Steve Jobs Suggests Blu-ray Not Coming to Mac Anytime Soon

[marksman]

While Steve has valid points, I think he exaggerates and underestimates respectively for the popularity of downloadable/streaming for high quality video and the footprint of blu ray. Big name movies like Avatar and The Dark Knight sold MILLIONS of copies within a week of release on blu ray. By comparison, SACD and DVD-A aren't even known as a format by most consumers. It's a law of diminishing returns. Only audiophiles can/will distinguish between 256kbps CDs and the higher quality formats. That is not the case for Blu Ray.

Meanwhile, itunes still only has 720p whereas the HD standard is 1080p. Even microsoft and sony have got around to delivering 1080p to their consoles. Storage is not to the level where people can comfortably store 1080p collections locally. This will likely continue to be the case, as maximum storage capacities increase, so will the media movies are stored on so as to make it impractical to store collections of 10 to 100s of movies on a disk or SSD, as it may be.

If you go back and read what he says, he is telling you the future of this kind of media is not going to be local storage. Steve is right on this. The content providers don't want people to have their own copies of stuff to keep. So ultimately that is not what will happen. Everything will be streamable, but it will not be able to be archived, thus the end user will have no worries about trying to store a big library of tv and movies on their own.

As much as I believe the major content purveyors are greedy bastages, at the end of the day it is their content, and I agree with their right to do what they wish with their content.

Sure some of the licensing will allow you unlimited or lifetime access ala buying a movie on Amazon Download, but the future is going to be much more contained and closed, and people owning and storing their own copies is not going to be how things work, via streaming or specific media like blu-ray.

 

[MacTheSpoon]

I think Steve is making a mistake.

 

[carmenodie]

Blu Ray is a joke. It is just another format pimped by Sony to make extra cash because they ran out of things to do with the cd. Blah blah fart!
And when Blu Ray reaches market saturation Sony will dig yet another format out its a** and the cycle continues.

 

[lilo777]

How it is now, one can obtain a 1TB drive for very cheap so storage isn't an issue. Besides, when I get DVD's I just end up ripping them to my HDD anyway with HandBrake so they become digital anyway. Besides why wouldn't you want digital copies of the same source quality from a rip? You never have to worry about your disc wearing out or scratching. Plus, if you run out of room you can just buy more space for cheap. It's not that big of a deal really, to me at least.

Now I completely understand the whole cap thing with certain countries and their ISPs but here in NJ on Optimum, grabbing an entire file for download of an HD movie isn't really an issue and streaming HD video is flawless (for me and my area at least) so I can understand where Jobs is coming from. We have come to the point where the price for large amounts of storage is almost a non-issue and the technology exists to easily allow the transfer of HD content quick enough for the vast majority of consumers.

For me at least, and it is just my opinion and situation, I prefer digital distribution and digital media in general to the physical counterpart. Also, the music in my library, although being originally on discs, is now entirely digital and the discs are who the hell knows hahaha so I have embraced this whole digital era. It's just easier not worrying about where you left that physical disc and once you find it worry about whether its in good enough condition to still play the desired files. For me at least, this simplicity outweighs the negative of storage concerns (unless of course BluRays start seeing mass appeal as writable personal storage or a backup medium which, once again, still isn't yet the case due to how cheap HDD's and other storage are for the storage they offer in return).

Whatever HD you can stream from the net right now is far inferior to BR. Everybody with decent Home Theater knows that. How many years do I have to wait until Steve creates infrastructure for streaming BR quality movies?

 

[decadentdave]

Blu Ray is a joke. It is just another format pimped by Sony to make extra cash because they ran out of things to do with the cd. Blah blah fart!
And when Blu Ray reaches market saturation Sony will dig yet another format out its a** and the cycle continues.

By then 4k will be the standard.

 

[one09jason]

Between Hulu and Netflix I'm just giddy.

Really? The quality of the video of both these sources are both terrible - even Netflix HD streaming. Nowhere near the quality of the discs.

