Flashing My Drive to a Firmware for Makes and Models Other Than Factory Loaded

[Chris Kelly]

I thought I'd share my progress. When I was using ANYDVDHD, I noticed that when flashing my LG WH16NS40 to the WH16NS60, it behaved more like it was loading properly, except for the processing error since ANYDVDHD doesn't work with official UHD drives. Since the drive appeared to be loading better, I thought I'd give MakeMKV a try. Here's what I did. I flashed to DE LG WH16NS60 1.00. Finally, I went to LG's website, downloaded, and installed the latest WH16NS60 firmware from their site, 1.01. When I open MakeMKV, it claims I need the MK patch in order for it to be a Libredrive, but my copy of the 4K/UHD edition of "Terminator Genesis" ripped pretty well and the parts I tested seem to play well in VLC. I didn't try this with newer 4K/UHD BDs, such as "Brightburn," "Doctor Sleep," "The Last Jedi," and "The Shining." So who knows if this will keep me happy until AACS 2.2, or whatever's next.

[Billycar11]

I thought I'd share my progress. When I was using ANYDVDHD, I noticed that when flashing my LG WH16NS40 to the WH16NS60, it behaved more like it was loading properly, except for the processing error since ANYDVDHD doesn't work with official UHD drives. Since the drive appeared to be loading better, I thought I'd give MakeMKV a try. Here's what I did. I flashed to DE LG WH16NS60 1.00. Finally, I went to LG's website and, downloaded, and installed the latest WH16NS60 firmware, which I believe is 1.02. MakeMKV claims I need the MK patch in order for it to be a Libredrive, but "Terminator Genesis" ripped pretty well and the parts I tested seem to play well in VLC. I didn't try this with newer 4K/UHD BDs, such as "Brightburn," "Doctor Sleep," "The Last Jedi," and "The Shining." So who knows if this will keep me happy until AACS 2.2, or whatever's next.

afew things wrong here.
lg does not have wh16ns60 1.02 posted publicly
makemkv cant rip uhd without de or mk firmware
you are still going to have issues with UHD
you could always rip regular bluray in makemkv without special firmware.
very rarely are the WH16NS60 bad for BD50 and BD25 they usually have problems on BD66

agan i really think you should exchange your drive if you get errors on UHD if LG is being really annoying about the warranty just buy a new one and return your old one as the new one

[Chris Kelly]

I thought I'd share my progress. When I was using ANYDVDHD, I noticed that when flashing my LG WH16NS40 to the WH16NS60, it behaved more like it was loading properly, except for the processing error since ANYDVDHD doesn't work with official UHD drives. Since the drive appeared to be loading better, I thought I'd give MakeMKV a try. Here's what I did. I flashed to DE LG WH16NS60 1.00. Finally, I went to LG's website and, downloaded, and installed the latest WH16NS60 firmware, which I believe is 1.02. MakeMKV claims I need the MK patch in order for it to be a Libredrive, but "Terminator Genesis" ripped pretty well and the parts I tested seem to play well in VLC. I didn't try this with newer 4K/UHD BDs, such as "Brightburn," "Doctor Sleep," "The Last Jedi," and "The Shining." So who knows if this will keep me happy until AACS 2.2, or whatever's next.

afew things wrong here.
lg does not have wh16ns60 1.02 posted publicly
makemkv cant rip uhd without de or mk firmware
you are still going to have issues with UHD
you could always rip regular bluray in makemkv without special firmware.
very rarely are the WH16NS60 bad for BD50 and BD25 they usually have problems on BD66

agan i really think you should exchange your drive if you get errors on UHD if LG is being really annoying about the warranty just buy a new one and return your old one as the new one

Thanks for correcting me. When I said "which I believe is 1.02," I wasn't 100% sure. Now that you mention it, I remember that being 1.01, and edited my post. Thanks for keeping things straight for us.

