HL-DT-ST (LG) Safe cross-flash matrix

[mike admin]

One unexpected outcome from analyzing latest HL-DT-ST "encrypted" flasher was a discovery of a so-called safe cross-flash matrix. This is just a table embedded in LG flashing tool, that describes "primary" drive and it's "derivatives". The flasher assumes that any "derivative" can be flashed to "primary" and vice-versa. Apparently, all the "derivatives" are just a slightly-changed versions of a "primary" drive.

Here is the extracted table, listing the latest firmware versions (at the time of this writing) for each "primary" drive:

Code: Select all

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BE16NU50:
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BE16NU50-1.04-N000300-212005081025

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS40-NS50:
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS40-NS50-1.05-N000600-212005061331 
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH14NS50-1.03-N000400-212004211008 
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS50-1.03-N000400-212004210958 
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS55-1.05-N000400-212004211049 

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS60:
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS60-1.02-N000600-212005081014
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.03-N000600-212005081010

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS40-NS50:
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH14NS40-NS50-1.05-N000900-212005061444
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-N000900-212005061440

HL-DT-ST-BDDVDRW_CH12NS40:
HL-DT-ST-BDDVDRW_CH12NS40-1.03-N000800-212005080957 
HL-DT-ST-BDDVDRW_UH12NS40-1.03-N000800-212005080959 

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP50NB40-NB50:
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP50NB40-NB50-1.03-N000800-212005070917 
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP55EB40-NB50-1.03-N000800-212005070924 
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WP50NB40-NB50-1.03-N000800-212005070929 

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP60NB10:
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP60NB10-1.02-N000800-212005070935 

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N:
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.04-N000500-212005061142 
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.01-R001801-211910161032 - 2nd_Tier / Taiwan
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-U100-3001801-211910161036 - 2nd_Tier_NON_UHD

Also, the flasher contained the description for some BU-40N variants:

Code: Select all

BU40N-1.xx-N - Primary
BU40N-1.xx-R - 2nd_Tier / Taiwan
BU40N-Uxxx-x - 2nd_Tier_NON_UHD

With this knowledge it probably makes no sense to flash BU40 with anything other than a primary firmware version.

[SamuriHL]

That's highly useful info! Thanks for sharing!

[icourt]

Nice discovery, Mike! I’ve no idea why half of those second tier drives exist though.

BH14NS50 versus BH16NS50? 14 / 16 represents the max BD-R write speed, correct? So why purposely limit drives to 14x?

What’s the difference between a BH16NS40-NS50 and a BH16NS50? Did they just have a load of printed BH16NS40 retail boxes that they needed to use up, so they badged a load of NS50 drives as NS40? And what’s the difference between those and the NS55?