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Ace 7

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 13, 2008
37
0
I have one of the latest aluminum iMacs and I'd really like to view Blu-rays on the gorgeous 24" display - but if Apple doesn't introduce Blu-ray support in their machines this fall I won't be the one to sit around waiting for it anymore. :rolleyes:

So what I was wondering was if I could buy an external Blu-ray player, hook it up via USB to my iMac and play BDs using PowerDVD or AnyDVD HD on Bootcamp.

I was considering this one, and it had a reasonable price tag:

http://www.amazon.com/External-Bd-r...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1220705583&sr=8-3

Any experiences on this?
 

SnowLeopard2008

macrumors 604
Jul 4, 2008
6,772
17
Silicon Valley
Theoretically you can, as long as the reader software works on windows, for this, I would suggest Vista since it is newer and there are blu-ray players for Vista and considerably less for XP. I may be wrong, but HD res is actually lower than a 24" res which is 1980 x 1200, whereas HD is 1920 x 1080. I strongly believe Apple will not be the one lagging behind but one whos thinking ahead, they were the first to ditch the floppy, scsi, and the super drive for the MBA. Just wait, I'm sure Apple will produce some sort of blu-ray add-on, like the MBA's super drive.
 

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
Yeah it will work. Either get InterVideo WinDVD or Cyberlink PowerDVD. If you want to use a display that doesn't support HDCP, get AnyDVD HD; otherwise you only need the former playback software.

BTW if your not the software paying type, you may want to pay for the playback software since there are regular updates to support new Blu-ray profiles and features.
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
My concern would be the display. I'm not sure it's HDCP compliant.
Can anyone answer this?
 

voodoofish

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2004
182
3
London
Googled it...

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/aluminum-and-glass-a-review-of-the-new-imac.ars

According to the article, the iMac does indeed support HDCP.

By the way, I also have a nVidia GeForce 8800 GS, 512MB graphics card built in, so I think it should be able to handle it.

I have the same iMac and graphics card as you, did you ever try it in the end? i too would like to play blu-ray in windows (well, i would rather play is in Mac OS but apple isn't giving us the option...) without having to use anydvd
 

Ace 7

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 13, 2008
37
0
I have the same iMac and graphics card as you, did you ever try it in the end? i too would like to play blu-ray in windows (well, i would rather play is in Mac OS but apple isn't giving us the option...) without having to use anydvd

Yes, now I've bought the external Lite-On Blu-ray player, and the iMac is indeed capable of playing them in Windows. I use AnyDVD sometimes to bypass region coding, because I like to shop around discs in different regions.
 

ragu

macrumors member
Sep 8, 2009
57
3
Yes, now I've bought the external Lite-On Blu-ray player, and the iMac is indeed capable of playing them in Windows. I use AnyDVD sometimes to bypass region coding, because I like to shop around discs in different regions.
you can even play blurry in OSX I am on my Mac Pro use a BluRay Player app works great and since I have a BluRay writer I can also make my own Bluray disc's:D
 
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