[Chris Kelly]

Just keeping everyone posted in case their experience is either the same or different than mine. I'm not sure if some 4K/UHD Blu-ray titles are more stable with some firmwares and drives than others. But as of this post, I notice that crossflashing an LG WH16NS40 to an ASUS MK BW-16D1HT 3.10 yields even better results than either flashing to the latest factory or MK versions of the LG WH16NS40, or crossflashing to the latest factory or MK versions of the LG WH16NS60.

[jonghotti]

They don’t call the ASUS the “Cadilla of UHD friendly drives” for nothing ya know!

[Chris Kelly]

They don’t call the ASUS the “Cadilla of UHD friendly drives” for nothing ya know!

If I notice a significant improvement from crossflashing my LG WH16NS40 to an ASUS BW-16D1HT, I wonder if a physical, real ASUS BW-16D1HT would be even better. Unless it's necessary, I'm just going to see how my latest concoction works out for now so I can save a few bucks. If not, at least I seem to be on a good path here.

[Chris Kelly]

Uh oh. I think I'm finding this somewhat disk specific. For example, "Terminator Jenesis" works better when crossflashing to the LG WH16NS60. "The Last Jedi" works better when crossflashing to the ASUS BW-16D1HT. What can I say. It is what it is. I'm just posting my observations in case anyone either finds them helpful/useful or if anyone has some ideas.

[Chris Kelly]

! I didn't have to even think about any of this flashing or crossflashing with that one. It handled everything I threw at it for three years until it died in February. It would appear as if/though LG may/might have discontinued it--! I can't find a brand new one anywhere (B&H, Microcenter, New Egg, etc.), or I would have just gotten another one. I actually tried crossflashing my LG WH16NS40 to it, but the modified ASUS flasher gave me an error and refused to flash it. ASUS makes a BW-16D1X-U USB drive. If anyone has either an LG BE16NU50 or an ASUS BW-16D1X-U, if those two can be crossflashed, then I just might get the USB ASUS. If they can't be crossflashed, then I guess the best I can do is when I encounter a disk that's giving me problems, keep crossflashing to a different firmware until I find one that works with that particular disk.

[Billycar11]

! I didn't have to even think about any of this flashing or crossflashing with that one. It handled everything I threw at it for three years until it died in February. It would appear as if/though LG may/might have discontinued it--! I can't find a brand new one anywhere (B&H, Microcenter, New Egg, etc.), or I would have just gotten another one. I actually tried crossflashing my LG WH16NS40 to it, but the modified ASUS flasher gave me an error and refused to flash it. ASUS makes a BW-16D1X-U USB drive. If anyone has either an LG BE16NU50 or an ASUS BW-16D1X-U, if those two can be crossflashed, then I just might get the USB ASUS. If they can't be crossflashed, then I guess the best I can do is when I encounter a disk that's giving me problems, keep crossflashing to a different firmware until I find one that works with that particular disk.

The Asus bw16d1x-u is not UHD compatible.
It's so obvious your drive is defective stop searching for a firmware fix it's a hardware problem. Get an external BU40N and be done with it.

[Chris Kelly]

If I purchase another drive, I'd like to get a new one covered under the manufacturer's warranty. The LG BE16NU50, LG BU40N, and LG WH16NS60 are hard to find via LG's authorized resellers, such as Amazon, B&H, Microcenter, and Newegg. I can't believe the BE16NU50, BU40N, and WH16NS60 might be discontinued. So far, out of all the drives I've used, the BE16NU50 was the most stable and versatile drive I've used. With the WH16NS60's BDR max read speed of 16X, that would have been the fastest Mediatek Blu-ray reader on the market. Between the faster speed and the newer motherboard, that suggests to me the WH16NS60 might have been even more stable and versatile than the BE16NU50. When it comes to these crossflashable/interchangeable Mediatek drives, it seems as if/though we can only choose between the ASUS BW-16D1HT, ASUS BW-16D1X-U, LG BH16NS40, LG WH14NS40, LG WH16NS40, and LG WP50NB40. I wish someone would develop a drive utility for these Mediatek drives like Pioneer did for their drives with which you could force it into the maximum reading and writing speeds capable for each disk format/type.

