I'll agree that killer hardware needs good killer software to back it up. iDVD greatly complemented the SuperDrives.
Interactivity escapes me on discs. Really are you going to sit through it or do you just want to watch video?
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Blu-ray Macs: Early 2007?
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I would be surprised if Apple offered just offered a Blue-Ray drive. They are either going to offer a hybrid drive (which I hope they do), or the are going to offer both Blue-Ray and HD-DVD as build to order options, and let the public decide.
Blu-Ray Blues
I'd be very surprised if there's blu-ray in the next six months. Sony has delayed release of the PS3 in the UK until March, when it hopes to have enough diodes. Even then they probably won't have enough to barely satisfy to market, even at £400 each! If Apple did release blu-ray macs, I can't see it being across the entire range. Cost, availability and market acceptance doesn't seem to be there yet.
I'd be very surprised if there's blu-ray in the next six months. Sony has delayed release of the PS3 in the UK until March, when it hopes to have enough diodes. Even then they probably won't have enough to barely satisfy to market, even at £400 each! If Apple did release blu-ray macs, I can't see it being across the entire range. Cost, availability and market acceptance doesn't seem to be there yet.
Well... to me it doesn't make sence to put HD drivers (be they Bluray or HD DVD) exclusively into Mac Pros. HD content is for the masses... It shouldn't be a high-end only feature... you want everyone to be able to play HD... so they have to re-buy their DVD collections as HD. 
...well you do!
...well you do! If a MacMini had a BluRay drive... I'm sure it'd be $1000 or more. Most BluRay players cost that.
Rather than think "what would an iTV cost if it added a BluRay?".... perhaps the question is "can Apple make the best BluRay player out there, and integrate it with iTunes?"
I won't be buying a BluRay player yet either... then again, I don't have a high-definition screen... so why would I bother? And I agree I'd rather wait till the format wars finish.
However... I still think the introduction of these new players is a great opportunity for Apple to get into the living room as high end users buy in.
I'd pay a _small_ amount extra now for an iTV that plays DVDs too.
Well... to me it doesn't make sence to put HD drivers (be they Bluray or HD DVD) exclusively into Mac Pros. HD content is for the masses... It shouldn't be a high-end only feature... you want everyone to be able to play HD... so they have to re-buy their DVD collections as HD.
Right now Bluray (and HD DVD?) drives are too expensive to be included in Macs across all lines. When Apple introduced the Super Drive, drives for reading DVDs were included in most macs already and stand-alone DVD-players were common. So it was reasonable to offer the possibility of authoring DVDs with a pro machine. Today the Bluray writers are coming without a significant installed base of Bluray readers. Therefore an introduction of a Bluray Drive into a Mac Pro makes less sense.
On the one hand all Mac Pros are build to order, which makes it easy for Apple to offer a Bluray drive as an option for those few who want it and are willing to pay today's high prices. On the other hand, these drives can easily be installed by the user and thus it is not really necessary for Apple to offer it right away.
To those who were suggesting iTV as a possible machine with a Bluray drive: The prototype didn't include one, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the final machine won't. However the price of Bluray drives alone is much higher than the announced price for iTV of $300.
I don't think anyone suggested iTV adding Bluray by default. Though it was suggested that a MacMini might see Bluray before MacPros.
Optional Bluray is far more interesting.
I don't think it will ship with a BluRay drive, but you will be able to stream your BluRay movies (or HD-DVD movies if Apple supports the drive) from your Mac to the iTV.
2. it would NOT need a hard drive, it would record straight to your mac.
and yes, I do like the idea of iTV also being a DVD player.
I also think that apple should wait to send blu-ray with MACS until HDDVD/bluray flares down, and we know who won... although I'm confident it will be bluray. however, they should go ahead with bluray in iTV, it would be much less of an investment to replace a bluray drive to an HDDVD drive when shipping if it's between a less expensive product like iTV. if they had to in macs, it would be an excuse for a new line of macs, which is something apple has been releasing way too often latley.
I think bluray should be optional in the mac, but with the iTV, bluray should not be optional(instead be the standard), but a DVD drive should be optional. if the buyer wants a dvd drive, they get bluray. no other options.
I think the end to end solution approach of Apple will not end at blu-ray software.
I imagine 2 new HD-TV displays with iTV built in to them and hub software for your mac for "offline storage" ala air tunes.
New content and features on iTunes supporting overnight downloading of HD content, etc.
I downloaded a video yesterday. 72.6Mb for 8.4 SECONDS of 1024x560 pixels image at 24 fps! It took several minutes on a 3Mb connection!
Content delivery is going to require innovative thinking in a bandwidth crippled world.
Rocketman
Time Machine?
May be way off here, do optical drives work with Time Machine? If so I'd imagine the bigger capacity could be quite useful ?