I think that the music and video downloads are going the way of the cell phone calls. Low quality is convenient for the companies selling it because they can server larger numbers of customers. So streaming video will always be low quality, even in the future when the average person has more internet bandwidth.

 

[lilo777]

If you go back and read what he says, he is telling you the future of this kind of media is not going to be local storage. Steve is right on this. The content providers don't want people to have their own copies of stuff to keep. So ultimately that is not what will happen. Everything will be streamable, but it will not be able to be archived, thus the end user will have no worries about trying to store a big library of tv and movies on their own.

As much as I believe the major content purveyors are greedy bastages, at the end of the day it is their content, and I agree with their right to do what they wish with their content.

Sure some of the licensing will allow you unlimited or lifetime access ala buying a movie on Amazon Download, but the future is going to be much more contained and closed, and people owning and storing their own copies is not going to be how things work, via streaming or specific media like blu-ray.

The future of course is an interesting subject. What about today? What do Apple fans watch today? Some iTune-quality crap? It's quite a sacrifice. And for the sake of what? I understand that many Apple fanboys do not feel that they sacrifice anything as long as they follow the advice of their leader but we know better, don't we?

 

[sigma8]

I can't stand optical drives in laptops, they're big, they suck battery. They're noisy.. The burning times are a "bag of hurt"...

That said, I distrust cloud computing. I use it, but it's a supplement, not a replacement for my storage needs. I demand some kind of physical media, and if you're going to have it, why not pick the best mainstream format?

BTW Steve, hope your AppleTV v3.0 is better than 1.0 and 2.0, because the first two were far less appealing than just buying a blu-ray player. The PS3 makes a fine AppleTV replacement plus more.

IMO: take optical drives out of your laptops, instead have SD card AND expressCard... but for god's sake, if you can afford the licenses for DVDPlayer, how much could Blu-RayPlayer possibly add? Especially with Jobsian leverage..

 

[decadentdave]

The future of course is an interesting subject. What about today? What do Apple fans watch today? Some iTune-quality crap? It's quite a sacrifice. And for the sake of what? I understand that many Apple fanboys do not feel that they sacrifice anything as long as they follow the advice of their leader but we know better, don't we?

 

[inlovewithi]

The future of course is an interesting subject. What about today? What do Apple fans watch today? Some iTune-quality crap? It's quite a sacrifice. And for the sake of what? I understand that many Apple fanboys do not feel that they sacrifice anything as long as they follow the advice of their leader but we know better, don't we?

Thank you.

 

[Enzobot24]

Blu Ray is a joke. It is just another format pimped by Sony to make extra cash because they ran out of things to do with the cd. Blah blah fart!
And when Blu Ray reaches market saturation Sony will dig yet another format out its a** and the cycle continues.

Well there's some reductionism and misinformation all scrambled together.

Pretty sure Panasonic has more patents on Blu-ray. This reminds me of conspiracy theorists - Sony really doesn't have that much power.

If anything, we should be angry that Apple is attempting to shove 1.5GB "HD" movies down the market's throat - when 35GB+ Blu-ray movie files are clearly designed to replicate that "filmic" look. Grain and all.

I really am starting to hate Steve. Mac users are just being left in the dust - only iPhone users matter now.

 

[sigma8]

also feel like adding: Steve I agree with you on Flash, but all you're doing with this decision is forcing me to buy other devices to watch movies that I buy in the movie section at BestBuy.

 

[marksman]

Wanting to store a bunch of discs in your room baffles me. The industry is moving away from physical media.

This is what so many people here don't understand.

The content providers call the shots and Steve knows the future.

Putting in Blueray players for content playback would be pissing in the wind at this point.

 

[AbSoluTc]

This is what so many people here don't understand.

The content providers call the shots and Steve knows the future.

Putting in Blueray players for content playback would be pissing in the wind at this point.

It's blu-ray and no, it would not.

 

[dukebound85]

dagnabit Mr. Jobs

first your terse reply on the iphone and then this

you sir, are not earning any brownie points from dukebound85

concede on one or both!

do it....you know you want to

 

[Enzobot24]

This is what so many people here don't understand.

