Blu-ray Support in Mac OS X 10.5.6?

[solipsism]

I see a lot of people complaining about how much battery life would suffer if Macs had Blu-ray drives. How often would you watch a 2 hour movie on battery power? Where are you at for that long without access to AC? Camping in the woods? OK, I jest, but come on. Doing anything CPU or GPU intensive is going to drain the battery quickly. I see lots of people playing video games at my uni. They are almost always plugged in at the time. And the price of Blu-ray drives? Who cares if they are expensive? There are obviously plenty of people willing to pay for them. Let them have a BTO option.

It's not just the GPU and CPU, it's the optical drive that is a huge drain on the battery. Any relatively forward thinking person would have ripped video to the HDD so they don't have to run an optical drive or cart around a bunch of discs.

But that still hasn't addressed the physics involved. I suppose if Apple can buy the patents to TARDIS™ they could even get a PS3 into a 1" notebook for under $500.

 

[DoFoT9]

Isn't he the guy that invented bug spray?

lol ever heard of Mr. Sarcasm?

Wow... some serious gripes with physical and optical media in this thread...

1. My point is that the penetration of Internet connections over 2mb is actually pretty small worldwide. If I want to download a film, length of approximately 2 hours, you are looking at a file size of about 1.5 GB from iTunes. It will take about 1 and a half hours to download at 2mb. Now if you are capped at your "it won't take very long" 256kb, then it will take nearer 13 hours...

2. In the UK, the average speed is about 4mb. Now imagine everyone downloading films online as that is the only way to obtain them, it just wouldn't work in the current state. Despite the media hype, a small percentage of connected internet users use P2P to download films illegaly, and even with that small proportion, ISPs are unable to cope with the amount of bandwdth required of them, hence the capping. The small number of people using the BBC iPlayer is enough to cause concern to UK ISPs with regards to bandwidth issues. Bringing me back once again to that fact that the entire infrastructure of the internet needs an overhaul if its is to be able to sustain the selling of digital media.

3. Also what are you arguing about when it comes to the legal or not legal issue? What difference does that make to the argument that optical media will remain here for the foreseeable?


4. And lastly, what are you on about when it comes to vinyl... it was merely an example of how physical media is still in demand. Businesses work on a meet the demand model.

1. well i dont know about you, but i see 13 hours as a pretty quick download time. it will only be an overnight download, nothing wrong about that (from where i see it anyways). ok i have ADLS2+, its the fastest we can get around here unless we move to the city, it is blisteringly fast. even when i upped to 8mbits p/s that was fast.

i know that i'd be willing to wait a little while for a movie, as opposed to driving around looking for the movie in HD (DVD = nono these days) or waiting a week for it to torrent!

2. you think your ISP's need an overall?? man please come to australia and check it out, our system is terrible.

if you have solid numbers about the "slowing of the ISP's" and whatnot, come and share please. i'd love to know the actual impact P2P and all the other types of shows have on everything.

3. there are two main points i am making with that statement.

a) people are downloading more, thus keeping things on their hard drives more, thus using less DVD's and optical media (this is also people of the whole "computer home theatre" systems. e.g. connecting your macmini into a HD screen and using that as your media server. (i am doing this in a coupla months, just gotta get the mini ).

b) legal or illegal, people are downloading a hell of a lot more than they used to, optical media (especially in the movie sector) has taken a pretty nasty hit. just look at the iTunes stores numbers, they have many titles available for you to download yada yada yada and they are pretty darn cheap. so yea. it all counts.

4. i am COMPLETELY confused as to why people want to use "old" technology. its wayyy outdated, it sounds pathetic, and its overall just crap. who are you going to see carrying around a record player and a few records.. i just completely miss the point of using outdated technology (except for when it cant be afforded of course).

 

[.Chris]

What does it mean to add Blu-ray support?

Applications already support it in Leopard, Roxio Toast, a new app ArchiveMac, and even base Leopard disk utility.

