www.makemkv.com

Let me start by saying I've already got two flashed drives that can read UHD disks, but this oldie is still working:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/rdisk14
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: TSSTcorp
Product: BDDVDW SE-506AB
Revision: TS01
Serial number: <redacted>
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 82

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1939
Harware support: Yes
Firmware support: No
Firmware type: Original (unpatched)
Firmware version: 01.31
DVD all regions: Possible, not yet enabled
BD raw data read: Possible, not yet enabled
BD raw metadata read: Possible, not yet enabled
Unrestricted read speed: Possible, not yet enabled

I've successfully used it (albeit slowly) to rip Blu-ray disks. Is there any benefit to flashing it to LibreDrive firmware, or should I leave it as-is and run it into the ground? If worth flashing, would welcome pointers to scripts on either Mac or Windows (via VM)

This is an MT1939 TSSTcorp drive - completely unflashable as far as I know. Mike may or may not add LibreDrive support for your firmware in the future, as it is on the "old firmware type 2" list.

unsupported - old firmware type 2: 10 firmware(s):
TSSTcorp-BDDVDW_SE-506AB-TS01-01.31-

unsupported - old firmware type 2 - The firmware uses an old memory layout. Currently these are not supported, but support may be added at any time - all necessary vendor commands are exposed by the firmware. Supporting these is somewhat time-consuming process, and the current plan is to add support on secondary basis, only after other features are done. Note that for many drives the next version of official firmware is supported.

Please see this topic for more information : viewtopic.php?t=18856

(Also, when it comes to LG drives (so not this one), yes, there is a benefit to flashing to LibreDrive-compatible firmware even for regular Blu-ray discs - I believe it pretty much guarantees that you'll always be able to decrypt every single regular Blu-ray disc, as long as your drive can detect it and read it.)

Makes sense to me. Like I said, it's working just fine on Blu-rays, and it's never a bad thing to take some load off my UHD drives.

I read that article about old firmware, but as the drive itself was reporting "possible, not yet enabled" for LibreDrive, I thought perhaps I had missed something!

goestoeleven wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 1:15 am Makes sense to me. Like I said, it's working just fine on Blu-rays, and it's never a bad thing to take some load off my UHD drives.

I read that article about old firmware, but as the drive itself was reporting "possible, not yet enabled" for LibreDrive, I thought perhaps I had missed something!

frankly there are so many alternatives to libredrive for UHD ripping now, i guess its cheaper to buy an external verbatim or something for a few bucks, but be careful with ebay, lots of fake drives