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Blu-ray Licensing to Get Easier and Cheaper
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champ01
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And I'll enjoy my 1080p digital copies of my HD DVDs in iTunes.
apple is limiting us from the best stuff that other companies have thats the point bruinsrme was trying to make
and that sucks because I always believed apple was Pro
now I believe its more about Itunes and Ipods
And I'm saying that it's not limiting me, because I just plug my HD DVD drive into my Mac and pull the content from the disk.
apple is limiting us from the best stuff that other companies have thats the point bruinsrme was trying to make
and that sucks because I always believed apple was Pro
now I believe its more about Itunes and Ipods
That is all Apple is about now... it is becoming quite evident they are transitioning their Pro line over to a more consumer oriented one. Where is my Final Cut Studio 3 update... or Logic Studio... or the Shake replacement called Phenomenon... or the Mac Pro update... where are the Cinema Displays vanishing off to before there is a replacement?
Answer: Apple spend a lot more time with the iPhone, iPod and iTunes line up at the moment... which is seemingly delaying everything else. And because of this vested interest in iTunes etc they are neglecting the computer users by attempting to hold back on Blu-Ray.
Nice post, i agree with absolutely everything you say (apart from you can download iWork 09)
Actually, you can Download iWork 09. Just download the trial version and try it out. If you like it, you can simply buy the license and activate your trial version. And "boom", you got the full version.
I seriously like that whole try-before-you-buy thing. Wouldn't work for games though, as non-casual gamers can easily finish a single player game within 2 weeks. I just hope Starcraft 2 runs ok on a unibody Macbook. That 9400M seems to be fairly decent for low-end gaming.
As for the Mac's ability to play BluRay files: it's really a software issue. Quicktime, even VLC usually can't handle big files. But XBMC (freeware media center, it's Front Row on steroids) plays everything I throw at it without a single stutter and perfectly in sync, even the high bandwith BluRay samples out there. I use my Mac Mini (stock Core 2, 1.83 GHz, 1 GB RAM) as home server (hooked up a fairly big external drive) and media center. It's nice on a big TV with bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Couch computing rocks.
3...2...1... begin flames.
But you're absolutely correct. HD < 30" = vanity purchase.
To put this in perspective, we have a thread of people cheering about the idea of including a drive on Macs to enable the playback of $50, single movie discs.
What is this, 1998?
How about we forget this Blu Ray calamity and encourage Apple to add all conceivably interesting high-definition content to the iTunes store????
Its simply amazing to me that people who consider themselves Apple fans or Apple users, manage to completely block out reality.
Apple has spent years building and highlighting and improving the iTunes Store. iTunes is THE media distribution method, as far as Apple is concerned. The more unity between Mac software and iTunes Store content, the better. This is Apple's goal.
Yet Apple users are here, frothing at the mouth, over the prospect of Apple doing a complete 180 and make a big move AWAY from their digital media commitment, to include a floundering and largely unpopular "HD" drive, that will merely playback a $50 blu-ray disc.
So instead of getting you to buy, lets say, (4) $9.99 HD titles from the iTunes Store (hypothetical future price), and watching them on your Mac, Apple is going to do substantial R&D to include a new disc drive that is complete LOSS for them. They spend money to develop and include a new feature (that would then become a standard), that has no method of bringing in additional revenue, and in fact will hurt their #1 media revenue stream.
Yeah, sorry Apple fanboys but you can drop this one in the same waste bucket as the iPhone Nano.
Apple has the ability to look and think for longer than 3 seconds, so therefore, this won't be happening. Sorry.
What is this, 1998?
How about we forget this Blu Ray calamity and encourage Apple to add all conceivably interesting high-definition content to the iTunes store????
Its simply amazing to me that people who consider themselves Apple fans or Apple users, manage to completely block out reality.
Apple has spent years building and highlighting and improving the iTunes Store. iTunes is THE media distribution method, as far as Apple is concerned. The more unity between Mac software and iTunes Store content, the better. This is Apple's goal.Yet Apple users are here, frothing at the mouth, over the prospect of Apple doing a complete 180 and make a big move AWAY from their digital media commitment, to include a floundering and largely unpopular "HD" drive, that will merely playback a $50 blu-ray disc.
