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
Apple doesn't listen.
Apple dictates.
Consumer: We want a computer with Blueray drive
Apple: No you don't
Consumer: Yes we do, hence we're asking. We'd like to use our hundreds of movies at our computer in stunning HD!
Apple: No you don't, you want to rebuy them on iTunes and redownload all the movies you already bought!
Consumer: No i don't, I have movies I already bought, I just want to use them on the computer.
Apple: But iTunes is better than blue ray. We swear! you don't really want blueray.
Consumer: BUT I ALREADY HAVE BLUE RAY FOR EVERYTHING ELSE!
Apple: But our desktop computers are super thin!
Consumer: We want an SD card to expand our storage on the iPhone and iPad.
Apple: No you don't. You want to pay $100 more to get double the memory.
Consumer: But I can get 4x the memory for $80 less if I could insert an SD card.
Apple: The iPhone & iPad have retina displays and Siri can answer your questions.
I installed a Memorex USB 3.0 Blu-Ray Writer drive to my Mac Mini 2012 setup a few months ago and it plays and writes BD discs just fine, including commercial discs (I use the free player VLC with the proper codec plugins).
I paid $55 for the Memorex 12x speed writer (16x DVD and 48x CD). I'd hardly call that expensive, especially given you need an external drive of some kind anyway if you want to read or burn DVDs and CDs. This drive is FAST with USB 3.0.
You clearly checked prices when they first came out years ago, and never looked at them again. Besides, if being over priced for what you get was much of a concern, you wouldn't own any Apple devices at all.
Amusing FUD is amusing.
Basic name-brand bluray players can be had on sale for $50 quite often, which is $10-20 more than you pay for DVD players now. If that's too much how do you afford to buy any movies on DVD?
When I first started buying bluray they were coming out for LESS than the same movie on DVD. They're more now, but not much. The most expensive bluray movie I've bought was $18. Most I spend $5-10 each on.
Since this thread was dead and resurrected DVDFab has come out with a Blu Ray player for OSX. better than that other one.
Does it have full Blu-Ray menu support? Every player I've looked at thus far for the Mac has no menu support (kind of 1982 VCR-like). The player in question appears to be $59. That's more than my BD/DVD/CD USB 3.0 hardware cost me so it had better have menu support or the FREE stuff wins (i.e. I could buy 3-6 BD movies for that) Even with menus, I'm not sure it's worth it since VLC will add them eventually.
For me "full blu-ray support" means native disc playback. In other words, it reads the movie right from the drive, and so far I haven't seen any that do that for the Mac. They all rely on breaking the copy protection on the disc and then the ripping it to the hard drive, and then playing back the bdmv files from there.
Android doesn't listen.
Android dictates.
Consumer: We want the latest version, I think its JB 4.2.2
Google: No you don't
Consumer: Yes we do, hence we're asking. We'd like to be able to have Google Now because all the iOS users are talking about how great it is.
Google: No you don't, you enjoy Gingerbread. It's a great OS.
Consumer: No i don't, it lags and it's slow and I heard JB is really good. Hell, just give me ICS at least!
Google: Gingerbread is on 38% of devices, and Key Lime Pie is coming out soon! We have no intention of letting you have the latest version of Android. But make sure you tell everyone how cool the latest version is, even though they most probably will never get it!
Consumer: Yes...master.
Google: Goood...goood.
You can't blame Google for the crappy situation the manufacturers and telcos have placed them in. I'm sure they'd love to give you the latest and greatest version of their OS, but...well...you know.
Is there any proof other than forum fodder that people who buy Macs are dying for a Blu-Ray drive and are oppressed by Apple?
Yes. I know. And the reason you talked about Android is because I satirized the guy who said "Apple dictates" by mentioning Android.
So when you tried to explain away what I said, I asked you a question that attempted to figure out why you're not trying to explain away what everyone is saying about Apple and Blu-Ray drives.
Probably easier if I dont beat around the bush: Do you believe Apple users are REALLY saying "We want Blu-Ray!!!!" and they just can't leave Apple for greener Blu-Ray pastures? If it was such a deal-breaker why aren't they leaving?
If so, you can acknowledge that Android users are saying "We want JB" and can't leave Android for greener more frequently updated iOS pastures right?
Or is it that cognitive dissonance thing rearing its ugly head again?
I think it's you reading more into the conversation what's actually there.
All I said was Google would probably like it if everyone could get the latest OS updates, but the carriers and manufacturers make it hard on them. Next thing I know, there's all this crap about Blu-Ray and how I'm apparently taking sides in some issue I really don't give a crap about since I don't own an Android device, and use a Windows PC where I can get all the Blu-Ray I can handle if I so wanted.
But if you want to get on topic, yeah, Apple should've provided a Blu-Ray option long since. It's not a make or break deal for me, since I stream most of my movies off Netflix, iTunes, or Hulu, but...yeah...
And even if I did take a side, it's not cognitive dissonance, since you're comparing apples to aardvarks here. Google can't control their manufacturers (unfortunately). Apple, on the other hand, controls everything about their machines. Google CAN'T give you the latest updates. Apple could give you a Blu-Ray drive if they wanted to do so. Or at least write OS drivers so you could hook up an external drive to a 27" iMac.
