Macbook Pro and Blu Ray Drives

waywardsage · Feb 26, 2008

I'm wondering if the current Macbook Pro will run Blu ray with no problems on my Penryn 17" MBP that I'm buying. Prices are comming down eventually, and I forsee a time that I will be able to buy a slimline Blu ray drive to replace the DVD burner in the MBP in the next 6 months. Or at least thats my plan.

will the 17" MBP play Blu ray? I have a PS3 at home and my Blu ray selection is growing every month. I just want to be able to get a Blu ray drive and upgrade my MBP in the future and not have to buy another $3000 laptop just to do this. Is the current MBP and its video card hardy enough to run Blu ray with no problems?

If i have Apple care, would I just need an apple authorized tech to install the drive to not void my warantee?

I know fastmac.com has offered a blu ray upgrade drive for the past few months. But its pricy at $1000. I'm hoping to get one when they get under $400.

Any thoughts?

robanga · Feb 26, 2008

Good question about Applecare. I imagine that the video card will handle BR just fine.

Personally I would only want one if it is a writer as well. I see that the fastmac one is only available to run on the 17" MBP so I am guessing the 256MB video card is the starting point for that one.

sal · Feb 27, 2008

bluray player?

Nah, I'll just wait for bluray burners to be affordable. And by that time, apple will probably shipping the next MBP with them installed.

Just out of curiousity, if you install these bluray players on your MBP, can they play and burn cds and dvds?

Michael CM1 · Feb 27, 2008

sal said:
bluray player?

Nah, I'll just wait for bluray burners to be affordable. And by that time, apple will probably shipping the next MBP with them installed.

Just out of curiousity, if you install these bluray players on your MBP, can they play and burn cds and dvds?

Blu-ray Disc players are backward compatible, so I am pretty sure the computer drives will be as well (at least according to FastMac.com). It looks like the same way a Combo Drive goes (reads DVDs, burns CDs).

Personally, I just need what I would call a Combo Blu-Drive. I have no interest in burning to BD until the discs drop down to somewhere close to DVD dual layers. I have had way too many F-ups with CDs and DVDs to risk $20 every time I try to burn. In fact, I have probably used this DVD burner a grand total of 30 times. I just want a BD drive to read movies and so those nice folks that make HandBrake will let me rip those to my computer (downscaled a crapload).

Hopefully drives for all the Macs will be available by the summer.

sal · Feb 27, 2008

Michael CM1 said:
Blu-ray Disc players are backward compatible,

that's good to know. I was always under the impression that HD-DVD players were the only ones that could play dvds because the technology to create and play HD-DVD's was the same as DVD's.

leoz · Feb 27, 2008

Blu-ray players are affordable

sal said:
bluray player?

HTML:

Nah, I'll just wait for bluray burners to be affordable. And by that time, apple will probably shipping the next MBP with them installed.

Blu-ray players are affordable. Sony can sell them in their laptops for a comparable price to the current MacBook Pros. Steve Jobs is against Blu-ray and is trying to side line Blu-ray with his Time Machine and HD Movie downloads. So we are expected to suffer outdated superdrives instead of having next generation optical drives.

ChadBrommer · Feb 27, 2008

Now wait, Steve Jobs is against Blu-Ray, however, Apple is on their board? Pretty funny he would be against a company/idea that he has money invested in.

waywardsage · Feb 27, 2008

leoz said:
sal said:

bluray player?

HTML:

Nah, I'll just wait for bluray burners to be affordable. And by that time, apple will probably shipping the next MBP with them installed.

Blu-ray players are affordable. Sony can sell them in their laptops for a comparable price to the current MacBook Pros. Steve Jobs is against Blu-ray and is trying to side line Blu-ray with his Time Machine and HD Movie downloads. So we are expected to suffer outdated superdrives instead of having next generation optical drives.

Click to expand...

To answer an earlier question: Yes, blu ray can burn/read CD's, DVD's and Blu ray.

As to the poster above, yes blu ray players are affordable in notebooks: IF you have a normal sized notebook. Apple has decided to pursue the thin dragon and has made its notebook 4mm too small for reasonably priced Blu ray drives So unless the industry wants to kick out super slim drives we'll be waiting a while.

However, Apple is putting 17" LED backlit screens dispite other folks comments about how they "don't exist in any laptop!". So, it may be possible. But it just sucks that Apple sacrificed our early adopting blu ray dreams for an extra 4mm's.

leoz · Feb 28, 2008

ChadBrommer said:
Now wait, Steve Jobs is against Blu-Ray, however, Apple is on their board? Pretty funny he would be against a company/idea that he has money invested in.

How much money does he have in it (Blu-ray)? How much money does he stand to gain if his movie downloads get up?

leoz · Feb 28, 2008

waywardsage said:
leoz said:

Apple has decided to pursue the thin dragon and has made its notebook 4mm too small for reasonably priced Blu ray drives So unless the industry wants to kick out super slim drives we'll be waiting a while.

