Flash WP50NB40 to become a 4K Drive

Thank you to dododge.net for helping and teaching me all his wisdom!!! <3

Introduction

Want to use an LG BluRay drive as a 4k drive? Look below!

Hardware:

The full guide from MakeMKV files is available on MakeMKV forums

Check the “SVC CODE” on the label on the bottom of the drive. If it’s NB52 then it needs to be flashed three times as seen in the following steps:

encrypted BP50NB40-NB50-1.03MK (to get it to allow unencrypted firmware)
full BP50NB40-NB50-1.03MK (to get it unencrypted)
BP60NB10 1.00_HBD (to change the model number to BP60NB10 and enable 4K support)

Flatpak

$ flatpak run –command=/bin/sh com.makemkv.MakeMKV

(Alternative) Linux Versions v1.16.7 and higher have an active bug that does not allow flashing. When using compile instructions be sure to download 1.17.6 to ensure error free flashing. A list of all old versions can be found here.

Verify Hardware

container$ makemkvcon f -l
  03: dev_21:10, /dev/sr5, /dev/sr5
    HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_WP50NB40_1.03_212107081609_SIM04O7292947

Firmware

You’ll need the firmware pack and sdf.bin which I think is linked from that forum post.

$ curl -LO "https://makemkv.com/sdf.bin"

# Download the G Drive link to current directory
$ unzip -q "The all you need firmware pack.zip"

# Moving firmware to current working directory.
$ cp The\ all\ you\ need\ firmware\ pack/LG\ slim\ USB\ BP60NB10/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP60NB10-1.02-NM00800-212005070935.bin .

Procedure

We are going to flash from: 1. Encrypted-> 2. Decrypted -> 3. Decrypted.

With version numbers: BP50NB40 (enc) -> BP50NB40 (dec) -> BP60NB10 (dec) (4k)

If you run into any issues such as 0x82062900, go ahead and update that passthrough in your VM. Unplug and plug the device back in. From this point either the device needs a reboot or the wrong firmware is being used.

1. Flash Encrypted (BP50NB40)

Flash the first one (BP50NB40) with encryption, using whatever “dev” it reported:

$ makemkvcon f -d 'dev_21:2' \
  -f 'sdf.bin' \
  rawflash enc \
  -i 'HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP50NB40-NB50-1.03-NM00800-212005070917.bin'

2. Flash Unencrypted (BP50NB40)

I think the sdf.bin is the actual flashing software that runs on the drive and the the other file is the firmware code.

Then flash the same firmware (BP50NB40) again but without encryption

$ makemkvcon f -d 'dev_21:2' \
  -f 'sdf.bin' \
  rawflash full \
  -i 'HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP50NB40-NB50-1.03-NM00800-212005070917.bin'

At this point you can run makemkv to check and it should now ID the drive as having LibreDrive enabled, which unlocks the drive speed and such.

3. Flash 4k firmware (BP60NB10)

Final step is to flash with 4K firmware (BP60NB10):

container$ makemkvcon f -d 'dev_21:2' \
  -f 'sdf.bin' \
  rawflash \
  -i 'HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP60NB10-1.02-NM00800-212005070935.bin'

Verify Successful Upgrade

Now it should ID as a 4K model:

$ container$ makemkvcon f -l
  03: dev_21:10, /dev/sr5, /dev/sr5

Be sure to power cycle before normal use.

For comparison, the full ID information I get in makemkv itself:

Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr5
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BP60NB10
Revision: 1.00
Serial number: SIM04O7292947
Firmware date: 2117-11-21 17:20
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 81

LibreDrive Information
Status: Enabled
Drive platform: MT1959
Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled)
Firmware version: 1.00
DVD all regions: Yes
BD raw data read: Yes
BD raw metadata read: Yes
Unrestricted read speed: Yes