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Blu Ray is dead. The way of the future is to make HD content available via streaming and download.
Ah yes, the mandatory futurist wannabe response... "everything is dead except The Cloud". :rolleyes:

Last year, 379 million music CD albums were sold in the US... that's a 30 year old format. Blu-ray is 4 years old.

The average user could care less about the quality of Blu Ray (just like the average user did not care about the superior quality of the compact disc over MP3).
That's because the difference between a hi quality MP3 or AAC file and raw, uncompressed CD audio is inaudible to most people, including a majority of the fools who think they hear a difference, until exposed to a blind test. (The Audio Myths Workshop video is a hoot).

That's entirely different from video. A half-blind halfwit can tell the difference between pristine HD video and a blocky DivX video. A DVD or Blu-ray movie already is compressed, much like MP3. It's not raw video. A Blu-ray or DVD rip is a heavily compressed version of the compressed version. It's the video equivalent of a 320 mbps MP3 file that's been re-compressed to 64 mbps mono.

As bandwidth increases the higher quality will be made available.
Not much going on in that department, is it? As more and more people are moving to 3G wireless, the carriers are beginning to put caps on their previously "unlimited" plans. AT&T did it for iPad, others will follow. And there's no breakthrough on the horizon for wired broadband either. The average broadband speed in the US as of January 2010 is 3.9Mbps. That's DOWN 2.4% from the year before(!) and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too slow for streaming anything better than badly pixelated YouTube clips. South Korea is the world leader with 14.7 Mbps. Want fast internet? Move to Sandy, Utah... the average there is 32.7 Mbps. Personally I have 100 Mbit, had it since 2005, but if I want movies I buy Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is on the rise and will continue to grow over the next few years.
 
So who's replacing their current Mac Mini for the new model? I'm going to wait and see if the hard drive is replaceable.

Apple just had to raise the price! :mad:

That is what I am waiting to see as well. If there is no way to get to the hard drive - that would kill it for me.

I guess I'm strange, but I don't like putting any data on a drive that I can't get to. If the Mini broke, and I had to send it in for service - I really don't like the idea of all of my data going in as well. Right now I am on an iMac, and I don't use the internal drive at all - I boot and run off of a firewire drive.

With the last Mini, though not convenient, still had a hard drive that was accessible. I'm really curious to see if it is even possible to get the hard drive out of this new one.

One last point about the Mini Server. If Apple knew that they were going to offer a Mini Server, it makes no sense that they would design it so that replacing the hard drive and power supply would be an issue. With a complete redesign, access to these components should have been a priority.

I really like this new Mini, I'm just baffled why some simple but important design features were ignored.
 
There is nothing good about BluRay. I know that upsets people that have been hoodwinked into believing otherwise but it is the truth. Personnally I don't want to have anything at all to do with BluRay or support the idiotcy that justifies the policies of the BluRay organization.

Is not it a telling statement? So you do not want to support the idiocy that justifies the policies of the BluRay organization (I wonder what would those be BTW) but you are just fine supporting multiple idiocies of Apple (which is a world champion of idiocy). I think there is something inherently sick when people start supporting for-profit organizations where they do not have any stake. Apple is not giving you SATA, USB 3.0, decent CPU or GPU, decent HD and BR all for the sake of profit margin and all you have to say is: I am OK with that, I understand they need to make the profits. Not just that you start looking for excuses to justify Apple greed.

So, you are OK with watching movies from iTunes in mediocre quality but you are happy with high end case of Mini? What's the point in having a high end case when the internals are so sub par?
 
There is nothing good about BluRay. I know that upsets people that have been hoodwinked into believing other

It's better quality than iTunes.
It's often cheaper than iTunes.
It's quicker to go to a store and buy a BR, than wait for iTunes to download semi-HD.
You can watch it on any number of hundreds of models of PC Laptops with BR drives.
And your PS3.
And take it round to a friends house and watch it there.
And watch the extras, and subtitles, and directors commentary.
And lend it to a colleague for a weekend.
And your ISP will not cut you off for buying 10 of them in a month.

Infact, your statement is so wrong, it's ironic. There's nothing good about movies on the iTunes store. I see no redeeming quality about buying TV or Movies on iTunes at all. More DRM infested than anything else out there, poor quality, high priced. Where's the up side? I don't see a damn thing. Who's actually been hoodwinked here?

And if another person says 'Oh - but in the future it'll all be downloads'

That's great. In the future all our cars will be flying. We should close all the gas stations and demolish the freeways now, right? Because in the future, our cars will fly so we don't need them.

Pure blinkered idiocy - nothing else.