So instead of getting you to buy, lets say, (4) $9.99 HD titles from the iTunes Store (hypothetical future price), and watching them on your Mac, Apple is going to do substantial R&D to include a new disc drive that is complete LOSS for them. They spend money to develop and include a new feature (that would then become a standard), that has no method of bringing in additional revenue, and in fact will hurt their #1 media revenue stream.
Yeah, sorry Apple fanboys but you can drop this one in the same waste bucket as the iPhone Nano.
Apple has the ability to look and think for longer than 3 seconds, so therefore, this won't be happening. Sorry.
Less plastic than what? Downloads take up no plastic. As for DVDs there was no reason to sell them in oblong shaped boxes in the first place, they are circular
For apps like logic pro, most of the packaging is to house the manuals.
The packaging's purpose is to facilitate display and easy viewing in a rental store rack.
And I'll enjoy my 1080p digital copies of my HD DVDs in iTunes.
I have more HD-DVDs than Blu-rays
But that's the whole issue... no one does 'side-by-side' comparisons in their home, and if you watch them sequentially is very hard for most people to see enough difference to go through a technology shift. The key here is 'most people', i.e. numbers that drive a major technology shift.
VHS to DVD was a noticeable difference for your average electronics consumer... the bigger driver of late has been 16:9, not resolution. I'll wager that widescreen has been the biggest driver, not HD.
3...2...1... begin flames.
But you're absolutely correct. HD < 30" = vanity purchase.
Besides the valid size argument, there's the concept of PIXELS as well.
Example: my roommate has a Sony laptop that has a Blu-ray player.
The laptop has a max resolution of 1600x900.
There is the standard "Full HD 1080p" sticker on the laptop, but the highest resolution available on the laptop's screen is, as I said 1600x900.
Oh, and it has integrated graphics. Not even a 9400M-comparable chip.
Single movie Blu-ray discs retail at $35 at the highest but you can find plenty of these titles for $20 or less on Amazon or on sale at Best Buy.
Well Apple's selection is piss poor not to mention the quality is subpar as well so they need to step it up if they really want iTunes to be "THE media distribution method." I guess they didn't realize that negotiating with the movie studios was going to be a lot tougher than negotiating with the recording industry.
Post of the week. When I rent or download movies to my AppleTV, I really make myself stop and think whether or not I need to get it in HD. Most content does not look noticeably better, and even when it does make some difference, I almost never notice after 5 minutes if I get engrossed in the movie.
There are some things where ultimate resolution does make a difference, but that's a much smaller percentage than videophiles will admit.
The quality difference depends on what equipment you are using to watch the video. I have a 42" 1080p Toshiba REGZA with a Panasonic BD30 Blu-ray player and a Yamaha receiver with Bose AM16 6.1 speakers. The receiver is capable of decoding Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. Both picture and sound are greatly enhanced on Blu-ray over standard DVD.
Now if you are watching the video on a 32" or smaller TV and just use the regular TV speakers, then I would agree there probably is not a lot of difference other then richer colors. If you get into the larger TV's, 47" and up then the difference becomes even more noticeable.
I'd like to get a new iMac when they finally update them and I would also really like a BD drive in it. Not so much for movies on my computer, but the fact that I could burn 25GB SL and 50GB DL discs. I keep an external 750GB Maxtor external HDD hooked up for Time Machine back-ups, but I also like to back up my music and photos every now and then and store in a different location then my house. I know that sounds silly, but house fires do happen and there is no way you can replace pictures. Also replacing a 6,000 song iTunes collection would not be cheap nor easy. Right now I have to use DVD's to do an occasional back-up to keep off-site (at my job location). I'd love to be able to use BD discs and use one for music and one for photos.
As far as the people who try to say that physical media is dead. I don't believe that for many reasons. It might not be the main storage and distribution method in the future, but there is always going to be a use and BD is pretty future proofed. They can always engineer discs with more layers and more storage capacity. Apple is just being stubborn because they have claimed that all physical disc media is dead and they don't want to make it appear otherwise. I think they would get rid of the DVD-CD ROM drive on their computers if they could, but they know what would happen if they did that. We are not talking about 3.5" floppies here, we are talking about a great new disc technology. There is no reason that a so called "top of the line" computer like a Mac shouldn't have these drives in them.
