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Apple in Talks with Sony about Blu-ray Drives

TonnyTech said:
A lot of people are missing a point. Apple is going to include blu-ray burners in their computers because the competition is doing it already. Dell, HP, Acer and of course Sony are all offering this as an option. It is the missing link in the HD chain. People are buying HD TVs, HD camcorders and many are capable of editing in HD. What do you do if you want to distribute your home made video to relatives and friends?. What about those Event and Wedding Videographers whose clients are willing to pay a premium in order to be able to enjoy their video memories in HD?. My guess is that Apple is going to offer BR as a built to order option in the Mac Pro and Macbook Pro at least, and they are going to do it once DVD Studio Pro and iDVD become blu-ray compatible. That way people who need it now can have it and those who don't care or think is to expensive wont be forced.
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The sad part is that iDVD and DVD Studio Pro weren't updated the last time around because Apple thinks that most content is going to go online. I hope Apple updates both apps this coming cycle though.... it would be nice to be able to author a BR disc if the need ever rises.

kornyboy said:
I was wondering when Apple was going to get the ball rolling on getting Blu-ray into computers since HD DVD has surrendered. Maybe we will see drives in desktops come WWDC. Here's to hoping.
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HD-DVD didn't really surrender, there really wasn't much of a war. The companies that used BR were the major movers and shakers of the tech industry. It was bound to be BR over HD-DVD. And if there is a war, it won't be over until BR is widely adopted by consumers, and it's used over all other forms of distribution.

ZiggyPastorius said:
Agh, are you kidding me...

Could anyone please tell me how many Sony components are in the Macbook, if any, because I hate Sony with a passion...
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Just the battery from what I know.
 
TheSpaz said:
Some facts about Blueray:

It's easier to say
It's easier to type
A bigger selection to choose from
Sounds better
Looks cooler
Holds more data
Doesn't say DVD in the name

HD-DVD sucks... I'm for Blueray
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Ok, I'll bite...

You mean Blu-ray right? :)
 
danielpi said:
Disagree. Are you suggesting that you would save a library of HD films on your hard drive? How about when 2k or 4k become the standard? Given the rate at which hard drive technology is improving, and the rate at which network connections improve -- these will be dwarfed by the increasing memory demands of films, and there will remain a need for some form of hard storage (not necessarily optical drives, but the wifi world you imagine is not in the forseeable future, methinks).
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I don't think you read his post very clearly. He says optical drives are on their way out. He didn't say anything about a "wifi world."

I agree, by the way. Both flash and traditional hard drives are becoming more and more affordable. At the moment 100 GB of space costs about $45 in Blu-Ray disks and about $80 in an external USB hard drive. Are the disks cheaper? Yes, but the hard drive is more convineint and faster to use. (And compatible with nearly every computer instantly.) For many that's enough reason to justify the price difference.

And as flash media becomes cheaper it will become more and more popular.

Optical drives will still be popular for long-term storage, but eventually you'll have one stand-alone optical drive in your house for exactly that use and little else. The days of having an optical drive in EVERY computer you own won't last forever.

EDIT: What WILL keep them around is DVD collections. If Hollywood would ever wise up and let iTunes rip DVDs just like it does CDs you would see optical drives die MUCH quicker. As it is now I'm guessing 10-15 more years of "optical drives are standard in everything." If you could rip DVDs easily (with iTunes, not 3rd party software) I'd shorten that number to 5-7 years.
 
rockosmodurnlif said:
Personally, I don't think HD will make a big difference on my MacBook Pro's 15" screen so to me its inclusion is no big deal. So if it's only a reader, I must ask what's the point?

And would it be a SuperDuperDrive?
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Its not about that. Its about compatibility between the disk that you can play on your tv and disk you pop into your computer. I dont want 2 copies of every movie I buy depending on where in my house I want to watch it.
 
It will happen, but it will be an optional upgrade and the price will be ridiculous.
 
Small White Car said:
I don't think you read his post very clearly. He says optical drives are on their way out. He didn't say anything about a "wifi world."

I agree, by the way. Both flash and traditional hard drives are becoming more and more affordable. At the moment 100 GB of space costs about $45 in Blu-Ray disks and about $80 in an external USB hard drive. Are the disks cheaper? Yes, but the hard drive is more convineint and faster to use. (And compatible with nearly every computer instantly.) For many that's enough reason to justify the price difference.

And as flash media becomes cheaper it will become more and more popular.

Optical drives will still be popular for long-term storage, but eventually you'll have one stand-alone optical drive in your house for exactly that use and little else. The days of having an optical drive in EVERY computer you own won't last forever.
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**DING!**

We have a winner....

