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

[Porco]

lol @ MorphinDragon being technically right but arguing against what everyone is saying(well, typing and posting...) rather than what everyone means.

Hating BD doesn't mean you hate quality per se, it just means you hate the only legitimately widely distributed home video format at its (BD's) level of quality.

That's a reasonable view to hold, but it does result in the need for one to make a choice between a love of quality and a hatred of BD if you want to acquire your movies by legal means, at which point it is also reasonable to wonder how strong the conviction/desire for quality is if the hatred for the physical format of BD is a stronger motiving factor in purchasing/consumption decisions.

In my view, I say choose love of quality over hatred of the bad things about BD, because most of those bad things also exist with downloads, along with a load of extra ones to hate as well.

 

[Atlantico]

Every day I see more and more BD, it seems to be gaining traction fast. The one great thing about BD, is in fact that it "just works". You put the disk in the computer (as long as it isn't a Mac) or the player and bingo - it plays this wonderful HD movie, without any problems what so ever.

That's the main, distinct and most fundamental advantage BD has over any other available distributable media. Downloads aren't close to this in reliability and simplicity. No credit cards involved, no special programs, no DRM to be upgraded; just insert disk and play.

And what you get is the best quality playback, no contest. It's also cheaper than any of the competition and is in fact more widely available and more popular.

Is it on the Mac? Not without some hacks, but it does run on the Mac hardware with the apparently superior Windows OS.

It feels weird to write that Windows is superior to Mac OS. I don't think I've ever done that in any other context, but here it is true.

 

[SilianRail]

I should have said "legal and ethical" - downloading pirate copies of ripped BD movies is never ethical.

By the way, are those rips in the 40GB to 120GB range? Must take a long time to download.

In addition to costing a ton since Canada has a 25 GB bandwidth cap per month and charges $1/GB after that.

 

[AidenShaw]

In addition to costing a ton since Canada has a 25 GB bandwidth cap per month and charges $1/GB after that.

So, are you saying that $40 per BD download isn't a reasonable surcharge for the convenience of downloading?

</sarcasm>

I can't wait for someone who switched from Linux to Apple to claim that it is reasonable. And to point out that the first BD download only costs $15 - it's only the second and subsequent ones that are $40 each.

 

[cmaier]

Every day I see more and more BD, it seems to be gaining traction fast. The one great thing about BD, is in fact that it "just works". You put the disk in the computer (as long as it isn't a Mac) or the player and bingo - it plays this wonderful HD movie, without any problems what so ever.

That's the main, distinct and most fundamental advantage BD has over any other available distributable media. Downloads aren't close to this in reliability and simplicity. No credit cards involved, no special programs, no DRM to be upgraded; just insert disk and play.

Huh? My first BD player was a super-high end Pioneer Elite for my home theater. I CONSTANTLY had to download new firmware on a PC and burn it to a disk to update the firmware of the player so that it could handle new DRM, handle new features, etc. It was a royal pain in the ass. I replaced it with a PS3 just because it was the cheapest player that could update itself over-the-air. DVDs always just work. Bluray not so much.

 

[AidenShaw]

I CONSTANTLY had to download new firmware on a PC and burn it to a disk to update the firmware of the player so that it could handle new DRM, handle new features, etc.

You spent 24x7 downloading and burning new firmware updates? No wonder you're bitter. No sleep will do that to someone.

</sarcastic response to obvious extreme hyperbole>

 

[cmaier]

You spent 24x7 downloading and burning new firmware updates? No wonder you're bitter. No sleep will do that to someone.

</sarcastic response to obvious extreme hyperbole>

Yeah, you know what I meant

Seriously, I had to update at least 10 times, and I owned two of them. I had a similar issue with my hd-dvd players, but at least they had ethernet ports so all I had to do was click the remote and the updates happened.

I love bluray - i just rip 'em and stick 'em on my NAS and use my Apple TV to watch them usually. I can't tell the difference on my 52" LCD (the loss in sound is more noticeable than 720p vs. 1080p). If I watch using the projector and the big screen then I stick to the PS3 and bluray.

 

[xbjllb]

At least Steve understands what drives people:

That's nice. Because he certainly doesn't have a friggin' clue as to what drives CURRENT CUSTOMERS.

Hope those "people" continue to make up the slack when cheaper MORE FEATURED competition comes along.

We shall see who laughs the last about macs not having blueray. Soon it's all about digital distribution.

Not in a Depression with governments in austerity mode refusing to upgrade infrastructure and companies putting caps on downloads and charging per byte like power companies.

Good luck with your "all about digital distribution". Big business and government have VASTLY other ideas.

MINUS SEVEN, by the way. Keep going.