This can't come fast enough AFAIC. It's kind of lame Apple hasn't supported it yet, especially in FCP. HD camcorders are ubiquitous. It's crazy Apple has all these video apps to edit HD but no way of burning onto optical HD media. Uploading to YouTube is great, but no more a 100% solution than owning a wardrobe of just jeans and t-shirts (unless you have no life, of course). People want choices.
Why should you have to plug anything in?
Although having more HD-DVDs than blu-rays, Any new purchases have been blu-ray.
Why should apple users have to ADD more clutter to their desk/system?
Take a mac book pro, add say $300 to the cost then tell me what other company will be able to come close to what the MBP would have to offer. Being strictly PC I will be the first to say NOBODY!!!!!.
Notice how the people that claim blu ray will fail fall into two categories.
1. The HD DVD fanboy that is upset his gamble didn't pay off. Seriously how could anyone not see they would be the one to fall is beyond me. The specs may have been nice, but there was always more muscle behind Blu Ray. The nail in the coffin was its inclusion in the PS3 that HD DVD had nothing to counter.
2. The Digital Download fanboy that fails to realize that most of the WORLD does not have the means to download movies at the required speed. Go to any unindustrialized country and you'll see people selling legal and illegal physical copies everywhere and this will not change for a very long time. DVD was expensive when it first came out and eventually it dropped, history shows that the same will happen with blu ray.
1. The HD DVD fanboy that is upset his gamble didn't pay off. Seriously how could anyone not see they would be the one to fall is beyond me. The specs may have been nice, but there was always more muscle behind Blu Ray. The nail in the coffin was its inclusion in the PS3 that HD DVD had nothing to counter.
2. The Digital Download fanboy that fails to realize that most of the WORLD does not have the means to download movies at the required speed. Go to any unindustrialized country and you'll see people selling legal and illegal physical copies everywhere and this will not change for a very long time. DVD was expensive when it first came out and eventually it dropped, history shows that the same will happen with blu ray.
Too true. But remember SJ once said DVD-RAM was the future; that flash wasn't a good storage medium for digital music players, and on and on. When ever Apple/SJ is wrong about something they have an uncanny way of reversing with no loss of credibility. Heck, often even gaining more.
Hey now I was an HD DVD fanboy and for many reasons I thought it would be the best, most economical transition from DVD, however when it lost I moved on and sold my HD DVD player and collection and got into BD. I still like the idea of HD DVD and it's simplicity, but it's gone and it is time to move on.
I think it is pretty sad when Psystar can offer an affordable Mac clone with an available Blu-ray drive, but Apple can't. That is a case of the imitator beating the innovator at their own game.
Yes, but there is a 3rd category. Personally I'm format neutral. I have a PS3 and an HD-DVD player. I still buy HD-DVD media. It's cheap. I buy BD discs when they are cheap too. I also don't mind (legal) d/ls or watching streamed video.
To everyone else:
HD-DVD IS Dead. People need to get over that.
BD IS expensive. My first DVD player was $1000 though and my first DVD (Indecent Exposure) was $25. (That's $25 in 1998 dollars). The price of BD media and players will come down. Heck you can buy Indecent Exposure on DVD now for $7. As more people buying 42"+ sets they WILL see the difference between an upscaled DVD and BD. DVD in a few years will be like VHS today.
Streaming and D/L is great but not everyone has access to fast broadband. 30% of the US population won't for years to come. Streaming and D/L is an option, not a solution.
Yes, but this comment wasn't directed towards you since you let the loss go and moved over to blu ray. My comment is for those that are bitter that like it or not blu will have a healthy life cycle. Heck I'm just waiting for the rumored $100 price drop on the PS3 to get one which by default will put me in the blu camp, and believe me I'm not the only one waiting for this to occur since I wouldn't trying out the games it offer even if I love my 360.
Sorry, they were $50 per disc when I lost interest. Now they are $30 per disc, only 3 times the price of an iTunes movie. Pardon me.
You're absolutely on target regarding Apple's poor selection, but quite obviously, that is for the time being. Once the negotiations succeed the way they have for music, it WILL be an alternative to the blu ray disc experience, at a fraction of the cost.
Not to mention convenience, convenience, convenience.