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

[diazj3]

You're a stupid, stupid, petty, vindictive, greedy, bitter old man, Steve.

Blu-ray Goes Beyond Movie Distribution With New Format



http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...eyond_movie_distribution_with_new_format.html

But I guess you'll just create your OWN proprietary format and extort users into accepting it (a la an 'iTunes 2').

my feelings and thoughts exactly...

I'm also fed-up with Job's "visions" of the future - specially when they only have to do with such greedy and unfair practices - like limiting user's choices by ruling out some technologies mainly because they conflict with Apple's business.

and to those who wonder about the future of the Mac and OS X as a stand-alone pro computer - instead of a mere extension of Steve's mobile goldmine... here's a glimpse of Job's vision: he's planning every move around the mobile strategy and the exponential profits he can squeeze out of the millions of newly-made suckers he's raking in with his mobile devices.

I really hope Google, Microsoft and other competitors get their act together and start posing as a serious threat and competition against Apple... it was such competition that made Apple a great and more humble, user oriented company.

Or maybe a couple of antitrust investigations will keep Apple on a leash...

This is a sad state of affairs...

cheers!

 

[Master Chief]

Let the youngsters here wait for tomorrow... while we old guys purchase the (BD) movies we want today on our wide screens (42 - 50 inch).

Not to mention – like others did before me – that not everyone can enjoy watching iTunes movies... simply because this feature isn't even implemented for every country.

And why would anyone want to wait for something that might never happen – in their country – anyway?

Can you Steve (Apple) please give everyone movies first, so that we stock holders can become even richer. Thank you Steve

 

[recordprod]

I think Steve is right on this.

 

[meyee]

I find it a little interesting (ironic, even?) that Steve Jobs would dismiss the quality difference between 720p and 1080p given the big deal that the retina display has become for the iPhone 4. I never once thought the display on my old iPhone 3G was poor until I got my iPhone 4. Now I can't look at my old phone's display without serious disappointment. The same thing happened for me when I went from my 720p TV to my 1080p.

 

[alhedges]

Have you even look at the % of Apple's revenue from iTunes? They barely make less than $200 million from it. The primary reason for iTunes is to push hardware sales. Jobs care much more about hardware sales than he does about iTunes sales. Small Apple TV sales is nothing compared to large sales from laptops/desktops. If Steve cares about AppleTV, he couldn't call it a "hobby" device.

Cite? Apple made $570M from iTunes in 2007 (the most recent year I could find in 60 seconds), and I assume that that has only increased, even if only due to the app store. http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/03/apple-apparentl/

 

[decadentdave]

I think Steve is right on this.

I think you're wrong.

 

[Xtremehkr]

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?

If you have a decent home theatre system then why do you need a BD player on your personal computer. This is the part that especially doesn't make sense to me. Most people who 'need' to watch their content in blu ray on high end equipment also seem to feel that they 'need' a BD player on their Apple computers.

SJ is stopping exactly no one from enjoying BD on their entertainment systems.

The brilliance behind delivery using broadband is that when the technology improves you can just download the new and improved software, there's no need to replace every disk you have. You would only need to replace televisions as screen technology gets better and audio components as they get better.

 

[emulator]

or may be a 2TB external hd, i have around 400 720p or 1080p films,.... hardly an 8 drive server

yes, if you have re-encoded stuff, with 640kbps and x264. The real BR rips are easily 35-45GB average. Even if you remux a high bitrate film with LPCM or one of the other 2 lossless sound, and leave out the extras, it's around 30GB.

 

[Jimrod]

Don't worry Appleites who actually want the best quality so you can use your Mac's as your media centre on your 50" screens - even though Herr Jobs won't be going the Blu-Ray route I'm sure he'll get around your download limit issues by introducing "The iNternet", it'll "Change everything, again, again..." and provide unlimited everything for $99 a month but you'll only be able to visit Apple approved websites at 99 cents a pop - it's the future!

I've used Apple products for years but only went searching things out when I had issues with my iP4 signal - found this site and am frankly amazed at the blind "fanboyism" that goes on here, coupled with Mr Jobs ever more arrogant stance on everything. I used to be a Bill Gates hater but I'm gradually starting to wonder if the hate was misplaced - as crap as Windows is at least I'm free to do what I like with a PC, and if I buy any other company's extremely expensive phone I can even add my own ringtones and alerts - for free!

Mr Jobs sounds more like a dictator with every comment he comes out with, think I'm exaggerating? "There is no problem, hold it different" may wash for those with Apple tattoo's who've changed their name by deed poll to "iJim", but for the rest of us who've just spent so much money on a product that's a slap in the face. Oh, and before you say "my iPhone 4 works fine, I can't get it to drop signal, all phones do it" etc. Yes it may work fine where you currently are but they are ALL currently flawed and will have problems if you hold them "normally", without a bumper, in a large number of areas (congrats on being lucky with your signal coverage in your area), all phones do NOT exhibit this problem to this degree - I've never dropped calls by holding my phone before.

