Blu-ray for Mac Pro (view movies only under Bootcamp)

[DeepCobalt]

Blu-ray is here... sort of... Finally a noticeably faster (8x) and much more affordable solution (Under $400).

Everything works on the Mac Pro, except playback... you'll need to go to Bootcamp and Windoze XP or Vista for commercial movie playback.

http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/

 

[cmaier]

Blu-ray is here... sort of...

Everything works on the Mac Pro, except playback... you'll need to go to Bootcamp and Windoze XP or Vista for commercial movie playback.

http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/

How is this new? You could do this for a long time with other blu ray drives.

 

[Xer0dIn]

Blu-ray is here... sort of... Finally a noticeably faster (8x) and much more affordable solution (Under $400).

Everything works on the Mac Pro, except playback... you'll need to go to Bootcamp and Windoze XP or Vista for commercial movie playback.

http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/

That's a good option. I use this one on my 08 mac pro:
http://www.amazon.com/LG-BE06LU11-Super-Multi-Blue/dp/B001FSM8CY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1239392189&sr=8-3

OS X recognizes the blu-ray data discs, there is just nothing to play video back like you said. But in bootcamp in windows it works perfectly fine...if you have an HDCP compliant graphics card and display. If not it will lower the resolution and not give you true 1080p.

 

[Tesselator]

That's a good option. I use this one on my 08 mac pro:
http://www.amazon.com/LG-BE06LU11-Super-Multi-Blue/dp/B001FSM8CY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1239392189&sr=8-3

OS X recognizes the blu-ray data discs, there is just nothing to play video back like you said. But in bootcamp in windows it works perfectly fine...if you have an HDCP compliant graphics card and display. If not it will lower the resolution and not give you true 1080p.

I have dual 24" LCDs that I run at 1920x1200. 1080p is about 1.3 times bigger that the monitors can physically display. About 700x300 @ 24FPS looks superb when scaled to full screen. 1080p certainly looks no better than 960x530 @ 24FPS. 720p is kinda the same thing. At freeze frames you can tell the difference but during playback it looks identical to DVD quality on a computer monitor. And if you have a 2m plasma TV you have a dedicated blueray player anyway so there's need for blurray video playback on a computer that I can think of.

For data recording it's even more of a misfit. The media is so expensive that hard drives are about 1/2 price from BRDs. Harddrives also last about a trillion times longer and are a kazillion times safer - not to mention a bazillion times faster.

BlueRay? What the hell? I don't get it.

 

[UltraNEO*]

That's a good option. I use this one on my 08 mac pro:
http://www.amazon.com/LG-BE06LU11-S...M8CY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1239392189&sr=8-3

OS X recognizes the blu-ray data discs, there is just nothing to play video back like you said. But in bootcamp in windows it works perfectly fine...if you have an HDCP compliant graphics card and display. If not it will lower the resolution and not give you true 1080p.

Nothing to play Blu-Ray streams?
Umm.. Well dude, hate to break it to you.. but AVCHD camcorders record movies in the same or similar format to Blu-Ray, for a while videographer's have been editing content on their Macs without any issues (so long as your not using FCP). The only snag is the HDCP compliance required for most commercial Blu-Ray movies...

 

[UltraNEO*]

I have dual 24" LCDs that I run at 1920x1200. 1080p is about 1.3 times bigger that the monitors can physically display. About 700x300 @ 24FPS looks superb when scaled to full screen. 1080p certainly looks no better than 960x530 @ 24FPS. 720p is kinda the same thing. At freeze frames you can tell the difference but during playback it looks identical to DVD quality on a computer monitor. And if you have a 2m plasma TV you have a dedicated blueray player anyway so there's need for blurray video playback on a computer that I can think of.

For data recording it's even more of a misfit. The media is so expensive that hard drives are about 1/2 price from BRDs. Harddrives also last about a trillion times longer and are a kazillion times safer - not to mention a bazillion times faster.

BlueRay? What the hell? I don't get it.

Huh? Blu-ray disc ain't that expensive... I've seen 50Gb disc for sale in Japan for less than 3千円 and 25Gb for 千七百円. Where you go shopping? 7Eleven?

