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Look at the paranoid DRM setup within Windows - and tell me it isn't a drag on the system. Sure, have protection when and where required but the whole system from top to bottom shouldn't be embedded with DRM that the performance and battery life of a laptop suffers as a result.

HD-DVD should have won - had it won we would be talking about region free movies rather than the situation with Sony's tentacles all over it, we would be talking about low cost writers instead of still paying a fortune for them and the media, and better still, we'd be talking about how one can watch HD-DVD on our Mac's because it wouldn't require performance sucking 'secure path' just to watch a movie.

Benchmarks and how the secure path system operates.
I'd like to see these benchmarks because every video card maker with Intel in dead last was in a race for GPU hardware accelerated playback of HD content and the lowest CPU usage as possible.

It does sound like you're going on about all the pre-Vista launch paranoia over DRM. It's 2009 now.

Apple has been pushing h.264 goodness for years now and is still falling flat with using GPU hardware.
 
I'd like to see these benchmarks because every video card maker with Intel in dead last was in a race for GPU hardware accelerated playback of HD content and the lowest CPU usage as possible.

It does sound like you're going on about all the pre-Vista launch paranoia over DRM. It's 2009 now.

Apple has been pushing h.264 goodness for years now and is still falling flat with using GPU hardware.

It has nothing to do with compression or decompression but everything to do with secure path. Learn about that then you'll see why there are problems.
 
It has nothing to do with compression or decompression but everything to do with secure path. Learn about that then you'll see why there are problems.
So I'm supposed to ignore Anandtech and Tom's Hardware's reviews of all those video cards under Vista and the horrifically low CPU usage when playing back Blu-ray/HD-DVD media?
 
So I'm supposed to ignore Anandtech and Tom's Hardware's reviews of all those video cards under Vista and the horrifically low CPU usage when playing back Blu-ray/HD-DVD media?

Yes you should, because secure path has nothing to do with that - it is about ensuring there is a secure path from the drive to the display with the computer constantly checking to ensure that the secure path hasn't been breeched by some sort of circumvention of content protection.

It isn't about a massive spike, it is about ensuring that there is enough activity by secure path to ensure that the process never goes into deep low power state - because of the constant checking it never is able to achieve it thus you have sometimes up to a 3 hour reduction in battery life in notebooks running Windows Vista over Windows XP. Under Windows 7 the battery life has improved some what but the same issues exist.
 
Yes you should, because secure path has nothing to do with that - it is about ensuring there is a secure path from the drive to the display with the computer constantly checking to ensure that the secure path hasn't been breeched by some sort of circumvention of content protection.

It isn't about a massive spike, it is about ensuring that there is enough activity by secure path to ensure that the process never goes into deep low power state - because of the constant checking it never is able to achieve it thus you have sometimes up to a 3 hour reduction in battery life in netbooks running Windows Vista over Windows XP. Under Windows 7 the battery life has improved some what but the same issues exist.
Proof please? Also what CPU usage are they really looking at during playback tests then?

Are you viewing protected content on your netbooks?
 
I usually don't mind these commercials, but it really sickens me when I see them go to extreme measures. For example the one where the kid and his mom want a laptop thats great for gaming, and they buy a Sony Vaio FW that has no video card. WTF?!?! If you're going to get a PC, get an Asus or a Gateway that has a strong video card, NOT A SONY!!! Geeez

Next, this guy who wants something portable but then goes with a big bulky 16", that has a weak processor, and a bad screen rez for a 16". Ticks me off.
 
not with the way blu ray is being adopted.

interesting you should say that. i'm sure you have data on blu ray sales v digital downloads (even as the less than perfect 720 level HD) that shows that in fact blu ray is on the rise and unaffected by digital. and that there's no chance of true 1080 HD digital downloads in the near future, particular at a size and cost that would make them appealing.

and you probably have numerous articles to counter predictions by folks such as the guys at CNET that believe that blu-ray is in fact not really catching on and will die out without any major hold in the game to be replaced by digital downloads and media server adoption.

so share and enlighten us.
 
