Thanks for the info. I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't recognize the burner but as long as it does, it will be fine.
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Steve Jobs Suggests Blu-ray Not Coming to Mac Anytime Soon
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I wasn't talking about quality in this case. Let's be realistic, most cars have pretty average speakers.
I just meant you could probably fit your entire collection on one (or a small number) BD as AIFF or lossless in stereo. Much better than having CD cases flying around the car everywhere.
+1
I am having no trouble with a lack of optical drive in my mini server.
Of course, you do know the best way to let a thread die out is not to post to it right ? You just participated in keeping it alive. Good work.
You too.
Lack of ODD, or just not in the Mini Mac box?
No optical at all? Or do you use an external or a drive in a system on your network?
I have no problem with the lack of an optical drive on my over three year old HP EX470 Windows Home Server either.
If I need to boot from the OS software DVD to do a bare metal install, I put the DVD into any Windows system on my subnet, an it launches a lightweight UPnP client. The BIOS connects to the UPnP client and does the installation (headless).
So, although my server requires a DVD, it can be anywhere on the net.
No optical at all? Or do you use an external or a drive in a system on your network?
I have no problem with the lack of an optical drive on my over three year old HP EX470 Windows Home Server either.
If I need to boot from the OS software DVD to do a bare metal install, I put the DVD into any Windows system on my subnet, an it launches a lightweight UPnP client. The BIOS connects to the UPnP client and does the installation (headless).
So, although my server requires a DVD, it can be anywhere on the net.
Lol. I'm not sure why people wouldn't want a optical disc drive that is an improvement and doesn't slow down the computer in any way. If someone offered me 2 two Terabyte Hard Drives on a computer purchase, I wouldn't decline it simply because I won't use all the space. The more the better I say
I'm still a strong supporter for blu-ray and prefer it 100% over digital movies, ala iTunes, however, after now owning the new Macbook Air 11.6" since it's release, my stance has changed a bit towards the hardware side of things.
I think its a beautiful thing that they did remove the optical drive. I think it was a very logical move to eliminate the space and I can really appreciate how light and small as it is. So if you ask me now, I would gladly take less.
The solution that I believe and have always believed in are in optional USB optical drives. The Apple USB superdrive is portable enough, and Samsung's new minimalistic blu-ray drives from CES 2011 look almost just as small. My point being, the general audiences can probably live without built in optical media and a provided USB solution can fit the bill for those needing that hardware. Hence, all parties are satisfied.
I do think that all Macbooks will eventually go the way of the Air and eventually axe the optical drive. Perhaps Apple could leave the 17" MBP as the only Macbook laptop to leave it built in, with the premium price that it carries and the value of being a desktop replacement as well, but I see everything else getting rid of it in due time.
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The external drive is OK for a solution on the desktop, but hardly acceptable for portable use.
I have a 12" tablet with an external drive, and a 14" and 15" with drive bay optical. (The drive bay can be optical, spinning or solid state drive (holds any 9.5mm 2.5" SATA drive), or a second batter.)
If I know that I'll need to burn or play opticals, I'll bring one of the larger laptops. Only if I really want to travel light will I take the 12" on a trip.
To bad that Jobs won't build Apples a little thicker so that a drive bay would be an option.
Apple's what? iPad? All an optical drive in that would do is let you look at photos...
Umm, what? Surely if the iPad had an optical drive it would be possible to read music, pictures, video and possibly data?
Ethernet, microphone, camera and card reader are a joke.
Unlike with the superdrive I have no use for this stuff.
Let's hope they get rid of all that crap on the next macbook laptop refresh.
We need to save the space by getting rid of something we never use...
Those are indeed pretty silly. Ultimately it would be great to be able to stream iTunes from the cloud, either directly to the car's radio (preferable) or at least through an iPhone. But I think we're getting there, albeit slowly.
No, that wouldn't be great. I don't want my music to be stuck "somewhere in the cloud" nor do I want any of my data to be. I don't want to have to rely on an external network to access my data.
The cloud is seriously an over-marketed concept.
I actually have not used my USB ports as of yet on my MBP, I say we can rid those as well. Bluetooth as well, and don't even give it any storage so we can save more space. We can have a more theoretical computer. Steve can say this with his hands clasped together. Maybe give it like a small 34MB of storage then I guess, and put in a single core 1 GHZ A4 in the MBP's and we can have 60 hours perhaps of battery life. MAGICAL
There is the rub. The experience of watching something on a Mac at less than 30" or a tablet at less then 10" is very different than 40+" with surround sound.
