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Apple MIA; Dell offers sub-$1,000 Blu-ray laptop

liberty4all

liberty4all

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Jan 7, 2007
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Apple's Blu-Ray options are MIA!


http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9905416-7.html?tag=nefd.top

Dell offers sub-$1,000 Blu-ray laptop
Posted by Jonathan Skillings | 2 comments
The end of the next-generation DVD format battle may not mean a long victory lap for inflated Blu-ray prices after all.


The Inspiron 1525 line is a colorful crew.
(Credit: Dell)
Dell, which has more than a little clout in the PC market, on Friday announced that consumers can now spend less than $1,000 to get a Blu-ray-equipped laptop. More specifically, the Round Rock, Texas, company said that it's offering a Blu-ray disc playback option with its Inspiron 1525 laptops starting at $879.

There's also an option for a Blu-ray burner drive, but Dell doesn't seem to be ready to disclose that price just yet.

The Inspiron 1525 made its debut at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. The laptop features a 15-inch screen and an HDMI port for connecting to high-resolution displays and HDTVs. (Check out CNET's review of the Inspiron 1525.)

Things are heating up in the Blu-ray laptop sector. Last week, Asus unveiled its M50 laptop, which has an integrated Blu-ray player, though it did not offer pricing details at the time.

But even at a relatively low price, is Blu-ray a bargain on a laptop? Maybe not. The HD drive technology seems to put a serious hurt on battery life.
 
1. What will battery life be like?
2. What's the point of 1080p on a 1,280 x 800 laptop screen?
3. 1GB of ram? Seriously?
4. Can the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo T5550 processor and GMA X3100 even handle BRD?

I think BRD is a transition media that won't last. The future is flash based devices. Spinning discs are too inefficient and have a throughput limitations.

I really just don't see a need to have BRD in my MBP. If I want HD, I'll download off the web. I'd rather have the industry focus on improving flash technology and lower the prices. Imagine being able to purchase 500GB flash drives the size of those little USB key drives for cheap someday.

Movies can be purchased on ready-only flash drives that you'll be able to plug in anywhere and watch.
 
Dell offers a lot of good deals other than that though. Right now you can configure an xps m1530 for roughly $2000 that has a 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, a 320GB HDD and 256MB NVIDIA 8600M GT. Add $200 more and you can get the 2.6 Ghz proc, but since the Dell is a PC you could technically just overclock the 2.5 to a 2.6. I have to say, I'm quite torn. I'd love to get an MBP, and it's what I was planning to get, but with dell prices so low, it makes me wonder if it's really worth the extra $500.
 
Shabbis said:
1. What will battery life be like?
2. What's the point of 1080p on a 1,280 x 800 laptop screen?
3. 1GB of ram? Seriously?
4. Can the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo T5550 processor and GMA X3100 even handle BRD?

I think BRD is a transition media that won't last. The future is flash based devices. Spinning discs are too inefficient and have a throughput limitations.

I really just don't see a need to have BRD in my MBP. If I want HD, I'll download off the web. I'd rather have the industry focus on improving flash technology and lower the prices. Imagine being able to purchase 500GB flash drives the size of those little USB key drives for cheap someday.

Movies can be purchased on ready-only flash drives that you'll be able to plug in anywhere and watch.
Click to expand...

I think people want Blu-Ray burners for storage. As far as players, your point is a good one, in that a laptop screen is far from 1080p, and while they are over 720p, its just not big enough to make a fidelity difference. That said, people may still want it (1) because they don't want to have to buy a movie on DVD that they already own on BD just so they can watch it on the plane and (2) because this Inspiron has an HDMI port, it can presumably be hooked up to a real HDTV.

As far as BluRay being transitional, I disagree. There are a lot of people, myself included, who have zero interest in downloading content. Downloadable stuff is good as a rental model, but is terribly in my mind as an ownership / collecting model. The amount of space it takes is ludicrous for one (an MBP could hold what, 3-4 blu-ray movies before the hard drive is filled?), and if you compress you lose substantial quality. Further, you likely end up backing it all up to optical media anyway. Your point on flash media is a better one, but I think it'll be a long while before flash is cheap enough to sell 50gb movies on it for 20 bucks and make a profit.
 
+1 on blu ray!
i personally hate downloading movies..
i'd rather enjoy it in a full 1080p format using my PS3

and having a physical device that you can collect is something that i love.
having the album cover/ printed materials that came with the Blu Ray Disc.
 
i only see blu-ray as a backup alternative.

As far as movie watching, its pointless on a laptop with a screen that can't match.
 
jahutch said:
I think people want Blu-Ray burners for storage. As far as players, your point is a good one, in that a laptop screen is far from 1080p, and while they are over 720p, its just not big enough to make a fidelity difference. That said, people may still want it (1) because they don't want to have to buy a movie on DVD that they already own on BD just so they can watch it on the plane and (2) because this Inspiron has an HDMI port, it can presumably be hooked up to a real HDTV.

