UHD Drive models

[Wachouff]

Here is my small contribution:

I've ordered 3 UHD-friendly drives last week on Amazon France warehouse deals. My aim was to secure the purchase of a drive with a usable firmware, before they all disappear, as the process of downgrading a drive's firmware is difficult. I only own one UHD disc, Star Wars 8.

• LG BH16NS55, manufactured in december 2018, came with a 1.03 firmware. No surprise, UHD disc not even showing on Windows, as previously said on this forum.
• Asus BW-16D1HT, manufactured in march 2017, came with a 3.0 firmware. UHD movie showing on Windows, seen by DVDfab. However, I couldn't play the movie, DVDFab said "Ooops, this disc isn't supported yet. Please try again at a later time." This is obviously due to my incompetence, as I wasn't able to load the appropriate external key.

• Asus BC-12D2HT, manufactured in april 2017, came with a 3.0 firmware. It's a cheaper version of the BW-16D1HT, without the ability to burn Blu-rays. It burns only CDs and DVDs, but reads everyting. I believe I'm the first on this forum to report on this drive. It behaved exactly like the BW-16D1HT, wich means it's UHD-friendly with firmware 3.0. It could be an interesting option for people who don't need to burn Blu-rays. It could order it for only 40€.

Do notice that the Asus drives were noticeably noiser than the LG.

I've kept the BW-16D1HT and sent back the 2 others.

I would very much appreciate if someone could explain to me where exactly is the "load external key" option. I've read this post, without being able to go further: https://forum.dvdfab.cn/forum/uhd-co...-blu-ray-discs. I know it's a very noobish question.

[Faith]

UPDATE:My 3.01 firmware preventing the LG'S BH16NS55 to not read 4k disks was able to be flashed back to firmware version 2.01 and now reads 4k disks and of course windows also see's the title of the 4k disk and can open it's files so can Fab.I had a friend do it as he had the older computer needed to do this.So to all that own this drive don't update it's firmwear to 3.01 it will make it useless to read 4k disks.

[Faith]

Signals:
I tried it with 3 different 4k disks windows doesn't read even the disk title nor does it even really try a few seconds and the blue reading disk light goes right out no dice.The reflashing results will take me some time it's not a easy process and I may need to find a older computer to do it.I have to read up more on it.

I know you have this drive so don't update it past the software version you have now.This is a brand new drive made in Dec. of last year.Lg lies about the 3.01 firmware in it's readme file for the 3.01 firmware they say improves 4k disk reading it does not it makes it so it can't be used with 4k disks they closed the loophole..Blu rays 2k works fine so I know the drive is working as it should.

[signals]

There is a thread dedicated to drive reports, I will move you post there. Have you actually tried it with a 4k disc and it failed? Please also report on results with reflashing the drive.

[Faith]

LG'S BH16NS55 I ordered from Germany came with 1.03 firmware this makes this drive useless for 4k disks so don't upgrade the firmware from 1.02 the last know firmware to work with this drive not sold in the USA.Now I have to flash the firmware back to 1.02 version to get it to work with 4k disks.

[DVDNut]

Is anyone interested in a list of UHD Disc that has been successful and ones that I got Not Yet Supported? I also had a hand full Disc with read errors. I also had one Disc that the drive would not read at all.

Drive: LG WH16NS40 (NS50) FW 1.02

[KidJoe]

So the local Micro Center had LG WH16NS40 drives on sale the other day (about the same price as Amazon who was out of stock)... so I popped over and picked one up. All the drives on the shelf were labeled with SVC Code NS50, dated January 2018 and the label also stated Rom Ver: 1.03. I purchased one anyway and took it home.

As expected with 1.03, Passkey says "no disc inserted" when I put my Wonder Woman UHD disc in.

After following the instructions (on another forum) to downgrade the drive's firmware to 1.02, it works. Passkey now identifies the disc and can rip it. I haven't tried any other discs yet.

