BluRay for MacBook pro?

[Hephaestus]

Unfortunately I don't see Apple putting Blu Ray into Macbooks any time soon which is a real shame. They seem fixated on digital content, which fails miserable in comparison to Blu Ray. Once downloads are 1080P, with uncompressed audio, special features and a reasonable price tag then maybe we can talk. This of course would result in massive file sizes and long DL times. I just don't see how people can say DD will overtake physical any time soon.

Either we will have to settle for less quality or we need 5-10 TB HDD's with lightning fast internet.

 

[brentsg]

yet you ignore my argument that giving up current tech for tomorrow tech that isnt even ready for the public is not very smart.

What is your point? You are confusing your perspective on the market with what is actually happening. You can spend all day arguing that it's a bad move, but that isn't going to change the reality of the situation.

Also, comparing automobiles to movies is a stretch. People need cars, but Hd movies are a luxury item. Further, Apple stands to benefit from the downloads while the Blu-rays benefit their competition. They have little incentive here.

 

[tbobmccoy]

1. Sure. Even 1080p works but obviously you can't take the full advantage of it.

2. Ripped videos work flawlessly (e.g. in MKV format). The issue is Blu-Ray disc playback which requires some special tweaks. I watch downloaded MKVs every week on my Macs.

Just a quick note: you CAN get 1080p out of a 1440x900 MBP: connect it to an external display. You can use HDMI/DVI connectors to output from your mini display port. Heck, using a dual DVI adapter, you can go as high as 2560x1600 that way. Of course, a normal TV won't display that; you'd need a high res monitor

 

[tbobmccoy]

Unfortunately I don't see Apple putting Blu Ray into Macbooks any time soon which is a real shame. They seem fixated on digital content, which fails miserable in comparison to Blu Ray. Once downloads are 1080P, with uncompressed audio, special features and a reasonable price tag then maybe we can talk. This of course would result in massive file sizes and long DL times. I just don't see how people can say DD will overtake physical any time soon.

Either we will have to settle for less quality or we need 5-10 TB HDD's with lightning fast internet.

Eventually, we will have 5-10 TB HDDs and lightning fast internet... it's just a matter of time. Long-haul, Steve is right; DD will overtake physical media for convenience. You are also correct though that since today we don't have those things, we need physical media to fill in the gap, and blu-ray does a good job of it today (even though its a 'bag of hurt' as Jobs says, mainly from the DRM/licencing perspective).

 

[Cave Man]

Long-haul, Steve is right; DD will overtake physical media for convenience.

Already ISPs are jacking up the price for those who use a lot of bandwidth. Pay for the DD, then pay again for getting it to your computer. Oh, and don't forget two extra hard drives to reduce the risk of losing your movies.

You are also correct though that since today we don't have those things, we need physical media to fill in the gap,

And what about 4k?

and blu-ray does a good job of it today

Nothing meets the quality and experience of Blu-ray. Nothing. Especially that "HD" crap from Apple.

 

[GGJstudios]

Already ISPs are jacking up the price for those who use a lot of bandwidth..

I'm curious: do you know which ISPs are charging for bandwidth and what thresholds they have?

 

[Hellhammer]

Just a quick note: you CAN get 1080p out of a 1440x900 MBP: connect it to an external display. You can use HDMI/DVI connectors to output from your mini display port. Heck, using a dual DVI adapter, you can go as high as 2560x1600 that way. Of course, a normal TV won't display that; you'd need a high res monitor

I know you can do that. I do that a lot with my MBA, though my videos are MKVs and MP4s so I have no need for a Blu-Ray drive. Seriously, you can get a Blu-Ray player for as low as 100$ and connect that to your TV. Apple would most likely charge way more for a Blu-Ray drive as a BTO, so the point about connecting to your TV to watch BRs isn't a very good argument IMO.

 

[striker33]

If it got to a point where digital downloads became the main way of obtaining movies etc, then many people (including myself) would resort to pirating said movies instead.

I'd much rather pay £10-£15 for a physical blu ray copy which I can add to my collection, which has unrivaled video and audio quality, instead of paying the same amount for a badly compressed 720p pile of garbage from iTunes.

 

[old-wiz]

If it got to a point where digital downloads became the main way of obtaining movies etc, then many people (including myself) would resort to pirating said movies instead.

I'd much rather pay £10-£15 for a physical blu ray copy which I can add to my collection, which has unrivaled video and audio quality, instead of paying the same amount for a badly compressed 720p pile of garbage from iTunes.

And if you buy the physical disk, you also get closed-captions, which are very very rare on iTunes. Also you can get the extras like short videos about making the movie and such.

