Blu-ray Licensing to Get Easier and Cheaper

[MacRumors]

AlleyInsider speculates that licensing changes to Blu-Ray could pave the way to Mac support for the High Definition drives.

A new licence will be established by mid-2009 as a "one-stop shop" for device makers. The licence will include all necessary Blu-ray, DVD and CD patents for selling Blu-ray players. The licensing programme will be handled by a new licensing company to be led by Gerald Rosenthal, former head of intellectual property at IBM. It will be based in the US, but will have local branches in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The new streamlined process will reportedly cut the total cost of royalty payments by 40 percent. Apple's Steve Jobs specifically cited complicated licensing issues as one of the hurdles to adopting Blu-Ray in Apple's own computers.

Of interest, Apple's recent inclusion of HDCP copy protection in their newest laptops could also help pave the way for support of the HD disc format.

Article Link: Blu-ray Licensing to Get Easier and Cheaper

[Colin20]

This is great news!

[themoonisdown09]

I'm starting to care about having a Blu Ray drive in my Mac now because I finally got an HDTV a month ago. Now that I'm buying my movies on Blu Ray instead of DVD, I have no way of ripping them to my iPod.

[VanMac]

Great News. Looking forward to Blu Ray being incorporated into future macs.

[Sky Blue]

A bag of slightly less hurt.

[BRLawyer]

Blu-Ray is a borndead standard and this move just proves it. They are desperate to sell DRM-ridden discs to people that could not care less about a marginal increase in image quality.

[gkarris]

Minis with Blu-ray drives...

(runs off screaming...)

[kastenbrust]

The only useful use for blu-ray is for data backup, and macs can do that already using an external blu-ray drive or one of these which you can build into your Macbook Pro:
http://store.fastmac.com/product_inf...roducts_id=338

ok so we cant watch blu-ray movies, but id rather buy them in the iTunes store anyway. I think Apples trying to move away from disc media as it goes away from their whole iPod digital media philosophy.

To be honest there isn't much point watching blu-ray on a screen smaller than 30 inches anyway.

[Eminemdrdre00]

But Apple will still charge $300+ for the Blu-ray drive option =\

[champ01]

Originally Posted by kastenbrust

The only useful use for blu-ray is for data backup, and macs can do that already, ok so we cant watch movies, but id rather buy them in the iTunes store anyway. I think Apples trying to move away from disc media as it goes away from their whole iPod digital media philosophy.

not only movies how about programs

I have Logic Studio and Final Cut Studio and both are 8 dvd's

and you don't mention one word about gaming..

because games and movies are gonna be sold on one blu ray

[PlaceofDis]

next excuse: the drives aren't slim enough in the slot loading variety or something along those lines.

i don't really care either way personally. but its about time for the data retention purposes at least.

[guzhogi]

Sounds good. While I know Apple probably won't do this any time soon since it would cut into its iTunes sales, I hope they eventually put Blu-Ray drives in their computers. Blu-Ray movies (as well as DVDs) have special features (and are of a higher resolution) than the movies you can get from iTunes. That's one thing I don't like about the iTunes store (although, I can see how downloading a 1080p movie + special features would take a long time).

Ragardless of movies, Blu-Ray discs can be a good backup measure/data storage device since it holds so much more than DVDs.

[Evan_11]

For all those saying that Blu-ray is not needed please let it go. You're probably not interested in the extra storage capabilities nor are interested in a authoring HD media.

[081440]

Originally Posted by champ01

not only movies how about programs

I have Logic Studio and Final Cut Studio and both are 8 dvd's

and you don't mention one word about gaming..

because games and movies are gonna be sold on one blu ray

I agree! FCP installs are intense, not only for the computer but all that CD swapping and little paper envelope stuffing.

I never watch movies or the like on my Mac. But wouldn't mind the option... Apple will wait though... we know this.

[cube]

It still has regions, unlike HD DVD.

