Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024

[Mr_Orange]

Leave it alone. 1.05 has nothing you care about.

Thank you

[icourt]

Leave it alone. 1.05 has nothing you care about.

Thank you

Just this, I believe.

[Mr_Orange]

Leave it alone. 1.05 has nothing you care about.

Thank you

Just this, I believe.

That's useful to know, thank you.

[wullabulla]

Holy crap!

I know this is anecdotal evidence and isn't proof of anything, but I post this in case it helps someone else.

I bought Avengers Endgame UHD right when it came out. It never successfully ripped. I can play the disc on a standalone player. Yes, makemkv could open it and start ripping it, but eventually it would come to a sector that the drive couldn't read. Re-running it many times showed no progress. So I just assumed bad disc, and ripped the blu-ray version instead, which worked fine.

As more versions of makemkv came out, I would sometimes re-try the Endgame UHD. Never worked.
Last night, I tried to re-rip Frozen II to try various things to deal with atmos problem (even with lastest makemkv, there is still a problem to be solved...but that is not the point here). Frozen II suddenly showed a sector that couldn't be read. This made me think the drive was failing, because it would be unlikely for a new disc like that to go bad (considering I handle my discs carefully). I re-tried a few times, still didn't work.

I started thinking the drive is failing. If was dying, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try cross-flashing to LG to overcome the sleep bug with my Asus.
After a successful flash, suddenly Frozen II ripped without the read sector problem. On a lark, I decided to try Endgame again. Holy crap, it worked this time!

Again, this is not evidence or proof of anything. It possible I just got really really lucky this time. But I feel like it helped me. Maybe it could help someone else.

Thank you for the advice, I just crossed flashed my Asus drive that was giving me problems to WH16NS60 1.02 MK version and so far so good on discs that previously failed in 1.15.2.

This worked for me too.

[science_core]

I can confirm that the techPulse120 9.5mm slim sata case (EDC-01-U3-UltraSlim) supports flashing. I successfully flashed a BU40N to 1.03 MK firmware.

The case is available in the EU.
url: https://www.amazon.de/EDC-01-U3-UltraSl ... B072WJCR9M

[sgtblackice]

I've done at least 3 or 4 drives, really pleased thanks!

[Moose_Drool_22]

Would it be easy to flash your drives on an Ubuntu machine?

[xiceref]

I need a little assistance in getting started, with the ultimate goal of being able to rip 4K UHD drives (like everybody else)....

Purchase: HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH16NS60
Firmware Version: 1.02
Firmware Date: 2118-10-29 19:36
Drive Platform: MT1959


MakeMKV indicates that all functions are available (with patched firmware), but I do not know where to find the firmware and which files to use, so:

Question #1 - Do I need to upgrade the firmware to 1.03 first? If so, where do I find these files?
Question #2 - What firmware version do I need to flash this drive to in order to be able to rip 4K UHD disks? Where do I find these files?

I am really sorry if this information has been noted somewhere else. I have watched the videos and everything makes sense, I just want to be sure to do things in the right order and use the correct versions of the firmware.

Can anyone assist with these questions? I really appreciate it !! :

[SamuriHL]

*PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE TO 1.03!!!!!!!!!*

Follow this mini-guide I threw together.

Flashing Example (NS60)

Go to this post:
viewtopic.php?p=71880#p71880

Look for link to latest MK firmware, e.g.:
https://www.makemkv.com/download/mk-fir ... 200720.zip

Extract this zip to a folder. In our example, let's say I extract it to C:\Firmware\mk-firmware-pack-20200720 but feel free to extract it wherever you'd like.

Next, open a command prompt in the MakeMKV directory and perform the following commands:

sdftool --list

Shows list of drives. Pick the drive letter for the drive you want to flash, let's call it F: as an example. Then:

sdftool -d F: rawlfash -I C:\Firmware\mk-firmware-pack-20200720\old\HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin

Replace C:\Firmware\mk-firmware-pack-20200720 with the location you extracted the zip file to. This will flash your drive to NS60 1.02-MK.

OPTIONAL (Informational only):
sdftool -d F: help all

Shows list of all available commands for your drive. Not needed in order to flash, but, useful to see what you can do with your drive.

[monkeymindboy]

Holy crap!

I know this is anecdotal evidence and isn't proof of anything, but I post this in case it helps someone else.

