No Blu-ray. No buy. Simple as that.

[mikes70mustang]

What would any of you do if you were in the Electronics Research division on Apple's main campus, with the world breathing down your neck for even better features? You would start making cuts that the majority approves of. If I was blessed enough to be on that team and saw that 1% of people used ExpressCard, I would get rid of it too. The fact of the matter is that the majority of people do not use blu-ray, or care about it enough to justify Apple putting it in their products. It's not only a matter of making people pay for what they don't use, it's Apple's strive to make their customers happy. That's why they innovate and add popular features they think the public will like, because it makes them money. Right now, at least, the numbers aren't telling them to add blu-ray, even if this thread is. Apple doesn't have time to release a product outside of the labs against the odds and hope people like it.

They dont know that 1% of people use the EC. Id bet a paycheck that their "findings" wernt correct, their research methods wernt through, and they just flat out didnt to it right. Take a few Stats and research classes and youll know what im talking about.

 

[Techhie]

They dont know that 1% of people use the EC. Id bet a paycheck that their "findings" wernt correct, their research methods wernt through, and they just flat out didnt to it right. Take a few Stats and research classes and youll know what im talking about.

They may or may not know what they are talking about, but I specifically remember a person (Phil, maybe?) in the Keynote on Monday saying "Less than 1% of our MBP customers use the ExpressCard slot". Wether that be true or not, it's definitely no secret that Apple pleases customers with attractive features that the majority likes, which means someone must have done their math right along the line of the past 30 or so years.

 

[mikes70mustang]

They may or may not know what they are talking about, but I specifically remember a person (Phil, maybe?) in the Keynote on Monday saying "Less than 1% of our MBP customers use the ExpressCard slot". Wether that be true or not, it's definitely no secret that Apple pleases customers with attractive features that the majority likes, which means someone must have done their math right along the line of the past 30 or so years.

if so they would have put hdmi

 

[skinnylegs]

but Leopard vs Win 7 is no comparison, Windows blows OS X out of the water

Based on what? LOL Honestly, I think you lost any credibility you may have had with this statement.

I have a BR DVD player in my living room and love it. I will go so far as to say that watching non-BR movies is almost *painful* now. That said, I could give a fat rat's arse if I have BR drive on my MBP because that's the last place I'm going to watch a movie, especially in BR. In terms of backing up data, the *last* thing I'd trust is a disc of *any* sort. That's sooooo 90's.

 

[CaptainChunk]

While I don't tend to agree with Apple's stance on Blu-ray either, the OP continues to be shocked that Apple doesn't offer BD-R drives. This shouldn't be surprising; Apple has shown no interest in adopting Blu-ray for years.

The fact of the matter is, people who buy Blu-ray movies generally want to see them on their monster 50+ inch HD televisions with 7.1 lossless surround sound, not on 15" or 17" laptop screens.

Again, I'm not defending Apple. I'd like BD built into an Apple laptop as much as the next guy, if for only being able to burn discs for large backups. But if they were going to do so, they'd have to go all the way and enable commercial Blu-ray movie playback. Anything less would be marketing suicide. And that's really the kicker. Apple wants to sell you HD content on iTunes and so far, they've stood strongly on that decision. Do I agree with it? No. Will things change? Doubtful.

 

[bruinsrme]

I go through several retailers regularly, in fact I make it a point to see the Blu-Ray offerings. Even though I have decided not to jump on the BR Bandwagon I still like to see what's going on with that market.

I have not seen any real expansion in the BR aisles of retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, and others. If any place has shown an increase that would be Best Buy, but I know they are using profits from another department to do any expansion.

.

It is very easy to straighten a bin but the labor content is consuming when done. Even 20 minutes is 20 minutes an employee is tied up where they could be putting much higher profit generating material on the shelves for the shoppers.

Sears sells bluray? didn't know that.

Around where I live bluray stock is growing more and more.

PC makers didn't make it easy to connect an HDMI TV but on our dells once we knew what to do it became very easy.

The argument can go either way but now that I have a bluray player on my laptop I can purchase one format, take it anywhere I want to go and can also play dvds if need be.

 

[uberamd]

if so they would have put hdmi

Cant you get a display port to hdmi adapter for $20?

 

[haoqfu]

When I see a 45GB flash drive maybe. When I can plug it into my home theater maybe. Until then, if I want true HD video, blu-ray is the way to go.

Even a DL DVD is 8GB, which is more than the flash drives I have - and they still won't plug into my home theater.