[4np]

Finally, I hope this may result in a new MacBook Pro in July with a Blu-Ray player/writer on board... The 50Gb backup possibilities are very interesting. I always photograph on RAW format, and I'd like to keep everything I shoot so a lot of storage on a single disc would be perfect

[Jetson]

I wish that HD-DVD had won the contest. Blu-ray may be a better technology, but none of the studios are actually using all that extra storage space. Blu-ray movies are bare bones. Few movies have alternate endings, profanity-free audio tracks, or any of the other carrots that Blu-ray promoters used to dangle.

HD-DVD didn't have the greed driven, annoying region coding that Blu-ray does. Certain movies have been available for years on Blu-ray overseas (Britain, France, Germany) but not in the U.S.A. We can't use those disks here in the U.S. because they are coded region 2.

[gkarris]

Originally Posted by BRLawyer

Blu-Ray is a borndead standard and this move just proves it. They are desperate to sell DRM-ridden discs to people that could not care less about a marginal increase in image quality.

And downloaded purchased media isn't????

[skeep5]

Originally Posted by Sky Blue

A bag of slightly less hurt.

That'd be Half a bag o' hurt.

[jcb10]

Originally Posted by kastenbrust

To be honest there isn't much point watching blu-ray on a screen smaller than 30 inches anyway.

While that point is very much true, I'd have to agree with the earlier poster who was frustrated that he just bought a HDTV and all of his purchases are now on Blu-Ray, but now he can't put them on his Mac.

We shouldn't have to buy movies twice -- we don't have to buy songs on both CD and through iTunes, do we?

[Pnut13]

Some people actually prefer owning a physical copy of a movie, and if w3e want the "slightly better" image capibility of BR disks, us as apple owners should have the right to burn BR disks on our macs....without having to run bootcamp and burn BR on Windows. Sometimes people like to save things on more than a (external) hard drive.
No matter how much apple wants us to download, there are some people like me that want more than one option!

[Cromulent]

Originally Posted by champ01

because games and movies are gonna be sold on one blu ray

Hah I remember when CD-ROM drives first started to become common on computers and people were like, WOW games will fit on only one disk now!

Trust me, in 5 years or so we will see games on multiple blu-ray disks. Same with applications too.

[BJWanlund]

There's also an environmental impact if Apple puts Blu-Ray drives in their computers: Blu-ray movies use less plastic for its packaging and its actual media. Less plastic = lower carbon footprint.

BJ

[kastenbrust]

Originally Posted by jcb10

While that point is very much true, I'd have to agree with the earlier poster who was frustrated that he just bought a HDTV and all of his purchases are now on Blu-Ray, but now he can't put them on his Mac.

We shouldn't have to buy movies twice -- we don't have to buy songs on both CD and through iTunes, do we?

I totally didn't think about that, but yeah thats right, not something that occurred to me before.

I do think with constantly increasing internet speeds (by 2020 the average speed will be 32MB) then people will be able to download blu-ray movies from the itunes store in about 15 mins and we wont bother with solid media. We will download it on our Macbooks, and then wirelessly stream it to the Apple TV connected to our 40" High Def TV's.

Originally Posted by champ01

because games and movies are gonna be sold on one blu ray

Not with 32MB broadband, people will just download them legally from the iTunes store or Steam. Downloading and streaming are the future

[pkoch1]

Originally Posted by kastenbrust

The only useful use for blu-ray is for data backup, and macs can do that already using an external blu-ray drive or one of these which you can build into your Macbook Pro:
http://store.fastmac.com/product_inf...roducts_id=338

ok so we cant watch blu-ray movies, but id rather buy them in the iTunes store anyway. I think Apples trying to move away from disc media as it goes away from their whole iPod digital media philosophy.

To be honest there isn't much point watching blu-ray on a screen smaller than 30 inches anyway.

I've said this before, and so have others but it still needs to be said:

Compatibility.

I don't want to have to buy a Blu-Ray disk for my TV and a DVD for my iPhone/computer/appleTV