MacPro: USB 3.0 and Blu-ray

[southerndoc]

So I know Blu-ray is wishful thinking, but I wonder when USB 3.0 will come to the Mac Pro? An article on a competing website mentioned PC manufacturers will likely bring USB 3.0 to PC's at the end of this year.

I'm looking to trade up my iMac to a Mac Pro, but have been holding off until USB 3.0 and Blu-ray are adopted.

[MacDawg]

I'm looking to trade up my iMac to a Mac Pro, but have been holding off until USB 3.0 and Blu-ray are adopted.

You will likely have a long wait then
Apple has shown not real desire to implement Blu-Ray

USB 3.0 will come, but they are not likely to an early adopter
Even when it first comes on the scene, there won't be much that utilizes it

Woof, Woof - Dawg http://homepage.mac.com/k.j.vinson/pawprint.gif

[CaptainChunk]

I'm looking to trade up my iMac to a Mac Pro, but have been holding off until USB 3.0 and Blu-ray are adopted.

Then you have a wait ahead of you...

1. USB 3.0 won't be in an Apple machine until 2010 at the earliest.

2. Apple has shown zero interest in implementing Blu-ray for the last couple of years and I doubt they'll change their stance on that any time soon. So for now (and the foreseeable future), it's third-party drives for BD data burning only, unless of course you don't mind booting into Windows.


Do a search next time. These two topics have been beaten to death many times over.

[southerndoc]

Do a search next time. These two topics have been beaten to death many times over.

I'm in London with a slow internet connection. My patience isn't that great.

Which third-party Blu-ray writers are compatible with Macs?

[CaptainChunk]

Any third-party BD writer with the correct interface will work in a MP.

2009 models use SATA for the internal ODD bays, whereas 2006/2008 models use PATA.

MCE Technologies (http://www.mcetech.com/) makes MP-specific BD writers. Other brands will work, but you'll have to remove the bezel for proper case fitting.

An another option would be an external model that works over USB or FW.

[awesomedeluxe]

I'm not sure there's even confirmation that Snow Leopard has USB 3.0 drivers, is there? I mean I'm sure they're working on it but I don't remember hearing anything specific like I have with Linux and Windows 7.

Still, you will probably see USB 3.0 a long time before Blu-ray.

[gugucom]

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/1789/intelmatrixstoragemanag.jpg

I recommend the BD drive in the picture. I have it fitted into the second drive bay and have BD under Windows. Under OS X it is working as a DVD writer so there is some hope it will work when and if Apple stop beeing so anal about BD.

[MultiFinder17]

Hee-hee :D

Anyone here remember when Apple was staunchly refusing to acknowledge that USB 2.0 existed? Good times... Showing friends your shiny new PowerBook and showing off all that it would do, then wincing when someone stuck in a thumbdrive and copied a few things, and asked you why it was taking so long.

[TheStrudel]

I recommend the BD drive in the picture.

That drive only reads blu-rays. You want the LG-GGW H20L if you want to burn BDs. It's only $160 at NewEgg, now - a good price. As for burning BDs, you can already do it in the finder - I have - or use Toast or Encore to burn video BDs. It's quite handy for back-up purposes.

[kirreip]

there is allways the possibility to buy a USB 3.0 PCI-card. That's the advantage of having a MacPro. But this only works if you can get some drivers for it...

[gugucom]

PCIe card you meant, probably.

[kirreip]

PCIe card you meant, probably.

Well, since the MacPro only has PCIe slots, yes that's what I meant :rolleyes:

[netkas]

nec need to write osx drivers for their usb3.0 chips :rolleyes:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/nec-unveils-usb-3.0-pci-express-card/7061.html?doc=7061


does mbp have expresscard slot ?

[kirreip]

nec need to write osx drivers for their usb3.0 chips :rolleyes:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/nec-unveils-usb-3.0-pci-express-card/7061.html?doc=7061


does mbp have expresscard slot ?

not anymore... only the 17 inch mbp

[California]

Hee-hee :D

Anyone here remember when Apple was staunchly refusing to acknowledge that USB 2.0 existed? Good times... Showing friends your shiny new PowerBook and showing off all that it would do, then wincing when someone stuck in a thumbdrive and copied a few things, and asked you why it was taking so long.

I was just musing on why I am so obsessed with Apple and your post made me laugh about the ... good times of 1.0 USB and other slow weird Apple affectations of a few years ago.

The precise moment I became an Apple freak is because I so LOVED my original Titanium Powerbook that cost me 2500 dollars plus... and one day I had a meeting with a new business partner and that person was completely underwhelmed by the Tibook, which tho pristine, was three years old at that moment in time.

Their two year old Dell laptop kicked its butt in a lot of ways. Seriously kicked the Tibook's butt.