 

[grahamnp]

DVDs and Blurays don't get the same effort put into their packaging and the experience as CDs or vinyls. I don't mind not having a physical copy of a movie or TV series but at this point, there is no replacement for that level of quality. As long as the medium is readily available, I would like the have the option even if it means having to use an external drive.

Support for Blurays could easily be built into OSX and then hardware support can be left to the 3rd party manufacturers. The average consumer who is too stupid to avoid this "bag of hurt" will probably never think to attempt it so no harm done to anyone. Apple just wants to push people to iTunes.

The Bluray market isn't so small that it can be ignored completely but since Apple is quite set on doing that, they should just drop internal optical drives completely and put the space to better use. No point having technology that is neither here nor there. Some users will complain but they irritate and disappoint loyal customers on a regular basis so I'm sure this is not the issue.

 

[Apple 26.2]

Another vote for an external drive...

 

[dime21]

Blu-ray was dead on arrival. Don't own any discs and have no plans to. DVD upscaling works extremely well on modern players, and streaming downloads provide the rest. Plus Blu-Ray is crippled with some really nasty DRM, worse than DVD.

 

[brentsg]

Blu-ray was dead on arrival. Don't own any discs and have no plans to. DVD upscaling works extremely well on modern players, and streaming downloads provide the rest. Plus Blu-Ray is crippled with some really nasty DRM, worse than DVD.

Well let's not get too carried away. If you're able to limp along with upscaled DVD, more power to you. Personally I think that's a HUGE stretch. (ha see what I did there)

And crippled, really? Exactly how do you view this part? Ok, they are tougher to rip.. but aside from that you put them in a player and they play. I think crippled is a vast overstatement.

The A/V that Blu-ray provides can't be replicated by DVDs, nor streaming. The question is when will streaming get close enough.

 

[Macsavvytech]

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Where I live (Australia) you cant get a blu ray tv box for under $300 and about the same for a computer unit but these will only read discs not write to them for a blu ray read and wright you looking cheapest $499

 

[Cave Man]

Blu-ray was dead on arrival.

Yeah, we've been hearing that for years, and will keep hearing for many more years.

DVD upscaling works extremely well on modern players,

You must have both vision and hearing problems or a poor TV if you think upscaling even approaches the quality of Blu-ray.

...and streaming downloads provide the rest.

Surely you don't mean that crap from Apple? And here do you get your 1080p DTS content?

Plus Blu-Ray is crippled with some really nasty DRM, worse than DVD.

But no where near as bad as Apple's "FairPlay" DRM. At least removal of DRM is easy with Blu-ray. With FairPlay you have to know the secret.

 

[nateo200]

1. Sure. Even 1080p works but obviously you can't take the full advantage of it.

2. Ripped videos work flawlessly (e.g. in MKV format). The issue is Blu-Ray disc playback which requires some special tweaks. I watch downloaded MKVs every week on my Macs.

MKV's are a great file format. I have allot of them actually and they are always crystal clear and the file size of them is usually very very low. I don't understand how such a small file can be equal to or better than some of the H.264 encoded videos I've done in the 500-1000mb range...Either way they play wonderfully from my MBP connected to a 33 inch TV and Ive even hooked it up to a 62 inch and was still very impressed. Nvidia didn't screw around with the 320m as far as I've seen.

 

[Cave Man]

MKV's are a great file format. I have allot of them actually and they are always crystal clear and the file size of them is usually very very low. I don't understand how such a small file can be equal to or better than some of the H.264 encoded videos I've done in the 500-1000mb range.

MKV is just a container. You can package many files in them including video encoded to the h.264 specification. You can get just as small (or big) of files using MPEG-4 (part 10); however, MPEG-4 cannot contain DTS-MA or DTS audio tracks, or Blu-ray subtitles like MKV can. That alone makes MKV containers much more attractive to those who do Blu-ray rips.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Does anybody know...

If I put a blu-ray drive in my macbook pro, and boot windows (natively) can I watch a blu-ray disc, or do I need a TMP chip in my computer?

 

[marksandvig]

I know you can do that. I do that a lot with my MBA, though my videos are MKVs and MP4s so I have no need for a Blu-Ray drive. Seriously, you can get a Blu-Ray player for as low as 100$ and connect that to your TV. Apple would most likely charge way more for a Blu-Ray drive as a BTO, so the point about connecting to your TV to watch BRs isn't a very good argument IMO.

While I agree with you, for arguments sake there are a lot of people with 27 inch iMacs and Cinema Displays.

 

[dime21]

Well let's not get too carried away. If you're able to limp along with upscaled DVD, more power to you. Personally I think that's a HUGE stretch. (ha see what I did there)

I enjoyed the pun (really), but even with my glasses on, I just don't see a huge difference between quality upscaled 1080p and blu-ray. This is on a top of the line Sony XBR mind you. Yes, I can see a little more detail with blu-ray, but not enough that I really care. VHS to DVD was a bigger step IMO.

