Blu-Ray drives [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

LSUtigers03

Jul 7, 2008, 05:29 PM

Has Apple started making any of their computers with Blu-Ray drives yet? How long before we see Macbooks come standard with Blu-Ray drives? I know that there are no definite answers to the second question. I'm just wondering when we will see MacBooks with Blu-Ray drives.

Tallest Skil

Jul 7, 2008, 05:31 PM

MacBooks? Either 2010 or never.

LSUtigers03

Jul 7, 2008, 05:39 PM

Would it be something that only an imac or MBP would get?

Tallest Skil

Jul 7, 2008, 05:41 PM

mosx

Jul 7, 2008, 05:51 PM

At this point, I doubt if any Mac will get them. If one were to get it, the rest eventually will, but it'll be like this:

Mac Pro, 17" MacBook Pro, 24" iMac, 15" MacBook Pro, 20" iMac, MacBook (the Mac Mini is dead)

Again, I don't think that Apple cares.

The Mac mini is dead? Really? Because I still see it for sale new on the store front :rolleyes:

The mini isn't dead. It's just a classic example of Apple caring more about profit margins than product quality or customer satisfaction.

Anyhow, to answer the OP's question, blu-ray drives in any Mac won't matter because OS X doesn't have system-wide hardware acceleration for video. Apple's most popular systems, the MacBook and MacBook Air, do not have video hardware that can support blu-ray playback even if OS X did. Even if the Intel GMA X4500 has full H.264 support, it will be half assed the way all of their video support is. Being able to play it and have it look good are two different things.

So until OS X AND Apple hardware enters the modern age as far as video playback is concerned (Windows has had system wide hardware acceleration for video for about a decade now), Macs simply won't be able to play the video from blu-ray and have it look good.

Look how bad DVDs still look on Leopard! Apple has yet to catch up even in that department.

Bobjob186

Jul 7, 2008, 05:57 PM

I'd say 2 years from now minimum till we see any mac with blu-ray

Tallest Skil

Jul 7, 2008, 05:59 PM

Look how bad DVDs still look on Leopard!

How so?

Vel

Jul 7, 2008, 06:25 PM

...Look how bad DVDs still look on Leopard! Apple has yet to catch up even in that department.
How do you mean DVD looks fine on my iMac so does 720p video and it even plays a handful of 1080p movies fine...

Tom Sawyer

Jul 7, 2008, 07:00 PM

nordesmic

Jul 9, 2008, 12:54 AM

Honestly... 1080p stuff looks FANTASTIC on my 24" iMac. M2TS and MKV play with no problem and look amazing. I think the hardware could do BR w/out a problem. Has anyone tried hooking up an external BR player to an iMac or other machine and see what is possible? Naturally software will need to know how to play a BR, but I would imagine the Mac will be able to see the folders/file structure of the disc without any problem....

I have a LG blu-ray drive that I've hooked up to an external enclosure. I run the drive on a Windows VM. I use it to make backups of some HD-DVDs I bought so I don't play the discs.

The converted 1080p files from the discs are h.264 at 15 Mbps. Playing these files using VLC is near impossible on my 2.16 GHz iMac (18 months old). I would think that a new iMac should be able to play Blu-ray but it might struggle.

mosx

Jul 9, 2008, 02:39 AM

How so?

How do you mean DVD looks fine on my iMac so does 720p video and it even plays a handful of 1080p movies fine...

To both of those, get a Windows Vista system with a modern dedicated GPU or the nVidia 8000 series IGP or ATI 3200 IGP.

Not only is quality a night and day difference, but so is CPU use and heat.

If I play a blu-ray disc on my HP with GeForce 8400M GS, my CPU use hangs out around 5% CPU use.

If I play a 720p H.264 video on my MacBook, a single core hangs out around 60%.

2.16GHz C2D on the MacBook, 2GHz C2D on the HP.

Mac OS X doesn't have system wide hardware acceleration for video. EVERYTHING is done in software. That means a couple of things. First, the quality looks terrible compared to what GPUs can do, and it means the CPU use is ridiculously high because its doing all the work.

Honestly... 1080p stuff looks FANTASTIC on my 24" iMac. M2TS and MKV play with no problem and look amazing. I think the hardware could do BR w/out a problem. Has anyone tried hooking up an external BR player to an iMac or other machine and see what is possible? Naturally software will need to know how to play a BR, but I would imagine the Mac will be able to see the folders/file structure of the disc without any problem....

It's all being done in software, not hardware, because OS X, unlike Windows, has no hardware acceleration for video playback. Illegally downloaded MKVs are much different than the 1080p ~50Mbps video you get off blu-ray.

Also, because of OS X's lack of modern video support, the quality isn't anywhere near as good as it is on Vista with a modern dedicated GPU.

The converted 1080p files from the discs are h.264 at 15 Mbps. Playing these files using VLC is near impossible on my 2.16 GHz iMac (18 months old). I would think that a new iMac should be able to play Blu-ray but it might struggle.

Install Vista. Your iMac has the X1600, right? That has ATI's video technology built-in. You should be able to play them without a sweat in Vista. I mean install Vista via Boot Camp so it has full hardware acceleration.

anmoldagreat

Jul 9, 2008, 02:58 PM

im pretty sure the mac pro will be getting it soon along with hopefully some new cinema displays

currently they dont want to go to blu ray because people wont want to buy their monitors because theyre not hd compliant without use of windows and 3rd party software

then hopefully it will trickle down to the lesser beings as well

no reason for them to not include blu ray drives on a media centered machine