Here's a crazy idea... how about Jobs stops lying about the 'world of hurt', and gives his customers A DAMN CHOICE.

Put $100 on the price tag for a BR drive - and I'll buy it.

I'll never spend $100 on iTunes movies. Ever.
 
Like what?

Panasonic UJ-235A probably. For those that haven't heard of it, it's a slot loading blu-ray burner. $369 here.

They fitted in the old Mac Mini, but don't fit in the Macbooks as they take 9.5mm drives whereas the Panasonic is 12.7mm.

Question is: What size is the ODD bay in the new Mac Mini and how hard is it to get at...
 
My mini is just hitting a year old, and it hasn't let me down. The only thing thats keeping me back is the price hike.
 
The thing that actually bothers me is where is the grounding for this aluminum case? Once you run 120 volts into such a package it would seem that a ground would be required. I just didn't see one on the AC inlet.


Dave

Not sure about the USA, but in the UK it is quite normal to have 230v appliances that have no ground (or earth, as we call it). We refer to these appliances as 'double-insulated' and mark them with a symbol. The symbol is a square inside a square.

You must also remember that the mains voltage only penetrates a small distance inside. After going through a fuse, the voltage is transformed down to 12v/5v etc. In the UK, the mains lead supplying the device will also have a fuse in it.

To bore you even further..... it is not uncommon in the UK for homes to have no earth (ground) supplied to the property. It is simply not necessary.

If the mind requires further boggling....read on. In the UK we even have a supply system that has no earth or neutral supplied. Even a neutral is not always required.

Plenty more boring stuff here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthing_system
 
It's also $100 more. Why is their cheapest Mac getting a price hike?

Note the loss of a USB port from the last model. Otherwise this looks like a winner.

Yes, the price bump probably will have me looking for the old model used somewhere to get a cheap Mac setup.

I like how they include a HDMI to DVI adapter instead of a MDP to DVI adapter (more expensive), which also would screw up my imagined use of it (HDMI to my TV and DVI to a monitor).

We'll see when I'm in need of a mini, but the price bump is a bit disappointing.
 
There is nothing good about BluRay. I know that upsets people that have been hoodwinked into believing otherwise but it is the truth. Personnally I don't want to have anything at all to do with BluRay or support the idiotcy that justifies the policies of the BluRay organization.

Spoken like someone who has never watched a blu-ray disc.

Watch Avatar on blu-ray. Say what you will about the quality of the movie itself. But theres no denying that the audio and visual quality is downright stunning. The video bit-rate on that disc literally peaks at 45Mbps. It's encoded using H.264. It has lossless audio. The video looks so good its almost like you can reach out and touch the people on screen. That can be said for many blu-ray discs.

And the audio? Stunning. The vast majority of blu-ray discs either have uncompressed PCM or lossless audio. Compare that to the typical ~320kbps AC3 film-based theaters used. You literally get better audio quality than nearly every single movie theater in the world, except SOME theaters with digital projectors. And the video quality gets an extra special treatment, since the blu-ray disc is made from the best film transfer.

And what are the bad policies of the Blu-Ray Association? The DRM policies? Apple uses the same DRM for certain aspects of iTunes HD video (if you can even call them "HD" since they don't even compete with upscaled DVDs), and they use different types of DRM for other aspects of iTunes HD video.

The fact of the matter is, that on a modern computer, all you need is a blu-ray drive. Everything plays without a problem.

As bandwidth increases the higher quality will be made available.

You could need at least a 60Mbps connection to faithfully stream blu-ray quality. Thats enough for the 45Mbps+ stream and overhead to deal with any hiccups in the connection.

Don't bring up "compression" either. Blu-ray already uses H.264 and VC-1. Further compression results in degraded quality.

Blu-ray is on the rise and will continue to grow over the next few years.

Yup. And it's still growing at more than twice the rate DVD did. All the blu-ray haters forget that it took DVD nearly 7 years to finally break 51% market share and overtake VHS. It didn't happen until the end of 2003. DVD was released early 1997. DVD was not an overnight success. Blu-ray is not an overnight success but it is being adopted faster than DVD. It's impossible for anything of this nature to succeed as fast as fanboys expect it to be.
 
Panasonic UJ-235A probably. For those that haven't heard of it, it's a slot loading blu-ray burner. $369 here.

They fitted in the old Mac Mini, but don't fit in the Macbooks as they take 9.5mm drives whereas the Panasonic is 12.7mm.

Question is: What size is the ODD bay in the new Mac Mini and how hard is it to get at...