That was the moment I freaked into Apple obessiveness. I could not understand how a Windoze person did not see how great my Tibook was and set out, thirty or forty laptops later (I kid you not, I have owned nearly every Tibook, iBook Powermac, iMac, Mac Mini Cube MacBook Powerbook ever made in the four years since...) I have to wean myself off being addicted to buying and selling my machines.. this is my second quad g5, and my fifth Powermac G5 that I have owned.

At least I am not an iPod fanatic, well a little bit.

And I'm about to buy the new 13" MBP after owning the first two al MacBooks and selling them.

Your comment about how Apple refused to acknowledge 2.0 USB even existed... good times! brought the truth to light. I am an enabler for Apple's flaws.

[TheStrudel]

Yikes. That might be the first confession I'd ever heard from someone that they were an enabler.

[California]

Yikes. That might be the first confession I'd ever heard from someone that they were an enabler.

It felt good to "share"...

[motox25]

Any third-party BD writer with the correct interface will work in a MP.

2009 models use SATA for the internal ODD bays, whereas 2006/2008 models use PATA.

MCE Technologies (http://www.mcetech.com/) makes MP-specific BD writers. Other brands will work, but you'll have to remove the bezel for proper case fitting.

An another option would be an external model that works over USB or FW.

So basically what your saying is I can add a third party brand blu-ray drive to my mac pro such as an LG, remove the front bezel and it would recognize it? Would OSX recognize it for blu-ray movie playback?

[CaptainChunk]

So basically what your saying is I can add a third party brand blu-ray drive to my mac pro such as an LG, remove the front bezel and it would recognize it? Would OSX recognize it for blu-ray movie playback?

It would recognize the drive as a read/write device and that's it. There is no commercial BD movie playback anywhere in OS X. The only way to play commercial BD movies on a Mac is to run Windows. Both your graphics card and display need to be HDCP compliant, too.

[TheStrudel]

This is correct. The only commercial BD playback is to be had through windows. We're hoping this will change, but have seen no evidence that it will. You can burn data BDs and BD movies, though.

[gugucom]

2009 models use SATA for the internal ODD bays, whereas 2006/2008 models use PATA.

2006/2008 models also have ODD-SATA ports on the logic board. They can be connected to BD-ROM and BD-R drives in OS X and Windows. The problem is that under OS X they will only function as DVD drives and for proper use under Windows you have to enable AHCI mode, which is a bit tricky. My pic above shows the ODD-SATA ports enabled.

[motox25]

This is correct. The only commercial BD playback is to be had through windows. We're hoping this will change, but have seen no evidence that it will. You can burn data BDs and BD movies, though.

Well here is my personal opinion on blu-ray. I think disk media altogether will end with the DVD and go all digital via on demand and download services unless Sony can drop prices of blu-ray disk movies and if blu-ray disk drives become a standard in consumer electronics. I for one do not buy blu-ray movies anymore because I cannot A) copy them to my computer to rip to my iPhone and stream to my xbox 360 or B) play in my MacBook DVD drive when I'm on the road. Its as simple as that. At the moment blu-ray is not worth those cons including the higher price for just a better picture.

[nanofrog]

Well here is my personal opinion on blu-ray. I think disk media altogether will end with the DVD and go all digital via on demand and download services unless Sony can drop prices of blu-ray disk movies and if blu-ray disk drives become a standard in consumer electronics. I for one do not buy blu-ray movies anymore because I cannot A) copy them to my computer to rip to my iPhone and stream to my xbox 360 or B) play in my MacBook DVD drive when I'm on the road. Its as simple as that. At the moment blu-ray is not worth those cons including the higher price for just a better picture.
On Demand services increasing in popularity will depend on a couple of things though.

1. Increased bandwidth (massive bump to ~ 750MB/s or ~ 6.0Gb/s). Compression could lower the rate, but it would still be far more than consumers have available ATM. ;) :p And of course, if compression is used, and certainly would be, they'd have to have a system that can uncompress it on the fly, unless the file is downloaded in it's entirety first, then viewed. So the better the compression, the faster/more capable a system a consumer must have to decode it for playback in real time.

2. No caps on data capacities. Or at least set very high, where most usage wouldn't result in their band dropping to minuscule speeds, their account frozen, or massive penalties on the next bill. ;)

[gugucom]

If you want top quality there is no alernative to blu-ray. The only alternative I know is satellite based HDTV which also delivers 1080p with h.264 on a few expensive pay per view channels.

[TheStrudel]

Well here is my personal opinion on blu-ray. I think disk media altogether will end with the DVD and go all digital via on demand and download services unless Sony can drop prices of blu-ray disk movies and if blu-ray disk drives become a standard in consumer electronics. I for one do not buy blu-ray movies anymore because I cannot A) copy them to my computer to rip to my iPhone and stream to my xbox 360 or B) play in my MacBook DVD drive when I'm on the road. Its as simple as that. At the moment blu-ray is not worth those cons including the higher price for just a better picture.

