Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2026

[comadose]

I'm inclined to agree with Mr Orange.

If the price was more reasonable and the payment wasn't so sketchy (PayPal "friends and family", so no come back if it doesn't work beyond complaining here) I might be tempted to go for it.

If you have a non-Pioneer drive it's free. I have an ASUS one on the way so I might just wait for that.

[Billycar11]

I'm inclined to agree with Mr Orange.

If the price was more reasonable and the payment wasn't so sketchy (PayPal "friends and family", so no come back if it doesn't work beyond complaining here) I might be tempted to go for it.

If you have a non-Pioneer drive it's free. I have an ASUS one on the way so I might just wait for that.

the reason its friends and family is for ease so many people dont check the no shipping needed for a digital product i have tried
i was one of the first to sell drives as goods and services and now all my drives are sold that way. so i dont think im "Sketchy" at all
its also a tacit for scammers then do a case with paypal and they get a full refund because you never physically shipped anything and you get a $15 dispute charge...
you have to look at my reviews here and reddit i have been here doing this helping people almost everyday for 8 years.
keeping the guide updated for free helping people avoid fake drives and bricking things.

[comadose]

PayPal lets you create a payment link for a specific amount. No issues with physical goods not being shipped then.

The usual reason to use the friends and family method is to avoid PayPal's fees, and to make it harder to dispute transactions. That's why it feels sketchy.

Is it really "helping people" at $40 a shot? That sounds like running a business. Don't you have a website? There are lots of payment processors who integrate with a basic website.

[Billycar11]

PayPal lets you create a payment link for a specific amount. No issues with physical goods not being shipped then.

The usual reason to use the friends and family method is to avoid PayPal's fees, and to make it harder to dispute transactions. That's why it feels sketchy.

Is it really "helping people" at $40 a shot? That sounds like running a business. Don't you have a website? There are lots of payment processors who integrate with a basic website.

i am aware of buy buttons but they are for physical goods unless you have a business account and i dont have one of those.
trust me know about paypal fees i have paid over $22,000 in fees last year
i use the buy buttons for my drive purchases
i tried to have a website 3 times and got dropped all 3 because of the stuff i sell and dont get me started on payment processors they just want to keep it all if they dont think you run a legit business to many bad experiences way to much red tape i gave up on it.

we just have to accept people look at us as sketchy from the outside and it only gets worse if everyone on the inside is calling us sketchy too you have to go by our reputation in the community

my remote flashes were free for years marty's too but i was spending hours a day team viewering into peoples pc for free manually flashing their drives and while i was there they ask can i also setup vlc to do direct playback and oh its also not bitstreaming sound to my avr can you fix that too and well i know how to do it all and its only another 5 mins it spirals

and this also actually got me banned from teamviewer multiple times even though i was making no money and i really needed it at the time for my grandpa as they changed his tv setup and it was to complicated and i would teamviewer in and set it and put on what he wanted.
sure i got around the bans with vms but my main pc was banned so everyday to help him extra work booting up a vm.

so when it stared to affect me being able to use my own stuff normally i had to charge for it and make it automated
thats enough ranting you get the idea im not here to scam anyone optical drives are going away for now (hopefully not forever) so volume of orders for flashers is way down so prices needed to go up.

[comadose]

You paid $22k in PayPal fees? Aren't they about 10% or so? Implying you made over $220,000 in a year from this. That does very much sound like a business. I'm surprised PayPal didn't force you to register a business account and taxes etc. Here you would be required to report the income to the government and pay income tax on it, at the very least.

[nicholfd]

You paid $22k in PayPal fees? Aren't they about 10% or so? Implying you made over $220,000 in a year from this. That does very much sound like a business. I'm surprised PayPal didn't force you to register a business account and taxes etc. Here you would be required to report the income to the government and pay income tax on it, at the very least.

You're making lots of assumptions & being nosey about someone else's business.

PayPal fees are not 10%. Even if it was, fees are based on the amount paid to the account/user, and don't reflect any costs involved - it is *NOT* what the person "made". Why does that matter to you?

In the USA, PayPal reports anything over $600 (US Federal law) in income to the federal government for tax purposes, and legally you are required to pay income taxes on it, minus expenses. No need for a "business account". It's "personal" income.

Why does any of this matter to you at all & what does it have to do with UHD Drive Flashing, the subject of this forum/thread?

[austincummings0324]

Copy/paste the MakeMKV drive info and libredrive info sections.