Nothing kills me more than Blu-ray naysayers

Thank God you weren't around a decade ago... Mac's today still wouldn't be able to burn DVD's and CD's. Why? Don't need 'em, everyone downloads for free. :rolleyes:

Truly clueless. Never was so much energy expended to rationalize truly subpar inferior performance and horrific business strategy.

:apple:
 
Truly clueless. Never was so much energy expended to rationalize truly subpar inferior performance and horrific business strategy.

Horrific business strategy? Really??? Hmm, Apple seems to be selling plenty of Macs. Apparently Blu-ray isn't the must-have feature that you (and very few others around here) insist it is? Your crusade currently has a distinctively Don Quixote-esque flavor to it.

Personally, I'm indifferent. I don't use my computer as a movie-watching machine (that's what I have a home theater system for), and frankly I see Sony as a bunch of bumbling idiots these days (obsessed with proprietary lockdown), but I assume the day consumers really do want Blu-ray in their computers, Apple will provide them.

The marketplace rules, you see.
 
Horrific business strategy? Really??? Hmm, Apple seems to be selling plenty of Macs. Apparently Blu-ray isn't the must-have feature that you (and very few others around here) insist it is? Your crusade currently has a distinctively Don Quixote-esque flavor to it.

Personally, I'm indifferent. I don't use my computer as a movie-watching machine (that's what I have a home theater system for), and frankly I see Sony as a bunch of bumbling idiots these days (obsessed with proprietary lockdown), but I assume the day consumers really do want Blu-ray in their computers, Apple will provide them.

The marketplace rules, you see.

I think Apple is going to make an alternative... Instead of watching movies via blue disks, it would be nicer to watch movies via SD cards.

Disks (any spinning disks) are so 1970's

Blu-ray is old tech and Apple would never put it to their machines.
 
I think Apple is going to make an alternative... Instead of watching movies via blue disks, it would be nicer to watch movies via SD cards.

Disks (any spinning disks) are so 1970's

Blu-ray is old tech and Apple would never put it to their machines.

SD cards are new tech and blu-ray is old?

Replacing a dvd drive with a blu-ray drive is 'apple putting old tech in their machines'?

Blu-rays hold more data, last longer, transfer faster and are cheaper - They're a bit bigger though - although obviously you're replacing an optical drive with an identically sized one to use them, sacrificing nothing.

Do you need me or anyone else that has even the slightest clue about IT to list all the 'older tech' apple put in their products when 'better' alternatives are available? With apple you're paying a premium for aesthetic design, and an OS that's 'optimized' for their small selection of hardware - you are not paying for top of the range and bleeding edge components...

I'm not convinced everyone needs or wants blu-ray. It's a shame that a (worse?) standard that has sony involved 'won the war', but it is here currently. All apple have to do is add the drives as a BTO option and slot them in, it's hardly much effort. Having an apple computer with all it's 'futuristic tech' etc actually having the cpu grunt to play content on the discs is another question - but maybe it might motivate them to actually write drivers properly for the few components that are available on their systems.

Not sure why I responded to your post.
 
I think Apple is going to make an alternative... Instead of watching movies via blue disks, it would be nicer to watch movies via SD cards.

Disks (any spinning disks) are so 1970's

Blu-ray is old tech and Apple would never put it to their machines.

Too bad SD cards aren't as cheap as pressed discs are.
 
Some people like to spend more for less ;)

Yeah I don't understand how you can bring up SD cards as a replacement/alternative to stamped optical media.

Yes, at $80 for something with 2/3 the capacity of a BD - it will take some time to catch on.

The 64GB SD cards will probably be $400 at first....
 
Horrific business strategy? Really??? Hmm, Apple seems to be selling plenty of Macs. Apparently Blu-ray isn't the must-have feature that you (and very few others around here) insist it is? Your crusade currently has a distinctively Don Quixote-esque flavor to it.

Personally, I'm indifferent. I don't use my computer as a movie-watching machine (that's what I have a home theater system for), and frankly I see Sony as a bunch of bumbling idiots these days (obsessed with proprietary lockdown), but I assume the day consumers really do want Blu-ray in their computers, Apple will provide them.

The marketplace rules, you see.

Apple is NOT selling "plenty of Macs." Their desktop sales figures are crashing. Justifiably so.

