DumpHD - a HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Decrypter

[Emulgator]

In Post #382 (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1430757#post1430757) here blu4fun1 says:

Incorrect internal format: aacskeys-0.4.0c/lib/macosx/libaacskeys.dylib
I downloaded aacskeys-0.4.0c a few minutes ago. The internal format of the libaacskeys.dylib in the lib/macosx directory is not correct. Here's the output of the file command:

libaacskeys.dylib: Mach-O universal binary with 4 architectures
libaacskeys.dylib (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386
libaacskeys.dylib (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
libaacskeys.dylib (for architecture ppc7400): Mach-O executable ppc
libaacskeys.dylib (for architecture ppc64): Mach-O 64-bit executable ppc64

The correct format is dynamically linked shared library.

In post #384 (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1431019#post1431019) KenD00 tells his fix.

[metaldave2003]

In post #384 (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1431019#post1431019) KenD00 tells his fix.

Thanks for the link, Emulgator. I think I must have abandoned ship on macOS and went to Windows (which was successful). However, this is a great reference, and I appreciate you finding it.

[metaldave2003]

Back from the dead on this thread once again.

I am trying to close-out my HD-DVD library rip project. Sadly, a lot of my Warner Bros. discs have rotted away, so they're not even readable. (This has been a common, known problem for their discs.) However, I have a bunch of Universal that I'm looking to recover now.

In these interim months, I put together an Ubuntu box with a good NVIDIA Turing graphics card and have been using this as my ripping and encoding appliance. Essentially, it's my hobby box, and I wish I had more time to spend playing. I picked up an LG HD DVD drive on eBay, and I hope this will speed along the project to conclusion.

Circling back to DumpHD, I have gotten the .jar file running on the machine with the GUI. The old libraries and Processing Keys don't seem to be cutting the mustard for Blu-ray Discs (not a big deal with MakeMKV as my primary ripper), but I suspect these would be more than sufficient for the HD DVD discs.

I have hit a stumbling block, and I'm hoping my fellow Ubuntu Linux users will have a solution. Whenever I browse to the HD DVD disc using the DumpHD GUI, it doesn't see anything in the root directory of the disc. Ubuntu sees the disc in the file browser fine, and MakeMKV sees the disc as well. I browse and open "/media/username/discname", and DumpHD immediately responds with:

Initializing source...
No disc type found

By contrast, I can put a Blu-Ray disc in the same drive (this is a dual-format drive), browse to the root directory of the disc, and it seems to "initialize" and read the disc just fine. (Granted, it's not finding keys on the Blu-Ray, but it confirms the read is working fine.)

I know this stuff is ancient history, but I'm hoping this will spark a memory for someone with the same problem and a workaround.

Thanks,

- Dave

[metaldave2003]

One thing that I'm not clear on: I believe the Blu-ray discs will wipe out the VUK method using DumpHD if they're AACS v72 (MKBv72) or higher. There is some type of revocation table stored on the drive itself as part of the copy protection process, and this cannot be wiped or corrected. I'm surprised no one has figured out a method to get a clean wipe on these combo drives. Anyone have any luck finding a work-around to this situation (assuming I understand it correctly)?

It appears my LG GGC-H20L (v1.03) combo drive has touched AACS v72, so Blu-ray decrypting is probably done using the VUK method. However, I still have my Toshiba X807616 (XBOX 360) HD DVD drive which has not touched a Blu-ray disc, so I should be in good shape to dump the keys from that drive. However, it appears I'm still having issues with some discs. To use the parlance, it appears the HD DVD Standard Content discs are unable to be read by DumpHD whereas the HD DVD Advanced Content discs will read. The former will produce the "No disc type found" error with its file structure whereas the latter will recognize.

Unfortunately, LibreDrive (included with MakeMKV) does not support the LG GGC-H20L or the Toshiba X807616, so VUK is the only thing that will allow decrypting. Even with all the VUK published by our friends here, there are still a number of outlying titles which have not been accounted.

Since we're dealing with a (now) 11-12 year old program in DumpHD, the modern OS platforms are causing more conflicts with the latest versions of JRE, etc. I had it working great on Windows 10 back in April 2020, but that has since stopped working there as well. I'd hoped Ubuntu Linux would have overcome some of this, but I'm having the above issues with those HD DVD Standard Content discs. macOS might work with a little tweaking of the dylib AACS library, but we're dealing with backward compatibility there as well.