Not that BR isn't necessary, I just don't think it will be a pervasive. As as SWC has said, it's still a form of optical media that won't last forever. The floppy was discarded not too long ago and many kids that I work with have never seen one, let along the 5.25" version.

BR will catch on, improve, and become standard in most computers, but by that time I think people would have gotten used to just getting their meat and potatoes off of the internet, and only using optical media for a few larger files, and heavier content.
 
danielpi said:
Disagree. Are you suggesting that you would save a library of HD films on your hard drive? How about when 2k or 4k become the standard? Given the rate at which hard drive technology is improving, and the rate at which network connections improve -- these will be dwarfed by the increasing memory demands of films, and there will remain a need for some form of hard storage (not necessarily optical drives, but the wifi world you imagine is not in the forseeable future, methinks).
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Funny, this reminds me of a conversation I was having with a friend about 20 years ago, about music CDs, when the MP3 format came out... May I remind you that the hard drive in my computer was around 40 or 80MB at the time.

HDTV is having a hard time becoming a standard in homes (if we compare it to DVD, when it was introduced), so forget your 2k or 4k "standard" for at least a decade or so. People are just starting to buy 1080p TVs (or 1080i, seeing as 1080p is not even the norm for what I see on display at most stores), Blu-Ray just won the "war" and is too expensive, so forget about people replacing all that new equipment for something else anytime soon. You have to give it about 5 years for early adopters and about a decade for regular people before they even think about replacing something they just bought. These aren't computers.

Besides, we already have 1TB 3.5" drives in 2008, so I think we can safely assume that by the time that real "HD media centers" are needed (i.e. :apple:TV with an Apple-branded home server), we should have adequate storage capacities.

I also think that Apple's Time Capsule is a step in the direction of home servers, BTW. It's only missing the ability to run an iTunes server.
 
burning movies

Apple may have a screwed up policy (it's a screwball policy because not everyone is going download movies and they aren't really in competition with each other) in not putting blu-ray on macs because of itunes, but Apple users need blu-ray on macs to burn blu-ray video.

DVD Studio Pro and iDVD need to be updated to allow for the burning of blu-ray content. Furthermore, blu-ray drives need to be on macs so users can burn that content.
 
Star Wars and Lord of the Rings

My own theory is that once Star Wars and LOTR comes out on blu-ray, then blu-ray sales will go through the roof and prices will come down, and every computer, including Macs, will have blu-ray on them.
 
Personally I think that optical drives will go away eventually....except for maybe renting movies. The reason for this is that optical technology isn't improving as rapidly as the harddrive and flashdrive technologies. I mean they already have 16GB flash out now and they seem to be doubling the capacity every year. It's just a matter of time when you can have blu-ray capacity in the size of a postage stamp(like SD flash) and it costs $10. It took a long time to go from DVD to Blu-Ray. If the next step in optical takes this long, optical will be obsolete. Also think about how external harddrives drives are also about 1/2 TB for around $100!!! Imagine next year you'll be getting Terabyte drives for $100! Who needs Blu-Ray for data storage :)

I do think Flash and other technologies will take over blu-ray. All you need with flash is a card reader and you are set...no fancy expensive drives. Very cheap, simple, and very durable(shock proof, no skipping, less errors), very very small, always rewriteable. With the increase in network bandwidths, the movie rental market will go more and more towards online rentals like Apple TVs. The physical media needs will be covered by flash or other technologies. Blu-Ray will eventually be obsolete.

Kan-O-Z
 
jonahfish7 said:
Apple may have a screwed up policy (it's a screwball policy because not everyone is going download movies and they aren't really in competition with each other) in not putting blu-ray on macs because of itunes, but Apple users need blu-ray on macs to burn blu-ray video.

DVD Studio Pro and iDVD need to be updated to allow for the burning of blu-ray content. Furthermore, blu-ray drives need to be on macs so users can burn that content.
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I think Apple is trying to do with movies what they did with music. I don't use CD players anymore at all and the other day I bought a new CD (the actual disc) and I wanted to listen to it in my car and I forgot how much is sucked to fumble around with a disc while I pull it out of the case, open the CD player, eject a CD that is already in it, push the new CD in, and close the CD player... I am so glad I have an iPod... it has completely changed the way I listen to music. By the way, the minute I got home, that CD went in my drive and got ripped as 192kbps AAC and tossed onto my iPod so that I no longer have to fumble with discs. I think that's what the whole point of buying and renting movies online is... to try and eliminate the need for discs.
 
jonahfish7 said:
My own theory is that once Star Wars and LOTR comes out on blu-ray, then blu-ray sales will go through the roof and prices will come down, and every computer, including Macs, will have blu-ray on them.
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Prices go up when sales increase.... if demand increases then so does the price.

If BR is expensive now, and if everyone were jumping on the BR ship then the prices would stay the same. Since no one is buying it (mainly because it's too expensive for the entire HD setup) the manufacturers are trying to find away to lower the prices.
 
