So, I know we all think there will be a new iPhone at WWDC. And there's been a lot of talk about introducing 10.6. But my question is - Where's the Blu-Ray?! Look, I know a lot of people think that BR is stupid or unnecessary, but as someone who works in the film industry, I'm dying for it to be on my Mac... So the question is, do you think WWDC will see the introduction of BR Macs? Poll below...
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A Poll about WWDC and Blu-Ray
- Thread starter reusman
- Start date
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blu-ray support for Macs will be released when all of Apple's nesecssary hardware becomes HDCP compliant. theres already a few like the 8800GT in the Mac Pro and the 8800GS in the 3.06 GHz but i dont think it will be released at WWDC08.
I don't understand all the fuss about blue-ray. I find that DVDs are plenty clear and crisp and heck, when I rip them I don't even rip the full resolution I always down it a little to save space. Oh and HDCP can suck it. Don't get caught up in the hype. If you want bluray now for storage go get a bluray drive and toast 9.
I can see Blu-ray being implemented for professional editors that would like to use the media format in a BTO option, but at the moment I doubt it will be implemented in the standard configuration due to costs.
Playing back protected content requires HDCP which in the current form has proved to be very controversial and largely ineffective at protecting content. I think that implementing this as a BTO option in the Mac Pro might be an option, but it looks like Apple is pushing for less optical media with newer machines. This actually makes sense when considering the costs associated with it today. Blu-ray disks store roughly 25GB at the moment and cost roughly $15 - $25 per disk while hard disk based storage costs considerably less per gigabyte for far more space that is arguably better than the Blu-ray disk.
Due to the associated costs, I believe Blu-ray will be a strictly BTO option if it is offered any time soon.
Playing back protected content requires HDCP which in the current form has proved to be very controversial and largely ineffective at protecting content. I think that implementing this as a BTO option in the Mac Pro might be an option, but it looks like Apple is pushing for less optical media with newer machines. This actually makes sense when considering the costs associated with it today. Blu-ray disks store roughly 25GB at the moment and cost roughly $15 - $25 per disk while hard disk based storage costs considerably less per gigabyte for far more space that is arguably better than the Blu-ray disk.
Due to the associated costs, I believe Blu-ray will be a strictly BTO option if it is offered any time soon.
Hi,
It looks like they'll be focused on other things, such as new iPhone, maybe this new multitouch device (would be nice) and the brand new .Mac service (push technology would also be nice), as well as film rental etc. in new countries. BR will certainly come, but I doubt that's a major issue for Apple at this moment.
sash
It looks like they'll be focused on other things, such as new iPhone, maybe this new multitouch device (would be nice) and the brand new .Mac service (push technology would also be nice), as well as film rental etc. in new countries. BR will certainly come, but I doubt that's a major issue for Apple at this moment.
sash
Agreed.
Since I started using the AppleTV, I don't see the value in physical media anymore. Blu-ray will be the last of the disc media. Apple knows it and is already planning ahead (iTunes). As soon as bandwidth for the average users is up to par, it'll be all High-Def downloads. I can't wait.
The bi-product of this revolution will be that packaged DVD sales will start to die off. No more packaging = less cost, less trash and less waist.
It's a Brave New World.
Bluray take-up is Extremely slow, even if you factor in PS3 most people dont even know what it is, Its not like VHS - DVD, people just are not begging for a new format, and online downloads are just getting going, most people will just end up by-passing BR, I know a 1080p disk is higher quality than a 720p download, but as we learnt with mp3's people will sacrifice quality for convenience, also look at the amount of people willing to watch rubbish avi downloads!
The problem is getting the infrastructure in place to bring that bandwidth to the home at a reasonable cost. The cable and telco companies are loathe to spend the billions it will cost to do it and their customers are loathe to pay the large fee increases to cover it. So right now we're looking at making it harder to download digital content. Comcast is looking to cap bandwidth at a certain limit and Time-Warner will be charging $1 a gigabyte over a certain limit, so your 20GB HD download will cost as much as the Blu-Ray disc.
