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Snow leopard and Blue-Ray?
- Thread starter Aven SkyGazer
- Start date
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ah.
it's probably been asked here before... but anything on the horizon for blu-ray playback now that SL has hit?
dukebound85
macrumors Core
I agree. I was editing video and burning BR disks 2 years ago on a PC when all my machead peers were arguing what a superior OS Apple made. Just the mention of standard Blu-Ray availability on PC's usually shuts 'em up.
But man, I hope Jobs knows what the hell he's doing in all this. Apple hasn't adopted this tech for a reason (you would think?) which would mean something else is in the pipeline but people have been saying this for far too long. I suspect it has something to do with Apple's online movie sales which physical media is an enemy to. (I'm sure some idiot at Apple probably fought incorporating DVD capabilities in the SuperDrive at one time as well).
But like everyone else... I know nothing.
Personally, I'd just like to see the SuperDrive removed from all macbooks and just let the 3rd parties take over this arena with peripheral drives (all kinds). Then, use all that extra room for other things. Like a freaking kick-ass battery or a quad processor with plenty of heatsink/fan space.
But again... I know nothing.
My "investor" guy tells me that Apple, Inc is one of the most difficult companies to predict because they don't follow the norm when it comes to mainstream tech. (Gee, really?)
Go figure.
All I know is it pisses me off, especially since I have a MP and do my home movies in HD. I know I could save and burn to BR if I had a drive, but I haven't bought one because I wouldn't be able to watch my own home movies on BR in my Mac. Pretty sorry. That and games are the only things that suck about my Mac though... Just using windows sucks IMO. Wondering if W7 will change my opinion...
Mal
macrumors 603
Why? What's so ridiculous about it? You can author Blu-ray disks on a Mac (just get an external burner), you can read Blu-ray disks on a Mac, you just can't playback movies on Blu-ray videos, which is what a TV is for! Sure, ok, I wouldn't be annoyed if Blu-ray was an option, but neither am I pissed off that it's not. You can do everything except watch Blu-ray movies, and that's not really intended for computers anyways.
jW
jaw04005
macrumors 601
Or you own a 24” iMac and you would like to watch a Blu-ray disc in your dorm/bedroom.
It’s becoming a standard on the PC side. Apple was an early supporter of Blu-ray. What the hell happened? The iTunes Store? They can’t even manage to get HD movies on the store.
“Apple is pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Consumers are already creating stunning HD content with Apple’s leading video editing applications like iMovie HD and are anxiously awaiting a way to burn their own high def DVDs.”
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/mar/10blu-ray.html
PowerDVD was terrible long before Blu-ray came along. DVD didn’t become easy to use on PCs until Microsoft finally built it into Windows Vista. While we’ve had Apple DVD Player since what 1999? Mac OS 8.6? Maybe earlier?
soms
macrumors 6502
for those of us that actually use our laptops to, you know, travel.. a blue-ray player in my MBP would be a huge plus. not necessarily to watch them ON the laptop, but it'd be nice to use it as a player attached to the hotel TV's.
CWallace
macrumors G5
Nothing definite. Steve Jobs is on record that Blu-Ray is "a bag of hurt", but to my knowledge he's never clarified why that is exactly so. I understand licensing is part of it, but considering the variety of playback devices in existence, it can't be that hard.
How does the MacBook(Pro) handle outputting encrypted digital content? Is the DVI / DisplayPort set to pass HDCP? If not, then you won't be able to connect it to an HDTV's DVI or HDMI port and view encrypted content like from a commercial Blu-Ray movie disc.
Infrared
macrumors 68000
The current 17" MBP has a resolution of 1920x1200.
Watch ordinary DVDs on that full-screen and there is
a terrible lack of quality because the image has to be
stretched to fill the screen.
Don't you care about quality?
With Blu-Ray, the image is so much sharper because the
resolution is so much higher. In fact, 1920x1080 is pretty
close to the natural resolution of that notebook.
dukebound85
macrumors Core
maybe some of us want more platforms to watch our movies on as opposed to maintaining TWO seperate video libraries.....
its not all about the dang resolution
Mal
macrumors 603
Thanks for calling me a fanboy. It's always nice to have so clearly indicated who is safe to ignore in a debate because they have nothing legitimate to add.
jW
Xapphire13
macrumors regular
I have an external blu ray drive for my Macbook and its pathetic that all I can do is access the disk as a data blu ray. And for those who say blu ray wasn't designed for computers, what about the hundreds of people who build media systems (from computers hooked up to a TV). I would be great to watch blu ray on my full HD 24" monitor 🙂
The only thing you can do on a mac with blu ray movies AFAIK is rip them with MakeMKV... but that takes like 2hrs (in my experience 1hr 45min). But your still screwed due to alot of blu rays have BD+ encryption, all MakeMKV can do is AACS. Also a lot of blu rays are encoded with wvc1, which is a windows media codec that cant be used on mac os x yet.
The only thing you can do on a mac with blu ray movies AFAIK is rip them with MakeMKV... but that takes like 2hrs (in my experience 1hr 45min). But your still screwed due to alot of blu rays have BD+ encryption, all MakeMKV can do is AACS. Also a lot of blu rays are encoded with wvc1, which is a windows media codec that cant be used on mac os x yet.
SHADO
macrumors 6502a
Well no **** but that still doesn't excuse the fact that Apple hasn't done it yet. Blu-Ray support should be just as mainstream as a SuperDrive, and it really shouldn't be called a 'SuperDrive', because it can't play everything, i.e. Blu-Ray. In defense of Apple, however, not going along with the crowd has served them well because their market share has increased dramatically every year. But, having BR as an option would definitely increase demand even further.
synth3tik
macrumors 68040
I know I am not willing to pay for the licensing. Which is still expensive. The licensing cost will be something Apple will have to apply to every machine with blue-ray, meaning more expensive computers.
This expense will only benefit people how want blue ray on their computer. I have no desire to use blue ray and don't want to pay for something I will never use.
Xapphire13
macrumors regular
Just buy one without blu ray then.... if you dont want blu ray, why comment in a blu ray thread?
jaw04005
macrumors 601
Did you care when Apple started including DVD? Or Bluetooth? Or 802.11x? Or MP3? Or AAC? Or any of the other countless technologies run by consortiums that require active licensing agreements?
No, you didn’t because the cost to consumers, when spread out, is nominal at best.
Blu-ray licensing for the most part has been ironed out.
Microsoft was quoted in March as saying that including Blu-ray support natively in Windows 7 would have cost the company around $30 per Windows license. Keep in mind, Microsoft is not a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association let alone a member of Blu-ray’s board of directors. Additionally, the licensing (between the 18 or so companies that hold Blu-ray’s patents) hadn’t been consolidated yet either.
It’s very likely that Blu-ray licensing now would amount to no more than $15, which could easily be made up in Apple’s hardware margin. At some point, it becomes a no brainer.
Even Apple’s favorite drive manufacturer (Matshita) is making 2x BD-R slot-loading drives now that retail for around $200.
