Chinese Blu-ray drive from AliExpress capable of UHD?

[flfreitas]

Hi everyone, I'm new to these forums.

So, recently I found a very cheap Blu-Ray drive in AliExpress that claimed to read/write Blu-Ray. I was skeptical at first, but decided to buy it anyway.
It arrived today, it seems to be totally unbranded, the box only says "Super Slim Drive - Portable USB3.0 interface drive". There's no indication of the company behind it except for the listing of a Shenzhen manufacturer in the barcode. It has a pretty short manual, that has spelling errors, calling it the "SupderDrive", and only mentions DVD playback.\

Nevertheless, it does read blu-rays, I just got it to read some that I own, using VLC + libaacs + KEYDB. It obviously doesn't read UHD ones, but it never claimed to.

When I run makemkv, it hangs when a disc is inserted, but when the tray is empty and closed, makemkv returns the following info:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: GF00
Serial number: [REDACTED]
Firmware date: 2116-12-09 14:58
Bus encryption flags: 1F

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

No disc inserted

So, it seems to be based on the LG BU40N, the odd thing is the revision number GF00, which I've never seen, maybe it means General Firmware? No idea.
Anyway, since it has platform MT1959 and is based on the BU40N, in theory, could LibreDrive work on it? The only reservations I have about flashing it is makemkv hanging when it has a disc, and of course, this weird GF00 version. Has anyone here heard about it?

[MartyMcNuts]

Hi everyone, I'm new to these forums.

So, recently I found a very cheap Blu-Ray drive in AliExpress that claimed to read/write Blu-Ray. I was skeptical at first, but decided to buy it anyway.
It arrived today, it seems to be totally unbranded, the box only says "Super Slim Drive - Portable USB3.0 interface drive". There's no indication of the company behind it except for the listing of a Shenzhen manufacturer in the barcode. It has a pretty short manual, that has spelling errors, calling it the "SupderDrive", and only mentions DVD playback.\

Nevertheless, it does read blu-rays, I just got it to read some that I own, using VLC + libaacs + KEYDB. It obviously doesn't read UHD ones, but it never claimed to.

When I run makemkv, it hangs when a disc is inserted, but when the tray is empty and closed, makemkv returns the following info:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: GF00
Serial number: [REDACTED]
Firmware date: 2116-12-09 14:58
Bus encryption flags: 1F

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

No disc inserted

So, it seems to be based on the LG BU40N, the odd thing is the revision number GF00, which I've never seen, maybe it means General Firmware? No idea.
Anyway, since it has platform MT1959 and is based on the BU40N, in theory, could LibreDrive work on it? The only reservations I have about flashing it is makemkv hanging when it has a disc, and of course, this weird GF00 version. Has anyone here heard about it?

So you have tried a UHD disc? If it doesn't read them on the current firmware, you should be able to flash it directly to DE_BU40N_1.00. It will then be able to read UHD discs.

[flfreitas]

So you have tried a UHD disc? If it doesn't read them on the current firmware, you should be able to flash it directly to DE_BU40N_1.00. It will then be able to read UHD discs.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I did try a UHD disc and it doesn't read it. What's the idea behind flashing to a v1.00 firmware? Do old versions of BU40N read UHD? If so, why isn't this the recomended method for this drive?

[MartyMcNuts]

So you have tried a UHD disc? If it doesn't read them on the current firmware, you should be able to flash it directly to DE_BU40N_1.00. It will then be able to read UHD discs.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I did try a UHD disc and it doesn't read it. What's the idea behind flashing to a v1.00 firmware? Do old versions of BU40N read UHD? If so, why isn't this the recomended method for this drive?

BU40N 1.00 or BU40N 1.03-MK are the recommended firmware versions for the BU40N drive. For UHD discs, the latter firmware only works with MakeMKV and Xreveal while the former firmware is compatible with all good UHD ripping software.