 

[Tesselator]

Huh? Blu-ray disc ain't that expensive... I've seen 50Gb disc for sale in Japan for less than 3千円 and 25Gb for 千七百円. Where you go shopping? 7Eleven?

Yes, that's exactly right! ¥3,000 for 50GB. Do the math. That's roughly $30 right now. A 1TB drive is $90 right now. You would have to pay $600.00 in BRDs to equal the same size. And even then you would be fumbling through 20 disks to get to anything - or 40 disks in the case of 25GB BRDs. LOL!! Just try labeling 50GB or 25GB worth of files. Hehe!


So, which do you want for your $90? 150GB of very very VERY slow and very very VERY flakey media or 1,000GB of fast secure and consolidated storage? With external interfaces it's just as portable - perhaps more-so because you bring the external interface with you but not really a BlueRay drive if yours is internal like we're talking about here.

And this isn't even looking at the 1.5TB and the soon to be cheap 2TB drives.

BlueRay? Huge huge marketing disaster to attempt to use these things on a computer for general non-specialized uses.


.

 

[Abidubi]

I have dual 24" LCDs that I run at 1920x1200. 1080p is about 1.3 times bigger that the monitors can physically display.

Where did you get that idea? 1080p is 1080 in height. Your display is 1200 in height. I watch 1080p stuff all the time and my resolution is 1920X1200.

1080p is the shorthand name for a category of HDTV video modes. The number "1080" represents 1,080 lines of vertical resolution (1080 vertical scan lines),[1] while the letter p stands for progressive scan (meaning the image is not interlaced). 1080p can be referred to as full HD or full high definition to differentiate it from other HDTV video modes.[2] The term usually assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a horizontal resolution of 1920 pixels. This creates a frame resolution of 1920×1080, or 2,073,600 pixels in total. The frame rate in hertz can be either implied by the context or specified after the letter p (or i), such as 1080p30, meaning 30 Hz.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Yes, that's exactly right! ¥3,000 for 50GB. Do the math. That's roughly $30 right now. A 1TB drive is $90 right now. You would have to pay $600.00 in BRDs to equal the same size. And even then you would be fumbling through 20 disks to get to anything. LOL!! Just try labeling 50GB worth of files. Hehe!


So, which do you want for your $90? 150GB of very very VERY slow and very very VERY flakey media or 1,000GB of fast secure and consolidated storage? With external interfaces it's just as portable - perhaps more-so because you bring the external interface with you but not really a BlueRay drive if yours is internal like we're talking about here.

And this isn't even looking at the 1.5TB and the soon to be cheap 2TB drives.

BlueRay? Huge huge marketing disaster to attempt to use these things on a computer for general non-specialized uses.

Gotta remember, those are consumer prices i've quoted. For commercial uses and bulk buy, those prices fall to around ７百円と千2百円／個（1000+）

I'd prefer Blu-Ray for storage, you might think it's "flaky" but some manufacturers offer disks specifically made for archiving, they have 100-200 year shelf live, after recording.

HD's maybe be extremely fast but prone to fail at anytime without notice, plus mailing them away isn't so economical if you take the weight into account, sure as it's cheap if you count the capacity.. but BR-RE are more flexible.

 

[Tesselator]

Where did you get that idea? 1080p is 1080 in height. Your display is 1200 in height. I watch 1080p stuff all the time and my resolution is 1920X1200.

I don't. I got the idea from actually doing it a few times. Keep in mind the player window takes up some space too. So when you open the movie it doesn't fit on the screen. Some of the GUI controls may be off screen as well. Then there's scrubbing a seeking. In a 1080p film you need a lot of patience for this.

 

[Abidubi]

Why can't you watch it full screen? Sorry but I have yet to instal winblows so I don't know what program you would be using to watch the blueray movies. I would have thought WMP 11 or VLC would work fine, and you can certainly put anything else in full screen.

 

[Tallest Skil]

I don't. I got the idea from actually doing it a few times. Keep in mind the player window takes up some space too. So when you open the movie it doesn't fit on the screen. Some of the GUI controls may be off screen as well. Then there's scrubbing a seeking. In a 1080p film you need a lot of patience for this.

Yeah, sure...

This is 1920x1080 on a 1920x1200 screen. I see no off-screen-ness.