[jonghotti]

BE16NU50 is history there is no disputing that. What is this about BU40N and WH16NS60? A far as I know they’re not going anywhere.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[monkeymindboy]

Uh oh. I think I'm finding this somewhat disk specific. For example, "Terminator Jenesis" works better when crossflashing to the LG WH16NS60. "The Last Jedi" works better when crossflashing to the ASUS BW-16D1HT. What can I say. It is what it is. I'm just posting my observations in case anyone either finds them helpful/useful or if anyone has some ideas.

Thank you Chris for the tip. I was going crazy trying to figure out why my "The Last Jedi" 4K disc wasn't working. I have two drives, one LG WH16NS40, and the other ASUS BW-16D1HT and both were flashed to WH16NS60 1.00. I haven't had any problems for a longtime with both drives flashed this way. I took out my copy of The Last Jedi that I purchased back in March of 2018 from Best Buy to make a new MKV copy with 1.15.3 to get both Dolby Vision and Atmos. The movie failed over and aver again in both drives, and just to rule out the disc, I went out and bought a new copy today at Best Buy. Same error in both drives. The main file 00018.m2ts kept failing to copy about halfway through. I saw your post and reflashed the ASUS drive back to 3.10 and I was successfully able to make a backup of the disc.
Thanks again!

[Chris Kelly]

Uh oh. I think I'm finding this somewhat disk specific. For example, "Terminator Jenesis" works better when crossflashing to the LG WH16NS60. "The Last Jedi" works better when crossflashing to the ASUS BW-16D1HT. What can I say. It is what it is. I'm just posting my observations in case anyone either finds them helpful/useful or if anyone has some ideas.

Thank you Chris for the tip. I was going crazy trying to figure out why my "The Last Jedi" 4K disc wasn't working. I have two drives, one LG WH16NS40, and the other ASUS BW-16D1HT and both were flashed to WH16NS60 1.00. I haven't had any problems for a longtime with both drives flashed this way. I took out my copy of The Last Jedi that I purchased back in March of 2018 from Best Buy to make a new MKV copy with 1.15.3 to get both Dolby Vision and Atmos. The movie failed over and aver again in both drives, and just to rule out the disc, I went out and bought a new copy today at Best Buy. Same error in both drives. The main file 00018.m2ts kept failing to copy about halfway through. I saw your post and reflashed the ASUS drive back to 3.10 and I was successfully able to make a backup of the disc.
Thanks again!

I'm still looking for a solution that's more consistant from disc to disc. You shouldn't HAVE to do disc-specific flashing like that. Shouldn't you be able to get a fast, heavyduty, sturdy desktop drive that's so consistant from disc to disc that you should be able to pick each title in the best format available and rip it without even thinking about it?

[Billycar11]

Thank you Chris for the tip. I was going crazy trying to figure out why my "The Last Jedi" 4K disc wasn't working. I have two drives, one LG WH16NS40, and the other ASUS BW-16D1HT and both were flashed to WH16NS60 1.00. I haven't had any problems for a longtime with both drives flashed this way. I took out my copy of The Last Jedi that I purchased back in March of 2018 from Best Buy to make a new MKV copy with 1.15.3 to get both Dolby Vision and Atmos. The movie failed over and aver again in both drives, and just to rule out the disc, I went out and bought a new copy today at Best Buy. Same error in both drives. The main file 00018.m2ts kept failing to copy about halfway through. I saw your post and reflashed the ASUS drive back to 3.10 and I was successfully able to make a backup of the disc.
Thanks again!

I'm still looking for a solution that's more consistant from disc to disc. You shouldn't HAVE to do disc-specific flashing like that. Shouldn't you be able to get a fast, heavyduty, sturdy desktop drive that's so consistant from disc to disc that you should be able to pick each title in the best format available and rip it without even thinking about it?
[/quote]

This is exactly the problem the BU40N solves. I could point to many cases were I recommend a person a BU40N for trouble discs and they report back that it reads all there trouble discs no problem

[MartyMcNuts]

Pioneer's would be great I reckon but unfortunately, still not supported.