However, Apple is putting 17" LED backlit screens dispite other folks comments about how they "don't exist in any laptop!". So, it may be possible. But it just sucks that Apple sacrificed our early adopting blu ray dreams for an extra 4mm's.

Click to expand...

Why won't Apple support external Blu-ray drives. Why are they silent on Blu-ray? Why does their website reveal nothing when you search Blu-ray?

chickenninja · Feb 28, 2008

leoz said:
sal said:

bluray player?

HTML:

Nah, I'll just wait for bluray burners to be affordable. And by that time, apple will probably shipping the next MBP with them installed.

Blu-ray players are affordable. Sony can sell them in their laptops for a comparable price to the current MacBook Pros. Steve Jobs is against Blu-ray and is trying to side line Blu-ray with his Time Machine and HD Movie downloads. So we are expected to suffer outdated superdrives instead of having next generation optical drives.

Click to expand...

how ridiculous, you need to remeber that the macbook pro is PRO line and that the demographic it is intended for includes cinematic professionals the same people who would make content for blueray. besides the only reason we dont have them now is because of the speculation on whether HD-DVD or Blueray were going to be the next big thing, and i honestly think that its going to be neither and that flash technology and faster fiber networks will replace "discs" of every kind, moving parts are so yesterday. the next real revision(as in total hardware makeover) most likely involve passive cooling and flash drives ,,, at least in the macmini/macpro models. and i am talking 5-7 years from now. which is when processors will be cooler and flash will be as cheep as cellophane

Vaiper · Feb 28, 2008

Blu-ray + MBP = I'll buy

My reason for wanting the Blu-ray option:

I have gone HD at home, if I buy movies now they are predominantly going to be HD. That's the collector in me wanting a physical box.

I get the whole downloads-are-the-way thought..but..as everyone is saying..decent download speeds aren't for everyone..also the download services that i.e. Apple have launched are US only (or region restricted at least)..forget about it coming to Norway where I live, any time soon. Too many issues with distribution rights vs price from what I understand..

And then..since I feel downloads are the future, but Blu-ray is here NOW..give us the option!!

Also..for the people who say DVD is dominating the market still..blu-ray drives can show DVDs as well..

MustangJAB02 · Mar 18, 2008

External Blu-Ray?

Does anyone know if the new macbook pro will play an external Blu-Ray drive? I was thinking about buying a PC drive and putting it in an enclosure. Does anyone know if this will work?

jjahshik32 · Mar 18, 2008

I'm pretty sure the current mbp can run bluray drives (external bluray that is). But who cares about bluray drives, if you need a burner probably buy an external one in the future (not sure if today's external bluray drives will work on the mbp maybe no support from apple yet?) and if you need a bluray player just get a ps3 hooked up to your hdtv and be done with it.

But imho, I dont even bother with bluray players as I download bluray movies and just stream them to my hdtv or play them on your computer to watch. =/

Plus its free and it only takes 2-3 hours for 1 bluray 8-9gb movie.

MustangJAB02 · Mar 18, 2008

jjahshik32 said:
I'm pretty sure the current mbp can run bluray drives (external bluray that is). But who cares about bluray drives, if you need a burner probably buy an external one in the future (not sure if today's external bluray drives will work on the mbp maybe no support from apple yet?) and if you need a bluray player just get a ps3 hooked up to your hdtv and be done with it.

But imho, I dont even bother with bluray players as I download bluray movies and just stream them to my hdtv or play them on your computer to watch. =/

Plus its free and it only takes 2-3 hours for 1 bluray 8-9gb movie.

That doesn't solve the problem of not wanting to spend $400 on a blu-ray player. Where do you download blu-ray movies from?

aaronw1986 · Mar 18, 2008

MustangJAB02 said:
Does anyone know if the new macbook pro will play an external Blu-Ray drive? I was thinking about buying a PC drive and putting it in an enclosure. Does anyone know if this will work?

It would only work in Windows for watching movies. There is no player for OS X that can play blu-ray movies. You could however use Toast to burn blu-ray discs.

jjahshik32 · Mar 18, 2008

aaronw1986 said:
It would only work in Windows for watching movies. There is no player for OS X that can play blu-ray movies. You could however use Toast to burn blu-ray discs.

I have about 68 bluray/hd dvd movies right now all 1080p/720p in WMV format that I just stream wirelessly to my xbox 360 connected hdmi 1080p to my sony bravia xbr4 using connect 360 on the mac pro or macbook pro just fine and looks incredibly gorgeous.

I download a bluray movie from newsgroups and it takes me 1hr 30 min for a 9 gb 1080p movie. So far 650gb of bluray/hddvd movie on my 1tb drive saids 68 items hence bluray/hd dvd movies.