I know I went off topic I'm just getting tired of this guy and his absolute greed directing all his decisions now, I used to have respect for him but it's gone - the Blu Ray thing is just the latest in a line of "don't do that, spend more money on Apple" type comments from him. Next computer will now be a custom build using Ubuntu and I think I'll stick a Blu Ray drive in there because I feel like it, I will return my iPhone 4 as it's becoming more clear nothing will be done until the next model (**** current users right Steve? They can just queue and spend more later...), will get an HTC Desire and I think I'll just put some of my own ringtones on there, hell maybe even a text tone too, I paid for the thing already, I don't want to spend more just to make it do what I want.

 

[finchna]

buy a cheap tower and put in blu-ray on your own

 

[MorphingDragon]

If you have a decent home theatre system then why do you need a BD player on your personal computer. This is the part that especially doesn't make sense to me. Most people who 'need' to watch their content in blu ray on high end equipment also seem to feel that they 'need' a BD player on their Apple computers.

SJ is stopping exactly no one from enjoying BD on their entertainment systems.

The brilliance behind delivery using broadband is that when the technology improves you can just download the new and improved software, there's no need to replace every disk you have. You would only need to replace televisions as screen technology gets better and audio components as they get better.

Umm, Data Storage is a huge plus. Sony just finalised the 200GB BD standard and these rumoured 1TB SD cards are nowhere in sight.

 

[-=XX=-Nephilim]

If you have a decent home theatre system then why do you need a BD player on your personal computer. This is the part that especially doesn't make sense to me. Most people who 'need' to watch their content in blu ray on high end equipment also seem to feel that they 'need' a BD player on their Apple computers.

SJ is stopping exactly no one from enjoying BD on their entertainment systems.

The brilliance behind delivery using broadband is that when the technology improves you can just download the new and improved software, there's no need to replace every disk you have. You would only need to replace televisions as screen technology gets better and audio components as they get better.

Man...

It isn't only about watching god damn movies!

Mac is used by huge number of video / movie professionals who simply can NOT author BlueRays for their clients - get it?

It is also rather nice storage / back up device too...

And yes, at the very end, it is cool to view the movies on it too

 

[MorphingDragon]

Man...

It isn't only about watching god damn movies!

Mac is used by huge number of video / movie professionals who simply can NOT author BlueRays for their clients - get it?

It is also rather nice storage / back up device too...

And yes, at the very end, it is cool to view the movies on it too

FCS supports BD Authoring, you just have to supply a burner.

 

[sammyman]

I got rid of all my dvd's about 2 years ago and haven't looked back. I also don't mind the lower quality of my ripped DVD's. It is so nice to not have to worry about funmbling around with disks that get scratched.

However, for the first time in 6 years I bought a Windows machine, a Dell Zino w/ bluray. I did this because I have Netflix, and would rather watch Bluray movies than DVD when I have a choice. I am not looking forward to Windows, but I am looking forward to Bluray at least temporarily.

I think people will not really care about bluray in a year. I think the only place bluray belongs is a home theater, until streaming HD becomes mainstream. So for the meantime, I have to agree with Steve but wish a Bluray was in the mac mini so I could have my dream media center. Forget bluray for the iMac, MBP, Mac Pro etc.

 

[GinoDotCom]

The future is pretty much going to be mobile devices and tablets so this makes sense. People like to have their entertainment with them at all times not some useless optical disc.

If you want Blu-Ray don't buy a mac.

Get your head out of the sand, Christ! People have libraries of blue Ray discs and not a single one could be played on a iMac or MacBook pro. People like to choices. Especially when you have several $$ already vested in discs.

 

[-=XX=-Nephilim]

FCS supports BD Authoring, you just have to supply a burner.

That's a good news!

So why not include the BlueRay with Macs then?

 

[mattnotis]

There is nothing wrong with Blu-ray Steve, you're just holding it wrong.

I rarely literally laugh out loud at message board posts but you made me do it with this one.

But I don't see why anyone would even WANT to watch a feature-length movie on anything less than 42''. It's just a horrible experience, IMO.

 

[decadentdave]

I watch movies when I'm at home from the comfort of my living room not when I'm "on-the-go" driving down the highway or walking across the street.

 

[tseitz89]

I thought Steve said "we haven't forgotten about our PRO customers" we'll if a prosumer can't even output to Blue-Ray (that comes in his/her machine) then Apple has forgotten about prosumers besides the other obvious benifets of watching all the blue-rays on my computer and sorry steve but the quality of a downloaded movie will not reach the quality of a disc anytime soon

 

[SeaFox]

Downloadable movies are superior in almost every way.

This is the most inane comment I've read in the entire thread so far. Besides the convenience of network transfer, downloadable movies are inferior in almost every way. They:

Have reduced quality (this is the biggest reason for BluRay to be available on the Mac, and the one most ignored by the iTMS fanclub). I guess all you guys are so broke from buying an iPhone, AppleTV, iPad, and your Mac you can't afford a big enough TV set or decent surround sound system to see the quality you actually purchased.

