OEM (stock) drives

An OEM drive is just a normal drive: the one that came in your computer, or any Blu-ray/DVD drive you buy off the shelf. It runs the manufacturer’s original (“stock”) firmware. Most people have one of these, and that’s completely fine.

DVDs just work

DVDs use older copy protection that freemkv handles entirely on its own. Any drive, no setup, no key files: put the disc in and rip.

Blu-ray and 4K UHD: the legitimate AACS workflow

Blu-ray and 4K UHD discs use a newer protection system called AACS. freemkv reads them the official, by-the-book way, the same handshake the AACS system was designed for. Two things have to be in place:

1. A security handshake with the drive. Before it hands over the disc, the drive checks that the software is allowed to ask, using a host certificate. freemkv performs this standard AACS handshake; nothing is bypassed or faked.
2. Credentials, from your key sources. freemkv reads its host certificate and the disc’s keys from the key sources you set up: a local key database, or an online key service (the future direction, which will also supply the host certificate). That’s why a disc that “just works” in some other software needs this one setup step here: freemkv keeps these credentials in your key sources instead of baking them in.

DVDs need none of this; Blu-ray and 4K UHD do. See Decryption Keys to set up your key sources.

On a stock drive, AACS is only as good as your key source

freemkv doesn’t bundle host certificates or disc keys; on a stock drive it can only use what your configured key sources actually provide. If the host certificate, or a particular disc’s keys, aren’t in your key source, that disc won’t decrypt on a stock drive. That coverage can be limited, or for some discs not available at all. This is one of the things an unlocked drive solves: it removes the host-certificate requirement entirely.

”Rip-lock”: why a stock drive can be slow

Many manufacturers rip-lock their drives: the firmware deliberately caps the read speed when it notices you’re copying a whole disc (it keeps the drive quiet and cool for movie playback). Nothing is broken; it’s slow by design, and a two-hour movie can take a while.

If you want full speed and fewer restrictions, that’s exactly what an unlocked drive gives you.

In short

Disc	On a stock drive	Host cert + keys needed?
DVD	Works, any drive	No
Blu-ray	Works if your key source has the cert + keys	Yes
4K UHD	Works if your key source has the cert + keys	Yes

Want it faster, or is a particular drive giving you trouble? See Unlocked drives.