For true, high quality audio and video, there's nothing that beats optical disks. Convenience has trumped quality with audio, and may do so with video too - but I doubt it. Apple can't even sell lossless audio because of bandwidth costs, and doesn't sell true HD video for the same reason - not that any of us could afford the charges if they did (ISP's would move to a per-GB limit overnight if a bunch of folks started downloading 30 and 40 GB movies).

lossless audio LOL
may i ask what your headset is? if you are just using a sub $300 earset, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between lossless and 256kbps.

 

[jamesryanbell]

Then you're stuck with complaining on an internet forum while I'm getting the most out of the best laptop currently made. Have fun with that.

 

[barkomatic]

Customers WANT everything. But the majority wins. Blu-ray fans are the smallest minority! Get that through your head. NOBODY I know in real life (and I work in IT) wants a blu-ray player in their computer, and I know 2 people who actually own one, and one is a PS3 (he has no blu-ray movies). So for the love of god, its not as 'in demand' as the people who visit these forums think. We forum members are the minority of the Apple community and usually when we want something, the majority of the market doesn't give a rats @$$.



Exactly. 0. I work in IT, and like I said, I know nobody with one in their computer, and know nobody who wants on there.

You are simply wrong. As more people purchase HDTV they are dicovering Blu-ray. Best Buy would not stock several aisles of Blu-ray if it were a "minority" of people that want it.

Just because your personal experience suggests Blu-ray is insignificant doesn't make it so.

In fact, Microsoft has pointed out in their famous ads that Macs lack Blu-ray. It's not some odd feature that only 5 people in the world want.

 

[uberamd]

You are simply wrong. As more people purchase HDTV they are dicovering Blu-ray. Best Buy would not stock several aisles of Blu-ray if it were a "minority" of people that want it.

Just because your personal experience suggests Blu-ray is insignificant doesn't make it so.

In fact, Microsoft has pointed out in their famous ads that Macs lack Blu-ray. It's not some odd feature that only 5 people in the world want.

Currently the market for blu-ray is small enough for Apple to consider it insignificant. Sure more people are getting HD TV's, and thats lovely. HOWEVER, most people don't want to hook their laptop up to their TV to watch HD movies. I am the only person I know that hooks my laptop up to my TV to watch downloaded movies, and when I do hook my laptop up to my TV my friends act like I just performed some scientific feat. Its not something consumers want to do. Consumers may eventually all want blu-ray in their living room, but how many consumers want to watch blu-ray on their laptops? Insignificant percentage. People buy the huge 60" 1080p TV's for a reason, and don't want to watch HD movies on their 15" display. And when standalone blu-ray players drop in price, this will be a moot argument.

 

[aiterum]

Based on what? LOL Honestly, I think you lost any credibility you may have had with this statement.

I have a BR DVD player in my living room and love it. I will go so far as to say that watching non-BR movies is almost *painful* now. That said, I could give a fat rat's arse if I have BR drive on my MBP because that's the last place I'm going to watch a movie, especially in BR. In terms of backing up data, the *last* thing I'd trust is a disc of *any* sort. That's sooooo 90's.

there is another post he stated where he elaborated but I'm guessing you haven't even used windows 7

 

[Iphone3gs]

Apple may put blu ray if....

Apple may put blu ray if....enough people want it and petition about it.

just like the firmwire when loads of people said no firmwire no macbook for me.

Then after 8 months and next update firmwire was added.

 

[Gasu E.]

I've never seen a more closed-minded bunch of people. You do realize that just about every other laptop manufacturer offers Blu-ray drives on their laptop line.

Actually, I could configure a dell (or HP) with an SD slot, user-removable 7 hour battery, backlit keyboard, firewire, eSata, and Blu-ray. What apple did today most other makers did a year ago. All Apple did was the minimum to remain competitive.

I can't believe that anyone would praise them for this. You should all be booing them for doing so little.

My next laptop is going to have Blu-ray and eSata, and I'll be getting it when USB 3 comes out. If Apple doesn't make a laptop with those specs at that time, I'll get a Dell, which will have a normal DVI port too...

I can't speak for Snow Leopard, but Leopard vs Win 7 is no comparison, Windows blows OS X out of the water.

We're not closed minded. We just don't care. I don't need Blu-Ray, and I like OS X. Do you have a problem with Mac fans expressing their preference on a Mac fan site? Are you some kind of evangelist? Are you trying to save us?