The content providers call the shots and Steve knows the future.

Putting in Blueray players for content playback would be pissing in the wind at this point.

Yeah... wanting to own something in a universal standard - which can't be "killswitched" or made instantly unplayable if the service provider goes under - is silly.

It wouldn't be pissing the wind, it would be respectful to consumers. Apple used to be accommodating. Now Mac and iPhone users are forced to play in a content restricted world. That's greed, not innovation.

 

[-=XX=-Nephilim]

This is what so many people here don't understand.

The content providers call the shots and Steve knows the future.

Putting in Blueray players for content playback would be pissing in the wind at this point.

I disagree...

By simply replacing utter crap of "super drive" with current tech Steve would be loosing oh so valuable 0.XYZ% of the profit on each Mac sold (this is if prices remain as they are) and he simply doesn't want that...

Would I use BlueRay on daily bases? No.

Would I rather have it instead of crap "super drive"? Hell frekn YES!

Simple as that...

 

[_Refurbished_]

Almost everyone here is under Steve's spell. It has nothing to do with what format will win, that's just Steve's excuse for everyone to talk about and reason with. It's quite clear, however, Steve is concerned about iTunes rentals / Apple TV. He is throwing everyone off with "the future format" BS, and the reality is, he wants to see Blu Ray fail, because it would benefit his products. iTunes rentals and Apple TV benefit if Blu Ray goes under, period.

Personally, I feel this is a stupid move. Blu Ray will succeed or fail regardless of whether Apple includes playback on their PCs. Steve Jobs doesn't feel this way. I'd bet he thinks that Apple has a role in the outcome of the format war, and he's 1000% wrong. It will succeed or fail on many other factors. All he's doing is pissing off consumers. Blu Ray is not some weird "PC only" niche. It's a mainstream format that should be supported on mainstream computers.

 

[-=XX=-Nephilim]

Almost everyone here is under Steve's spell. It has nothing to do with what format will win, that's just Steve's excuse for everyone to talk about and reason with. It's quite clear, however, Steve is concerned about iTunes rentals / Apple TV. He is throwing everyone off with "the future format" BS, and the reality is, he wants to see Blu Ray fail, because it would benefit his products. iTunes rentals and Apple TV benefit if Blu Ray goes under, period.

Personally, I feel this is a stupid move. Blu Ray will succeed or fail regardless of whether Apple includes playback on their PCs. Steve Jobs doesn't feel this way. I'd bet he thinks that Apple has a strong role in the outcome of the format war, and he's 1000% wrong. It will succeed or fail on many other factors. All he's doing is pissing off consumers. Blu Ray is not some weird "PC only" niche. It's a mainstream format that should be supported on mainstream computers.

Exactly

 

[marksman]

In Steve-like brevity...

Steve is wrong. People want an Apple PVR. People want archive ability for video and data. They want to be off the Internet more than you think. People want to play the media in non-apple non-connected appliances.

Yeah but Steve correctly knows the future of media storage is not on the local level. It is centralized and cloud-based. That is where it is going to be.

So the fact that people want this, that or the other thing is irrelevant. Steve is looking at the future and clearly does not see a big enough window of time to make it worthwhile to do something like add Blu-Ray.

 

[teme]

The future of course is an interesting subject. What about today? What do Apple fans watch today? Some iTune-quality crap? It's quite a sacrifice. And for the sake of what? I understand that many Apple fanboys do not feel that they sacrifice anything as long as they follow the advice of their leader but we know better, don't we?

I agree to this totally.

 

[tssfulk]

By comparison, SACD and DVD-A aren't even known as a format by most consumers.

I love my SACDs.

 

[OzExige]

Almost everyone here is under Steve's spell. It has nothing to do with what format will win, that's just Steve's excuse for everyone to talk about and reason with. It's quite clear, however, Steve is concerned about iTunes rentals / Apple TV. He is throwing everyone off with "the future format" BS, and the reality is, he wants to see Blu Ray fail, because it would benefit his products. iTunes rentals and Apple TV benefit if Blu Ray goes under, period.