As far as BluRay being transitional, I disagree. There are a lot of people, myself included, who have zero interest in downloading content. Downloadable stuff is good as a rental model, but is terribly in my mind as an ownership / collecting model. The amount of space it takes is ludicrous for one (an MBP could hold what, 3-4 blu-ray movies before the hard drive is filled?), and if you compress you lose substantial quality. Further, you likely end up backing it all up to optical media anyway. Your point on flash media is a better one, but I think it'll be a long while before flash is cheap enough to sell 50gb movies on it for 20 bucks and make a profit.
Click to expand...

i think cd/dvd technology as a whole is a dying medium. prices on flash are coming down, and the industry is moving towards downloading, even if some folks don't prefer it. why buy packaging if you can download your program (such as adobe elements) and back it up on a cheap flash drive? or just sell it on a flash drive to begin with. it's just such a better way to do things than spinning media is.
 
f1sh3r said:
i think cd/dvd technology as a whole is a dying medium. prices on flash are coming down, and the industry is moving towards downloading, even if some folks don't prefer it. why buy packaging if you can download your program (such as adobe elements) and back it up on a cheap flash drive? or just sell it on a flash drive to begin with. it's just such a better way to do things than spinning media is.
Click to expand...

I totally agree !

CD's are on there way out.... there like the 3.5 floppy but people are afraid to admit it
 
What is DVD currently? 480 horizontal lines of resolution (NTSC)? They're still being upscaled to match computer displays. I'd much prefer to have high res content "downscaled" than I would low res stuff upscaled. Not saying necessarily that DVD looks bad, per se, but HD content looks better even on smaller displays, down to a point.

I am looking forward to BD in the MBP. Hopefully there won't be any weird hw limitations of retrofitting a BD drive in these current machines.
 
17 in. MacBook Pros are available with 1080p displays!


jahutch said:
I think people want Blu-Ray burners for storage. As far as players, your point is a good one, in that a laptop screen is far from 1080p, and while they are over 720p, its just not big enough to make a fidelity difference. Tha
Click to expand...
 
JWest said:
Add $200 more and you can get the 2.6 Ghz proc, but since the Dell is a PC you could technically just overclock the 2.5 to a 2.6. I have to say, I'm quite torn. I'd love to get an MBP, and it's what I was planning to get, but with dell prices so low, it makes me wonder if it's really worth the extra $500.
Click to expand...

Just because the Dell is a PC doesn't mean you can overclock it. Dell locks the BIOS so you can't overclock the CPU through the BIOS. The only option is through Windows, which is NOT the recommended way, since it's usually a lot more likely to crash and it will limit your potential. Also, overclock the CPU on a laptop is never a good idea.
 
glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't care about blu-ray. I don't have a single device with a HD screen (not my laptop, or my external, or my TV), and what's more, I just don't see the need. My DVDs look wonderful (IMO, anyway, and that's all I care about).

I'll go blu-ray when it becomes standard, and I guess I'll be happy enough to have the HD quality. But it's not something I'm waiting for.
 
Swearing off optical media seems silly at this point.

Newsflash: Music CDs are still sold in stores.

Blu-ray has only recently come onto the market and has a long road to go before everyone is using it. I can't imagine normal consumers accepting downloading content as the way to get entertainment for years at least.

Being able to back up 50gb of data on a disc is superior to mechanical hard drives I would imagine. Flash drives? Flash media is the future perhaps, Blu-ray is the present.
 
and to think apple is still using the combo drive...and charging more for the machine!
 
I'm just eager to see the macbook air with a 45nm montevina chipset. Maybe shrunk version? And if they add a firewire 800 preferably or even 400 I'd definitely snag one!
 
Yeah the Dell one has a tray Bluray. I like the slot loading and I don't mind waiting either for that kind of stuff to get cheaper.
 
Shabbis said:
2. What's the point of 1080p on a 1,280 x 800 laptop screen?
3. 1GB of ram? Seriously?
4. Can the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo T5550 processor and GMA X3100 even handle BRD?
Click to expand...

What's the point of 720 x 576 video on a 1280 x 800 screen. That 1280 x 800 screen can play back 720p beautifully. Count me in.

1Gb - yes - ram should have little, if any effect on the perfor

Yes, X3100 can play back full screen 1080p. I've seen it done.

And will people still writing off HD optical. It's here, for some time to come. Ignoring the fact that I'm a content creator who wants to MAKE HD optical media there is also:

Downloading HD? Forget it. Not with the state of broadband in the UK
Flash based? Forget it - a 50 gig Flash based product? No thanks.
I want a disk. A disk I can put in a blu ray player to watch on my tv. then in my laptop to watch on there. Then take to a friends house and watch there.
Backing up 50 gig independent of magnetic media - YES PLEASE. I desperately want that.

I have my 2.2Ghz MBP and love it. I'd be looking to replace it in about 12-18 months with another 15" platform. If Apple are still charging £1600 for mid-line MBP's and do not have a blu-ray burner as a STANDARD feature ( not BTO ) - then I'm afraid I will seriously consider switching back to a PC. There's a point at which the premium-price bargin-spec is stretched beyond being justifiable as an OSX tax.

Doug
 
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