I'm thinking I need to come up with a VM running an old OS (Windows 10 or something) to just run the DumpHD and retrieve the rest of these keys. Anyone have any experience with this approach?

[metaldave2003]

I'm happy to say that I found a way to get a working DumpHD workflow.

I couldn't get the DumpHD java applet to work properly on a current Ubuntu OS with the current Java JRE, etc. I suspected that I needed to go back in time to use this now 11 year old software. Using an old Windows 7 Pro virtual machine that I'd put together a couple of years ago, I was able to get a valid workflow. I just had to install JRE 8, bring a fresh copy of DumpHD 0.61, added the requisite files, and I was off to the races.

For me, the exercise was to get through the ~75 discs to confirm which ones were readable and the VUK for each. I was able to do that, compile a key table for all the working discs (which I've shared here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1932271#post1932271)), and put this lingering project to bed once and for all. Of course, I'm on borrowed time to get the discs ripped (as they continue to sit here and rot), but being able to decrypt the discs is the necessary first step.

For the HD DVD disc drive, I had to use my Toshiba X807616 (XBOX 360) external drive to get the job done. As it's only a DVD and HD DVD reader, it's never had a Blu-ray disc read that could revoke the Device Keys prior to MKBv72 (AACS v72). Thus, it remains a "virgin" drive for these purposes.

Now that I have the VUK, I can my LG GGC-H20L HD DVD/Blu-ray Combo Drive (which did have its Device Key revoked because of a current Blu-ray read). With this "newer" drive, I can perform the decrypt and rip at a decent clip (because that XBOX 360 external drive is S... L... O... W...).

Here's the Magic Formula:

Use a Windows 7 Pro Virtual Machine
Install Java JRE 8 (jre-8u221-windows-x64.exe)
Install a good text editor like Notepad++ (or something that will refresh when a text file is edited).
Get a copy of dumphd-0.61 (search Google for dumphd-0.61.zip or dumphd-0.61.tar.gz); Thanks to KenD00 (https://forum.doom9.org/member.php?u=119565) fo all of the great work!
Get a copy of aacskeys-0.4.0f.tar.gz (see this post (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=968972#post968972). (Version 'e' will probably work, too.) Thanks to arnezami (https://forum.doom9.org/member.php?u=107682) for all the great work.
Extract the dumphd-0.61 directory.
Extract the aacskeys.dll from the lib/win64 directory in the aacskeys-0.4.0f.tar.gz file and place it in the dumphd-0.61 directory.
In the dumphd-0.61 directory, edit ProcessingDeviceKeysSimple.txt to add the Device Keys and Processing Keys (as provided below)
In the dumphd-0.61 directory, edit HostKeyCertificate.txt and add the HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT pair (as provided below)
Open the DumpHD.jar file (or DumpHD.cmd if you prefer) to run the DumpHD GUI.
Once the GUI is up, confirm you see the following (or similar):


DumpHD 0.61 by KenD00

Opening Key Data File... OK
Initializing AACS... OK
Loading aacskeys library... OK
aacskeys library 0.4.0f by arnezami, KenD00, Key, Nobu1789, anon
Loading BDVM... FAILED
bdvm.vm.BDVM
Automatic BD+ removal disabled, specify a Conversion Table manually to remove BD+ if necessary


* We don't need BDVM; We're not interested in Blu-ray keys here.

Click the 'Browse' button, select your HD DVD drive, open to the disc's root directory, and click the "Open" button. If the disc is readable, you will see the DiscID populate in the upper-left field. At that point, it will have already automatically added the new entry to the KEYDB.cfg file in the dumphd-0.61 directory.
Recommended: Make sure you have a text editor open that will display and refresh the contents of dumphd-0.61/KEYDB.cfg. Update the generic "Movie Title" description in each line as it's added or you will not know which key goes to which disc.