I bought Avengers Endgame UHD right when it came out. It never successfully ripped. I can play the disc on a standalone player. Yes, makemkv could open it and start ripping it, but eventually it would come to a sector that the drive couldn't read. Re-running it many times showed no progress. So I just assumed bad disc, and ripped the blu-ray version instead, which worked fine.

As more versions of makemkv came out, I would sometimes re-try the Endgame UHD. Never worked.
Last night, I tried to re-rip Frozen II to try various things to deal with atmos problem (even with lastest makemkv, there is still a problem to be solved...but that is not the point here). Frozen II suddenly showed a sector that couldn't be read. This made me think the drive was failing, because it would be unlikely for a new disc like that to go bad (considering I handle my discs carefully). I re-tried a few times, still didn't work.

I started thinking the drive is failing. If was dying, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try cross-flashing to LG to overcome the sleep bug with my Asus.
After a successful flash, suddenly Frozen II ripped without the read sector problem. On a lark, I decided to try Endgame again. Holy crap, it worked this time!

Again, this is not evidence or proof of anything. It possible I just got really really lucky this time. But I feel like it helped me. Maybe it could help someone else.

Thank you for the advice, I just crossed flashed my Asus drive that was giving me problems to WH16NS60 1.02 MK version and so far so good on discs that previously failed in 1.15.2.

This worked for me too.

I have since downgraded both my drives to WH16NS60 1.00 and haven't had a problem yet and reaching speeds of 10x and 11x in 1.15.2. 1.02 MK was still causing my Asus drive to act up at times.

[jonghotti]

Remember dear readers, if you don't want to mess with flashing your drive yourself please hit me up for a pre-flashed drive ready and guaranteed to work right out of the box.
Thank you,
Alex

[pjarvi]

Thank you to the previous posts about cross-flashing Asus to LG, I flashed my Asus BW-16D1HT to the WH16NS60 firmware and a previously unreadable Flash Gordon 4K is ripping without issue. Before that it was killing my drive requiring it to be re-flashed just to get it working again.

Anyone know why that is, does the LG firmware have support for something newer than the Asus?

[GreenMachine]

I flashed my drive but nothing happens. The firmware is still on 1.4 and unable to read 4k but still reads bluray. I have rebooted and tried different sata ports. Thanks.


PS C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV> .\makemkvcon64.exe f --all-yes -d I: rawflash enc -i C:\Users\XXX\Desktop\HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-NM00900-212005061440.bin

Reading input file C:\Users\XXX\Desktop\HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-NM00900-212005061440.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Sending image in encrypted format
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH16NS40_1.04_211901041348_KLFK5TB5840
Ready to write drive flash memory. (auto confirmed)
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
100% Operation finished
Operation started: Programming flash
100% Operation finished
Done successfully

EDIT:
After some reboots, power cycles, and switching sata cables nothing changed. I went back to trying to use the official firmware flasher with the custom firmware and it worked? So makemkv did something because it wouldn't work before. Everything is updated and works with 4k blu ray. I did have to switch sata cables initially to get it to work with makemkv.

[kastaway33]

*PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE TO 1.03!!!!!!!!!*

Follow this mini-guide I threw together.

Flashing Example (NS60)

Go to this post:
viewtopic.php?p=71880#p71880

Look for link to latest MK firmware, e.g.:
https://www.makemkv.com/download/mk-fir ... 200720.zip

Extract this zip to a folder. In our example, let's say I extract it to C:\Firmware\mk-firmware-pack-20200720 but feel free to extract it wherever you'd like.

Next, open a command prompt in the MakeMKV directory and perform the following commands:

sdftool --list

Shows list of drives. Pick the drive letter for the drive you want to flash, let's call it F: as an example. Then:

sdftool -d F: rawlfash -I C:\Firmware\mk-firmware-pack-20200720\old\HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin

Replace C:\Firmware\mk-firmware-pack-20200720 with the location you extracted the zip file to. This will flash your drive to NS60 1.02-MK.

OPTIONAL (Informational only):
sdftool -d F: help all

Shows list of all available commands for your drive. Not needed in order to flash, but, useful to see what you can do with your drive.

If I flashed to 1.03mk on my NS60, seems to be working on few UHD disks I have tried, what is benefit of 1.02mk or 1.00? Can the firmware be downgraded?

[SamuriHL]

There really isn't any benefit. 1.00 allows the drive to work with another ripping software but if you don't care about that, leave it where it is. But to answer your question once on an mk firmware you can always downgrade.

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