May be way off here, do optical drives work with Time Machine? If so I'd imagine the bigger capacity could be quite useful ?
For MacMini and iTV, there could be a blu-ray drive that would fit. I think Sony makes a blu-ray equipped notebook.
But I think yes the Mac Pros will have a Blu-ray burner soon. For storage.
For anyone who doubts this, just look at the front of the case. There are two optical drive bays.
A Mac Pro could possibly play back blu-ray movies IF there is a Mac HDCP video card installed, and IF there is any software for playback. Those are two big 'IFs' right now.
AND then you'd have to have a proper display:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060214-6177.html
So there are a lot of 'ifs' that have to happen to enjoy watching blu-ray movies on your Mac. But as a storage device, the technology is ready right now.
Doesn't an iMac 24 already meet all those "ifs"? It has an HDTV format display, presumably with graphics support to play to it. The remainder is content I/O. Right?
Rocketman
Is this Blu-ray fanboyism just because Apple said they'd back it? (They're also backing HD-DVD, just haven't said much about it)
HD-DVD uses the same manufacturing process and is VASTLY cheaper to produce, while still having 60% of the capacity of the much more expensive format. Note how HD-DVD drives cost have as much as Blu-ray drives. HD-DVD media costs a fraction of Blu-ray media in production costs. And HD-DVD is harder to scratch.
And Blu-ray is partially controlled by Sony, who has a terrible track record with trying to control formats.
"just awful" is an overstatement.
I wonder this as well. There seems to be a lot of Blu-Ray fans just because Apple "said" they'd back it. I still like my hacking the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive idea for now.
We are talking about a Mac Pro here. It's unreasonable to use a Mac Pro as a movie player. Any Blue Ray disk drive would be used by people who are creating HD content. Today, this might even by some guy who shoots wedding videos and wants to give the couple a Blue Ray disk. It's perfectly reasonable for Apple to get these drives and HD-DVD drives out ASAP. People with HD camera need these.
Yes, the average web surfer has little justification for a (likely) very expensive DVD burner.
I know my way around the formats, and I knew this before Apple put their name by one.
I want BluRay to succeed because it's technically the superior product.
Blu Ray was designed, from the start, to be rewritable - RW HDDVD discs haven't as high a capacity as the production discs - not the case with BR: it can hold 50Gb per disc, period.
That said, TDK has developed a 200Gb writable BR disc - holding a rather impressive 33Gb per layer (6 layers = 200Gb).
I think HD-DVD is lagging behind somewhat.
Maybe this "Blu Ray fanboyism" is indeed, from the majority, because Apple chose to support it first - but in my case, it certainly isn't. and I don't appreciate being labelled with the potential "w00t omg!!!!1!1!!!!! blu ray1!!!!!11!" types.
1. Hidden text is white not silver.
2. I know of Blu-Ray's magical 200 GB discs. Enjoy paying the price and burning that experimental bugger.
3. HD-DVD can triple layer to 45 GB.
Bigger capacity drives would be perfect for backup, but not for Time Machine. Unless you wanted to use 1 disc per day and never wanted to restore an intermediate version.
last time I heard blu-ray was still using the Mpeg2 codec for encoding and decoding there media as for HD-DVD using a more advanced codec with far more superior video quality. for a person who says he knows his way around the formats and says that blu-Ray is the technically superior product it wouldnt seem so in this case. just because you can cram 50gigs of media onto a dual layer disc doesnt always mean you have the superior product.
both formats have there advantages and disadvantages I am along side other poeple with waiting before jumping to a conclusion on to which one I will be using, and the whole blu-ray thing just brings back memory of the whole betamax era and that was a sony controlled format and we see who won that war VHS
Blu-ray and HDDVD players handle the same 3 formats - MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC (h264), and VC1. So that shouldn't be a deciding factor.
There is some argument about which is the best quality when you have lots of bandwidth (eg >20Mbps). The nature of MPEG4 makes it great in low bandwidth situations as it is more aware of motion than MPEG2 and uses that in compression. Some research is saying that when you get high bandwidth, this same nature of compression leads to unnecessary blurring.
I personally haven't seen a comparison.
If you're right that Bluray producers are only using MPEG2 that may be a reason - or perhaps the producers are just being lazy. They've got more space than they need, and they're simply using it. It's also taking advantage of the systems they've refined over many years (and which are still used in HD FTA transmissions).
So for me it all comes down to
1) does a movie need that space? (or will it in 5 years time?)
2) does it cost significantly more to make one of the disks?
3) does it cost significantly more to make one of the players?
4) bigger is better for computer storage
in reality in comes down to
5) politics - which format gets the most backers?
I wouldn't mind being able to burn MPEG4-AVC to regular DVDs for now to increase the quality and length (... provided it's played on a player that can handle it... can HD-DVD and Bluray players both play newer compression from today's DVD formats?)