Mac has ~10% market share, and I'm okay with this. Apparently Apple isn't going out of business, and I can get all the SW I want either natively, or via Bootcamp if necessary, so I'm a happy camper. I infer from Apple's ~10% market share that some other vendors have ~90% market share, and I would assume their products are attractive in some real way, as in my experience only about 25% of the human population consists of complete imbeciles. So maybe ~65% of the market wants Blu-Ray or Windows 7 or some other non-Apple thing for some good reason that has nothing to do with me. More power to 'em, and I hope those people are happy with their choices. Really.

 

[nuckinfutz]

We're not closed minded. We just don't care. I don't need Blu-Ray, and I like OS X. Do you have a problem with Mac fans expressing their preference on a Mac fan site? Are you some kind of evangelist? Are you trying to save us?

Clearly he is I mean who buys a computer today to get work done? It makes far more logical sense to spend $1000 on a computer to replicate the duties of a $170 device. Why would any fool spend $170 for a Blu-ray player that hooks up to their big screen when they scan spend 6 times more and watch the same movie on a much smaller screen? <sarcasm>

 

[Cave Man]

Apple may put blu ray if....enough people want it and petition about it. just like the firmwire when loads of people said no firmwire no macbook for me. Then after 8 months and next update firmwire was added.

There's more to it than this. Firewire doesn't come with any baggage, Blu-ray does. For instance, the BD+ standard requires OS-level code that parses the disc for decryption keys every few seconds. It also parses the hardware for HDCP compliance. The discs can ship with executable code that has the ability to modify the OS-level software. I suspect Apple believes this is an unacceptable intrusion into OS X imposed by the studios.

Not to mention discs compete with iTS.

 

[aiterum]

We're not closed minded. We just don't care. I don't need Blu-Ray, and I like OS X. Do you have a problem with Mac fans expressing their preference on a Mac fan site? Are you some kind of evangelist? Are you trying to save us?

Mac has ~10% market share, and I'm okay with this. Apparently Apple isn't going out of business, and I can get all the SW I want either natively, or via Bootcamp if necessary, so I'm a happy camper. I infer from Apple's ~10% market share that some other vendors have ~90% market share, and I would assume their products are attractive in some real way, as in my experience only about 25% of the human population consists of complete imbeciles. So maybe ~65% of the market wants Blu-Ray or Windows 7 or some other non-Apple thing for some good reason that has nothing to do with me. More power to 'em, and I hope those people are happy with their choices. Really.

so what you're saying is that you're okay with just getting whatever apple gives you without any concern for keeping up with current technology just because apple already has their specific audience? I believe you're missing the point that Apple is not keeping up with current technologies and is just letting their specifications slide to competitors. Heh but then again if you're content with Apple sticking to their niche and giving you the bottom line that's cool, just don't **** with people who want the company to be a little more up to date with these sorts of things.

 

[edoates]

my issue is i have a ps3 and would like to buy some blue rays. however, i dont want those disks to be limited to just that device, i would like any media i have to woork on as many media devices as i can in a sesne (like dvd with my computers and me taking them with me to watch...i dont care for 1080p and if the screen cant support it, i just dont want to buy multiple versions of movies)

Bingo! That's the rub. If you buy (or rent) a bluray movie for your home theater that does have a decent screen so you can see the difference, then unless a digital copy is included (SD) you can't watch it on your Mac. I travel as well, and like to take movies from my collection rather than be subject to whatever the airline/hotel think I should be watching. But it's not a deal breaker for me on the MBP.

The place I want a Bluray is a MacPro, and I want writer and authoring software (DVD SP, for example). Yes, the blanks are too expensive now for general use, but so were DVD-R when they first came out. I think I still have some "vintage" apple branded DVD-R 2x media that was about $5 per disk! But they will get cheaper.

Bandwidth limitation still inhibit internet distribution of 1080p24 (or i60 or i30) movies for most people in the US. That will change, but not tomorrow; we just don't have the infrastructure yet. XDXC may give us a solid state solution with the bandwidth and capacity, but it's not here yet either. Replicated Bluray are a lot cheaper per disk ( cost to manufacture) than XDCD is likely to be.

So for those reason, I'd like Apple to adopt Bluray readers/writers for the "pro" machines, and provide a BR Player for USB/Firewire/eSata attachment for others.

Just by 2 cents.

Eddie O

 

[akm3]

so what you're saying is that you're okay with just getting whatever apple gives you without any concern for keeping up with current technology just because apple already has their specific audience? I believe you're missing the point that Apple is not keeping up with current technologies and is just letting their specifications slide to competitors. Heh but then again if you're content with Apple sticking to their niche and giving you the bottom line that's cool, just don't **** with people who want the company to be a little more up to date with these sorts of things.