Here's my HostKeyCertificate.txt file (based on a compilation post (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1883655#post188365) from mick0 (https://forum.doom9.org/member.php?u=227394)):


;
;
; The following Host Certificates were taken from a post in a thread on the Doom9 Forum
; https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1883655#post1883655
;
; These are HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT pairs.
;
909250D0C7FC2EE0F0383409D896993B723FA965
0203005CFFFF800001C100003A5907E685E4CBA2A8CD5616665DFAA74421A14F6020D4CFC9847C23107697C39F9D109C8B2D5B93280499661AAE588AD3BF887C48DE144D48226ABC2C7ADAD0030893D1F3F1832B61B8D82D1FAFFF81
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv72
;
5924778E74CC2B18B95BAE7D93A09505B1BF08CE
0201005CFFFF800001B100005F1407EDBF9D1CD38F33A625209B5ED10D48F71E2AB2A1C53CCF9E25D6AEB4BEE968FBBD10DC44064841C358106731589A2C12DD5B4D86FE840D2C6525594E72A19C2EDBC3DD6A28F75E9A9C00D684BB
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv70
;
5F291AE7CF68D67F58689A4CBFE2953064539FAA
0203005CFFFF8000018900003E7C4B0931C0045DFB017F24B1557F5BD0AF5B961FBC1B43519F9023A1E84A3E8C06967B76469CC86527AA3807258C58E00F73971F9BC8353165476454911E3A9D07D742980598BFF9B3DF5EA18E0C7F
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv63
;
27263F402E2D6DB56B1FB7BB4524C6CD5C9F2EF4
0201005CFFFF800001460000952D611B06911B0EAEE577D3715D1FA0E405914068752559DFBD845CB80F4FEE04A40B8FED842ACB78F9F898AEC395409E929C55A20A7EE853509BB84D8FB0DC99E5CAC5F239F0CD79B38C0678702B1C
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv58
;
0F7B481182425FC4C32CDDE612DD05B1BD7863D6
0203005CFFFF800000AD00005F27B91F047E60C251F4262DE74EC061F9261DCE3254EB737EDED53AD84E12805BBEEDB12C285A61627A529129BD98F8590634CF35A9820CD213D5AF786BDE489EC37A75D4D444B8AB40923E317169E9
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv51
;
88B245EA25315F46E6E99D9D521EB1194454A82D
0201005CFFFF800000C400005BF6843ED1AA9C9DEEFEAD8174479C72AB5457691EEB75669105BB195D4B9133069A18FD5357797116CEC22D7FE8F366C2A092E1D00DB770E9E01DB687456B6FBFA28C962D88F05DD43F584ECC821AF7
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv46
;
668C9A75EEFC8DA4261938E271285061BB09F0DD
0201005CFFFF80000039000065EAC9878B85EFF4D77A62B1D600024ACE68DD3366880E4F844F34B77A050135A20E73B626DAEA5157B32EB84BC6E87B0DEE4D833CEADA86120151002C3C66D5256F71CFA68B7E55BA1B351F3403434E
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv32
;
567A6A8EFFFD8967651CF1BB8D15EDB6D2463555
0200005CFFFF0000006400006440BE797538E4FC369FC50BBE9F95CC694338210CDFACE0D2C878BAB96BB72BA5A29D0F7D2E9B836B4CE06781D933544E6258F1F38668B4733F24638CCB6F5B71220A2220217367F833635E97784D9E
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv22
;
8C8647FE2A70EF0388EA9E43F432CC441C6B108C
0200005CFFFF000000AE00004142A5411F1E63F185581C876B939FB40B523BF69C004CA69E047606EE5183C0ABEF1E7D04CB6E65260677E7B0573D08E60957935503ED78F7E27B190B4A7CAFCBAFF4A2836453ECF72E49668DAF1DB9
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv17
;
4737676058D7029452514F0AB186DC4CCA8C578F
0200005CFFFF0000000C00006E3DEB679B9A16ADFAA8E30878767BA6EB2A9B415385AD1181B4446C31E9A5DD2AB808B364FF15885BAC490964318C9BF8029FCF76F688A54FBDA03F6D9332EF04E5A61312DA85880A4D9CBB79D8602E
; Above HOST_PRIV_KEY and HOST_CERT Pair Revoked in MKBv03
;


Here is my ProcessingDeviceKeysSimple.txt (again, thanks to the same post (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1883655#post1883655) from mick0 (https://forum.doom9.org/member.php?u=227394)):