LG makes an excellent Blu-ray burner that Newegg is selling for $249. It can also read HD-DVD if anyone cares anymore.

Not only that but more apps will run on the mac witch may draw more people to the mac.

Also, macs run windows right?

How about a MBP running the latest verson of OSX and Vista ultimate SP1. tblu-ray etc. that right there at least in my opinion, is one sweet system. the only one you'll ever need since you have the best of both worlds.

On the whole Blu-ray thing, I agree that Apple is way behind on this. I hope that when they do finally release Macs with Blu-ray BTO options that they don't do it with much too much fanfare. That would make them look silly as they are already 2 or 3 years behind everyone else. At this point I don't have a HDTV or a BD player, but I will in the future when the price is right. Download HD video? You've got to be kidding me! Maybe ten years from now the internet will be fast enough, but not now.

Apple needs to know not everyone has fast internet connection speeds.

I see a lot of people complaining about how much battery life would suffer if Macs had Blu-ray drives. How often would you watch a 2 hour movie on battery power? Where are you at for that long without access to AC? Camping in the woods? OK, I jest, but come on. Doing anything CPU or GPU intensive is going to drain the battery quickly. I see lots of people playing video games at my uni. They are almost always plugged in at the time. And the price of Blu-ray drives? Who cares if they are expensive? There are obviously plenty of people willing to pay for them. Let them have a BTO option.[/QUOTE]

Exactrly. Very good point. People under estmate things way to much. If people want blu-ray let them have it and stop wineing

 

[DoFoT9]

1. Not only that but more apps will run on the mac witch may draw more people to the mac.

Also, macs run windows right?

How about a MBP running the latest verson of OSX and Vista ultimate SP1. tblu-ray etc. that right there at least in my opinion, is one sweet system. the only one you'll ever need since you have the best of both worlds.



2. Apple needs to know not everyone has fast internet connection speeds.

I see a lot of people complaining about how much battery life would suffer if Macs had Blu-ray drives. How often would you watch a 2 hour movie on battery power? Where are you at for that long without access to AC? Camping in the woods? OK, I jest, but come on. Doing anything CPU or GPU intensive is going to drain the battery quickly. I see lots of people playing video games at my uni. They are almost always plugged in at the time. And the price of Blu-ray drives? Who cares if they are expensive? There are obviously plenty of people willing to pay for them. Let them have a BTO option.

1. im sorry but the day when apple starts selling any mac with microsoft OS's is the day that i start to loose trust in them. that just makes me shiver.

2. yes thast a very good point, the MAIN power drain would be from CPU/GPU usage, not optical media. if its anything to judge by apple's coding of QuickTime (which, to watch a 1080p rip on my computer uses a good 95% CPU whilst stuttering every other frame) im not 100% sure if the battery life would exceed 1.5 hours, what with the optical drive constantly spinning AND the CPU going along.

i care if their expensive. i dont know where your family background lies but my family isnt that rich, BluRay discs are very expensive, let alone for the player to play them with. hell i spend 4/5 of my weekly wage just getting to uni!

Good point about the BTO though, when i finally get out into the proper workforce hopefully there will be newer technologies for me to spend all of my monies on eheh.

 

[cdbob]

The biggest thing is a true HD 1080p compressed rip is around 10 gigs, I know this because I use torrent sites bit. However I may add that it is NOT illegal to download content over the internet in Canada. It was ruled in Paris in 2005 that anything on the internet was not considered intectual property and thus copyrights do not apply to it. I do this mainly because apple offers nothing that can compare to this. I would gladdy buy Blu Ray movies, but the option is not there. Apple claims to have full res HD, however its watered down compared to full res stuff. Blu Ray is still very important 10 gigs is a big amount to download and takes days. For the next few years I believe that HD optical media must remain present due to the lack of bandwidth generally seen by isps.