Since you can't play BR movies on OS X, it makes no difference to me. I want OS X, not Apple hardware with Windows.
 
dead - 9 dictionary results
dead   [ded] Show IPA adjective, -er, -est, noun, adverb
–adjective
1.
no longer living; deprived of life: dead people; dead flowers; dead animals.
2.
brain-dead.
3.
not endowed with life; inanimate: dead stones.
4.
resembling death; deathlike: a dead sleep; a dead faint.
5.
bereft of sensation; numb: He was half dead with fright. My leg feels dead.
6.
lacking sensitivity of feeling; insensitive: dead to the needs of others.
7.
incapable of being emotionally moved; unresponsive: dead to the nuances of the music.
8.
(of an emotion) no longer felt; ended; extinguished: a dead passion; dead affections.
9.
no longer current or prevalent, as in effect, significance, or practice; obsolete: a dead law; a dead controversy.
10.
no longer functioning, operating, or productive: a dead motor; a dead battery.
11.
not moving or circulating; stagnant; stale: dead water; dead air.
12.
utterly tired; exhausted: They felt dead from the six-hour trip.
13.
(of a language) no longer in use as a sole means of oral communication among a people: Latin is a dead language.
14.
without vitality, spirit, enthusiasm, or the like: a dead party.
15.
lacking the customary activity; dull; inactive: a dead business day.
16.
complete; absolute: dead silence; The plan was a dead loss.
17.
sudden or abrupt, as the complete stoppage of an action: The bus came to a dead stop.
18.
put out; extinguished: a dead cigarette.
19.
without resilience or bounce: a dead tennis ball.
20.
infertile; barren: dead land.
21.
exact; precise: the dead center of a circle.
22.
accurate; sure; unerring: a dead shot.
23.
direct; straight: a dead line.
24.
tasteless or flat, as a beverage: a dead soft drink.
25.
flat rather than glossy, bright, or brilliant: The house was painted dead white.
26.
without resonance; anechoic: dead sound; a dead wall surface of a recording studio.
27.
not fruitful; unproductive: dead capital.
28.
Law . deprived of civil rights so that one is in the state of civil death, esp. deprived of the rights of property.
29.
Sports . out of play: a dead ball.
30.
(of a golf ball) lying so close to the hole as to make holing on the next stroke a virtual certainty.
31.
(of type or copy) having been used or rejected.
32.
Electricity .
a.
free from any electric connection to a source of potential difference and from electric charge.
b.
not having a potential different from that of the earth.
33.
Metallurgy . (of steel)
a.
fully killed.
b.
unresponsive to heat treatment.
34.
(of the mouth of a horse) no longer sensitive to the pressure of a bit.
35.
noting any rope in a tackle that does not pass over a pulley or is not rove through a block.
–noun
36.
the period of greatest darkness, coldness, etc.: the dead of night; the dead of winter.
37.
the dead, dead persons collectively: Prayers were recited for the dead.
–adverb
38.
absolutely; completely: dead right; dead tired.
39.
with sudden and total stoppage of motion, action, or the like: He stopped dead.
40.
directly; exactly; straight: The island lay dead ahead.
—Idioms
41.
dead in the water, completely inactive or inoperable; no longer in action or under consideration: Our plans to expand the business have been dead in the water for the past two months.
42.
dead to rights, in the very act of committing a crime, offense, or mistake; red-handed.

Origin:
bef. 950; ME deed, OE dēad; c. Goth dauths, G tot, ON daudhr; orig. ptp. See die1

—Related forms
deadness, noun
half-dead, adjective

—Synonyms
1. Dead, deceased, extinct, lifeless refer to something that does not have or appear to have life. Dead is usually applied to something that had life but from which life is now gone: dead trees. Deceased, a more formal word than dead, is applied to human beings who no longer have life: a deceased member of the church. Extinct is applied to a race, species, or the like, no member of which is any longer alive: Mastodons are now extinct. Lifeless is applied to something that may or may not have had life but that does not have it or appear to have it now: The lifeless body of a child was taken out of the water. Minerals consist of lifeless materials. 6. unfeeling, indifferent, callous, cold. 10. inert, inoperative. 11. still, motionless. 16. utter, entire, total. 20. sterile.

—Antonyms
1. living, alive. (Blu-ray in 2010--Porco)

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.


Just thought that might help some folk out who seem confused about what 'dead' actually means.
 
I understand that the bandwidth isn't yet to deliver Full HD quality (1080P) as fast as we all would like. But it's coming. In the meantime why doesn't anyone come up with an alternative to Blu Ray. I've said this before, but why can't I go to my local CVS and plug my re-usable SD card or USB Thumbdrive into the Movie Vending machine, load the latest release of a movie on to it and then go home and transfer it to my hard drive?