Divest desktop computer sales from the iCrap division, and we're seeing the last years of Amiga. Only faster.

Now you may want Apple to become Mattel and are thrilled they are three-quarters of the way there, but I don't and I'm decidedly not.

Apattel may want you to believe you can edit a major motion picture on your iPhone, but I'm tellin' ya'; ain't happening for at least 20 years.

And if Apple is leaving the content creator market, they need to STOP MARKETING TO IT.

Here's a vist to a place YOU'VE obviously never been:

http://www.apple.com/pro/

I'm going to spend $10,000+ on a computer by a phone maker? Who's guru and his sycophants tells me I don't need to author and deliver Blu-ray when I've got clients screaming for it 24/7 and asking me why I haven't left Apple like all of our colleagues in the biz?

Puh-leaze....

:apple:
 
Apple is NOT selling "plenty of Macs." Their desktop sales figures are crashing. Justifiably so.

Um, perhaps no one told you about this little recession we're in? All PC sales figures are crashing. Blu-ray or not.

Despite what you may believe, Blu-ray is not the answer to every question.
 
Apple is NOT selling "plenty of Macs." Their desktop sales figures are crashing. Justifiably so.

Yes. People are buying laptops now. Same thing, money-wise.

I'm going to spend $10,000+ on a computer by a phone maker? Who's guru and his sycophants tells me I don't need to author and deliver Blu-ray when I've got clients screaming for it 24/7 and asking me why I haven't left Apple like all of our colleagues in the biz?

Then don't buy one and stop complaining here. End of story.

If you think that Blu-ray is the last piece in the puzzle to bring about world peace, then get something that will author Blu-ray. Windows, if you must. But leave.

Blu-rays hold more data, last longer, transfer faster and are cheaper - They're a bit bigger though - although obviously you're replacing an optical drive with an identically sized one to use them, sacrificing nothing.

Oh, hey, what does that sound like? Hard drives! So replace a Blu-ray drive with a second hard drive and you're even MORE advanced!

Screw disk media.
 
The tech world is going diskless...

Solid State Drive > Hard Drive > Blu-Ray > DVD > CD-R > Floppy Disk > 1970's Disco Disks
 
Screw disk media.

When Apple tanks, I will be laughing at you.

Remember this last exchange, as well as all our previous.

Now, if Apple incorporates Blu-ray, it will not tank. Bet's off then.

But if not, bankrupt by 2012. At the latest.

:apple:

Despite what you may believe, Blu-ray is not the answer to every question.

Despite what you may believe, Blu-ray is the ONLY answer to Apple's survival.

:apple:
 
Oh, hey, what does that sound like? Hard drives! So replace a Blu-ray drive with a second hard drive and you're even MORE advanced!

Screw disk media.

I think you mean 'Screw disc media' - almost as pointless a response as yours! :)

Obviously I was responding to the SDcard comments :)
It also sounds like casette tapes, which tick all the boxes - I'm not sure which one out of discs/disks/cards is 'more advanced' though.

Can't deny that discs are pretty convenient though. Very cheap to produce, hard wearing and large capacity.

I've got a machine with 9 hard disks in and store all my media on there. It cost very little to put together and massively outperforms anything I can buy off the shelf for remotely sensible money. I don't think there's a better way of pushing media round the house and out the router, and I've had it (and similar) for many years now - I'd be the first to say 'screw disc media' but it's not really practical for most people. Nothing simpler than buying a piece of media, wacking it in a machine and pushing the 'on' button.
I've got enough bandwidth to make decent 1080 encode downloads feasible, but the only way of getting high quality/meta tagged content is illegally. I'm not going to buy into some rubbish stopgap solution through itunes or a similar service. The price is too high, the quality too low, and the device lock-in and convenience factor is far worse than the most heavily drm'd blu-ray.
 
The tech world is going diskless...

Solid State Drive > Hard Drive > Blu-Ray > DVD > CD-R > Floppy Disk > 1970's Disco Disks

What you with your view on 'the tech world' would call the 'best' disk systems are using a combination of solid state and magnetic disks, and it doesn't look set to change too soon.
Strange list that doesn't really make any sense anyway :)
 
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