If you can afford it, and your neighbors are far enough away, nothing beats Blu-ray. But for many people the convenience of a tablet and headphones make more sense.
For me, Mac owns the dramas, but Sony gets all the action movies. Its not an either-or, they are just two different tools in the toolbox. Let's face it, Blu-ray is not competing with Apple, Blu-ray is competing with your local multiplex.
Steve ahead of time
Generally, I think optical drives are doomed in any case, and the future really is on-demand streaming or download offers.
Although iTunes store currently doesn't offer 1080p video, it is only a matter of time when it will appear.
Since the introduction of the CD, we have seen a continuous change of mutually incompatible hardware distribution formats for music and video, and there is no reason why it shouldn't be going on like this, with us buying new drives on a regular basis, and having optical disks in various formats on a shelve at home.
I own a BluRay drive myself, but only because there are no 1080p download offers yet, and so my drive sits in a linux box, and as soon I get home with a new movie on BluRay, I rip it with makemkv, put it through ffmpeg to make 1080p mp4 and 720p (for iPad) versions from it, and save all that on my storage server.
Then I walk around the house while I watch the latest movie on iPad, or I sit down at the big screen to watch it in full HD with mplayer, xbmc or vlc.
There is really not much reason, aside from nostalgic "I own it" haptic experience, why anyone would have to sell a movie on a hardware medium.
Had I been able to download the movie in full HD, I would have done that and the whole process would have been much simpler, and perfectly legal as well.
Using BluRay as a backup medium or a means for private distribution of data is also not really the point. Nowadays, a USB stick or external drives can have a higher capacity, and are easier to use. How many high-end, 100GB rewritable disks would it take you to backup all your stuff, let alone, incrementally?
Generally, I think optical drives are doomed in any case, and the future really is on-demand streaming or download offers.
Although iTunes store currently doesn't offer 1080p video, it is only a matter of time when it will appear.
Since the introduction of the CD, we have seen a continuous change of mutually incompatible hardware distribution formats for music and video, and there is no reason why it shouldn't be going on like this, with us buying new drives on a regular basis, and having optical disks in various formats on a shelve at home.
I own a BluRay drive myself, but only because there are no 1080p download offers yet, and so my drive sits in a linux box, and as soon I get home with a new movie on BluRay, I rip it with makemkv, put it through ffmpeg to make 1080p mp4 and 720p (for iPad) versions from it, and save all that on my storage server.
Then I walk around the house while I watch the latest movie on iPad, or I sit down at the big screen to watch it in full HD with mplayer, xbmc or vlc.
There is really not much reason, aside from nostalgic "I own it" haptic experience, why anyone would have to sell a movie on a hardware medium.
Had I been able to download the movie in full HD, I would have done that and the whole process would have been much simpler, and perfectly legal as well.
Using BluRay as a backup medium or a means for private distribution of data is also not really the point. Nowadays, a USB stick or external drives can have a higher capacity, and are easier to use. How many high-end, 100GB rewritable disks would it take you to backup all your stuff, let alone, incrementally?
Just for fun
So, addressing streaming....
It is a long way off. I currently have both 16Mb and 40Mb internet access at my house, and have been comparing. You know what the difference is between the two? Real world usage? Multiple streams. That's it. (although I need that, so I do like the 40) It's impressive how many websites are either too slow themselves, limit download speeds, or are too busy to be fast. And this is not a USA-only issue. Other countries may offer higher download speeds to some consumers, but the overall picture is just plain not ready, yet.
Speeds capable of handling 1080p are far off, in my estimation. My observation says that most single-stream downloading happens at 12Mbps or slower. "Up to" marketing jargon is crap.
I'm pretty happy with Netflix HD right now, with my 720p TV. We'll see once I have 1080 if I still am. The network sites aren't very good for other reasons, though. (mainly Flash) And I still choose BD over streaming from Netflix. I've got one waiting at home right now.
So, addressing streaming....
It is a long way off. I currently have both 16Mb and 40Mb internet access at my house, and have been comparing. You know what the difference is between the two? Real world usage? Multiple streams. That's it. (although I need that, so I do like the 40) It's impressive how many websites are either too slow themselves, limit download speeds, or are too busy to be fast. And this is not a USA-only issue. Other countries may offer higher download speeds to some consumers, but the overall picture is just plain not ready, yet.
Speeds capable of handling 1080p are far off, in my estimation. My observation says that most single-stream downloading happens at 12Mbps or slower. "Up to" marketing jargon is crap.
I'm pretty happy with Netflix HD right now, with my 720p TV. We'll see once I have 1080 if I still am. The network sites aren't very good for other reasons, though. (mainly Flash) And I still choose BD over streaming from Netflix. I've got one waiting at home right now.
