What Are 4K UHD Drives?

Typically, a UHD drive is an optical or external Blu-ray drive that can read BDXL media. To identify it from other drives, UHD drives are usually labeled with 'Ultra HD Blu-ray' or something similar. In general, there are two types of UHD drives, namely the 'friendly' and 'unfriendly' 4K UHD drives.

The 'friendly' drives can read regular BDXL media without implementing AACS2 protection, while the 'unfriendly' drives implement the AACS2 protection. What that means is the 'unfriendly' drives may not grant you permission to copy or backup, and in some instances even to watch the UHD content. In contrast, friendly UHD drives can skip executing the AACS 2.0 rules, instead, they execute the AACS 1.0 rules, which allows users to decrypt and read them according to personal needs.

How to Deal with 'Unfriendly' UHD Drives?

The current firmware revision of the 'unfriendly' UHD drive prevents any third-party tools to copy or rip contents from UHD disc for backup purposes. In this scenario, people usually tend to update the firmware to make it a 'friendly' drive. Despite referring to the official guide, some accidents may appear during the update process, such as damaging the drive permanently or voiding the warranty. Hence, the best way to read data from UHD discs is downgrading the firmware to compatible version so as to copy, rip specific contents upon UHD discs. To flash the firmware flawlessly, people can trust Leawo UHD Drive Tool, a flexible gadget to downgrade UHD-unfriendly firmware on Blu-ray drive to a compatible version, and make copying/ripping/watching UHD disc possible in Leawo UHD Copy, Leawo UHD Ripper and Leawo Free Blu-ray Player respectively.

Supported UHD Drives by Leawo UHD Copy and Leawo UHD Ripper

ASUS BC-12D2HT	ASUS BW-16D1HT
LG BH16NS40	LG BH16NS55
LG WH16NS58	LG WH16NS60(Official)
LG BU40N(Buffalo/hp HLDS BDRE BU40N)(Official)	LG BU50N(hp HLDS BU50N)(Official)
LG BH14NS58	LG BH16NS58
LG WH14NS40	LG WH16NS40
LG WP50NB40	ASUS BC-12B1ST b
ASUS BW-16D1H-U(E115 not included)	LG BE16NU50
LG BH14NS50	LG BH16NS50
LG BH16NS60	LG BP50NB40(Official)
LG BP55EB40	LG BP60NB10(Official)
LG CH12NS40	LG UH12NS40
ASUS-BW-12D1S	ASUS-BW-16D1H
ASUS-BW-16D1X	ASUS-SBC-06D2X
ASUS-SBW-06D2X	ASUS-SBW-06D5H
PIONEER-BD-RW_BDR-XS05WF	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-TD05
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-XD05	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-XS05
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-208	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-208D
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-208M	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-S08
PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S09JX	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-209
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-209D	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-209M
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-S09	PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S11JX
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-211M	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-S11
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-UD04	PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-XD07U
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-XD07	PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S12JX
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-212D	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-212M
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-212U	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-S12
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-S12U	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-X12
PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-S13JX	PIONEER-BD-RW_BDR-XS06JL
PIONEER-BD-RW_BDR-XS07JL	PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-XD06U
PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-XS07	PIONEER-BD-RW__BDR-XS07U
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-AD07	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-UD02
PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-UD03	PIONEER-BD-RW___BDR-XS06
PIONEER-BDW-PR1EPDVPP100

Note: If your LG or ASUS 4K drives are listed on the above table, but Leawo UHD Ripper/Leawo UHD Copy fails to load them, which does happen when the firmware of your LG or ASUS 4K drives have been upgraded to the latest, please use Leawo UHD Drive Tool to downgrade your 4K drive firmware.

Supported 4K UHD Drive List of Leawo UHD Drive Tool

ASUS BC-12D2HT	Tested
ASUS BW-16D1HT	Tested
LG BH16NS40	Tested
LG BH16NS55	Tested
LG WH16NS58	Tested
LG WH16NS60(Official)	Tested
LG BU40N(Buffalo/hp HLDS BDRE BU40N)(Official)	Tested
LG BU50N(hp HLDS BU50N)(Official)	Tested
LG BH14NS58	Tested
LG BH16NS58	Tested
LG WH14NS40	Tested
LG WH16NS40	Tested
LG WP50NB40	Tested
ASUS BC-12B1ST b
ASUS BW-16D1H-U(E115 not included)
LG BE16NU50
LG BH14NS50
LG BH16NS50
LG BH16NS60
LG BP50NB40(Official)
LG BP55EB40
LG BP60NB10(Official)
LG CH12NS40
LG UH12NS40
Buffalo BRUHD-PU3-BK(Official)
Archgon MD-8107S-U3-UHD BU40N(Official)

Check the list of top online UHD drive merchants.