Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Phil Schiller Claims Customers Aren't Asking for Built-In Blu-Ray Anymore
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Sadly, we live in what I call "The Age of Mediocrity."
Play a vinyl record on a good turntable against a CD and the record slaughters it . . . but very few people care.
Sure, if you just ignore it long enough eventually it won't matter anymore.
It's too bad that in 2012 there's still nothing that comes even close to the quality of Blu-ray on a mass distribution scale. This is all about iTunes... no more, no less. I am a happy Apple user but they've been downright douches on this issue.
It's too bad that in 2012 there's still nothing that comes even close to the quality of Blu-ray on a mass distribution scale. This is all about iTunes... no more, no less. I am a happy Apple user but they've been downright douches on this issue.
Awe come on!
I want support for a distribution medium that:
- I have to go to a store to buy (I like burning gas)
- Is very easily damaged
- Is something else I need to carry/keep track of
- Has a reading mechanism that takes up 25% of the space in my laptop (instead of shrinking the laptop's size or increasing its battery size)
- Has to spin to be read, so it uses moving parts that a prone to wear and breakage
- Has to spin to be read, so it uses up my battery
- Is yet another distribution medium that will be outmoded (see Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, CDROM, DVD). Are people really not getting this?
BlueRay is such a massive POS. Please make it go away.
I want support for a distribution medium that:
- I have to go to a store to buy (I like burning gas)
- Is very easily damaged
- Is something else I need to carry/keep track of
- Has a reading mechanism that takes up 25% of the space in my laptop (instead of shrinking the laptop's size or increasing its battery size)
- Has to spin to be read, so it uses moving parts that a prone to wear and breakage
- Has to spin to be read, so it uses up my battery
- Is yet another distribution medium that will be outmoded (see Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, CDROM, DVD). Are people really not getting this?
BlueRay is such a massive POS. Please make it go away.
Even more ironic, in my opinion, coming from the Apple crowd who seems to pride themselves on quality, no?
MakeMKV (just use the free trial beta) + VLC combo: very fast (no reencoding, just remuxing takes place) and free. Works for me just great - and can be quickly remuxed to M4V files for (hardware) iOS playback / streaming.
Why should the 90% of us who don't need blu-ray in our computers have to pay for it? If you want blu-ray, you can buy a top of the line recorder/player along with needed software for less than $300 that you can Velco on the back of your iMacs stand.
If you want to live in the past, get a Windows system. Heck, over 40% of Windows users are still using the XP operating system which was initially released in way back in 2001. It will also let you keep using your floppy disks.
You can be sure that Apple will never include blu-ray, 4K, or 8K on any future computers. The market for creating and playing those formats on your computer is way to small to justify it. If you want it, buy an add-on unit.
By the same measure I bet lot of people will actually mistake the new iMac to be a LCD Screen slapped on the face of a huge dust pan.
So why spend all that time and energy to make it look that good?
Yep. Proof positive. After all, of those Top 10 Blu-Ray titles:
Prometheus - Blu-Ray outselling DVD by roughly 6.5:1
Cinderella - Didn't make the DVD charts, but it's an old title which has been available on DVD before, and this is the first Blu-Ray release
The Avengers - DVD currently outselling Blu-Ray, but behind overall
ET - Blu-Ray outselling DVD by 4:1, but it's an old title which has been available on DVD before, but this is its first Blu-Ray release.
Rock of Ages - DVD outselling Blu-Ray by about 3:2
Dark Shadows - DVD outselling Blu-Ray by about 3:2
The Raven - DVD outselling Blu-Ray by about 9K (75K vs. 66K)
Snow White - DVD outselling Blu-Ray by roughly 200K
WWE - DVD has outsold Blu-Ray by about 5K units (28K to 23K)
Hunger Games - DVD has outsold Blu-Ray about 2:1
So, of all the examples pulled from your link, there are three instances of Blu-Ray currently outselling the DVD of the same title. Two of those are older movies which have been available on DVD for years, but are only just now being released on Blu-Ray. Only one is a new title. If you add the overall numbers it's slightly better due to The Avengers, but DVD seems to be catching up.
Based on your own source, Blu-Ray sales still haven't caught up with DVD sales. Note: Some of the Top-10 Blu-Ray titles don't fall within the Top 10 DVD titles, but are *still* outsold by their DVD counterparts, but this is probably related more to the fact that there still aren't quite Blu-Ray releases for every new title yet. (It's getting close, though.)
These forums are an echo-chamber, which does *not* reflect the general population.
If you look at the rMBP threads you would think that people aren't asking for Blu-Ray because they're too busy asking for CD/DVD. 
