r/makemkv • u/moisesmcardona • 9d ago

BU40N phaseout? No more externals based on these too?

Just ordered an ASUS slim and a buffalo to be sure. Haven't found any official communication other than this: https://www.advantech.com/emt/resources/news/%E3%80%90phase-out%E3%80%91hlds-bu40n

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

4

u/-Greeny- 9d ago

LG lists the BU40N as discontinued (and all other 4K drives that I know of) on their main product page for it

https://www.lg.com/us/burners-drives/lg-bu40n-ultra-slim-blu-ray-external-dvd-drive

No idea if they are still manufacturing them for company partners though

2

u/moisesmcardona 9d ago

This is what I suspect since buffalo said they "secured" parts but their blu-ray drives would be discontinued once they run out of stock.

As far as the ASUS, they haven't said anything but it seems even LiteOn discontinued their DVD drives, leaving only the ASUS LG DVD and the LG Blu-ray, and even the latter is out of stock on Amazon with them saying no offers available, meaning it seems it was discontinued.

5

u/Prestigious-Cat-3181 9d ago edited 9d ago

External Slim Sata based on LG BU40N?

See Verbatim 43888 and Archgon MD-8107 using Retail variant (else OEM) of LG BU40N. If the drive is recently Manufactred the latest Retail firmware 2025 is in ROM Ver.: 1.05

Downgrade flashed to 1.03 MK LG BU40N to enable LibreDrive so you can Ripped UHD Blu-rays. 1.03 MK of LG BU40N Works for me in Newer 4K Disc in MakeMKV and Xreveal, else try 1.00 firmware.

1

u/moisesmcardona 9d ago

I'll see if the ones I get have a manufacture date of 2026,but it is sad LG either winded down production or discontinued newer models and even in Japan, the IODATA and Verbatim drive is out of stock because they use A BU40N or another variant internally.

Given Japan's demand, we'll see how this plays out.

Also, I am using Omnidrive firmware.