Hi Marty,

I just looked at the drive info in my normal desktop settings to get this info. When I tried to open up the beta version of makemkv it said that it was too old and that I would need a registration key to continue. Unfortunately, I don't have the extra money until next pay day to purchase an makemkv license. Sorry to keep you waiting that long. I do appreciate you trying to help!

New versions of MakeMKV are free to download from the main page: https://www.makemkv.com

New "Beta" monthly license keys are regularly available in the forums: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1053

Thank you for the second link! That actually helped me get the software up and running. I didn't there was any more keys. I apologize for my confusion . Below is my current drive information now that I've been able to open makemkv:

Drive Information
OS device name: F:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BP50NB40
Revision: 1.03
Serial number: SIK0FPB2B2059
Firmware date: 2121-07-08 16:03
Bus encryption flags: 17

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible (with patched firmware)
Drive platform: MT1959
Harware support: Yes
Firmware support: No
Firmware type: Original (patched version available)
Firmware version: 1.03
DVD all regions: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw data read: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw metadata read: Possible (with patched firmware)
Unrestricted read speed: Possible (with patched firmware)

No disc inserted

[colgate2004]

EDIT: the FR07-specific version of the firmware flash file I referenced below was from an older thread, and I re-read the instructions in the first post on this thread (for the umpteenth time ) and it now appears that that FR07-specific firmware file is outdated and obsolete; the top-of-thread instructions seem to say that now, *any* existing firmware version of the BU40N can be flashed straight to the v1.03 revision. So I'm going to go ahead and try to flash this drive to that using the sole BU40N file in the All You Need firmware pack. We'll see how this goes

ORIGINAL POST:
Hi all,

I have a BU40N with the FR07 firmware revision.

I downloaded the All You Need firmware pack, but the only file in there for the BU40N is for the 1.03 firmware revision (HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.03-NM00000-211810241934.bin).

I did see in a different thread someone mentioned a firmware flash file specifically for the FR07 revision (HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-FR07-JM02202-211801221536.bin), but I can't locate that file.

Anybody know where it is?

[kinimato]

You paid $22k in PayPal fees? Aren't they about 10% or so? Implying you made over $220,000 in a year from this. That does very much sound like a business. I'm surprised PayPal didn't force you to register a business account and taxes etc. Here you would be required to report the income to the government and pay income tax on it, at the very least.

A seller may prefer to avoid fees and buyer protection because, in small margin sales, processing fees can significantly cut into profits or turn a fair price into a loss. Buyer protection can also be abused, with buyers disputing legitimate transactions after receiving the product, leaving the seller without payment. For small, reputation based sellers, fee free non reversible payments can be a way to keep prices reasonable and protect against bad faith claims rather than an attempt to exploit buyers. I would know, I do many sales online.

I bought a Pioneer BDR-S13UBK from Billycar11 a year ago. Best drive I have up to now. (I can always count on it to rip where as my other Pioneer's and LG's that were cross flashed, once in a while give me grief) But it was a risk I took because all I had was the reviews and recommendations of people on this forum and elsewhere. And it turned out as legit as it can get. I would post photos, but I'm not here often and haven't received that right.

But in this movie ripping world, its almost always about risks. Drives are bought as new on ebay and turn out to be used. Movies are bought new and may not even rip. Try to flash a drive and it bricks because it was mislabeled, wrong revision. If you don't have the money to deal with this, movie ripping may just not be for you. Plain and simple. And even though I slightly sympathize with your concern, because I also thought the same, you just gotta grow some balls and give it a shot. Plus, Billycar11's reputation (and others here) preceeds him. Spend a little more time reading here, reddit, google, etc.

[Billycar11]

You paid $22k in PayPal fees? Aren't they about 10% or so? Implying you made over $220,000 in a year from this. That does very much sound like a business. I'm surprised PayPal didn't force you to register a business account and taxes etc. Here you would be required to report the income to the government and pay income tax on it, at the very least.

If you make over 600 in revenue it's goes to the irs of course I pay taxes on it it's all reported even refunds why would you assume it's not.
Your forgetting the most important part fees are based on sale price not profit some of the drives I sell cost me over $500 like the bdr-x13ux and have you seen what optical drives go for these days
People on eBay are charging double what charge for the same drive with no work done to it. Revenue went up massively in 2025 but profit is almost exactly the same as 2024 it was going to be less until I got the xd08's unlocked