That said, there are far too many better substitutes for general storage. For movie storage, online is still better. And yes, you can't always stream 1080p (though many can), but for blue ray you have to drive to the store and for rentals you have to return them. In that time, you can usually download a whole movie.
That said, there are far too many better substitutes for general storage. For movie storage, online is still better. And yes, you can't always stream 1080p (though many can), but for blue ray you have to drive to the store and for rentals you have to return them. In that time, you can usually download a whole movie.
A $2000 laptop from 1999 has a floppy drive. I bet that really has you in stitches.
If this were comparable to those situations, I'd agree with you. When Apple got rid of the Floppy Drive, I immediately supported it, even though it caused me some hassles because we still used Floppies for a number of things. But we had Optical Drives then which could do everything a Floppy could - and were rapidly dropping in price to being more cost effective.
When Apple got rid of ADB in favor of USB, I supported it, because USB could do everything ADB could. Same with SCSI to Firewire.
Getting rid of optical drives? Well... what does what an optical drive does? Downloads/Uploads? Not really - you need a fast internet connection, and a lot of free disk space to make that workable. They can't be used for long term archival purposes or large distributions to customers. They're awful for media authoring. Okay, what about USB flash drives? They can do a lot of what optical drives do, but cost a LOT more than equivalent storage, are terrible for distributing to large numbers of people, and are unstable for long term archival purposes. External HDs have much of the same problems.
The fact is - NOTHING currently exists which replaces Optical Drives efficiently for all of their uses. Hence my objection to removing them, and my desire for Blu-ray which *is* an improvement on the current Optical Drive support.
Actually... when you use archival quality media, Blu-Ray discs will survive about 10-20 times longer than an average HDD or Flash Media device. HDDs and Flash Media are Not Recommended for Archival level storage.
Absolutely - as long as it could play Blu-ray disks. I'd buy one right now to replace the PS3 in my home theatre if they had that.
*I* want to watch BR movies on a computer - when I travel, which is often. I have a whole lot of Blu-rays, and when I need to travel it would be incredibly nice if I could grab a couple of them off a shelf and be able to watch them on the plane or cruise ship or in the hotel where I end up. In none of those places is the option of streaming a movie over the internet a workable option.
I don't have a lot of iTunes movies (or any real interest in getting them), because I don't have space on my laptop to store them, and am almost always in a place where I can't stream. Streaming is only useful for home theatres - laptops need DVD/Blu-ray.
If only it streamed on all devices at 1080p 5.1 Surround sure Netflix is great. Amazon Prime is nice to at 720p 5.1 surround some movies and TV series but it they both do not stream new movies mostly Indie and Foreign movies. And when I am talking about devices I am talking about my Sony Blu Ray BDP-S780 player not Apple TV.
Just rip it, put the BD disc on your shelf and play the ripped video back from the HDD - as you'd do with iTunes Store movies.
Are you suggesting the movies you NOW purchase (as 1080p at most) will be updated for free(!) to, say, 4k if the latter is released? I seriously doubt it - you'll end up having to re-purchase it. As you'd do with the 4k version of the physical-media version.
So where is iTunes 11? Does this mean more free Cloud storage or still 5GB free? I want to back most of my stuff before switching to the new iMacs.
None of that will work when you're dealing with older generations. they just learned how to work the dvd player, they certainly aren't going to watch something on a usb stick or log on to youtube. They want discs of their grandchildren they can pop in and watch. Yeah, there are people in this world that don't have the latest and greatest in tech.
How are they "inconvenient?" You get a disc, put it in the tray/slot, and watch a movie.
Sounds pretty simple to me.
Yea I guess my DVD movies are all useless now.
See my response to another poster's claim the Blu-Ray is clearly beating DVD in sales. Of the top 10 Blu-Ray titles, 3 of them are being outsold by their DVD counterparts, *despite* the fact that those DVD counterparts don't make the top 10 list for DVD titles. Two of the three Blu-Ray titles that clearly and convincingly beat their DVD counterparts (Cinderella and ET) are older titles which have previously been available on DVD, but are only now becoming available on Blu-Ray. (The DVD demand has been largely filled by the prior releases, so it's not a good comparison.) Only one title, Prometheus is a like-to-like comparison where the Blu-Ray is currently outselling the DVD. (There's another title where the Blu-Ray is ahead overall, but the DVD is *currently* selling better.)
Average Joes indeed don't know the difference or the quality gains of using BD discs as they hardly (if ever) read the tech press - for example, the article at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1340463/
In this regard, Schiller is indeed right - these people are indeed the majority of users. But not all of them - we, video/audiophiles do exist. Just stating NONE of the Mac (/ iOS) users need better IQ/AQ is a blatant lie - even if it's Schiller that states it.