Yeah, only that "as soon as" will be about a decade after majority will have fast enough internet connections.
It will need pretty robust system when eg. 3 screens in home want to look different content at same time (3 BD streams is up to 120 Mbit/s).
iTunes didn't kill cd with music, so neither will it do it for video.
Dvd sales will convert to BD sales within 2 years as both media's and player's prices get close to dvd.
Once again maybe after a decade people will get used to not having physical product, but right now they like to have their movie archive in a bookshelf.
Maybe when we will have cheap oled wallpapers people start to convert their libraries to virtual bookshelves...
Right now apple has left video indies in trouble as there's no way to distribute hd content in small scale without BD authoring.
We still need standards that work with every stand-alone player and computer. Sadly qt isn't one of those.
Bandwidth is always the problem and the ISPs are trying to STOP people from downloading rather than expand the system capacity to match consumer demand. As noted above, Time-Warner will be charging $1 a gigabyte over a certain limit, Comcast will be throttling the connection of those who download over a certain limit a month, Qwest will suspend, terminate, or limit service if you use "excessive" bandwidth and AT&T is going to test bandwidth caps this fall. Verizon is currently the only one not already capping or planning to cap download limits.
Downloading 4GB 720p movies and 25GB 1080p movies doesn't leave much room to work with. When 2160p starts to show up in the near future we'll be seeing 100GB in a single movie!
I don't see why people think it will never happen. Mac's are the primary choice for people in the film industry, and the film industry is moving across to Blu-Ray. Therefore, it makes complete sense for Apple to introduce it (although WWDC '08 seems a highly unlikely time to do it).
While I agree digital media is moving forward (and in possibly ahead of Blu-Ray), there are still people that would prefer to have physical media.
Blu-Ray won the battle between itself and HD DVD and I think that was a crucial milestone, and not many companies were likely to take on either while the road ahead was uncertain. However, even Dell have introduced Blu-Ray drives as a BTO option in their XPS laptops, so I think it's only common sense for Apple to follow.
While I agree digital media is moving forward (and in possibly ahead of Blu-Ray), there are still people that would prefer to have physical media.
Blu-Ray won the battle between itself and HD DVD and I think that was a crucial milestone, and not many companies were likely to take on either while the road ahead was uncertain. However, even Dell have introduced Blu-Ray drives as a BTO option in their XPS laptops, so I think it's only common sense for Apple to follow.
If that were true then Apple would have done it months ago with the last MacPro revision.
I disagree. For a start, when the Mac Pro's were updated in January, there was still a battle between Blu-Ray and HD DVD. This battle didn't conclude until February when Toshiba pulled the plug on HD DVD. Upto this point, new films were being released in both formats (at least they were in the UK), and therefore, it would have been a huge gamble for any manufacture to take on one particular format.
However, now the battle is over and Blu-Ray is the one left standing, there is no gamble involved. Therefore, it's quite possible to include Blu-Ray as a BTO option in the next Mac Pro revision.
Fair enough, but all I'm saying is that prior to February, the only company that offered a High Def option was Toshiba who had HD DVD Drives in laptops. Since February, a number of computer manufacturers have started to offer Blu-Ray options.
In terms of introducing new optical drives and other cutting edge technologies such as high end video cards, Dell has always been a long way ahead of Apple. So we still won't really be able to gauge how long it'll be before Apple get Blu Ray out there. Heck, some of Apple's computers still don't come with DVD burners.
Since 1998, every film that has received the award for Best Picture (and Best Effects or something else; I forget) has used Final Cut Studio or its predecessor.
Rubbish.
Every film might have done one scene on Final Cut or done the end titles in Livetype or Motion/After Effects or Composited GCI elements with Shake on a Linux system. That is not the same as 'using macs'.
Hollywood editors use turnkey systems where the hardware and specialised software written with the hardware in mind are put together.
Every film might have done one scene on Final Cut or done the end titles in Livetype or Motion/After Effects or Composited GCI elements with Shake on a Linux system. That is not the same as 'using macs'.
Hollywood editors use turnkey systems where the hardware and specialised software written with the hardware in mind are put together.