 

[Lord Zedd]

PS: New ACDs would mostly included iSight camera, IR receiver, adnd DisplayPort, not HDMI or DVI.

DisplayPort is junk. It can't drive screen resolutions any higher than DVI/HDMI, it isn't more secure, its non-standard and its no better than DVI in general.

 

[aygie]

i care if their expensive. i dont know where your family background lies but my family isnt that rich, BluRay discs are very expensive, let alone for the player to play them with.

Do you own a Blu-ray player? You make discs sound as if their 5 times the price.

Iron Man DVD $22.95

Iron Mna Blu-ray $27.95

The biggest thing is a true HD 1080p compressed rip is around 10 gigs, I know this because I use torrent sites bit. However I may add that it is NOT illegal to download content over the internet in Canada. It was ruled in Paris in 2005 that anything on the internet was not considered intectual property and thus copyrights do not apply to it. I do this mainly because apple offers nothing that can compare to this. I would gladdy buy Blu Ray movies, but the option is not there. Apple claims to have full res HD, however its watered down compared to full res stuff. Blu Ray is still very important 10 gigs is a big amount to download and takes days. For the next few years I believe that HD optical media must remain present due to the lack of bandwidth generally seen by isps.

When you say True HD do mean the audio codec or a "full" Blu-ray rip? Cause if you want a full BD rip its more like 40-50GBs.

 

[DoFoT9]

Do you own a Blu-ray player? You make discs sound as if their 5 times the price.

Iron Man DVD $22.95

Iron Mna Blu-ray $27.95

yes well you clearly dont live in australia do you!

Casino Royale DVD-wow its only $17!!- http://www.quikshop.com.au/casino-royale-p-13581.html

Casino Royale BR-wow its $54!!!- http://www.quikshop.com.au/casino-royale-p-15639.html

getting close to 5 times the price.

blank BR discs are pretty much 5-10x the price of a DVD

and no i dont have a BR Player, i am saving up for an external to fit in a lacie FW400 DVD burner case.

 

[aygie]

yes well you clearly dont live in australia do you!

Casino Royale DVD-wow its only $17!!- http://www.quikshop.com.au/casino-royale-p-13581.html

Casino Royale BR-wow its $54!!!- http://www.quikshop.com.au/casino-royale-p-15639.html

getting close to 5 times the price.

blank BR discs are pretty much 5-10x the price of a DVD

and no i dont have a BR Player, i am saving up for an external to fit in a lacie FW400 DVD burner case.

ahhh!! good point. Australia is the worst place for being a Blu-ray owner!!!!

This has been talked about a lot over at Blu-ray.com. But if you want to enjoy Blu-ray import them! Thats what i do (i live in the UK).

Heres a list of region free titles:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

I just bought the amazing Proposition for £6! http://www.amazon.com/Proposition-B..._bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1221992872&sr=8-1

Practically all of my BDs are imported.

 

[richard.mac]

^ worst place for anything tech

 

[DoFoT9]

^ worst place for anything tech

oi cmon slack off it was a quick google search man.

however, i did get a bit skeptical when it said "was 54.87, now 54.22" hahahahahahahaha.

ahhh!! good point. Australia is the worst place for being a Blu-ray owner!!!!

This has been talked about a lot over at Blu-ray.com. But if you want to enjoy Blu-ray import them! Thats what i do (i live in the UK).

Heres a list of region free titles:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

I just bought the amazing Proposition for £6! http://www.amazon.com/Proposition-B..._bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1221992872&sr=8-1

Practically all of my BDs are imported.

it really is the pits for anything technological isnt it!

6 pounds is like.. what.. $15buck AU?? that is FRIGGEN AWSOME!!!!

that so much for that link man the site is pretty trustworthy??

 

[aygie]

it really is the pits for anything technological isnt it!

6 pounds is like.. what.. $15buck AU?? that is FRIGGEN AWSOME!!!!

that so much for that link man the site is pretty trustworthy??

