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Steve Jobs Suggests Blu-ray Not Coming to Mac Anytime Soon

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Amongst the emails that Steve Jobs has been responding to, he also responded to an inquiry by a MacRumors reader Siva about future of Blu-ray on the Mac. While Blu-ray has been a long requested feature for Macs, Apple has described Blu-ray licensing as bag of hurt and hasn't made any moves to incorporate the drives into their desktop Macs.

That seems unlikely to change in the near future if Steve Jobs' recent email replies are any guide. Siva emailed Jobs about being disappointed that the recently revised Mac mini didn't include a Blu-ray drive. To this, Steve Jobs replied:
Bluray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD - like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats.
Click to expand...
Siva responded that even though this may be true in the long run, he argued the medium term benefits were substantial, including high density backups and high quality video. He also argued that high-end video formats have had a much higher uptake and points out the lack of DRM was in part what made MP3 take off. Jobs' final response, however, offered little hope:
No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue.

I think you may be wrong - we may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over.
Click to expand...

Article Link: Steve Jobs Suggests Blu-ray Not Coming to Mac Anytime Soon
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/30/steve-jobs-suggests-blu-ray-not-coming-to-mac-anytime-soon/
CalebF

CalebF

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2010
127
0
Boutvet Island
You're a stupid, stupid, petty, vindictive, greedy, bitter old man, Steve.

Blu-ray Goes Beyond Movie Distribution With New Format

The new format doubles the storage capacity of existing Blu-ray discs, which offer up to 50GB of storage. With BDXL specifications, discs will be offered in rewritable format with up to 100GB of storage, and as write-once discs with 128GB of storage.
Click to expand...

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...eyond_movie_distribution_with_new_format.html

But I guess you'll just create your OWN proprietary format and extort users into accepting it (a la an 'iTunes 2').
 
JediZenMaster

JediZenMaster

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Mar 28, 2010
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The future is pretty much going to be mobile devices and tablets so this makes sense. People like to have their entertainment with them at all times not some useless optical disc.

If you want Blu-Ray don't buy a mac.
 
LxTxNx

LxTxNx

macrumors 6502
Apr 27, 2007
322
2
I wanted blu-ray on my mac 2 years ago. It's past due!! It's actually delinquent!
 
M

menomano

macrumors member
Feb 23, 2009
76
0
usa
greedy bastard

edit: when apple pays for my unlimited no cap broadband then I can download all the lower quality movies I want until then give us Blu!
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

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Oct 29, 2007
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While Steve has valid points, I think he exaggerates and underestimates respectively for the popularity of downloadable/streaming for high quality video and the footprint of blu ray. Big name movies like Avatar and The Dark Knight sold MILLIONS of copies within a week of release on blu ray. By comparison, SACD and DVD-A aren't even known as a format by most consumers. It's a law of diminishing returns. Only audiophiles can/will distinguish between 256kbps CDs and the higher quality formats. That is not the case for Blu Ray.

Meanwhile, itunes still only has 720p whereas the HD standard is 1080p. Even microsoft and sony have got around to delivering 1080p to their consoles. Storage is not to the level where people can comfortably store 1080p collections locally. This will likely continue to be the case, as maximum storage capacities increase, so will the media movies are stored on so as to make it impractical to store collections of 10 to 100s of movies on a disk or SSD, as it may be.
 
H

haiggy

macrumors 65816
Aug 20, 2003
1,328
76
Ontario, Canada
I've never seen a blu-ray disc in person and would never use one personally... I'm getting by just fine without it (I realize some others won't feel the same way).

That said, I think the only reason they don't adopt blu-ray drives is because it would cut into their iTunes sales lol Steve is a pretty smart cookie though... we'll see...
 
I

ilp

macrumors member
Sep 13, 2007
82
0
I love it. Steve just doesn't care anymore and he says what he really thinks. You can argue whether he's right, but you have to respect the lack of beating around the bush.
 
furi0usbee

furi0usbee

macrumors 68000
Jul 11, 2008
1,790
1,382
100% Agree

Physical media is on the way out. Sure, right now you can't get the highest quality video from streamed sources, but I think within the next 5 years with faster access and better streaming technology, we'll be there. I don't even buy physical media anymore. iPad for books/audiobooks, magazines, Netflix, Hulu, iTunes. For me, I have zero need for Blu-Ray. On top of that, unless you have a large screen to playback the content, it's really pointless on a laptop.

Forget Blu-Ray Steve, and put your efforts into better technologies.
 