Again, if the majority really were clamoring for a Blu-Ray drive they would have long since chosen an alternative that offers one. Truth of the matter is, it's not a big deal, unless of course you believe that whole "Apple users are sheep who do what Apple tells them" stuff. Do you?
If a Blu-Ray drive really was in demand by all of Apple's customers would they not give them what they want? Can you provide proof that Apple's customers are begging, crying, hoping, praying for a Blu-Ray drive, and then say "aw shucks" when it doesn't happen? Or even proof that Apple has ever said "The majority of our customers want this, but we will choose what's best for them."
It's forum fodder. You got, what is it, 10 people saying how Apple ignores their customers? and Apple selling millions of Macs/qtr and somehow the 10 people are representative of all Mac customers as a whole?
The reality is, Apple customers don't care about Blu-Ray drives. If they did, they'd go elsewhere, or of course Apple has managed to brainwash their customers (because that's realistic).
I thought Apple didn't listen to their customers. I know I see that little quip thrown around here quite a bit.
All you have to do is google "Apple Blu-Ray" and see a billion and one articles about either enabling it on OSX, how to rip it from one computer and play on a Mac, or why it isn't included by default. I don't know if every Apple customer cares about Blu-Ray, but there was some strong interest in it.
Really, I don't think it was a make or break deal for Apple. Obviously it wasn't, because they're still around, selling computers at a nice, brisk pace. But it sure would've been nice to have. You know, something to use in place of those near useless superdrives that came standard on Macs up til recently.
The only reason Apple didn't include Blu-Ray was because it interfered with their plans for iTunes. Apple would much rather you download a movie from there than buy a disc at a store. More money for them.
Think it's conjecture on my part? Then look at it like this. Apple included an optical drive in every one of their machines but the Air from 2008 to 2012. That's 4 years they could've paid the minimal license fee to slap one into an iMac.
Yet they didn't. Why? Because optical drives are dead? They still came standard for 4 years after the bag of hurt quote. There was no reason for them NOT to upgrade it from DVD to BR.
And do I think all Apple customers are sheep? No. But I do think some will defend Apple no matter what choice they make. This conversation is a perfect example. You have all these people saying they choose Macs because they "want the best" of everything. Best OS. Best hardware build. Best software. Best audio. If it's the best, they want to lay claim to it. That's why they choose Macs.
Then they turn around and say they don't care about the one medium that still to this day offers the best video and audio capabilities. Even the latest and greatest in high def streaming technology falls short in comparison. Apple doesn't offer it. Said it was a bag of hurt. Why should they care?
You want to talk about cognitive dissonance, there you go.
Last edited:
My point exactly. It's thrown around here a lot. On a forum where people who DON'T represent the majority congregate to argue about whether Apple or Google is better. It's not thrown around outside of the Internet, because if it was Apple wouldn't be selling 4 million Macs every 3 months.
Sure, online. When it starts affecting their sales then we can correlate the interest with the majority.
Can't argue with that at all. I personally would have loved a Blu-Ray drive on my Mac. But, I am not vain enough to think that my wants/needs represent the whole, the majority, or even the majority of the minority.
Businesses want to make money. Novel concept.
Sure there was: Money. Apple wanted to maximize their profit. And it didn't seem to affect or deter too many people from buying Macs. Corporations want money, consumers want good products. That's why Apple is successful, and also why Samsung is successful.
As do Android users. And Windows users. And Blackberry users. And Marlin fans. And Nets fans. And Laker fans. And anything else that exists that has a fanbase.
So you are saying that Apple has brainwashed its userbase? Look, I'm not arguing that there aren't fanboys. Of freakin' course there is! But the truth remains, that unless you subscribe to the cooky "Apple has brainwashed 30M+ people every three months!!!!!!!!!!!!", the fanboys are not representative of even 1/2 of 1% of the majority. The average consumer/customer doesn't know, or care about anything other than the catchy commercial, whether it be the iPhone laid against a white background, or some Russian spy dodging lasers and machine guns to hold the latest Droid phone in his hand.
ddid anybody mention the blu ray licensing costs? getting a blu-ray player onto my pc working properly was such a pain in the rear end.
My laptop has a blu-ray drive and came with the program power dvd (what a pile of garage) I had to get another program just to Power DVD HD would play. I have it figured out now and not sure if this issue is better now or not, it is WAY too locked down. It will always feel that those who purchase their content get punished while those who do not can just click a button and have their movie play.
Well, I like to have a physical copy of movies I really like. I like to collect them, and having an iTunes collection is a bit meh.
Sounds like you had a bad experience with software, which I can understand. That's why I just use a regular stand-alone player.
It's worth noting the movies on the iTMS are more locked down than blu-rays.
Hear, Hear!
If it wasn't for the efforts of "DVDJohn" those decades ago we'd be having the same PitA experience trying to play DVDs on our computers.
Not to mention the blu-ray's picture and sound quality are light-years better.
You do realize the problem with Android is that Google has almost no control over how quickly handsets update, right?
I guess you haven't looked very hard, then.
VLC plays right off the drive here. As far as I know (although I haven't used the others), so do the other three players (although at least two of them supposedly ripped off VLC code from what I've read from the VLC guys).