; 2020-04-11 - Updated ProcessingDeviceKeysSimple.txt
;
; The following Device Keys were found in the ProcessingDeviceKeysSimple.txt file
; included with the aacskeys-0.4.0f package.
; - https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1883655#post1883655
; - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=31122209976861014118
;
; After comparison with the newer post on the other Doom9 Forum thread, these were found
; to be accounted in the latest and greatest list (see below).
;
; Device Keys
; 810827A76E5B2CC1685E3217A23E2186 ; DK_V01-V12 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 44145A846F19D096F2C84A2E50C5C4F5 ; DK_V14-V16 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; EB55A475080FBCF18534EFA0839A7373 ; DK_V17-V19 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; FB4AC39009E82113D45ECF4B7EAEA467 ; DK_V20-V21 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 8BF4FBD91A7FB7DB8576D1E5A15A8544 ; DK_V23-V28 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; AA856A1BA814AB99FFDEBA6AEFBE1C04 ; DK_V01 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
;
; Processing Keys
; 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 ; v1 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 455FE10422CA29C4933F95052B792AB2 ; v3 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; F190A1E8178D80643494394F8031D9C8 ; v4 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 7A5F8A09F833F7221BD41FA64C9C7933 ; v6-8 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; C87294CE84F9CCEB5984B547EEC18D66 ; v9 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F ; v10 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 973940BB180E83266231EE596CEF65B2 ; v3-4/7-10/12-13 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 58EBDADF88DCC93304CBBEDB9EE095F6 ; v14/15/16 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 465FA8BE828509014D05D2FCCEFF35D2 ; v17 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; AD5E546C46D72DC083AEB5686924E1B3 ; v18/19 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; 53FCE78ECD352DA50D526B5EE3D3D96B ; v20/21 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
; C32238976FF44A51E2D33553CFE85772 ; v23/25 DUPLICATE IN LIST BELOW
;
;
; The following Device Keys were taken from a post in a thread on the Doom9 Forum
; - https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1883655#post1883655
; This post was dated August 29, 2019.
; - This list seems to include all of the above and more.
;
; Device Keys
AA856A1BA814AB99FFDEBA6AEFBE1C04 ; MKBv01
810827A76E5B2CC1685E3217A23E2186 ; MKBv01-MKBv12
44145A846F19D096F2C84A2E50C5C4F5 ; MKBv14-MKBv16
EB55A475080FBCF18534EFA0839A7373 ; MKBv17-MKBv19
FB4AC39009E82113D45ECF4B7EAEA467 ; MKBv20-MKBv21
8BF4FBD91A7FB7DB8576D1E5A15A8544 ; MKBv22-MKBv30
A088BC72424478EACAF237A9E258351E ; MKBv01-MKBv23
5FB86EF127C19C171E799F61C27BDC2A ; MKBv01-MKBv48
6C02A9C4DF6DE9314F6F4BB44677BD67 ; MKBv24-MKBv35
4D84E4D6D434A08D6EF0B523B6D891B2 ; MKBv36-MKBv43
F2F56575C0C5448042298FA9B316AB9A ; MKBv44-MKBv51
31A194B61D3119D2B09DC0D8B9A73A00 ; MKBv49-MKBv52
25F9782764D026413C3D4868F891E81E ; MKBv53-MKBv54
FDAD855E9A89E5335288AF2805DC0497 ; MKBv55-MKBv57
7FD1F7966AD2B0E4F4901205E32A69BA ; MKBv49-MKBv62
76DDD7093216D28C15049A6B9C5C18B9 ; v63
3B323C7A9AFC0921831D247239823DE6 ; v64-65
7A4F40D8696B7B159BE8176CC9EDB85C ; v66-68
;
; Processing Keys
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 ; MKBv01
455FE10422CA29C4933F95052B792AB2 ; MKBv03
973940BB180E83266231EE596CEF65B2 ; MKBv03-MKBv12
F190A1E8178D80643494394F8031D9C8 ; MKBv04
7A5F8A09F833F7221BD41FA64C9C7933 ; MKBv06-MKBv08
C87294CE84F9CCEB5984B547EEC18D66 ; MKBv09
452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F ; MKBv10
58EBDADF88DCC93304CBBEDB9EE095F6 ; MKBv14-MKBv16
CC72242D4CC8156B960502805987DED0 ; MKBv14-MKBv23
465FA8BE828509014D05D2FCCEFF35D2 ; MKBv17
AD5E546C46D72DC083AEB5686924E1B3 ; MKBv18-MKBv19
53FCE78ECD352DA50D526B5EE3D3D96B ; MKBv20-MKBv21
C32238976FF44A51E2D33553CFE85772 ; MKBv22-MKBv30
3ADE0AB7C9E4270055506C449E8EE6CF ; MKBv24-MKBv48
D11E3DBA323D37DE3DE0D6A0DC5EC807 ; MKBv24-MKBv25
AAAF8A16F829DA16A124D837F64EE2D8 ; MKBv26-MKBv28
C0F535929D59CD071BEE9CB53F0C21C2 ; MKBv30-MKBv35
99AB6AE0A7E13504CE284B7CA401B26A ; MKBv31-MKBv36
19DF7DA3A1FB75AC4DC34CCB6AF6A5C7 ; MKBv36-MKBv38
3FB9D3314AAC7F76581190A624A5C578 ; MKBv39-MKBv43
186D1BBA19487F6450C1FD5ADA9407E6 ; MKBv44-MKBv51
F2C416A45D806D964F567B5D7FED209D ; MKBv49-MKBv52
7A8BAB1B0C66C39D1A2EEE6883E4DD3C ; MKBv53-MKBv54
1F70D403A6D39B20A3F7131750ACAA22 ; MKBv53-MKBv54
8FBDD8452146552EF76136B0A348590B ; MKBv55-MKBv57
0EB5F81CF17405CAFDB97832F5EA11B4 ; MKBv55-MKBv62
76DDD7093216D28C15049A6B9C5C18B9 ; MKBv63
3B323C7A9AFC0921831D247239823DE6 ; MKBv64-MKBv65
7A4F40D8696B7B159BE8176CC9EDB85C ; MKBv66-MKBv68


