Question about MKB / revocation / Libredrive

[Pelvis Popcan]

There are some very basic things I'm unclear about, so I thought I'd ask rather than just relying on assumptions from years old threads:

"Libredrive" is a mode of operation by MakeMKV, correct? So, you simply run MakeMKV to get Libredrive active. Is that correct? SamuriHL posted before, "LibreDrive uploads firmware code that bypasses MKB revocation and disables bus encryption", which makes it sound to me like to get the MKB and bus encryption bypass, there is some kind of firmware patching & "uploading" involved. If there is anything else you have to do besides running MakeMKV to get LibreDrive active, what is it?

It also sounds to me like you would NEVER want to put a UHD (or even Blu-Ray) disc in a "UHD Friendly" flashed drive WITHOUT LibreDrive active, because otherwise, it will update MKB revocation, which might make a disc no longer able to be decrypted with revoked keys that AnyDVD might be using. Is that correct?

What if you use *only* AnyDVD? Does AnyDVD block MKB revocation as well? Because if it doesn't, it sounds like you would never want to use AnyDVD without MakeMKV also running.

I'm also not completely understanding the sticky about AnyDVD + LibreDrive. Is it about blocking MKB revocation? If not, then what specific benefits do you get with AnyDVD + LibreDrive? Again... this means running MakeMKV and AnyDVD at the same time, correct?

 

[DeepSpace]

AnyDVD now just calls MakeMKV and tells it to activate LibreDrive. You don't have to do anything more than usual, just start AnyDVD and insert the disc.
If you have a UHD compatible drive and don't want to use MakeMKV or to install it, you can patch a friendly firmware on it to get UHD discs to work.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

I'm also confused about UHD drive friendly firmwares. Take for example the LG WH16NS40 drive.

This list shows 7 original vendor firmwares (non MK) that will support LibreDrive mode:

• HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.00-N001401-211508180932
  HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.02-N000100-211512111459
  HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.02-N001401-211703101650

"Old Type"

• HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-1.00-N1A12A1-211304041441
  HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-1.01-N0A02A0-211312061658
  HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-1.02-N0A00A0-211405071026
  HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-1.02-N0C00C0-211505261638

The bottom two firmwares in each list confuse me, because they are the same version, for the same drive. What do the numbers after "1.02-" represent?

Where would I find these firmwares in this list? Just on the LG web site, or FirmwareHQ? Because there is only one 1.02 version listed for the drive in this example, on both of those sites.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

AnyDVD now just calls MakeMKV and tells it to activate LibreDrive. You don't have to do anything more than usual, just start AnyDVD and insert the disc.
If you have a UHD compatible drive and don't want to use MakeMKV or to install it, you can patch a friendly firmware on it to get UHD discs to work.

So you have to just have MakeMKV installed? It doesn't have to be running?

What do you mean by "friendly firmware"? You mean original vendor "friendly" firmware, like the ones above? Again, do I just get those from FirmwareHQ?

What about MKB revocation? Will that be blocked as long as I insert a UHD disc with either AnyDVD or MakeMKV running first?

 

[DeepSpace]

So you have to just have MakeMKV installed? It doesn't have to be running?

No, as I said AnyDVD calls MakeMKV, you have to do no more than usual.
Only install it and you are done.

What do you mean by "friendly firmware"? You mean original vendor "friendly" firmware, like the ones above? Again, do I just get those from FirmwareHQ?

You can't get these by the vendor because they obviously make it possible to circumvent the copy protection.
I will send you the flash guide at a later point, as I have no time to search for it right now.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

I think I understand that "MK" firmwares are made by MakeMKV team and can be flashed to a newer supported drive, then just used with MakeMKV, but I guess MK firmwares will now work with AnyDVD since AnyDVD detects and uses LibreDrive? Otherwise, my understanding is a MK firmware may or may not work with AnyDVD... but that was before AnyDVD supported LibreDrive I guess? Someone please correct or clarify!