 

[Tesselator]

Gotta remember, those are consumer prices i've quoted. For commercial uses and bulk buy, those prices fall to around ７百円と千2百円／個（1000+）

I'd prefer Blu-Ray for storage, you might think it's "flaky" but some manufacturers offer disks specifically made for archiving, they have 100-200 year shelf live, after recording.

HD's maybe be extremely fast but prone to fail at anytime without notice, plus mailing them away isn't so economical if you take the weight into account, sure as it's cheap if you count the capacity.. but BR-RE are more flexible.

Stop using Japanese. No one but us knows what you're saying. But even if you could get them for half of the bulk price you just mentioned that would still be twice as expensive as a HDD. And it would take you 40 hours to write 1TB worth of them IF you had the fastest Mac Pro. I can write 1TB to an HDD in under 3 hours - on the slowest 1TB available.

Nope. You'll never sell me on BlueRay and Steven Jobs has said essentially the same thing. So I'm in good company.

 

[cmaier]

I don't. I got the idea from actually doing it a few times. Keep in mind the player window takes up some space too. So when you open the movie it doesn't fit on the screen. Some of the GUI controls may be off screen as well. Then there's scrubbing a seeking. In a 1080p film you need a lot of patience for this.

1200x1.3=1560.

1560-1080=480.

480/1080*100=44.4%.

So you are saying the video player chrome is 44.4% of the height of the video.

yeah, right.

 

[Tesselator]

Yeah, sure...

This is 1920x1080 on a 1920x1200 screen. I see no off-screen-ness.

OK, that player fits! Kewl!

And actually i think you're right. Most of them fit and I was thinking of a webpage based trailer.

1200x1.3=1560.

1560-1080=480.

480/1080*100=44.4%.

So you are saying the video player chrome is 44.4% of the height of the video.

yeah, right.

No, that 1.3 was just a number I made up. It's in the same post I used the words Bazillion and Kazillion after all.

bazillion |bəˈzilyən|
cardinal number informal
a very large exaggerated number : you were going a bazillion miles per hour!
ORIGIN 1980s: probably a blend of billion and gazillion (also a large exaggerated number).

Indefinite and fictitious numbers
"Zillion" redirects here. For other uses, see Zillion (disambiguation).
The English language has a number of words for indefinite and fictitious numbers - inexact terms of indefinite size, used for comic effect, for exaggeration, as placeholder names, or when precision is unnecessary or undesirable.

.

 

[Tallest Skil]

OK, that player fits! Kewl!

Yeah, iTunes rules like that. QuickTime also can fit an entire window of full HD on 1920x1200. What were you using?

 

[cmaier]

Nope. You'll never sell me on BlueRay and Steven Jobs has said essentially the same thing. So I'm in good company.

How about Blu-Ray? ;-)

Blu-ray movies are awesome. I have a Sim2 1080p projector with a 92" retractable screen, and super-fanc surround speaker setup. Since I don't steal movies, my alternative to blu-ray would be to stream from a legal source. The 1080p choices are slim. Not nearly the selection of blu-ray, and still lots of hassles with network lag (I have lame at&t dsl), and other hassles.

But I sure don't care about blu-ray on my pc's/macs. I don't watch movies on those, and dvd works fine for my transportable storage needs.

 

[aponsin]

I have dual 24" LCDs that I run at 1920x1200. 1080p is about 1.3 times bigger that the monitors can physically display. About 700x300 @ 24FPS looks superb when scaled to full screen. 1080p certainly looks no better than 960x530 @ 24FPS. 720p is kinda the same thing. At freeze frames you can tell the difference but during playback it looks identical to DVD quality on a computer monitor. And if you have a 2m plasma TV you have a dedicated blueray player anyway so there's need for blurray video playback on a computer that I can think of.

For data recording it's even more of a misfit. The media is so expensive that hard drives are about 1/2 price from BRDs. Harddrives also last about a trillion times longer and are a kazillion times safer - not to mention a bazillion times faster.

BlueRay? What the hell? I don't get it.

I really don't understand why some of you guys are complaining about people (like me) that want to be able to do bluray playback on their mac...

I understand that you may feel that you don't want/need it, but why does it bother you if that becomes an available option ?? You can play DVD on your mac... maybe you don't but it's possible? That's all we are asking to be able to do with blurays... You don't like hollywood movies... then don't watch them, nobody is forcing you But I'd like the option of being able to do so...

