Drives Guide Updated 2019 post #81

Thank you for pointing me directly to current information!

So just to be absolutly clear, than it is possible for me to use the ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK firmware if I want to pickup some speed, but lose writing quality? I own AnyDVD and don't want to go official to lose its capabilities.

I have a WH14NS40 that is too old to make UHD friendly that I could continue to use for writing if I decide to install the ASUS firmware.

Thanks again,
craigr

[d00zah]

My advice would be to leave well enough alone. What you (we, actually) have works fine & any speed bump would be marginal. YMMV

[DVD Maniac]

My advice after having flashed over 100 various brands and models - ASUS Internal BW-16D1HT (Best) or BC-12D2HT if you are on a budget (but the latest FW is much improved)

Why? Despite being re-badged LG's -

They are cheaper than equivalent LG's
They have better base firmware which if retained by MK Cross Flashing is retained
Perform regularly better and consistently with titles LG struggle with.

Just my humble opinion of course!

[CIR Engineering]

So I did some experimenting and also picked up a WH14NS40 NS50 today. I first flashed the WH14NS40 to ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK and then ripped an ISO of a small single layer UHD disc using AnyDVD. The time to rip the ISO with the ASUS firmware was 626 seconds. I then ripped the same disc in the WH16NS40 NS50 with the LG 1.03 firmware and it took 820 seconds. I then cross flashed both drives ASUS to LG and LG to ASUS and ran the same test. The results were identical almost to the second.

So in my experimentation the ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK firmware is between 25-30% faster (depending how you do the math) at ripping over the LG WH16NS40 NS50 1.03-MK firmware. Since ripping is the most important thing to me with these drives, at this point I can see no reason NOT to use the ASUS firmware. A +25% rip speed improvement is HUGE IMHO. I'm also returning the WH16NS40 and getting another WH14NS40 to flash to the ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK firmware. The WH14NS40 is about $25 cheaper.

I don't have any single layer BD's around, but just ordered some Verbatims to be here Friday that I will do a test write with. I did however write a DVD+RW with the ASUS firmware and did not have any issues. The drive wrote fine, did not make any funny noises, and the disc was perfectly readable.

I'll report back after I have actually burned a BD-R in a couple days for those of you who are interested, but I am staying with the ASUS firmware indefinitely on these NS50's unless something major changes.

Best,
craigr

[Billycar11]

So I did some experimenting and also picked up a WH14NS40 NS50 today. I first flashed the WH14NS40 to ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK and then ripped an ISO of a small single layer UHD disc using AnyDVD. The time to rip the ISO with the ASUS firmware was 626 seconds. I then ripped the same disc in the WH16NS40 NS50 with the LG 1.03 firmware and it took 820 seconds. I then cross flashed both drives ASUS to LG and LG to ASUS and ran the same test. The results were identical almost to the second.

So in my experimentation the ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK firmware is between 25-30% faster (depending how you do the math) at ripping over the LG WH16NS40 NS50 1.03-MK firmware. Since ripping is the most important thing to me with these drives, at this point I can see no reason NOT to use the ASUS firmware. A +25% rip speed improvement is HUGE IMHO. I'm also returning the WH16NS40 and getting another WH14NS40 to flash to the ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK firmware. The WH14NS40 is about $25 cheaper.

I don't have any single layer BD's around, but just ordered some Verbatims to be here Friday that I will do a test write with. I did however write a DVD+RW with the ASUS firmware and did not have any issues. The drive wrote fine, did not make any funny noises, and the disc was perfectly readable.

I'll report back after I have actually burned a BD-R in a couple days for those of you who are interested, but I am staying with the ASUS firmware indefinitely on these NS50's unless something major changes.

Best,
craigr

you forgot the best firmware WH16NS60 1.00/.02

[DVD Maniac]

Also Don't forget also ripping performance depends on your ripping SW. Its all about the combination Drive+FW+Ripping Current SW and version (that's an endless game of catch-up)+Interface USB 3.0 or 3.1 or SATA+your Personal setup preferences on the PC and EVEN humidity/temperature levels at the time if those rumours are to be believed. The list of combinations are literally endless and will influence any test results at the time you make them. I have gotten used to it being entirely random what results you get and its a matter of see what works for you and stick to it. Until New pesky FW's and disk encoding standards show up which we all know will!

[CIR Engineering]

you forgot the best firmware WH16NS60 1.00/.02

As I think I understand it, than the drive will no longer work with AnyDVD?

Also, in all my downloading, I have never come across the 1.00 for the NS50. However, I think I remember Mike saying in some thread that this firmware made the drive both official and still able to work with AnyDVD?

Please let me know,
craigr

[Billycar11]

you forgot the best firmware WH16NS60 1.00/.02

As I think I understand it, than the drive will no longer work with AnyDVD?

Please let me know,
craigr

probably not but it might but back when makemkv didnt official support ns60s you could get a non ns60 cross flashed to an ns60 firmware and it would through a few errors and then work so that program my be the same because the drive you have does not have the extra aacs2 chip from blocking it.

[MartyMcNuts]

you forgot the best firmware WH16NS60 1.00/.02

As I think I understand it, than the drive will no longer work with AnyDVD?

Also, in all my downloading, I have never come across the 1.00 for the NS50. However, I think I remember Mike saying in some thread that this firmware made the drive both official and still able to work with AnyDVD?

Please let me know,
craigr

Nope. If you flash it with NS60 firmware, it will no longer work with AnyDVD.

[CIR Engineering]

Confirmed, WH16NS60 1.00 does not work with AnyDVD. Rip speed with MakeMKV was also within three seconds of ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK.

I'm back on ASUS and will probably stay there especially if writing works.

craigr

[CIR Engineering]

So I wound up getting four WH14NS40's and flashing them to ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK. Of the three, they all rip equally quickly on the ASUS FW. However, three of the four burn BD-R's perfectly, but one of the four will just spit out a fresh coaster as soon as the write process begins. That drive burns fine with the WH16NS40 NS50 LG 1.03-MK firmware. So three out of four make perfect ASUS drives. I wonder why one of them is not good with the ASUS firmware when the other three are fine with it...

All were produced end of November to beginning of December 2018.

So there is a data-point.

Best,
craigr

[CIR Engineering]

Just to finalize this, I wound up flashing two drives with LG WH16NS60 1.02-MK and two with ASUS BH16D1HT 3.10-MK. The drive that wouldn't write correctly with the ASUS firmware is good with WH16NS60.

This way my friend and I can have one of each type of drive in our machines since some firmware's reportedly read certain discs better than others. If I need to, I'll change things up down the road, but for now this seems perfect. Both firmware's seem very similar to me in terms of ripping performance and writing on all four drives is perfect.

Best,
craigr