 

[MorphingDragon]

There is only one example of legal high quality media for home movie distribution - that's BD (full name "Blu-ray Disc").

If you dislike Blu-ray, you dislike the only example of high quality media that exists.

Wishing for a unicorn doesn't make unicorns exist.

Being the only legal channel is irrelevant, BluRay is only a medium. Just because people may have issue with the medium doesn't mean they have issue with the content.

As the world is now - the only MEDIA available for hi def is Blu-Ray. A rip of a blu-ray is not media. We are talking physical media. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

Sweet, so as soon as someone rips a BLuRay disc it no longer becomes media therefore completely legal and moral backlash free.

 

[mooodey]

God Dayumn !! This is one heated topic ! But seriously speaking i don't care if it's coming or not!

 

[GregAndonian]

Blu-ray Awareness Month is just around the corner...

Every day I see more and more BD, it seems to be gaining traction fast.

Indeed it does. In fact, Home Media Magazine did an article about a recent DEG report that said spending on Blu-ray discs was up 10% in the first half of the year:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/industry-news/deg-home-entertainment-spending-drop-narrows-q2-24711

According to the article, overall spending (including DVDs and other areas) was down, but the decline wasn't as bad as it had been previously. And Blu-ray continues to buck the trend entirely- The article says some very positive things about it toward the end:

"Spending on Blu-ray Discs was up a solid 10% in the first half. DEG estimates that the number of U.S. households with at least one Blu-ray Disc playback device rose 16% in the first six months of 2011 to bring total household penetration to more than 31.6 million, making the format one of the fastest-growing new technologies in the home entertainment industry."

Steve is only kidding himself if he thinks this format is going away anytime soon. It's been growing steadily since the end of the format war, and It's about to go to light-speed next month when the Star Wars films come out...

 

[samcraig]

Being the only legal channel is irrelevant, BluRay is only a medium. Just because people may have issue with the medium doesn't mean they have issue with the content.



Sweet, so as soon as someone rips a BLuRay disc it no longer becomes media therefore completely legal and moral backlash free.

Splitting hairs again. We're talking physical media. And blu-ray is currently the only physical media in home with the capacity for delivering hi-def content.

But you know all this. I think you're personally getting off on this

 

[Skika]

1 year later,
still being mad

 

[Atlantico]

DVDs always just work. Bluray not so much.

BDs always work too, it's explained very well in this article.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9808376-1.html

Profile 1.0 is the original hardware requirement for Blu-ray players and essentially meets the bare minimum for playing back Blu-ray Discs. You'll have no problem playing back a movie, listening to standard audio commentary, tracks or using interactive "pop-up" menus.

And looking at the different firmware upgrades on BD-players, it's to increase Java stability, etc. Firmware upgrades for improving playability on specific movies, is so 2007/2008.

Now it is 2011 and I dare say BD always works. Does for me.

 

[cmaier]

BDs always work too, it's explained very well in this article.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9808376-1.html

Profile 1.0 is the original hardware requirement for Blu-ray players and essentially meets the bare minimum for playing back Blu-ray Discs. You'll have no problem playing back a movie, listening to standard audio commentary, tracks or using interactive "pop-up" menus.

And looking at the different firmware upgrades on BD-players, it's to increase Java stability, etc. Firmware upgrades for improving playability on specific movies, is so 2007/2008.

Now it is 2011 and I dare say BD always works. Does for me.

How ridiculous you are. You admit that people who bought players on 2008 have problems, and then say that since it works for you the problems don't exist.

Those early adopters who bought players in the first year or two certainly do have issues where they never know if a new disk will actually play. And it's not like the manufacturers are actively supporting those old players with new firmware anymore. If I stick a new disk in one of my old players there's a better than even chance that it just hangs while trying to fire up Java.

 

[samcraig]

How ridiculous you are. You admit that people who bought players on 2008 have problems, and then say that since it works for you the problems don't exist.

Those early adopters who bought players in the first year or two certainly do have issues where they never know if a new disk will actually play. And it's not like the manufacturers are actively supporting those old players with new firmware anymore. If I stick a new disk in one of my old players there's a better than even chance that it just hangs while trying to fire up Java.

But at least now the players aren't hundreds of dollars. So at least it's not too too expensive to get a new player. I'm not suggesting that's the RIGHT fix. But many of the players for $150 today far surpass the players of a year ago let alone the ones that first came out.

 

[cmaier]

But at least now the players aren't hundreds of dollars. So at least it's not too too expensive to get a new player. I'm not suggesting that's the RIGHT fix. But many of the players for $150 today far surpass the players of a year ago let alone the ones that first came out.