It wouldnt work only in windows for watching the bluray/hd dvd movies, well mkv, h264 you can play all of that with vlc player just fine on the macbook pro/mac pro. But wmv files will play but no sound on osx but then wmv is worth streaming wirelessly to the xbox 360 (if you have one that is).

Plus the movies are free! =D Well I guess partially not free, I pay 24.00 for giganews news groups per month but it pays off in the end since I d/l about 200-300gb of bluray/hd dvd/xbox 360/pc games, mac apps and whatever the hell you would need.

aaronw1986 · Mar 18, 2008

I was talking about actual blu-ray discs, not pirated versions in video format.

jjahshik32 · Mar 18, 2008

aaronw1986 said:
I was talking about actual blu-ray discs, not pirated versions in video format.

Well their the same thing, sound quality and in video quality, ripped straight from bluray/hddvd movies. I played a bluray movie 1080p on the ps3 and the wmv I d/led, looks/plays/sound identically and 7.1, 5.1 dts dolby digital works perfect.

I'm going to watch The Zodiac tonight in 1080p streamed via xbox 360 with full 5.1 dts (dolby digital)

and whats even more great is that you can load the movie onto your mbp and just stream it wirelessly from the xbox 360 (just point at the folder on your mbp) and while the movie is playing you can still put the laptop on your lap to browse while you watch the movie if you'd like.

And if you have an external hdd you can hook up your mbp usb to the external hdd and point the connect 360 to the folder on your external hdd and the xbox 360 picks it right up and just play whatever movie you want.

Or even better if you have a mac pro just point the xbox 360 via connect 360 (mac) to which folder to pick up and just browse through the folder to select which movie and just pick the movie you want to watch and the mac pro can be anywhere in your house!

waywardsage · Mar 18, 2008

They are technically not the "same thing" Many blu rays have uncompressed audio. Its FAR better then regular Dolby Digital. It makes DD sound like MP3's.

jjahshik32 · Mar 18, 2008

waywardsage said:
They are technically not the "same thing" Many blu rays have uncompressed audio. Its FAR better then regular Dolby Digital. It makes DD sound like MP3's.

Well DD/AC3, I tried it on the ps3 with a bluray movie "shoot em up" and the same movie on the .wmv with AC3 file, to me sounds exactly the same, non distinguishable and no they dont sound like the mere mp3's that you assume.

schnurmac · Dec 29, 2009

jjahshik32 said:
Well their the same thing, sound quality and in video quality, ripped straight from bluray/hddvd movies. I played a bluray movie 1080p on the ps3 and the wmv I d/led, looks/plays/sound identically and 7.1, 5.1 dts dolby digital works perfect.

I'm going to watch The Zodiac tonight in 1080p streamed via xbox 360 with full 5.1 dts (dolby digital) and whats even more great is that you can load the movie onto your mbp and just stream it wirelessly from the xbox 360 (just point at the folder on your mbp) and while the movie is playing you can still put the laptop on your lap to browse while you watch the movie if you'd like.

And if you have an external hdd you can hook up your mbp usb to the external hdd and point the connect 360 to the folder on your external hdd and the xbox 360 picks it right up and just play whatever movie you want.

Or even better if you have a mac pro just point the xbox 360 via connect 360 (mac) to which folder to pick up and just browse through the folder to select which movie and just pick the movie you want to watch and the mac pro can be anywhere in your house!

How do you stream to the PS3? Are you running a server on the mac ex. ( eyeconnect or twonky)? I can only stream .vob file to my PS3 in pieces I have to keep selecting the next file from my ripped movies. Also how good is the stream for the HD content? When I stream it freezes a little. :apple:

kny3twalker · Dec 30, 2009

waywardsage said:
They are technically not the "same thing" Many blu rays have uncompressed audio. Its FAR better then regular Dolby Digital. It makes DD sound like MP3's.

Dolby Digital/AC3 Max bit rate 640Kb/sec
DTS Max bit rate 1.5Mb/sec
Dolby Digital Plus Max bit rate 6.1Mb/sec
Dolby TrueHD Max bit rate 18Mb/sec

the difference between DD/DTS and DD Plus/Dolby TrueHD is comparable to the difference between a MP3 and a CD.
I agree the difference in sound quality is significant.

kny3twalker · Dec 30, 2009

jjahshik32 said:
Plus the movies are free! =D Well I guess partially not free, I pay 24.00 for giganews news groups per month but it pays off in the end since I d/l about 200-300gb of bluray/hd dvd/xbox 360/pc games, mac apps and whatever the hell you would need.

Why even bother paying for giganews? Most ISPs offer newsgroup service included with internet service, at least time warner use to. Or why not just join a private tracker and use bit torrent?

Personally I would not be archiving a someone's re-encodes, but its your harddrive.

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