Ripping 4K UHDs with LibreDrive

[Chewtobacca]

If I've understood correctly, one has to take a chance and hope that the drive comes with 3.00+ and not 1.00+ firmware.  There's no way to know in advance.  Is that right?

[bronan]

Right, the 1.00 firmware is like the 2015 model I want to say, so it's pretty old. If you order from a big retailer like Amazon you're pretty much gauranteed to get the newer model.

[althor1138]

I waited until now to order one just to make the chances higher that the older stocks are gone. Mine was manufactured October 2018 and I ordered from a relatively small online shop here in Sweden so I'd say that most of the old models are likely sold by now.

EDIT:If I understand correctly, with each new firmware iteration they are making it harder to flash the firmware or removing functionality, which is why I think now is the time to order one.

[bronan]

There is definitely concern that the next model will patch the holes that are allowing the flashing tools to work. It used to be a very long and complicated process to do the flashing, but now with the tool seen in the video in my first post you can do it in a matter of seconds much more safely.

[Chewtobacca]

If you order from a big retailer like Amazon you're pretty much guaranteed to get the newer model.

Awesome! It sounds as if it's worth the risk.

[BusterD]

Got an LG model from Amazon Japan and it turned out to be compatible! Looking forward to making MKVs with the synched LD PCM of films like Predator thanks to all the members here.

Is there a recommended way to take UHD screenshots on a older PC? I usually use VirtualDub2 for BDs since I can set multiple frames and then export them as BMPs, but it doesn't look like proper HDR conversion is possible in VirtualDub2 yet (at least I couldn't find a way). MPC-HC with Mad VR crashes on my PC when I try to open a UHD mpls file.

[bronan]

Sweet! Hmm I was going to recommend Mad VR with MPC.. Did you try ripping it to MKV first? Also I believe the newest version of VLC supports HDR to SDR conversion now.

[BusterD]

Didn't try making an actual mkv yet, but 4K77 and 4K83 also cause MPC to crash, so I kinda doubt it would make a difference. Ah well, there's nothing I have that I need to take screenshots of right away.

[bronan]

I think its possible to do tonemapping with Avisynth now. I swear I saw in another thread a while back some way to do it. I'll try to find it.

In other news, I finally updated my Asus drive to 3.10 and it's working well 

[Chewtobacca]

^ Yeah, 3.03 to 3.10 works fine, and UHD BDs are not a problem with MakeMKV, including making a full backup of the disc (i.e., not going straight to MKV).  EDIT:  Actually, going to MKV seems more robust.

If anyone's looking for the latest link, it's here.  Download and unzip the archive, and you'll find ASUS_ODD_FW_Changer_(Modified).exe loose.  Run it, navigate to mk-firmware-pack-20191206->MK->ASUS->BW-16D1HT (or whatever drive you have), and flash it.  Version number 3.10 should be visible when you run MakeMKV.

EDIT: I can confirm that as long as MakeMKV is granted the required permissions, it can rip from the drive on Linux.