'Current technology' is digital downloads. So, Apple is giving me the most current (although not highest quality) technology.

Specifications are not equal to benefits.

'be a little more up to date with these sorts of things' ? Seriously? I have over 300 movies available at a whim with a remote control that has a gorgeous interface to navigate, with artwork, movie descriptions/ratings, etc, stored on hard drives with far more capacity then BluRay discs, redundantly backed up. My child can operate this system to select a movie she wants without ever risking a physical disc.

You have to open a little plastic case and fumble with plastic discs that can be lost or scratched, can't play in the majority of computers, and if you want to switch movies you have to get up and fumble with a different plastic disc.

WHO is the one up to date with these sorts of things again?

 

[Tilpots]

'Current technology' is digital downloads. So, Apple is giving me the most current (although not highest quality) technology.

If by "Current Technology" you mean "State of the Art" then it's Blu-Ray and now digital downloads. I hope we all can agree on that fact. Don't think it's really debatable.

 

[akm3]

If by "Current Technology" you mean "State of the Art" then it's Blu-Ray and now digital downloads. I hope we all can agree on that fact. Don't think it's really debatable.

Maybe*, but you are confusing MEDIUM with CONTENT.

The state of the art medium is still digital files (on hard drives). They are more convenient in every way than plastic discs.

Look at it this way: If Digital downloads content was superior quality to Bluray, would people be whining about wanting to retain their plastic discs?

With the speed that computer power increases, bandwidth increase and storage costs decrease, having higher than bluray quality CONTENT is not a far off proposition. So, please let go of the outdated MEDIUM so we can get there faster.

*Define state of the art. Looking at specifications, cost per gigabyte of writable storage favors hard disks. Cost per gigabyte of ROM storage favors ... hard disks. Bit rate transfer favors hard disks. Interoperability favors hard disks. Thus, Hard disks are more state of the art than optical discs. The CONTENT issue favors bluray as the obviously superior content choice. But like I said above, that will quickly change once we abandon quaint plastic discs. There is no reason we can't have quality superior to Bluray with today's technology, in a digital file. We shoudl be lobbying the content providers to provide the content and give up the dead medium.

 

[Benguitar]

Ok, enjoy whatever else you buy, simple as that.

lol exactly.

I was just about to say "Why the **** are you complaining about it? You already choose *No Blu-Ray, No Buy* so why did you make a thread about it?"

 

[Tilpots]

Maybe*, but you are confusing MEDIUM with CONTENT.

The state of the art medium is still digital files. They are more convenient in every way than plastic discs.

No. You are confusing Convenience with Quality.

State of the Art:

The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time.

The highest level of development is Blu-Ray. It is superior to Digital Downloads. Again, that's a fact. Digital Downloads don't have the video or audio quality that Blu-Ray has achieved and won't for a long, long time, mostly due to it's delivery method, as you mentioned.

Look at it this way: If Digital downloads content was superior quality to Bluray, would people be whining about wanting to retain their plastic discs?

With the speed that computer power increases, bandwidth increase and storage costs decrease, having higher than bluray quality CONTENT is not a far off proposition. So, please let go of the outdated MEDIUM so we can get there faster.

If Digital Downloads were the current State of The Art, they would have my full support. When they surpass Blu-Rays quality, I'm all over it. Until then, Blu-Ray is still king.

 

[Anuba]

They can't add Blu-ray because they can't decide on whether to rebrand it as "HyperDrive", "ÜberDrive", "SuperDrive Extreme", "SuperDuperDrive" or "OMG!Drive".

 

[akm3]

No. You are confusing Convenience with Quality.

State of the Art:


The highest level of development is Blu-Ray. It is superior to Digital Downloads. Again, that's a fact. Digital Downloads don't have the video or audio quality that Blu-Ray has achieved and won't for a long, long time, mostly due to it's delivery method, as you mentioned.



If Digital Downloads were the current State of The Art, they would have my full support. When they surpass Blu-Rays quality, I'm all over it. Until then, Blu-Ray is still king.

I understand what you are saying, and you have a good point. For what is available to consumers now, BluRay is the highest quality audio and video standard. But I object to calling it 'state of the art' because 'the art' has much higher quality, capable with today's technology, than is possible on a Bluray disc. 4k recordings are an example. Yes, that isn't widely available in a consumer based format. But there is no reason it could be. Also, there is no technological reason Bluray equivalent files couldn't be sold to us, the content producers choose to burn from their hard drives to a medium to sell to us.

So again Bluray is NOT state of the art in regards to audio and video quality reproduction. It is the best available to consumers.