This. Copy-protection is already available on a file-by-file basis through a few methods, and it doesn't seem like this would be too difficult to pull off. Maybe Apple could find a way to pioneer this approach? Probably not, though.

jW
 
Arg just got my refurb a month ago. Only big thing I wanted in the new one was 320m which it got, but not worth the extra $$ imo.
 
So who's replacing their current Mac Mini for the new model? I'm going to wait and see if the hard drive is replaceable.

Apple just had to raise the price! :mad:

Just looked it up in the service manual and the hard drive is not user replaceable. You have to take out: The memory, fan, cowling, antenna cover and then the logic board(needs a special tool to take out) then you can have access to the hard drive. :(
 
Just looked it up in the service manual and the hard drive is not user replaceable. You have to take out: The memory, fan, cowling, antenna cover and then the logic board(needs a special tool to take out) then you can have access to the hard drive. :(

Afterward, you take a grinder to the top to ensure easier access next time.
 
Since you can't play BR movies on OS X, it makes no difference to me. I want OS X, not Apple hardware with Windows.

Eh?

MakeMKV (OS X) can rip Blu-Rays, and Plex/XBMC can play the ripped M2TS files.

Perfect media centre! With a Drobo or something on the network for storing the ripped films.
 
That is what I am waiting to see as well. If there is no way to get to the hard drive - that would kill it for me.

I guess I'm strange, but I don't like putting any data on a drive that I can't get to. If the Mini broke, and I had to send it in for service - I really don't like the idea of all of my data going in as well. Right now I am on an iMac, and I don't use the internal drive at all - I boot and run off of a firewire drive.

With the last Mini, though not convenient, still had a hard drive that was accessible. I'm really curious to see if it is even possible to get the hard drive out of this new one.

One last point about the Mini Server. If Apple knew that they were going to offer a Mini Server, it makes no sense that they would design it so that replacing the hard drive and power supply would be an issue. With a complete redesign, access to these components should have been a priority.

I really like this new Mini, I'm just baffled why some simple but important design features were ignored.

Paranoid just like me :). I also don't like the thought of my HDD going in for service if I can't access it. While the new mini makes upgrading the RAM easier it looks like getting to the HDD might be trickier. I never replaced my mini's HDD but did upgrade the RAM. Getting to the HDD is really not as difficult as some people think with the old mini.
 
This. Copy-protection is already available on a file-by-file basis through a few methods, and it doesn't seem like this would be too difficult to pull off. Maybe Apple could find a way to pioneer this approach? Probably not, though.

jW

This approach seems damned sensible. There is a parallel to this in the BBC iPlayer service.

Demand for it outstripped bandwidth and got BT all heated up over it. BT wanted several caching servers housed around the UK to dish out content from a more local source, taking some demand off their backhaul. BBC and BT then started arguing over who should pay for these caching sites.

Doesn't seem impossible for a system to be developed that can sit in a supermarket and vend these movies etc. An overnight update would bring in the latest content.

DRM will continue to be the spanner in the works with this though. I also wonder what the difference is with picking up the BR disc instead of copying the content onto a USB stick. I think the Apple way is for us all to sit on our fat arses and have everything come to us via the internet.

I can't wait for the iTunes Grocery Store!
 
Lol, yeah. I imagine they do this to keep costumers going to the apple store. Same thing with the unibody Mbps, macbooks, iMacs and MacBook air

No, the newer unibody MBPs have the RAM and hard disk available on the underside. I know my late 2009 is that way. I don't know about the others.
 
Actually they have already started to roll out the 1000MB/s internet connections. Everyone will have minimum 100MB/s next year.

So kiss your precious Blu-rays goodbye! Everything´s gonna change really soon. So better start selling those Blu-ray collections now when they are still worth something. Next year it will be a totally different story. :cool:
 
The thing is, this may be expensive, but where are you going to get something of the same build quality that runs Mac OS?
You could get a crappy compact that runs Windows for maybe ~450/500 pounds.
But it won't look as good and it won't run OS X

won't look as good, no, but it will sure run OS X.

:)
 
Lol, yeah. I imagine they do this to keep costumers going to the apple store. Same thing with the unibody Mbps, macbooks, iMacs and MacBook air

In my city (Bath, UK) we've got an Apple retail store (been here a few months) and a Premium Reseller / Authorised service centre who have been here for ever.

So if the HDD / ODD is hard to get to (boo!), I'll just take it to the authorised service centre.... as they'll probably be cheaper than the Apple store!
 
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