Well, you can play discs under OS X. It just takes a bit of effort. Hopefully, Plex 0.9 will help with that, though. Got to get the plug-in working.
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Steve Jobs Suggests Blu-ray Not Coming to Mac Anytime Soon
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Well, you can play discs under OS X. It just takes a bit of effort. Hopefully, Plex 0.9 will help with that, though. Got to get the plug-in working.
Yes, but that: (a) presumes that every component in the legacy sound system is of adequately high quality to pass fidelity muster; (b) presumes that there's a sufficiently objective difference in performance beyond the published specs that merits non-cognitive perceptual significance (ie, noticeable in a true double-blind test); and (c) presumes that the listening human is young enough to still have 'golden' ears (note last week's news report of a JAMA paper that found that 20% under age 20 are now affected).
...is another use case, so naturally things might be different.
The DIVX business model was profoundly different ('rent' instead of 'own'), which was a far more significant differentiator for the consumer than any other consideration. There already was laserdisc for the high end, so the target audience was elsewhere...and FWIW, consider carefully the implications now of all of this talk of streaming to replace physical media: it very well may be the DIVX gambit all over again.
YMMV as to how many months there are in roughly three years: DIVX was vaporware for 15 months (Sept 97 announcement), and only existed as a real product in the US market for all of 6 months (Dec 98 - June 99) until Circuit City formally surrendered.
Agreed, but since that was still the period of Early Adopter consumers, all you're really doing is illustrating that modern improvements in broadening product launches does help contemporary products reach a broader audience faster, so marketplace adoption rates should logically always be better today than in the past...regardless of if the product is better, equal, or even inferior.
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If the BD movie doesn't autoplay, it doesn't count.
Other systems for less than $600 have BD drives, and you can even get a 17" Core i5 with BD for $700. (Less than a third of the price of a 17" Apple with a Core i5 and no BD capabilities...)
How much money on top of the Apple price do you need to pay to watch BD movies on an Apple, and how many hoops do you need to jump through to make it happen? (And how many wall-warts and cables and external drives....)
Windows: Insert BD movie into drive, and watch
Apple OSX: It doesn't "just work"
Apple OSX: It doesn't "just work"
Somehow, the "world's most advanced operating system" seems to be a second rate OS in this regard.
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DVD is capable of Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES, both are 6.1 systems. There is no 7.1 system specified for official DVD releases. Mainly this is because the system, including the SPDIF digital connection, cannot handle the bandwidth for more channels.
Dolby Digital Plus is capable of 7.1 or more channels, but you need Bluray and HDMI 1.3 to transfer it. Same goes for Dolby Digital TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master Audio.
Guess that counts out all BD players, then. They must just be DVD players.If the BD movie doesn't autoplay, it doesn't count.
If the BD movie doesn't autoplay, it doesn't count.
Other systems for less than $600 have BD drives, and you can even get a 17" Core i5 with BD for $700. (Less than a third of the price of a 17" Apple with a Core i5 and no BD capabilities...)
How much money on top of the Apple price do you need to pay to watch BD movies on an Apple, and how many hoops do you need to jump through to make it happen? (And how many wall-warts and cables and external drives....)
Windows: Insert BD movie into drive, and watch
Apple OSX: It doesn't "just work"
Somehow, the "world's most advanced operating system" seems to be a second rate OS in this regard.
the problem with this is that most apple users are very loyal to mac so it doesn't matter if it can play blu-ray or not they'll buy it anyways.
look at the iphone 4G, the phone came out and the reception, which is the most important part of the phone sucks and yet people would line up for miles just to be able to get the iphone 4G. what did apple do to compensate for it? they gave everyone a free case which cost them nothing and yet people thought steve was a saint for doing it.
I don't find the MakeMKV method to be a viable form of playback. It goes against Apple's "it just works" motto.
Is that a problem? Apparently a whole lot of "new" customers don't think so.
If you just gotta have BD playback on your computer, buy a Windows box!
I feel that Steve is negotiating with the BD people so as to loosen the insanely restrictive policies on playback. He's not gonna "Vista" OSX and is willing to lose a few sales because some peeps just gotta play BD.
The best negotiation come from a position of strength, like when you can say: "We don't need you. You need us. Here's our terms."
Sooner or later his tactic is likely to work. It did with the music industry.
He sticks to his principles. I'd switch to Mac just for that reason if I hadn't already. Even if Macs were still using G4s and running Tiger.
No Problems,
Keri
PS. Microsoft took the opposite path and agreed to all of the insane software and hardware anti-piracy measures. Result: Vista and plummeting sales. BD wasn't the whole problem but it played a part....
Is that a problem? Apparently a whole lot of "new" customers don't think so.
If you just gotta have BD playback on your computer, buy a Windows box!
I feel that Steve is negotiating with the BD people so as to loosen the insanely restrictive policies on playback. He's not gonna "Vista" OSX and is willing to lose a few sales because some peeps just gotta play BD.
The best negotiation come from a position of strength, like when you can say: "We don't need you. You need us. Here's our terms."
Sooner or later his tactic is likely to work. It did with the music industry.
He sticks to his principles. I'd switch to Mac just for that reason if I hadn't already. Even if Macs were still using G4s and running Tiger.
No Problems,
Keri
PS. Microsoft took the opposite path and agreed to all of the insane software and hardware anti-piracy measures. Result: Vista and plummeting sales. BD wasn't the whole problem but it played a part....
Well, obviously Apple's position is anything but strength. There market share being under 5% who would even care? Sony? They probably are very happy about Apple stupidity as it brings more customers for their VAIO laptops.