Once an MK firmware is flashed, then any firmware can be flashed using the SDFtool Flasher v1.3.4, to an old version that LibreDrive supports, which would then also work with AnyDVD. (Without needing LibreDrive?)

The "old versions" is what I'm confused about... I **think** these would be the "Downgrade Enabled Firmware" or "DE Firmware" (Downgrade Enabled Firmware V.2.zip). It's just that the "packs" I can find seem to only have a small number of firmwares in the archives? But I'm still confused because if an MK firmware is flashed, can't then *any* firmware be flashed? Is the only place you can find old firmwares the MakeMKV site? (It looks like official ones - even old versions - are exe files which means they use a built in flasher which will probably not flash over a MK firmware.)

 

[DeepSpace]

but I guess MK firmwares will now work with AnyDVD since AnyDVD detects and uses LibreDrive?

No, this MK firmware is the firmware that makes your drive friendly.
For example, on my Asus 16D1HT i flashed the 3.10 MK firmware to make it friendly, I then could use AnyDVD to copy UHD discs. If you do that, you don't have to install MakeMKV (but of course you have to pick the right firmware for your drive if you have a different one than I have).

Since a few versions AnyDVD can use MakeMKV wich makes that obsolete, you dom't have to flash the firmware and you can also use (some?) Pioneer drives now.
Just try it and see what AnyDVD tells you.

 

[DeepSpace]

And I see you already know the thread, since you know about SDFtool and the firmware pack.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

Would using DVDFab UHD Drive Tool be easier?

I know I know... I'm mentioning DVDFab... but their utility looks like it's designed to be simple. But... it's expensive, and also... DVDFab.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

This is old, but here SamuriHL says, "SOME of the MK firmware has worked as UHD friendly, but, not nearly all." Is that no longer the case?

 

[DeepSpace]

Would using DVDFab UHD Drive Tool be easier?

I don't know, I've heard about it, but since the other thing worked, I never used it.
(Back then I used Asus odd Firmware flasher, SDFTool came later).

This is old, but here SamuriHL says, "SOME of the MK firmware has worked as UHD friendly, but, not nearly all." Is that no longer the case?

I cannot answer that, for these things you have to wait if the other guys see this thread.

 

[SamuriHL]

A lot of things to unfold here.

Old firmware first. Original unpatched firmware that was either uhd friendly (and works with anydvd without libredrive) or official uhd that works with libredrive. Key word is unpatched. I'm not even talking about DE here, completely original firmware non messed with.

DE firmware was modified to allow downgrades. Once the mfgs started stripping out uhd friendly functionality and patching official drives, DE patched firmware allowed downgrading to a working firmware.

MK firmware was the next evolution. The mfgs fought back against DE firmware by adding additional checks and other stuff like encrypted firmware updates. MK firmware was written to flash at the same version the drive is at to do the following: defeat encryption if it's there, remove all downgrade checks, and restore uhd friendly (or official uhd) functionality to work with libredrive.

Anydvd by itself works with uhd friendly firmware, original, DE, or MK. Anydvd doesn't block the mkb revocation. When a new mkb version is released, your drive is updated, and certain player keys that may have been compromised are revoked. When this happens anydvd is updated to support the new mkb and your discs all work again.

Now, what the hell is libredrive? And what is it not? Libredrive is a piece of in memory firmware code that is uploaded to a drive's memory after a disc is inserted, either bluray or uhd. The firmware disables the mkb revocation. It also disables bus encryption. However the drive still advertises that it will bus encrypt, even though it doesn't actually do so. This is where the problems come from. If libredrive is active and anydvd doesn't know that it's active, anydvd will attempt to bus decrypt the data coming from the drive. Since libredrive is active the data is not actually bus encrypted. Therefore the data is corrupted. This leads to bad entries in the opd and discs that can never be aacs decrypted. Now, back to the what libredrive is not part. Libredrive does not bypass aacs in any way. It doesn't touch the copy protection at all. It does bypass drive authentication for reading protected parts of the disc like the VUK so that you don't need a valid aacs cert to authenticate with the drive. But that doesn't inherently allow you to decrypt a disc.