I understand that Blu-Ray has much better audio. DVD videos after all had rather poor audio, less than CD quality. But I don't have a surround sound system, just the two speakers built into my television, which for movies, I'm fine with. (I have a separate stereo hi-fi system for when I want to hear really really good sounding music).

And crippled, really? Exactly how do you view this part? Ok, they are tougher to rip.. but aside from that you put them in a player and they play. I think crippled is a vast overstatement.

Yes they play... only in a legally licensed player with royalty fees paid, and the proper region encoding, and you only get HD quality when the signal goes over an HDCP encrypted connection to your TV. Sorry, but some of us a/v geeks like to use things like external DAC's and signal processors and splitters and other high end stuff, but the movie-nazi's have effectly prevented that by treating everyone as criminals.

Even with DVD, the DVD-Audio standard was DOA because of this - 24 bit 192 khz audio when you use the crapass internal DAC of the player, but downgraded and down scaled to 16 bit and 48 khz if you want to use your high-end external dac.

I'm just so sick of dealing with downgraded signal quality and bring treated like a criminal that I won't financially support that any more. RIAA and MPAA can go fu$& themselves. Now ask me how I really feel about it.

The A/V that Blu-ray provides can't be replicated by DVDs, nor streaming. The question is when will streaming get close enough.

I've never used the Apple services, but I've been extremely happy with Netflix streaming via my PS3, which does stream at a native 1080p resolution without any upscaling (new, as of just 3 or 4 months ago).

 

[AppleScruff1]

What's your point? The fact remains that Apple is prospering extremely well, doing things their way. They sell over a million Macs per month, without needing Blu-ray. It's quite naive to call their decisions "not very smart" when the results of their decisions clearly illustrate that they know what they're doing.

Maybe they'd sell 2 million if they offered Blu-Ray.

 

[Winnychan213]

Why can't people just get a Blu-Ray player and connect it to their TV? Who wants to watch movies on a tiny screen, seriously? TVs are meant for watching movies, not computers.



Why do you need to examine the enclosure of the movie first? You can see the artwork of the movie in the internet too. Or even better, watch the trailer. It's not like the movie is defective and even if it was, you wouldn't notice it before getting home.



People who do not have internet connection rarely buy computers anyway. Computers are useless with internet connection nowadays. Why should Apple care about a market that is nearly inexistent?



Go ahead and tell that to a company that is one of the most successful companies that exist today, making billions of profit each quarter. You can't please everyone but judging by Apple's profit, they please quite a few people with their current lineup.

Why buy an extra blu-ray player if apple decides to put one in there? You think money can be grown from trees?

Because its just my shopping habits, i have to look at the physical product first before buying.

Are you sure about that? I have a few weeks without internet and my computer still function pretty well for my work, games and movies.

I am not saying that Apple is a failure now, its idiotic to say otherwise, but eventually the company will pay for its attitude.

 

[Winnychan213]

What is your point? You are confusing your perspective on the market with what is actually happening. You can spend all day arguing that it's a bad move, but that isn't going to change the reality of the situation.

Also, comparing automobiles to movies is a stretch. People need cars, but Hd movies are a luxury item. Further, Apple stands to benefit from the downloads while the Blu-rays benefit their competition. They have little incentive here.

What's your point then? i hate it when people do that to dismiss what other people had to say. The reality is that online selling is still increasing, but phyiscal store is still the way for a lot of people, i have very little friends that goes online to buy their stuff.

You could say that automobile is a luxury as well, people don't need car.

 

[grahamnp]

I enjoyed the pun (really), but even with my glasses on, I just don't see a huge difference between quality upscaled 1080p and blu-ray. This is on a top of the line Sony XBR mind you. Yes, I can see a little more detail with blu-ray, but not enough that I really care. VHS to DVD was a bigger step IMO.

You're missing the point. It's not about whether you or even 80% of Apple's customers can tell or appreciate the difference. People who can want to have the option, it is not a big deal to implement this.

 

[brentsg]

What's your point then? i hate it when people do that to dismiss what other people had to say. The reality is that online selling is still increasing, but phyiscal store is still the way for a lot of people, i have very little friends that goes online to buy their stuff.

You could say that automobile is a luxury as well, people don't need car.

The OP was asking about the chances of Apple putting Blu-ray in the MBP line. The chance is near zero. You were going on about all the horrible mistakes that Apple is making from a strategic perspective.

It doesn't matter what you and your friends are doing. Apple is assessing the big picture and they seem to be doing quite well.

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