Anyway... I am praying for a change of heart from apple for snow leopard of something... I guess I am dreaming.. but still I hoping...

Alex

 

[cmaier]

I really don't understand why some of you guys are complaining about people (like me) that want to be able to do bluray playback on their mac...

I understand that you may feel that you don't want/need it, but why does it bother you if that becomes an available option ??

I think it's one guy, not "you guys." Just because I don't need it doesn't mean I'd sneeze at it.

 

[aponsin]

I think it's one guy, not "you guys." Just because I don't need it doesn't mean I'd sneeze at it.

True, in this thread it's one guys (so far ) but I other threads it's other guys etc. I mean everybody is giving there opinion, I am ok with that
It's just that I feel in general, when you want something to be possible and that other don't need/want that there bashing the very concept of it. I feel it's not constructive... that's all.

Alex

 

[Tesselator]

How about Blu-Ray? ;-)

Blu-ray movies are awesome. I have a Sim2 1080p projector with a 92" retractable screen, and super-fanc surround speaker setup. Since I don't steal movies, my alternative to blu-ray would be to stream from a legal source. The 1080p choices are slim. Not nearly the selection of blu-ray, and still lots of hassles with network lag (I have lame at&t dsl), and other hassles.

But I sure don't care about blu-ray on my pc's/macs. I don't watch movies on those, and dvd works fine for my transportable storage needs.

Yup! BlueRay (SIC) in a theater situation where 1080i or p can actually make a difference (read >1.5 meter screen), rocks!

 

[Tesselator]

I really don't understand why some of you guys are complaining about people (like me) that want to be able to do bluray playback on their mac...

I understand that you may feel that you don't want/need it, but why does it bother you if that becomes an available option ?? You can play DVD on your mac... maybe you don't but it's possible? That's all we are asking to be able to do with blurays... You don't like hollywood movies... then don't watch them, nobody is forcing you But I'd like the option of being able to do so...

Alex

Mmmm, no it's not like that. I said I didn't understand it. Then people asked me questions about that and I answered as best I could. I added that I didn't understand it in the first place because people seemed to be wanting it on Mac and Steven has said his piece on that. I believe he said the Lic. issue was too nuts and the usefulness was very questionable. So I kinda meant it as "don't get your hops up" kinda thing as I at least don't even understand how it's useful.

 

[aponsin]

Yup! BlueRay (SIC) in a theater situation where 1080i or p can actually make a difference (read >1.5 meter screen), rocks!

I am sorry but I beg to differ... If you are telling me that you cannot see the improved quality between a DVD and a Bluray (even 720p), you either need to buy a pair a glasses or you need to change your screen because it's blurry !

Even on my 24inch 1920x1200 screen I will notice the difference in a blink of an eye. I will grant you that the difference between 720p and 1080p is a lot more subtle but with DVD no way... it should be jumping at you

I would suggest you do an honest test if you have the ability to do so... watch a bluray on a nice 1080p screen and then watch a dvd right after it, on the same screen with the same conditions. I would bet you'll come back saying there is a difference...
You may not feel that difference is significative enough for you to invest in the system - and that's fine, everybody a different opinion - but there a major visual difference.

Alex

 

[Tesselator]

I am sorry but I beg to differ... If you are telling me that you cannot see the improved quality between a DVD and a Bluray (even 720p)...

But that's what I'm saying. Here there's no difference at all. They look identical and I believe I can prove it mathematically too given the average viewing distance for watching movies. Paused there's quite a difference! While playing no, none. At least not on a 24" which is what I meant when I said that and which is probably the largest sized monitor most people have.

EDIT:
BTW, I've done your test but side by side on identical dual monitors. I also do a fair bit of video editing and have been in that industry for a long long time.


.

 

[aponsin]

But that's what I'm saying. Here there's no difference at all. They look identical and I believe I can prove it mathematically too given the average viewing distance for watching movies. Paused there's quite a difference! While playing no, none. At least not on a 24" which is what I meant when I said that and which is probably the largest sized monitor most people have.

Well then I guess you are experiencing motion blur big time with your screen. Because it's especially when the movies are running that I se a big difference. But I guess perception is everything...

Alex