Personally, I feel this is a stupid move. Blu Ray will succeed or fail regardless of whether Apple includes playback on their PCs. Steve Jobs doesn't feel this way. I'd bet he thinks that Apple has a strong role in the outcome of the format war, and he's 1000% wrong. It will succeed or fail on many other factors. All he's doing is pissing off consumers. Blu Ray is not some weird "PC only" niche. It's a mainstream format that should be supported on mainstream computers.

Gee, you think?
Really, no I mean really?
Here, on MacRumors?
Nooo....

Wont you please help us, I don't mean me of course, it's the others, you know....
shhhh ... them!

 

[marksman]

I'm sorry, but Steve is just not making sense to me here. Here are a few points:

- Regardless of whether you personally have Blu-ray or not, money talks. Blu-ray has a faster adoption rate than DVD ever did.

- Blu-ray's are selling by the millions. Avatar is a perfect example.

- 1080p HD resolution is the future, not 720p. All cable TV from major providers is at least 1080i, with some (like FIOS) offering it in 1080p.

- 1080p resolution on Blu-ray is by far superior than 720p.

- The larger screen TV you have, the worse 720p is going to look. Everyone is getting bigger and bigger TV's today, so this is a factor.

- Blu-ray has lossless audio, not compressed, again a huge increase over the HD iTunes has.

- Just these two facts alone means that a 1080p movie would be roughly 25-50GB (the size of a Blu-ray disc). Your internet connection would be bogged down for days.

- You'd fill up your hard drive in a second. This is not going to change in the next 5 years.

- Blu-ray 3D is set to take off in a huge way over the next few years. 3D movies in digital form isn't even on the radar, and even if they were they'd have a tough time making them compatible with today's 3D HDTV's.

- The Mac, with Final Cut Pro, is a video editors dream. Yet they can't even watch the Blu-ray's the can create on the Mac. Ridiculous.


Look, I agree that physical media is on the way out. I actually think Blu-ray will be the last physical media we use. But that doesn't change the fact that Blu-ray will become the defacto standard to buy and rent physical media and it will be that way for at least 5-10 years.

I think it SUCKS that Apple won't support Blu-ray playback. I think they are jumping the gun with digital movies and TV. If they don't want to support a popular media over the next 10 years then I guess they can do that a piss some people off.

Obviously this is purely a business decision on Apple's part.

Ethan

I don't know what argument you are making, but Steve did not say anything to disagree with any of that.

So many of you are making these quality arguments like Steve doesn't know this. He knows. He also knows how the content providers are going to be providing their content via streaming, and most consumers don't care.

So for those of you who have to have the 1080p full blown experience, and stack it on your pristine AV shelf, you are likely to find yourself on the outside looking in down the road. It will take awhile before that quality comes back.

In this transition to fully digital, which is absolutely going to happen, the Studios can also buy back some of that ground where home media took a chunk out of the movie theater experience. So sure some day you will be back up there, and you will have access to 1080p movies streaming by the way. DirecTV offers 1080p movies on demand right now, the reality is things are changing and those of you with these wild eyed ideas of the past better start adjusting.

This has nothing to do with what kind of quality output Blu-ray has or anything else.

 

[mosx]

Yeah but Steve correctly knows the future of media storage is not on the local level. It is centralized and cloud-based. That is where it is going to be.

So the fact that people want this, that or the other thing is irrelevant. Steve is looking at the future and clearly does not see a big enough window of time to make it worthwhile to do something like add Blu-Ray.

Steve doesn't know correctly.

Blu-ray is being adopted faster than DVD, which was the fastest selling consumer electronics item of its time.

It'll be many many many years, if not a decade or more, before a reasonable amount of the population has an internet connection that can even begin to hope to stream blu-ray quality audio and video.

Don't bring up "compression" either. Blu-ray already uses H.264/AVC and VC-1. Doesn't get any more modern than that. Only older blu-ray discs and TV show blu-ray discs use MPEG-2.

Not only that, but I know I'm not alone in saying I want to be in control of MY data and the "cloud" can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.