So now that history lesson is complete, you should understand one reason anydvd uses libredrive if makemkv is installed... it can now be sure that bus encryption is disabled and not try to decrypt the data coming from the drive. This has a side effect, however. Because bus encryption is bypassed it means anydvd can now work with official uhd drives, or any drive that libredrive supports really. A win for all of us.

Hopefully that clears up all the confusion.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

 

[SamuriHL]

P.S. to the question of whether MK firmware always makes a drive uhd friendly or not, no it doesn't. The goal isn't to turn the drive uhd friendly, it's to enable functionality to allow libredrive upload to the drive's memory. In most cases the side effect of that is reenabling uhd friendly functionality, but that's not always the case. However it hardly matters when you use libredrive with anydvd since by nature it'll simply work regardless.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

 

[DeepSpace]

Thanks for clearing things up. While I know about patching a drive and that AnyDVD now uses LibreDrive what makes it work with other drives as well, I knew nothing about the details. I did not even knew that a drive also has a memory where the code gets uploaded to (I thought there only is a chip with the firmware on it and thats it) and, hold onto your chair, I did not even knew that DE firmware means Downgrade enabled... Of course I know the term, but I literally thought DE it has something to do with germany (de=deutsch) LOL

I bookmarked your comment and will now know what to answer if anyone has these questions again.

 

[SamuriHL]

There's a lot of misunderstanding, confusion and outright misinformation out there regarding LibreDrive. All LibreDrive cares about is the ability to upload the firmware code to memory of the drive, which is why I said that flashing an MK firmware USUALLY restores UHD friendly status but not always. It's not the end goal. The end goal is restoring the commands that allow the firmware upload to memory. Because it's in memory, ejecting a disc usually clears it and removes LibreDrive. Power cycling the drive always does. It's a very powerful technology which is why I'm glad it now plays nice with AnyDVD. All of my drives are official UHD drives and they now work perfectly with AnyDVD. But hopefully my post clears up the misunderstanding about what LibreDrive is and isn't. It's not magic, but it does open a lot of doors.

 

[Pelvis Popcan]

Thanks for taking the time to write all that SamuriHL, I know that takes time and I appreciate it.

The next thing on my wish list is a BDXL player.

Until then, I'm looking at a M9205 with an 18 TB external HD (since they can be had for $350 now, which is unbelievable to me), and a region selectable player from jvbdigital for official discs to use with the HDMI pass through on the M9205.

I would still prefer to burn UHD rips to BDXL's, but it's not really worth it without a player. I feel like it should be possible to make something like the M9205 and have it either support an external optical drive, or even have it come with an empty internal SATA drive bay that you could put your own drive into. But, I guess the market for ripping and burning to blank optical discs doesn't really exist anymore.

 

[James]

Until then, I'm looking at a M9205 with an 18 TB external HD (since they can be had for $350 now, which is unbelievable to me), and a region selectable player from jvbdigital for official discs to use with the HDMI pass through on the M9205.

OT hint: You can play original discs with a M9205. Here is how:
Windows PC & AnyDVD: Create a network share of your optical drive. If you don't want to enable SMB1 on Windows, you can use NFS for the Oppo clone. e.g. https://www.hanewin.net/nfs-e.htm
Play from the network share. The cool thing: You can use AnyDVD's real-time remastering. Subtitle position, transparency, remove annoyances, ...

2nd OT hint: This does not only work for original discs, but isos, too. You can use AnyDVD's real-time remastering. Subtitle position, transparency, remove annoyances, ...

 

[James]

3rd OT hint: Don't share the root of the drive(s). Create a folder "drives" on your harddisk and mount the drive(s) in empty folders inside the "drives" folder. (Mount as NTFS folder).
Share the "drives" folder via SMB1 or NFS.
Oppo clones like this and you only have to create one share for all drives (pyhsical & virtual clone drives)