Blu-ray Support in Mac OS X 10.5.6?

[MacRumors]

After last week's release of the iPod Nano, iPod Touch and iTunes 8, we neglected to post our traditional rumor wrap up. In the end, however, our pre-event rumor roundup accurately spelled out the major releases.

The bulk of the information came from Kevin Rose who detailed a number of the changes accurately. Readers should find interesting that Rose also revealed some future details that have not yet materialized.

Specifically, Rose expects that Blu-ray support will finally be built into Mac OS X 10.5.6. Blu-ray is the next generation high definition video disc format that only recently "won" the format battle after major studios decisively chose it over HD-DVD. Apple has been a member of the Blu-Ray consortium for years but has not yet revealed their plans for Blu-ray support.

With the release of Mac OS X 10.5.5 earlier this week, Apple should begin work on Mac OS X 10.5.6. Built-in Blu-ray support into Mac OS X would open the door for Apple to finally incorporate Blu-ray drives into their Macs as well as Blu-ray support into their suite of iLife applications. The 10.5.6 update will not come before the rumored notebook revisions in October, but could conceivably be ready by Macworld San Francisco 2009.

Article Link

[TuffLuffJimmy]

mmmn I wouldn't mind going off to college with a new iMac with a blu-ray drive next year.

[richthomas]

is it likely Apple will add Blu-ray support to their software in a point update? i thought they would release it in a major upgrade.

[DjAmTraX]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

time to get a BR drive.

[MacTraveller]

YAWN.

Wake me up when they release Macs with both Blue-Ray support in the OS as well as a Blue-Ray disc drive. Only then can you really use and watch Blue-Ray discs/movies. When is that likely to happen? Macworld 2010?

[richthomas]

^ the article says that Blu-ray support will be added to OS X. so its unlikely that the support will linger around in the OS without hardware support 'til 2010. i predict 1st quarter 2009.

[ryanw]

I am just waiting for the day when my wife can FINALLY make use of the HD cam corder I bought earlier this year. It's a great consumer harddrive full HD cam-corder. Gorgeous picture quality! It'll be fantastic to have an option to burn those to blu-rays or even on dual-layer DVD's in HD formats to play on my PS3... iMovie is lagging in support for HD even though HD was all the rage a few years ago.... the hardware is now in place, it's in wide enough demand... now it's time for the software to get in gear.

[Tallest Skil]

Originally Posted by ryanw

I am just waiting for the day when my wife can FINALLY make use of the HD cam corder I bought earlier this year. It's a great consumer harddrive full HD cam-corder. Gorgeous picture quality! It'll be fantastic to have an option to burn those to blu-rays or even on dual-layer DVD's in HD formats to play on my PS3... iMovie is lagging in support for HD even though HD was all the rage a few years ago.... the hardware is now in place, it's in wide enough demand... now it's time for the software to get in gear.

*sigh*

You can already burn HD video to DVD and Blu-ray disks in OS X!

The only thing that you cannot do is burn or watch disks that use HDCP. That's IT!

[Peace]

I'm guessing that by the time Snow Leopard rolls around there will be Macs with Blu-Ray support.

[PCMacUser]

This must happen sooner or later.

Although by the time Apple implement it, the PC world would have moved onto the next technology...

Sony's first laptop with bluray drive came out about two years ago, and cost the same as a Macbook Pro. I'm not sure what's taking Apple so long.

[arn]

Originally Posted by richthomas

is it likely Apple will add Blu-ray support to their software in a point update? i thought they would release it in a major upgrade.

It'll come when the hardware is required for it. I don't see it as a point release vs not point release issue. It's just drivers for the OS. The iLife suite will have to be upgraded to support.

iLife '09 seems like a good time.

arn

[teme]

If they release MBP's in few months, I hope that they offer blu-ray drives at least as a built-to-order option, even if the 10.5.6 update is not ready yet.

[BWhaler]

Highly doubtful.

Apple and Microsoft want the future to be HD downloads, not BluRay.

Sony has lost this war, they just don't realize it yet.

[teme]

Originally Posted by BWhaler

Highly doubtful.

Apple and Microsoft want the future to be HD downloads, not BluRay.

Sony has lost this war, they just don't realize it yet.

Yes, but the movie companies decide how much they want to support digital downloads. Currently their support for digital movie downloads (even SD quality) outside USA is about zero, and buying/renting blu-rays and dvd's is the only option for most countries.

[Stridder44]

Originally Posted by BWhaler

Highly doubtful.

Apple and Microsoft want the future to be HD downloads, not BluRay.

Sony has lost this war, they just don't realize it yet.

That's not going to happen as long as Comcast and other internet providers are giving us (the US) bulls**t connection rates.

On that note, I'm REALLY looking forward to Snow Leopard. When's it supposedly coming out again (I know no ones knows the exact date)?

[Peace]

Originally Posted by Stridder44

That's not going to happen as long as Comcast and other internet providers are giving us (the US) bulls**t connection rates.

On that note, I'm REALLY looking forward to Snow Leopard. When's it supposedly coming out again?

That is exactly what the major studios want. They can make more money selling disks than hogging bandwidth trying to download a 5 GB file. Especially with the caps in place now.

[aygie]

Originally Posted by BWhaler

Sony has lost this war, they just don't realize it yet.

What war? Blu-ray vs downloads? i'd like to see your figures.

[gugy]

It's about time, but the blank discs still too expensive to make it worthwhile.

50gig blu-ray disc needs to cost no more than $10 in order to make sense. I rather back it up on multiple hard discs that today run pretty cheap.

Plus I agree that Apple is focusing on downloads rather than physical discs. So it seems they are in no hurry to provide BR-R to consumers.

As for Blu-ray player only, it would be welcome.

[pimentoLoaf]

Whether there is BluRay or not next month, I'm getting a new powerBook ... er, um ... macBook Pro. It will be exactly 5 years since getting my last 17", only that this time I'll custom build one online.

Perchance an external BR drive will be made available from Apple?

[Baadshah]

but will this blu-ray support be in the new macbooks in oct 14?? but is this a rumors or will the new macbooks be availeble in oct??

I just cant wait to get a mac. Really want one, so are they rlsing it or not.

[arian19]

Core i 7

AND

Blu-ray

Yaya

[fastbite]

It will be great to have support for Blue ray, then again I believe B R is a total waste of time and it will be dead in a few years time.

[xgfx]

HD Downloads don't stand a chance at the moment with the way current ISP's are acting. Most major isps in the UK have either monthly caps in place, or even more annoyingly like mine, you can only download 1gb within a 4 hour period otherwise your connection is capped at 25% it's normal speed. As well as someone previously said, there just isn't a viable source to rent/buy HD downloads on the net for people outside the US yet. iTunes has nothing. The only viable source I have is through my cable box, I can rent HD content through there, but no purchase.

I think they should definetly have a BR drive in the next revisions or atleast a BTO, to just stay with current trends. People are beginning to want/need them. Especially those in creative industries.

[gregdrummeraz]

Originally Posted by arn

It'll come when the hardware is required for it. I don't see it as a point release vs not point release issue. It's just drivers for the OS. The iLife suite will have to be upgraded to support.

iLife '09 seems like a good time.

arn

I always wondered something arn... What is you Mac set up

[Phil A.]

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not keen on this at all: one of the things that slows Vista down is the end to end HDCP support insisted on by the movie companies to prevent copying. If OSX adds similar bloat to support BluRay it will be a step backwards IMO.