It's my hope that we've got the majority of the VUK keys compiled in our HD DVD VUK Thread (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=120611) that you don't have to go through this process. While most of my titles were on the existing list, there were some notables that were not. It was also a good exercise to confirm which discs were bad (of which there were several). These HD DVD discs are rotting on your shelf now, so get to it.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed their findings and time to this dead technology. There are some gems in this pile of obsolesence, and these are "licenses" to own our movies (even if the disc no longer works).

Good luck!

[Emulgator]

Good work, metaldave2003 !
Once I have to go back in time for HD-DVD-ROMs I will come back here to go through these steps.

[880]

I have hit a stumbling block, and I'm hoping my fellow Ubuntu Linux users will have a solution. Whenever I browse to the HD DVD disc using the DumpHD GUI, it doesn't see anything in the root directory of the disc. Ubuntu sees the disc in the file browser fine, and MakeMKV sees the disc as well. I browse and open "/media/username/discname", and DumpHD immediately responds with:

Initializing source...
No disc type found

By contrast, I can put a Blu-Ray disc in the same drive (this is a dual-format drive), browse to the root directory of the disc, and it seems to "initialize" and read the disc just fine. (Granted, it's not finding keys on the Blu-Ray, but it confirms the read is working fine.)

I know this stuff is ancient history, but I'm hoping this will spark a memory for someone with the same problem and a workaround.

Thanks,

- Dave

Hi, I ran into the same symptoms too, so it might be the same underlying problem. When I look at an HD-DVD in /media, I can see "HVDVD_TS" and "ADV_OBJ" and stuff but I can't click on them to see the files inside. When I run DumpHD on the folder, it says "No disc type found".

If that's the case, then this is a permissions issue, and it has a simple solution. Use superuser rights to execute DumpHD, and it will be able to read the files underneath HVDVD_TS and the like. The solution looks like:

Open your Terminal application
cd /wherever/dumphd/is/
sudo ./dumphd.sh
This will ask for your password to confirm your administrator aka "super user" rights. Enter your password. Don't be alarmed if you don't see anything while you type your password; that's normal. If you mess up it will prompt you to try again.
Use DumpHD as usual, and keep your Terminal application open while you do so. If you close Terminal it will close DumpHD. Of course you can close the Terminal once you have closed DumpHD.


No Windows needed!

[Dennis98]

Now I want to follow up a little on the writeup from @metaldave2003, after I needed to dive into this topic as well and having done a lot of research..

