Guide for flashing UHD drives for AnyDVD

This is a first attempt to write a comprehensive guide for flashing BD (UHD / 4k) drives for the use with AnyDVDHD. There are so-called "UHD friendly drives" that have an unintentional loophole in the firmware and there are the so-called "UHD official drives" that have then closed this loophole.


Other software (Makemkv, DVDFab etc.) works both with "UHD Official drives" and “UHD friendly drives”. AnyDVDHD only works with “UHD friendly drives”. The good news is, “UHD friendly drives” work with all of them.

Update January 4, 2022: AnyDVD now also works with official drives since version 8.5.8.2!


But now here is the first warning. There are drives that appear to be "UHD friendly drives" by name in the lists. But this is only the case if the drives were manufactured after approximately 2015. Before that date they weren't and flashing firmware with "UHD friendly" firmware turns such a drives into an expensive doorstop. Broken! Kaputt!


There are possible rescue measures, but they are complicated and not necessarily successful. So: Drives older than 2015 - stay away from it. Buy a new one for UHD and use the old one for something else.


The following programs and their optimizations are made by Mike Chen (Makemkv), MartyMcNuts (GUI for the flasher) and SamuriHL (for his contributions to flashing and to improving the GUI for flashing).


Steps for identifying the age of your drive and version of the firmware follow now.


You download you Makemkv and install it.


https://www.makemkv.com/download/



Here is the BETA key you need to enter for the beta version without having to buy the program:


https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1053


After installation and registration start Makemkv. Then you will see this:



The firmware date is a hundred years too old. But this is a bug and common with all UHD drives with a MT1959 chip. Shown here 2119-01-04 means April 1st, 2019. 2119 means 2019, 2114 would mean 2014.


It shows information what is possible with “patched firmware” - it tells you that you have to flash the drive. Before that, UHD doesn't work with that drive and firmware.


Important: If your drive says something older than 2015, e.g. 2114, DO NOT FLASH! Your drive is too old !!!!!!



Also important and necessary: "Drive platform" must be MT1959!


If all of this is fulfilled, you have to download the flasher and the firmware files. The most recent flasher requires Makemkv to be installed, as its GUI uses the command line options of Makemkv.


Why now this one?


The previously known flashers cannot handle the latest firmwares, as these have recently been encrypted. If you have older drives up to around mid-2020, they will still work, but no longer with the latest ones . That's why I think this tutorial should be future-oriented and refer to the latest flasher, which can also handle encrypted firmwares.


Download from SDFTool Flasher:


https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=22896



And now download the so-called MK firmwares here:



https://www.makemkv.com/download/mk-fir ... 200720.zip


Unzip somewhere and then use SDF Tool Flasher to flash the MK firmware with the name of your drive that matches the drive name (Makemkv screen: product).


WARNING: Never cross-flash a slim drive with firmware of a full size drive or vice versa. If you want to cross-flash a drive please ask first in the forum and you will receive advice.



All of these drives can also be cross-flashed, i.e. my original LG BH16NS55 is now an ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.10 MK. In my opinion the best firmware for these drives.
UPDATE 13.06.22: For 3-layer discs - if you have issues with ripping those - flash WH16NS60 1.03. But you need to have Makemkv installed parallel to AnyDVD.

WARNING: Don't buy a LG BH16NS40 anymore. Some sellers still sell the old version with SVC40 and chip MT1939. These drives won't be UHD compatible ever! Buy a BH16NS55 or an ASUS drive!

WARNING: If you have a LG BH16NS40-SVC40 with MT1939 chip: Don't ever flash it with the official LG flasher. The LG flasher doesn't check if it's a MT1939 or MT1959 chip and you will brick your drive flashing it to e.g. 1.05 official firmware!!!!!!

Here are some pictures from the flash process:


Attention! You get a message from Windows Defender and you have to explicitly allow the program to run!

Attention! Sometimes you have to start the program with "run as administrator" if it doesn't work if you start it normally.





So pick your friendly drive, pick the appropriate firmware and then flash it.




Here I flash ASUS official to ASUS MK from the download.

On these pictures you can see a small check box with "enc?" It is only necessary to check this ONCE if you have the latest encrypted firmware (AND ONLY IF) after purchasing and wanting to flash the drive with the MK firmware. Below you can see the firmware versions that are encrypted. The versions before are not.

Then never tick “enc?” again !!! . MK firmwares are unencrypted. On the contrary: Once MK firmware is flashed on the drive, ticking the “enc?” check box gives an error and it doesn't work.


You don't need the options “Read firmware” and “Recover firmware”. Read is self-explanatory and recover is not yet properly tested and experimental.


UPDATE:

UPDATE - 26/09/2021:
The latest version of the SDFtool Flasher will automatically check for both the MT1959 Drive Platform and Encrypted Firmware. It also removes the requirement for .net framework as .net 6.0 is built in to the executable.


https://www.mediafire.com/file/84kasf1g ... ).zip/file

No need to check "enc" or not. Old chipsets like MT1939 will be recognized and no misflashs possible. The tool will recognize encrypted / not encrypted firmware and you can even backup encrypted firmware as non-encrypted using the "read" function.


Here is the list of the encrypted firmware versions. If you have such an original firmware on your drive, you have to mark the check box "enc?" with the old flasher when flashing the MK firmware. Afterwards never again. No need to do so and automatically picked with the new flasher.


HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BE16NU50-1.04-N000300-212005081025.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH14NS50-1.03-N000400-212004211008.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS40-NS50-1.05-N000600-212005061331.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS50-1.03-N000400-212004210958.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS55-1.05-N000400-212004211049.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP50NB40-NB50-1.03-N000800-212005070917.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP55EB40-NB50-1.03-N000800-212005070924.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP60NB10-1.02-N000800-212005070935.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.04-N000500-212005061142.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH14NS40-NS50-1.05-N000900-212005061444.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-N000900-212005061440.bin


Important!!! Restart your PC after flashing !!! Reboot!!!!


Start Makemkv and it should look like mine in the graphic below.





Firmware type: Patched, all options : yes

Good luck! Your drive should now be ready for all known programs handling UHD discs.

Thanks to kufo and SamuriHL for reviewing this before it got posted


LAST UPDATED 14 June, 2022