That is correct. I installed my Linux VM's with disk images I downloaded from Novell. In the rare instance I need an optical drive I can use my iMac's optical drive via Remote Install - but I would prefer "target" mode (can't do that with Windows - LOL) with FireWire800.
Even if you're just storing MP3s, you can store 50GB of them instead of 640MB of them.
And the car is actually a perfect place for surround sound audio that Blu-Ray can provide. Acura was putting DVD-Audio players in their cars for years. Think about it, at least 4 speakers, l&r front&back.
Unfortunately, for just plain CD quality music, we already have iPods that went up to 160gb and sadly stopped there. I've pushed my classic to 240gb but the iTunes library just isn't meant to handle any more than 30,000 songs, so I'm stuck. My only real solution is AudioGalaxy but then I run into bandwidth problems with Comcast.
Maybe you'd be interested in a WebTV or one of Sun's old thin clients instead of a computer.
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So your server can access an optical drive....
So, sometimes you *need* an optical drive.
When I need "target mode" on a Windows system, there's a fairly easy workaround for many tasks. The "Windows Recovery Environment" let's you boot from the Windows DVD (or thumb drive). From there you can perform most things on the system drive - even if the system is unbootable.
The GPARTED tool is also very handy for low level disk tasks - it can move/copy/shrink/grow NTFS partitions. The latest versions are even smart about SSDs. It's ISO/thumb drive bootable to a graphical Linux system. The partition editor is graphical, but you also can open command terminals and use Linux utitilies like "dd".
(I'm not trying to get you to switch back to Windows, just saying for the record that much of what target mode would give you is available via alternate methods.)
So, sometimes you *need* an optical drive.
linux2mac said:
When I need "target mode" on a Windows system, there's a fairly easy workaround for many tasks. The "Windows Recovery Environment" let's you boot from the Windows DVD (or thumb drive). From there you can perform most things on the system drive - even if the system is unbootable.
The GPARTED tool is also very handy for low level disk tasks - it can move/copy/shrink/grow NTFS partitions. The latest versions are even smart about SSDs. It's ISO/thumb drive bootable to a graphical Linux system. The partition editor is graphical, but you also can open command terminals and use Linux utitilies like "dd".
(I'm not trying to get you to switch back to Windows
, just saying for the record that much of what target mode would give you is available via alternate methods.)
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So, sometimes you *need* an optical drive.
I can't agree with that because at this point the answer is no. I have not needed to use an optical drive. Now with the launch of the Mac App store, I can get my 2011 versions of Apple software via download - so I doubt I will be using my optical drive in my iMac. I am considering sending it to OWC and having them pull it out and put in a SSD.
That's why I left Windows because pretty much anything you want to do is a "workaround." With Mac, there is no workaround for my daily tasks - it "just works." For example, Disk Utility is a powerful tool. I can clone my hard disk without the need for 3rd party tools. Back on my Windows days, I had to buy Norton Ghost. On Mac, Disk Utility is free.
(I'm not trying to get you to switch back to Windows
Don't worry I won't. I like not having to jump through hoops to get something to work.
Unless, of course, one is using one of Apple's computers that doesn't have FW then a trip to workaround-ville is required.
Lethal
Apple has to provide more utilities because nobody develops software for Macs. On the other hand, third party tools for Windows are always better than the ones provided by Apple for OS/X. Windows software ecosystem is absolutely superior to the one for OS/X and that's why all businesses prefer it.
I used the word "workaround" in the sense that with an Apple mindset you'd approach some Windows problems with the idea that you'd want target mode to fix them.
Someone approaching a Windows problem with a Windows mindset would of course start with the recovery environment - it's not a workaround, it's the natural tool provided by Microsoft.
There's nothing wrong with "target mode", there's nothing wrong with the "recovery environment". Both are tools for experienced users to perform maintenance on a system. Both are adequate for the most common problems.
The only thing wrong would be to expect to be able to drive the square peg (target mode) into the round hole (Windows). Simply use the round peg (recovery environment).
That's funny, no software for Macs. LOL
Hold on, let me check into Panic Software and the Mac App Store - hmmm, lots of software there.
There's quite a bit more out there too but I will leave the googling for you to do yourself.
I think the Windows mindset is - let's release an alpha version of software, charge people money for testing it, fix the bugs, release the beta with more bugs, and charge people money again.....
You get the idea.
i dont believe in what steve jobs says. he has too many inconsistencies to be taken seriously on definitive statements
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