Nobody is stopping you from using a Blu-ray burner+reader on your Mac. They are only stopping you from playing Blu-ray movies on your Mac.
And forcing you to pay for a DVD drive + Blu-ray drive instead of just the Blu-ray drive.
And forcing you to pay for a DVD drive + Blu-ray drive instead of just the Blu-ray drive.
Considering DVD burners are less than $20 (and even cheaper when sold in bulk) this isn't really a big deal. It's not like Apple charges extra for a Superdrive upgrade anymore. It is annoying that they don't offer a Blu-ray upgrade option, but clearly they won't do it until (if ever) they support Blu-ray movie playback.
Even if Apple did offer a Blu-ray upgrade option though it would probably still end up being more expensive than buying a 3rd party drive. It would be nice though.
Whose Blu-ray movies is Apple stopping? What if it's my movie DVD that I make with Final Cut Pro? The problem is that HD content sucks space like crazy, and I'm having to consider upgrading to Blu-ray. It's taking a long time, but eventually I will have to upgrade to whatever gets approved as the new optical format. That looks like Blu-ray, unless Apple or somebody comes out with a better format that is also universally-compatible.
But by doing so, Apple is practically forcing Windows on Blu-ray fans' Macs!
Is this really such a smart move?
Let's face the truth: Win 7 is not that many steps behind OSX anymore. It is not nearly as bad as Vista or XP.
What if these Mac people are getting used to Windows 7 and (what a nightmare!!!) actually start to like it...
who cares?
really though who watches blu ray's on a 15" screen? lol
blu ray is a fad with no market penetration, dvd will be superseded by digital distribution, not another disc format
really though who watches blu ray's on a 15" screen? lol
blu ray is a fad with no market penetration, dvd will be superseded by digital distribution, not another disc format
I care.
What if you only have blurays and no dvds, it doesnt matter what size the screen is, you just wanna watch them.
Bluray is not a fad...its a new technology that is quickly becoming mainstream.
oh yeah tracked by who?
none of my digital downloads are going to be tracked by any official source, and I'm def not alone
I said sales of digital downloads not piracy. I doubt if the Blu-ray numbers include those nicked by shoplifters.
There isn't?
Allmost everything meant for theather or hd is widescreen.
You mean tv-shows in past millenium?
I'm assuming he meant that most movies are not displaying in 16x9 format like all HD TVs are now-a-days. This is why you still get black bars when watching some HD moves on your 16x9 TV.
Maybe, just maybe one of these days we'll have a single international format that doesn't require "stretching" of the video to fill the screen perfectly.
I'm just gonna chirp in about the black bar issue.
The reason you still see black bars when watching a HD movie on a 16x9 screen is because (assuming you have set everything up correctly) of a choice the director made.
If you watch The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Once Upon a Time in the West and most other "epic" films you will see black bars. This is because the director decided to shoot in 2:35:1 which is even wider than regular widescreen...it makes things look cool and epic.
Most other non-epic films are shot in 1:85:1 which is close to 16x9 and will show up onscreen without black bars. As far as I know, 1:85:1 is not exactly 16x9, more like 16x8.999 or something, but the DVD image is stretched ever so slightly to make up for it.
The reason you still see black bars when watching a HD movie on a 16x9 screen is because (assuming you have set everything up correctly) of a choice the director made.
If you watch The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Once Upon a Time in the West and most other "epic" films you will see black bars. This is because the director decided to shoot in 2:35:1 which is even wider than regular widescreen...it makes things look cool and epic.
Most other non-epic films are shot in 1:85:1 which is close to 16x9 and will show up onscreen without black bars. As far as I know, 1:85:1 is not exactly 16x9, more like 16x8.999 or something, but the DVD image is stretched ever so slightly to make up for it.
Because an HD movie, even a Blu-ray dropped down to >720p, looks a lot better than a DVD on a 15" display.
Downloads are going to require lots of hard drive space (double for backing up) and those files are easily stripped of their DRM (Blu-ray's easy too, but a lot more complicated). Distribution is up to one group and one group only: The Studios. They like optical media because they believe it gives the complete control of their product.
This reminds me of the statement from and anti-tax person I ran into. "Why do we need NASA to send up weather satellites? We already have the Weather Channel."
Your "downloads" likely started with someone transcoding a Blu-ray disc.
Wow. You seriously didn't read my post and don't know about this stuff ? Do you like stretched out images ? HD and theater content is not 16:9 aspect ratio. Almost all Hollywood stuff out there is either 2.35:1 or even 1.85:1 (16:9 is the equivalent of 1.777777777:1). I'm talking about the new stuff.
About the only widescreen 16:9 content out there is HD TV stuff in 720p and a few movies.
There's nothing wrong with black bars. Black bars mean your image is in the proper ratio. I seriously have a hard time watching stuff stretched out or squished down (I call them Little&Fat mode or Tall&Thin mode), I can't believe some people don't notice it and just want to get rid of the black bars no matter what.
@KnightWRX: Well said.
Guys, you didn't buy the wrong TV set. You didn't miss out on any technology. The black bars are there for a reason. What you can do is have your entire precious screen "filled out" by stretching the picture vertically. You might miss out some key details that way, but hey, at least there is no more "unused, wasted" space on your TV's. Whatever makes you happy.
Guys, you didn't buy the wrong TV set. You didn't miss out on any technology. The black bars are there for a reason. What you can do is have your entire precious screen "filled out" by stretching the picture vertically. You might miss out some key details that way, but hey, at least there is no more "unused, wasted" space on your TV's. Whatever makes you happy.
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