There are caveats to downgrading... you must be able to put the SATA controller you connect the drive to into IDE mode, and you needed to boot to DOS or 32bit Windows. My Asus Z170-Deluxe couldn't do that, so I had to connect the new LG to my Son's older PC with an Intel DG33TL board, where I could set to IDE mode, and used a Win 7 "Live CD" (basically a Win PE disc) that was 32bit in order to complete the downgrade process.

[DVDNut]

Picked up a Asus BW-16D1HT from Amazon. It came with BW-16D1HT fw 3.2, it won't even try to read the disc..Never could even get to the DVDFab warning that it's not a friendly drive. Has any one tried to flash on back to fw v3.0? Does anyone know where I could find the old version?

[ViperGeek.net]

Did you see any errors in the log when blade runner failed?

When Blade Runner 2048 failed to rip, it seemed like the drive just decided to stop feeding the PC data. There was no error; just a slowly decreasing MB/s data rate 'til it hit zero. I manually cancelled the rip and tried again; same thing. I didn't think to collect logs because I was mostly in "play" mode. Two other movies, "COCO" and "The Fifth Element" worked perfectly. Another thread theorized it was because the external BD drive went to sleep, possibly due to a firmware bug.

- Dave

[october262]

Did you see any errors in the log when blade runner failed?

I just started experimenting with UHD. My Coco failed with read errors halfway through - but it’s a brand new disc that I just bought and went straight from the box into the drive. Strange.

Do 4K discs have a higher density which makes the drive more sensitive or something?

even though it's a brand new disc there could also be a number of other issues with the disc such as a bad pressing or manufacturing defects.

[eisenb11]

So far, "COCO" ripped perfectly (7.43GB), but "Blade Runner 2049" stopped at 35% (3.77GB or 4,057,866,564 bytes) ... twice. I can't tell if I should blame the M-DISC drive or DVDFab UHD Ripper. I'm about to try my third trial UHD rip to see if I can split the difference: most work, or most don't work.

Did you see any errors in the log when blade runner failed?

I just started experimenting with UHD. My Coco failed with read errors halfway through - but it’s a brand new disc that I just bought and went straight from the box into the drive. Strange.

Do 4K discs have a higher density which makes the drive more sensitive or something?

[signals]

Dave,
Thanks for the fill on the drive. For others that need to know the firmware of their drive, you can use ImgBurn, It shows the model and firmware when it is opened. THere are probably other applications and utilities that do this as well.

[ViperGeek.net]

I'm not sure how to tell the firmware version of the BE16NU50.

Found it:

Info for drive [E:\] (DVDFab 10.0.8.8)
Vendor: HL-DT-ST, Product: BD-RE BE16NU50
Revision: 1.01, Vendor specific: N001101SIK9TH9FI211
Drive region: 1 (RPC II), changes left: 4(user) / 4(vendor)
AACS v1, AGIDs: 2, revocation level: MKBv63+
Support: BUS_ENCRYPTION=YES BN_GENERATION=YES

- Dave

[ViperGeek.net]

You can check on ebay for the BH16NS55 and some of the others, it is no worse than some of the 3rd party sellers on amazon. There are two of the BE16NU50 available as Amazon Warehouse deals ("Fulfilled by Amazon") for US$135. They are at least returnable an amz,

Thanks for your suggestions and confirmation, Signals. I ended up purchasing a "like new" BE16NU50 off of Amazon Warehouse for $150 and am happy to say it works well. I hadn't realized that, while external, it required external power. All my other BD-RE drives are USB-powered. That makes using it from a laptop a bit less convenient, but not a deal-breaker. I'm not sure how to tell the firmware version.

So far, "COCO" ripped perfectly (7.43GB), but "Blade Runner 2049" stopped at 35% (3.77GB or 4,057,866,564 bytes) ... twice. I can't tell if I should blame the M-DISC drive or DVDFab UHD Ripper. I'm about to try my third trial UHD rip to see if I can split the difference: most work, or most don't work.

- Dave

[signals]

Glad to hear that, thanks for the feedback on the drive.