If you've ever found yourself struggling with questions like "What is a UHD friendly drive?" or "Which type of 4K Blu-ray drive should I choose?", then look no further. As a beginner, it's crucial to understand how to identify and downgrade 4K unfriendly drives for seamless copying and ripping of UHD content.

This comprehensive guide will help you navigate your way through the process by using DVDFab UHD Drive Tool, ensuring that storing and playing back your favorite movies becomes an enjoyable experience.

1. What are 4K Friendly Drives?

4K-friendly drives refer to regular Blu-ray drives that can read BDXL media but do not implement AACS2 protection. Though unable to be used with official software, such 4K UHD drives allow any software with a regular AACS1 host certificate to read UHD data on the disc. That means the UHD Blu-ray drives are not specifically designed to work with UHD Blu-rays, but DVDFab backup programs can work well with such UHD discs.

4K Friendly Drives

2. Why Downgrade 4K Unfriendly Drives?

Since the current market is flooded with countless so-called ‘4K friendly drives’, there might be times when you encounter 4K unfriendly drives whose firmware fails to work compatibly with DVDFab UHD backup software like UHD Copy and UHD Ripper, thus preventing the backup software from reading data on 4K UHD discs and further copying or ripping UHD content.

At this moment, you might intend to manually upgrade the firmware to the friendly version. Nevertheless, this is not a radical solution. What you shall do is downgrade the existing unfriendly firmware to the 4K UHD-friendly drive version with a professional tool so as to proceed with follow-up backup tasks.

3. Best UHD Drive Downgrading Tool: DVDFab UHD Drive Tool

When it comes to firmware downgrading solution, DVDFab UHD Drive Tool shall be few and between. DVDFab has developed a one-stop UHD package solution featured by UHD Copy, UHD Ripper, UHD Creator, UHD Cinavia Removal, UHD to Blu-ray Converter, UHD Player and UHD Drive Tool.

In this sense, it specializes in resolving the situation when 4K UHD Blu-ray drives do not work with UHD backup software. The reasons why you shall trust in this tool are as follows:

  • Downgrade Unfriendly Firmware for UHD Backup
  • Support All Types of 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive and USB Drives
  • One-Click’ Mode Become a Breeze for Everyone

Best Tool to Downgrade Unfriendly Firmware on 4K UHD Drive

This tool allows you to downgrade unfriendly firmware to 4K friendly drive version within three simple clicks so that it can work seamlessly with UHD Copy to copy UHD disc content to hard drive or onto a computer, or with UHD Ripper rip it to digital formats that can be playable on multiple devices.

4. How to Downgrade Unfriendly Firmware on UHD Drive

After knowing the highlighted features of this firmware downgrading tool, it’s imperative to get the hang of how to use it before making legal backups with related software. The below simple guideline will be for your reference.

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Step 1: Launch DVDFab UHD Drive Tool

Download and install this UHD Blu-ray Drive tool. Open it and click 'Launchpad' > 'UHD Drive Tool". Then insert external 4K Blu-ray drive (if it is external) into PC and take out any UHD disc from the drive.

Best Tool to Downgrade Unfriendly Firmware on 4K UHD Drive

Step 2: Select your UHD drive from the supported drive list

Choose your 4K UHD drive from the drop-down menu. All the listed 4K UHD drives are supported by this 4K UHD Drive Tool.

Best Tool to Downgrade Unfriendly Firmware on 4K UHD Drive

Step 3: Hit "Downgrade Firmware"

Tab ‘Downgrade Firmware’ to proceed with the downgrading task. A successful report will pop up when the friendly firmware is flashed. Once done, reboot your PC.

Best Tool to Downgrade Unfriendly Firmware on 4K UHD Drive

Warm Tips: The entire downgrading process will take 2~3 minutes. Please hold on and do not eject UHD Blu-ray drive or power off your PC. Any attempt to perform other operations during the downgrading task will be inadvisable. 

The above-mentioned steps are the gateway to making legal backups with UHD Copy or UHD Ripper programs for personal use. Three simple clicks help you turn unfriendly UHD Blu-ray drives into 4K friendly drives, which is the most cost-efficient yet the safest solution.

5. Supported Drive List that Deserves Your Concern

In order to make the best of DVDFab UHD Drive Tool, it is always worth familiarizing yourself with the supported drive list of all UHD Blu-ray drives that can be downgraded into 4K friendly drive versions for the purpose of smooth and legal backup of UHD discs.

As of now, the supported drive list covers the following UHD Blu-ray drives: 

BDXL Drives:

  •  LG UH12NS40 (internal, SVC code: NS40) Tested
  • LG WH16NS40 (internal, SVC code: NS50) Tested

UHD Friendly Drives:

  • LG WH14NS40 (internal, SVC code: NS50) Tested
  • LG WH16NS40 (internal, SVC code: NS50) Tested
  • LG BH16NS40 (internal, SVC code: NS50) Tested
  • LG BH16NS55 (internal) Tested
  • LG BH14NS58 (internal) Tested
  • LG BH16NS58 (internal) Tested
  • LG WH16NS58 (internal) Tested
  • LG BE16NU50 (external, USB) Tested
  • ASUS BC-12B1ST b (internal, manufactured 2015+) 
  • ASUS BC-12D2HT (internal, manufactured 2015+) Tested
  • ASUS BW-16D1HT (internal, manufactured 2015+) Tested
  • ASUS BW-16D1H-U (external, USB, firmware version starts with letter A, manufactured 2015+)

UHD Official Drives:

  • LG BU40N (slim, USB or laptop: Fujitsu, Dell, NEC)
  • Buffalo BU40N (external, USB) Tested
  • Archgon MD-8107S-U3-UHD BU40N (external, USB) Tested
  • hp HLDS BU40N (internal, laptop: HP)
  • LG BU50N (internal, laptop: Lenovo)
  • hp HLDS BU50N (internal, laptop: HP)
  • LG WH16NS60 (internal, recommended) Tested

Here UHD Official Drives mean UHD Blu-ray drives that are designed and tested to work with UHD Blu-rays, able to support AACS 2.0 protection.

Note that this supported drive list will be constantly updated as UHD Drive Tool is capable of supporting more drives in the days to come.

6. Final Thought

Now you might have known the supported drive list of UHD Blu-ray drives that can work with DVDFab UHD Drive Tool and mastered how to downgrade unfriendly firmware on 4K UHD drives before proceeding with the task of legal backups of 4K UHD discs with DVDFab UHD Copy and DVDFab UHD Ripper programs. Besides, you can enjoy copied or converted UHD contents with 4K media player DVDFab Player 7 or 4K Ultra HD TV.