Some background: I kind of stumbled upon HD-DVD on a quest to get the "best" versions of Terminator 2, as I'm unhappy with the UHD BD and there hasn't really been an improvement to that 2017 release yet.. Before, I didn't even know about HD-DVD - I'm comparatively young for this thread (I think) and I only started collecting Blu-rays long after the format war was over. As I needed a suitable drive for it, I also got curious checking some other movies on that format where I saw potential for improvement, especially after reading about this being a thing (HD-DVD > BD) on AVS Forum.
Anyways, after buying a drive, I thought I just need to find the movies I'm interested in, pop them in and get going with MakeMKV, which works great for Blu-rays and I saw it does support HD-DVDs.
Oh, well.. I certainly didn't expect multiple days of research & trying out and multiple dead discs..

So I want to present a different workflow, without DumpHD but MakeMKV, as I didn't feel like installing Java on my machine for that (as one factor).
I hope that's ok here - I know the irony.^^ It's just fitting with the info already being on here.

(Unfortunately I lost my 'original' research etc. due to a bluescreen, so I might miss mentioning sth. or have no link now, despite having done some research etc. anew. :()


First off, while MakeMKV does have support for HD-DVDs, it seems to only work with MKBv1 discs out of the box. That's what led me to think at some point that pretty much all my discs are not readable anymore. :o
Unfortunately there's no clear message that it can't decrypt those discs, instead you get all kinds of other symptoms, like that it can't be "opened", missing movie playlist, a plethora of errors appearing, incl. "unsupported e-ac3 type" - those are the things I encountered.
1. You need to help out MakeMKV by providing VUKs (Volume Unique Keys) to it.
While it's hardly documented (especially now as the FAQ on their site is down), it supports a "KEYDB" file (https://web.archive.org/web/20211207020201/http://makemkv.com/faq/item/12/category/8), incl. the format of DumpHD used in the HD-DVD VUK thread (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=120611) (at least the older format pre DumpHD 0.4 that I tried). That file needs to be in the data directory of MakeMKV; on Windows that is %userprofile%\.MakeMKV. Name probably doesn't matter, but I called mine KEYDB_hddvd.cfg


Optimally that's it. (At least for ripping 1:1 to an MKV.)
Now, if you're unlucky (as me), meaning you can't rip it and can't find an entry for your disc in the file from the thread, you need to get the VUK yourself.
2. For that you need the "aacskeys" tool - but really try to get the (0.4.0) "f" version.
While version "e" can simply be found in/through the AACS Keys thread (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123311), it likely won't work if you got a BD/HD-DVD combo drive - you probably need to use a newer certificate with it, which will just yield you a "AACSVERYIFHOST" error (I just notice the typo^^) due to a bug (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1779382). Version "e", and even "c", might only be fine if it's an HD-DVD only drive, as you can use old certificates without bus encryption or the write flag then.

I got it via this thread (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=176924) under "Command line tools".
You might need to update the keys in HostKeyCertificate.txt & ProcessingDeviceKeysSimple.txt if the included isn't doing it for you - check "Dave"'s post.

3. Go to the (extracted) aacskeys folder and run bin\win32\aacskeys.exe <DRIVELETTER>:
You need to run the 32-bit binary/EXE! The 64-bit one I initially tried, as I'd usually do when available, has some output issue (stops after the MKB version in verbose mode). Surely somebody mentioned that somewhere already, but I didn't come across that, I just tried it out of desperation basically.

You don't normally need the `-v` (verbose) option, as is mentioned almost everywhere, you'll get a nice output with just the needed hash and VUK by default. :)

4. (Optional) Use "ValidateVUK" for double-checking that aacskeys gave you the correct key.
I got it via a "Redump Wiki", but here (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121764) is the Doom9 thread directly for it.
Just run validatevuk.exe <DRIVELETTER>: <VUK>

5. Add your new key to the "KEYDB" and (unfortunately) restart MakeMKV.
I think you need a trailing newline (as common in UNIX world) and pay attention to line endings used - unfortunately don't remember details, but remember some trial & error there - likely due to a mix of line endings first (using LF now).



It's pretty simple once you got aacskeys working; just 2 tools, 1 command, no VM or anything needed (I worked on Windows 10).
But the lack of centralized information & availability of things, combined with some faulty discs for even less clarity on what is the issue, made this a complex or at least time-consuming endeavour..

Hope this will help the two people that will come across this from now on. :D

Maybe to add sth. regarding DumpHD here as well: The tool can be downloaded from the Cyberside site of the AACS Keys thread (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123311) as well.