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T

The Mad Mule

macrumors regular
Jun 27, 2010
117
104
Apple is Jobs' world. His world, his rules, even if that means not listening to the people who choose to reside on it.
 
audioruckus

audioruckus

macrumors member
Dec 28, 2007
39
2
If the size of my CD collection I'm trying to import into iTunes is any indication, I'm in no hurry to start buying Blu-Ray discs anytime soon.

I'll agree with the idea of using it for expanded storage, but with how fast the "cloud" is expanding with storage, I'm starting to think physical media is pretty much obsolete.
 
E

ELScorcho9

macrumors member
Sep 25, 2009
81
0
Not too surprising. He's never hinted at adding it. Doesn't bother me though. I've never owned a Blu-ray player. I just download movies. I'm ok with having less discs laying around.

But I know I'm in the minority . . .
 
W

wschutz

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2007
295
106
chrmjenkins said:
While Steve has valid points, I think he exaggerates and underestimates respectively for the popularity of downloadable/streaming for high quality video and the footprint of blu ray. Big name movies like Avatar and The Dark Knight sold MILLIONS of copies within a week of release on blu ray. By comparison, SACD and DVD-A aren't even known as a format by most consumers. It's a law of diminishing returns. Only audiophiles can/will distinguish between 256kbps CDs and the higher quality formats.

Meanwhile, itunes still only has 720p whereas the HD standard is 1080p. Even microsoft and sony have got around to delivering 1080p to their consoles. Storage is not to the level where people can comfortably store 1080p collections locally.
Click to expand...

But he wouldn't get any cent for each single copy :) That's why he doesn't want to see any BR near "his" machines (that he is turning into a platform for iTunes and all others making-Apple-profit platforms...)
 
usasalazar

usasalazar

macrumors regular
Sep 26, 2006
137
3
Nothing wrong with blu-ray...

There is nothing wrong with Blu-ray Steve, you're just holding it wrong. :D
 
CalebF

CalebF

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2010
127
0
Boutvet Island
JediZenMaster said:
The future is pretty much going to be mobile devices and tablets so this makes sense. People like to have their entertainment with them at all times not some useless optical disc.

If you want Blu-Ray don't buy a mac.
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah. Perfect.

"Hey, Jim-Bob. Here's my iPad. It has [blank] movie on it. You can borrow it. Just give it back to me when you're done."

Just let me output my iPad to my HDTV via HDMI output-- wait a minute!!! :eek: :p

And isn't Steve a wonderful man extorting you like that by pigeon-holing you into one OR the other.
 
H

haiggy

macrumors 65816
Aug 20, 2003
1,328
76
Ontario, Canada
chrmjenkins said:
While Steve has valid points, I think he exaggerates and underestimates respectively for the popularity of downloadable/streaming for high quality video and the footprint of blu ray. Big name movies like Avatar and The Dark Knight sold MILLIONS of copies within a week of release on blu ray. By comparison, SACD and DVD-A aren't even known as a format by most consumers. It's a law of diminishing returns. Only audiophiles can/will distinguish between 256kbps CDs and the higher quality formats. That is not the case for Blu Ray.

Meanwhile, itunes still only has 720p whereas the HD standard is 1080p. Even microsoft and sony have got around to delivering 1080p to their consoles. Storage is not to the level where people can comfortably store 1080p collections locally. This will likely continue to be the case, as maximum storage capacities increase, so will the media movies are stored on so as to make it impractical to store collections of 10 to 100s of movies on a disk or SSD, as it may be.
Click to expand...

To add to this... the bandwidth to download these movies. Here in Canada my internet provider (Rogers) is a joke! I pay $50 a month and have a 60 GB monthly bandwidth cap. If I go over it is $2.50/GB. Downloading 1080p movies would eat into that VERY quickly.
 
I

iPhoneFour

macrumors member
Jun 22, 2010
40
0
true but

chrmjenkins said:
Meanwhile, itunes still only has 720p whereas the HD standard is 1080p. Even microsoft and sony have got around to delivering 1080p to their consoles. Storage is not to the level where people can comfortably store 1080p collections locally.
Click to expand...

Those digital copy versions packaged with the premium Blu Rays aren't even 720p. I don't want to even think of the time it'd take to put BR into my media servers which are the only way I consume media now (one chair and one device is so last-decade).

I'll take mobile 720p over location-hostage 1080p any day. (that and my screens aren't big enough to show me any difference between the 2 anyway)
 
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