We hear this opinion from people who don't need or want a better picture fairly regularly. Some of us like backing things up or sending large chunks of HD video to clients, you know. A BD is easier than shipping a HDD and BD is becoming affordable faster than DVD ever did. Just wait and soon everybody will be using DVDs like CDs and BD will become the new DVD. Dissenting opinions...Go!

[Tallest Skil]

I cannot A) copy them to my computer

*slow smile* Sure, you can't. And I bought this 1080p video on iTunes... :D;)

Tanj forums made me turn up the image compression a tiny bit, but it's raw 1080.

[Porco]

Well here is my personal opinion on blu-ray. I think disk media altogether will end with the DVD and go all digital via on demand and download services unless Sony can drop prices of blu-ray disk movies and if blu-ray disk drives become a standard in consumer electronics. I for one do not buy blu-ray movies anymore because I cannot A) copy them to my computer to rip to my iPhone and stream to my xbox 360 or B) play in my MacBook DVD drive when I'm on the road. Its as simple as that. At the moment blu-ray is not worth those cons including the higher price for just a better picture.

Disk media will end with DVD? Blu-ray is out there, now, in people's homes. That is done, it's reality. The drives are in numerous computer brands, there are numerous players and a fair few recorders are starting to pop up too now... it's not some potential format, it's already made it IMHO, even if Apple are being total laggards because they want it to fail so badly in their fantasy land where they must think everyone who owns a mac has super-fast net connections already. BD movie prices seem lower to me than DVDs were at the same point in their life (at least online), and the cost of licensing for disc production has just gone down again I believe.

As for your A) / B) points, I think those are fair views to hold, but for me I buy a Blu-ray disc because of the better picture - that is the whole point.

Would I like to be able to rip it in OS X if I wanted to watch it on my iPod? Sure. Would I like to be able to play the thing in Mac OS X? Definitely, and I find it shocking and, as a mac fan, increasingly embarrassing that it's still not possible to do so. Would I like it if the Blu-ray disc made me breakfast in the morning and laid golden eggs? That would be nice too.

But those limitations don't change the fact that if I want to watch a movie I love in the best quality feasibly possible outside of a cinema, Blu-ray is where it's at. If you are buying a movie to rip it and play it on your mac and don't care about the picture quality, DVD is obviously a cheaper, better option for you. To be honest though, if the choice is between the ability to occasionally watch a ripped movie on an iPod or getting a far superior copy of the film to watch as it's meant to be, on a big screen, it's an easy one for me. Convenience of downloads over quality of physical media still hasn't killed audio CDs or even vinyl just yet, I think Blu-ray is going to be just fine for quite a while.

[IronFixXxeR]

Has anyone tried using VLC 1.0 to play a Blu-Ray under Mac OS X?

[grahamwright1]

That drive only reads blu-rays. You want the LG-GGW H20L if you want to burn BDs. It's only $160 at NewEgg, now - a good price. As for burning BDs, you can already do it in the finder - I have - or use Toast or Encore to burn video BDs. It's quite handy for back-up purposes.

Seconded! An excellent drive but it was a little challenging to get it mounted in place of the SuperDrive on my MacPro 1,1

[goMac]

*slow smile* Sure, you can't. And I bought this 1080p video on iTunes... :D;)

Tanj forums made me turn up the image compression a tiny bit, but it's raw 1080.

Huh? I hate Bluray, but I'm pretty sure everything on iTunes is 720p, not 1080p.

There is no possible way to fit 1080p into a 3 gig file, that would be pretty tight for just 1080i.

[Cave Man]

Has anyone tried using VLC 1.0 to play a Blu-Ray under Mac OS X?

Tried and failed. It wouldn't even start to play a Blu-ray rip that had been de-HDCP'd and decrypted.

Huh? I hate Bluray, but I'm pretty sure everything on iTunes is 720p, not 1080p.

He knows - he's being facicious.

There is no possible way to fit 1080p into a 3 gig file, that would be pretty tight for just 1080i.

Sure you can, especially for shorts. For movies, it'd be very, very ugly, but you can get 1080p file under 3 gb.

[Shake 'n' Bake]

I'm surprised I haven't said it here. I'm also surprised that nobody else has.

This is kinda my running joke :D.

We won't have Blu-ray 'til Steve leaves because it is "a bag if hurt."

[goMac]

We won't have Blu-ray 'til Steve leaves because it is "a bag if hurt."

Yeah, the part that requires Apple to close source the kernel if they add it is a little bit bag of hurt. :)

Bluray requires a secure route through the kernel, which couldn't be open sourced. Same reason Linux doesn't have Bluray.

Apple could just close source that part of the kernel, but it would get kind of messy...