Which site? The region site? Yeah totally trustworthy, they test all the BDs for the regions, never been wrong yet.

I use either Amazon.com or http://www.axelmusic.com/ (<they also tell you if their region free) to order my BDs. Love it.

 

[bananas]

At the moment I don't care too much for the Blu-ray myself, but it would be nice if Blu-ray was used to differentiate the consumer and pro devices. So, if this means DVD+-RW drives for low end MacBooks, then it's good news for every body.

 

[DoFoT9]

Which site? The region site? Yeah totally trustworthy, they test all the BDs for the regions, never been wrong yet.

I use either Amazon.com or http://www.axelmusic.com/ (<they also tell you if their region free) to order my BDs. Love it.

wow ok thanks very much for that

not that fond of amazon, hopefully everything works ok if i order from australia!! haha

thanks again

 

[ma2ha3]

It's about time, but the blank discs still too expensive to make it worthwhile.

50gig blu-ray disc needs to cost no more than $10 in order to make sense. I rather back it up on multiple hard discs that today run pretty cheap.

Plus I agree that Apple is focusing on downloads rather than physical discs. So it seems they are in no hurry to provide BR-R to consumers.

As for Blu-ray player only, it would be welcome.

already did in japan.
i recently bought lots of 50GB R and RE, R below 10 and RE slightly above 10. japan have dual layer burner and their region is same as USA.

awesome. if japan price fall so much. slowly the rest of the world will follow.
it depend on HD blu-ray recorder for TV, HDTV on your local tv station, soon the price will fall.

 

[Cave Man]

When you say True HD do mean the audio codec or a "full" Blu-ray rip? Cause if you want a full BD rip its more like 40-50GBs.

The largest Blu-Ray movie I have (I only own 5) is 35 gb (The Fifth Element), while the smallest is 17 gb (Meet the Robinsons). I managed to get VisualHub to transcode TFE to MP4/H.264 at 10 mbps/AAC/AC3/1080p it it cam in at just under 10 gb. Not quite as good as the straight m2ts file during high movement scenes, though.

 

[Habusho]

Looks like ACDs are about to be updated as well. The DVI connections on them are getting kind of old.

 

[.Chris]

1. im sorry but the day when apple starts selling any mac with microsoft OS's is the day that i start to loose trust in them. that just makes me shiver.

no, i w3as talking about the fact that they can run windows if you wish.......

 

[aygie]

The largest Blu-Ray movie I have (I only own 5) is 35 gb (The Fifth Element), while the smallest is 17 gb (Meet the Robinsons). I managed to get VisualHub to transcode TFE to MP4/H.264 at 10 mbps/AAC/AC3/1080p it it cam in at just under 10 gb. Not quite as good as the straight m2ts file during high movement scenes, though.

a 10GB file will not be "true HD", no where near if you ask me. You can't compress 15GB worth of data and think its going to look anything as good as the original 35GB disc.

Can i ask how you got VisualHub to work with M2TS files? Has it been included in a recent update? I have never been able to get it to work.

 

[Jak3]

they should at least have blu-ray avaible in the Mac Pro considering it has the space and the people who need blu-ray the most are the pros who need that space and work with HD video.

after that, an external drive should be available for anyone who wants to hook it up to a macbook for example.

at first I thought, why would a macbook need a BR writer? It doesn't even have 1080p capable screen, but then you have to realise, it's not just video, it's storage size as well, and 3 BR discs can back up a bit less than an average MB HDD, or expand one by 1/3 while the disc is in the drive...pretty usefull in some surcumstances.

anyway, it doesn't matter if you won't buy it, what matters are the people who WILL buy it and bring in more revenues for apple.

 

[Cave Man]

a 10GB file will not be "true HD", no where near if you ask me.

Well, then by that definition neither is what's on the Blu-Ray disc, since it's compressed as well (h.264, MPEG-2 or VC-1).

You can't compress 15GB worth of data and think its going to look anything as good as the original 35GB disc.