Are susceptible to "bit rot" and other hard drive disasters. You could literally put you mac on a shelf and come back five years later to find your movies are corrupted. A properly manufactured optical disc will last, well, except that "fungus" scare in some libraries I've never heard of a manufactured disc going bad in storage.

Cannot be traded, resold, gifted in their actual form. First Sale Doctrine goes out the window. You can't loan a movie from you iTV's library to someone. You can gift someone a pre-purchased redemption code, but they still have to go download it themselves. Neither can you sell movies you no longer want to get money to buy new titles. Everyone has to buy their own copy of everything and be stuck with it.

Are only compatible with a small number of players. BluRay movies work with any BluRay player from any manufacturer. That's why standards exist. There is no standard format for downloadable movies, because the technology companies are too greedy. They all want to be your sole source of movies. What happens when one goes under? You might end up with content that stops working and no other company to turn to for replacement device/software. Just ask everyone who bought music on Yahoo's now-defunct original music download service (the one the was operating before stores started dropping DRM).

Are available for a smaller number of titles than BluRay. I haven't sat here and done a full catalog-to-catalog comparison, but lots of older movies are being restored and released on BluRay and I bet not as many are coming to digital downloads.

Generally don't include extras. Most digital downloads of movies are just that -- the movie. Do you get multiple audio tracks, commentary tracks, or in some cases multiple versions of the movie you get with optical disc formats? No.

 

[Master Chief]

I rarely literally laugh out loud at message board posts but you made me do it with this one.

But I don't see why anyone would even WANT to watch a feature-length movie on anything less than 42''. It's just a horrible experience, IMO.

Exactly!

I rather watch a great movie – on one of our big wide screens – with my wife and children, but I guess that loners don't mind watching it alone.

 

[tmofee]

If you have a decent home theatre system then why do you need a BD player on your personal computer. This is the part that especially doesn't make sense to me. Most people who 'need' to watch their content in blu ray on high end equipment also seem to feel that they 'need' a BD player on their Apple computers.

SJ is stopping exactly no one from enjoying BD on their entertainment systems.

The brilliance behind delivery using broadband is that when the technology improves you can just download the new and improved software, there's no need to replace every disk you have. You would only need to replace televisions as screen technology gets better and audio components as they get better.

multiple copies!!

you go away, or you're in your bed with your macbook pro and want to watch (insert name of movie here). you have a copy on bluray. because of steve, your choices are

1 - buy it again on itunes. (if it is available)
2 - illegally download it
3 - waste a lot of HDD space and time by ripping a copy to your drive.

that's my issue. sure, its not so hard to rip a copy of a dvd and downconvert it to avi/mov format. it's possible, but not as easy to do so if the MCP isnt even going to recognize the disc in the first place.

disney have the right idea by providing both DVD and BR copies. even some of those digital copies aren't so bad (once they stick to one format and keep it), but not all of the bluray movies give you this option. yes i know watching a bluray on a 17" screen is just silly. but steve isn't making it any easier ...

 

[cheesymogul]

There is only one way movie studios still get any money out of me.
By delivering at least 1080p and state-of-the-art sound quality.
The best possible quality is the only thing that counts for 2 meter + screening. I don't care if it's comes via discs or download.
And at the moment Bluray is the only viable option.

It's embarrassing enough that most file sharing services deliver much better picture and sound quality than any legal download Apple or the studios have to offer!

iTunes movies are for blind old men with a hard-on for tiny devices...

 

[SeaFox]

That's a good news!

So why not include the BlueRay with Macs then?

Because then people will want to play BluRay movies on their Macs, obviously. And Steve doesn't want you to do that.

Bluray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD

Bull. There were these two "successor to the CD" audio formats people remember most, SuperAudio-CD and DVD-Audio. I only recall seeing a handful of either of these titles available in any store. Last night I went to the video store, and the size of the BluRay rental section verses the DVD rental section looked like it was about 40/60: there was almost as much shelf space for BluRay releases as DVD releases. That's not nearly as obscure as any of these audio formats Steve wants to liken it to.

The cost of BluRay players is falling to levels were it makes no sense to buy regular DVD players anymore. Yeah, a DVD player can be had for half the cost of a Bluray player right now, but when you're talking about a jump from $50 to $100, for someone buying a device that is expected to last a few years at least this isn't a big difference. And that's not even taking into account things like Netflix and home media streaming, value-adding features many BluRay players do that regular DVD players dont. By this Christmas I expect to see decent name-brand players sold new for $75 or less.

If BluRay licensing is such a "bag of hurt" how is it getting done on Windows? Is Apple unable to get a deal wrangled out even with it's army of lawyers and 10 billion in the bank?

 

[ibosie]

I don't want clunky optical drives adding weight to laptops but I would support having the Blu-Ray drive supported as an external device like the USB Superdrive.