Prices go down as more companies compete in the blu-ray market, which will happen once demand increases.
 
Digital Skunk said:
Prices go up when sales increase.... if demand increases then so does the price.
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There are 2 forces fighting each other here. One is supply/demand that you've listed.

The other is that technology gets cheaper to produce in larger numbers. So with computers those 2 forces are the opposite of each other and basically "fight" each other. Often the second factor is big enough to outweigh the first.
 
Plutonius said:
Bleh...

I can spend $15.99 for a new release DVD or $29.99 + for a new release Blu-ray disk.

I will not be getting a Blu-ray player until I'm forced to.
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And this is the point. Arguing about the specs of Blu-ray is irrelevant. Anyone can go on Wikipedia and copy the specs and put them in a post but Blu-ray will not replace DVD until it can reach DVD's current price point. And I understand that price will decrease with demand, but there are millions of consumers that feel this way.

(I understand that talking about price is a little off topic since this forum in about Apple's inclusion of Blu-ray but it is still relevant)
 
I am not pro the idea of paying for a Blue-Ray drive in every single Laptop and desktop. I rather have a portable Burning Blue-Ray drive (Firewire, NAS) that I can move / mount on a system as needed.

I do not know about you, but I do not spend every waking hour burning DVD(s) and Blue Ray Disks. It is rare when I can use something like that and see no point in having one in every machine.
 
asdavis10 said:
And this is the point. Arguing about the specs of Blu-ray is irrelevant. Anyone can go on Wikipedia and copy the specs and put them in a post but Blu-ray will not replace DVD until it can reach DVD's current price point. And I understand that price will decrease with demand, but there are millions of consumers that feel this way.

(I understand that talking about price is a little off topic since this forum in about Apple's inclusion of Blu-ray but it is still relevant)
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Actually it is on topic since many of us do not want the extra expense of a Blu-ray player in our Macs.
 
jonahfish7 said:
Prices go down as more companies compete in the blu-ray market, which will happen once demand increases.
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Yes... but now you've added another factor into play :D That would be competition.

And yes SWC there is a dichotomy with the tech market. Very little change except easier production methods. That also adds to the lowering cost of devices and such.

TheSpaz said:
I think Apple is trying to do with movies what they did with music. I don't use CD players anymore at all and the other day I bought a new CD (the actual disc) and I wanted to listen to it in my car and I forgot how much is sucked to fumble around with a disc while I pull it out of the case, open the CD player, eject a CD that is already in it, push the new CD in, and close the CD player... I am so glad I have an iPod... it has completely changed the way I listen to music. By the way, the minute I got home, that CD went in my drive and got ripped as 192kbps AAC and tossed onto my iPod so that I no longer have to fumble with discs. I think that's what the whole point of buying and renting movies online is... to try and eliminate the need for discs.
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Another user gets it! :D

I agree totally on the CD aspect. I would buy the CD of a band that I really like but once I get home it's going on the computer and to the iPod as well. The sound quality from CDs is unmatched also, but I am learning how to get the most out of my compressed digital audio too.

Now that I can get 160GB iPods and 32GB iPod Touch players I am not going to compress my music as much. Now that I have an N router and N cards in my machines and I can rent HD movies BR doesn't seem as ideal.
 
Kan-O-Z said:
Personally I think that optical drives will go away eventually....except for maybe renting movies. The reason for this is that optical technology isn't improving as rapidly as the harddrive and flashdrive technologies. I mean they already have 16GB flash out now and they seem to be doubling the capacity every year. It's just a matter of time when you can have blu-ray capacity in the size of a postage stamp(like SD flash) and it costs $10. It took a long time to go from DVD to Blu-Ray. If the next step in optical takes this long, optical will be obsolete. Also think about how external harddrives drives are also about 1/2 TB for around $100!!! Imagine next year you'll be getting Terabyte drives for $100! Who needs Blu-Ray for data storage :)
... With the increase in network bandwidths, the movie rental market will go more and more towards online rentals like Apple TVs. The physical media needs will be covered by flash or other technologies. Blu-Ray will eventually be obsolete.

Kan-O-Z
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I couldn't agree more!
 
ZiggyPastorius said:
Agh, are you kidding me... I hate Sony with a passion...
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Me too. I am automatically against anything Sony has a hand in. Their business practices are to a$$ rape the consumer as quickly and as often as possible. Maybe one day I will come around to BluRay but I was kinda hoping HD-DVD would win out. I don't have a dog in the fight because I am 100% happy with plain 'ol cheap DVDs.

As far as the storage goes, I would rather use HDDs and my Amazon S3 account than have a huge stack of discs. Just my $0.02.
 
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