But that's just it. How much is lost when going from a 25 gb m2ts file at 25 mbps to a 10 gb file at 10 mbps? There is some loss, as I pointed out in my post. However, it is only noticeable in scenes where there's a lot of movement (i.e., where compression algorithms are their weakest). Each individual needs to decide what is more important for such content - precisely as it is on the disc (which ranges from 18 gb to 35 gb for the BR rips that I have), or 10 to 12 gb files that have some image compromise? If money is no object, then keep the m2ts rips on the hard drive. But you're talking about 500 gb drives for 20 movies. If you transcode to MP4/h.264 with AAC/AC3 or DTS audio, you can probably put 60 movies on that drive.

Can i ask how you got VisualHub to work with M2TS files? Has it been included in a recent update? I have never been able to get it to work.

VisualHub can deal with some (but not all) m2ts files that are encoded in DD. The latest Handbrake svn can also deal with some (but not all) m2ts files as well. In both cases, the m2ts files need their encryption removed.

they should at least have blu-ray avaible in the Mac Pro considering it has the space and the people who need blu-ray the most are the pros who need that space and work with HD video.

I think most people who would want a Blu-Ray drive (ROM) are those who would want to watch BR movies on their Macs. BR authors would be in a substantial minority.

at first I thought, why would a macbook need a BR writer? It doesn't even have 1080p capable screen

But it can drive a 1080p HD TV or projector at its native resolution.

 

[philb7777]

Well, I for one would love a Blu-Ray drive with Apple supported software in a new mac. I've been waiting for a new Mac Pro with Blu-Ray for over two years now and keep holding out for it.

I think movies with BD are great, but I think people do underestimate the large number of consumers out there with HD camcorders that would jump at the chance to film their home movies in HD and burn them in 1080p on a Blu-Ray disc. With Blu-Ray players under $300, this format will increasingly be getting more marketshare.

 

[DoFoT9]

no, i w3as talking about the fact that they can run windows if you wish.......

ok then that makes sense then, mybad

a 10GB file will not be "true HD", no where near if you ask me. You can't compress 15GB worth of data and think its going to look anything as good as the original 35GB disc.

Can i ask how you got VisualHub to work with M2TS files? Has it been included in a recent update? I have never been able to get it to work.

you can compress it down to that size. you have to remember that the BR disc just isnt 1 whole movie. it has extras, subtiles and everything else that goes with it!

i would also know how to concert/compress with VH.

 

[Cave Man]

i would also know how to concert/compress with VH.

VH can (in most circumstances) deal with MPEG-2, H.264 video and AC3 movies. It cannot handle any movie in VC-1 or DTS. If either of these are used, you have to transcode them to a format that VH can handle first. These apps are only available on the Windows side.

Handbrake is still a work in progress for BR disc support, but it's getting there. I hope it makes it to True-HD and DTS-HD transcoding to AC3. Not sure if it'll ever get VC-1 support, though. Either way, it will not have decrypting abilities, so until something like AnyDVD HD arrives for OS X, it has to be done on Windows.

My process was:

1. Rip BD with AnyDVD HD (my trial has expired, so I don't do this anymore - not at the cost of the app).

2. Drop into VH or open in HB svn for the transcode. Leave video at 1080p and drop the bit rate down to 10 mbps. Preserve AC3 passthrough.

These work very well in Plex and Xbmc, and even VLC. Quicktime has some issues with them, though.

 

[Shivetya]

mmmn I wouldn't mind going off to college with a new iMac with a blu-ray drive next year.

Supporting a Blu-Ray drive doesn't necessarily mean we will be able to watch Blu-Ray movies on it. Just supporting the media would be a big jump for them. DVDs are too small for long term storage. External HDDs while not as portable are great back up options because you can load them up and store them easily. I never look forward to doing backups to DvD, my iTunes collection eats over ten of the things now and it takes forever.