True. I'm not trying to diss blu-ray - I own around 400 of them. I'm just saying it's laughable to declare that they "just work." Anything that may require a firmware update to work with a new disk doesn't "just work." Having owned many different types of players (CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray), high end and low, blu-ray players are the farthest thing from an "appliance" of any of them. I haven't followed the new players sold in the last year or so, but for a long time the conventional wisdom in the home theater community was the only way to make sure you got a player that would always be updated to play any disk and support every feature was to use a PS3.

 

[AidenShaw]

How ridiculous you are. You admit that people who bought players on 2008 have problems, and then say that since it works for you the problems don't exist.

Those early adopters who bought players in the first year or two certainly do have issues where they never know if a new disk will actually play. And it's not like the manufacturers are actively supporting those old players with new firmware anymore. If I stick a new disk in one of my old players there's a better than even chance that it just hangs while trying to fire up Java.

Lion won't run on some Apples sold in the latter half of 2007 - sometimes you just need to move on.

And with home BD players (with network connections) at $80, it's a lot cheaper to upgrade your BD player than your Apple.

 

[linux2mac]

I replaced it with a PS3 just because it was the cheapest player that could update itself over-the-air.

Last I checked, the PS3 is one of the few (if not only) future proof BD players due to its update capabilities. That was my motivation for picking one up and of course online gaming. BTW - I can't wait for games to be discless. Video game jewel cases have replaced my DVD clutter.

 

[samcraig]

I bought a PS3 soley (well mostly) to play blu-ray as it was always rated as the best option given upgrades. And I'm glad I did. A bonus was that the TV we ended up buying (Samsung 55") is also 3D and since I had the PS3 - there was no upcharge to start playing 3D blu-rays immediately.

 

[Atlantico]

How ridiculous you are. You admit that people who bought players on 2008 have problems, and then say that since it works for you the problems don't exist.

Those early adopters who bought players in the first year or two certainly do have issues where they never know if a new disk will actually play. And it's not like the manufacturers are actively supporting those old players with new firmware anymore. If I stick a new disk in one of my old players there's a better than even chance that it just hangs while trying to fire up Java.

It's five years ago, let it go pal. Today, BD just works.

The only ridiculous thing, is that you're living in 2007. There's very low, if any chance that if you stick a BD in one of your older players that it will hang, and it will in fact play just fine.

Java is for extra features, not playback.

 

[cmaier]

It's five years ago, let it go pal. Today, BD just works.

The only ridiculous thing, is that you're living in 2007. There's very low, if any chance that if you stick a BD in one of your older players that it will hang, and it will in fact play just fine.

Java is for extra features, not playback.

I don't care what java's for - if you can never get to the menus because its hanging while trying to do something with java, you can't play the disk. This happens all the time with older players.

And I'm not "living in 2007" - as I've said repeatedly, I rely on PS3 for bluray playback. But the fact that the ps3 is the only "future proof" player is kind of ridiculous. I can play any region 1 dvd ever made on any of the ancient dvd players sitting in my closet.

And to other folks making comparisons to OS X or macs - huh? I'm not saying there's anything inherently horrible about bluray - i'm simply saying that it's prone to playback incompatibilities and DRM problems unless you have the right player, and that's a far cry from the poster's original comment about how bluray just works and streaming doesn't.

 

[Atlantico]

But the fact that the ps3 is the only "future proof" player is kind of ridiculous. I can play any region 1 dvd ever made on any of the ancient dvd players sitting in my closet.

Yeah it's ridiculous because it isn't true. You can play any BD on any BD-player that was made in the last 2 years. Players that will be ancient in 15 years as your ancient DVD players are today.

Some DVDs do not play on the oldest DVD players. Let it go, you don't have an argument, because it's based on a false premise.

A) that DVDs were always compatible with any DVD player at any time (false)
B) that BDs from 2009 and on are not always playable on players made from 2009 and after. (false)

Any BD player that you can buy is future proof.

 

[cmaier]

Yeah it's ridiculous because it isn't true. You can play any BD on any BD-player that was made in the last 2 years. Players that will be ancient in 15 years as your ancient DVD players are today.

Some DVDs do not play on the oldest DVD players. Let it go, you don't have an argument, because it's based on a false premise.

A) that DVDs were always compatible with any DVD player at any time (false)
B) that BDs from 2009 and on are not always playable on players made from 2009 and after. (false)

Any BD player that you can buy is future proof.

Right. That's why bluray discs you buy today frequently come with inserts warning you that you may need to upgrade your player's firmware. And why DVDs never come with such inserts.

 

[Atlantico]

Right. That's why bluray discs you buy today frequently come with inserts warning you that you may need to upgrade your player's firmware. And why DVDs never come with such inserts.

It's not frequent, by any mesure.. And there's no real reason for it, except to pacify people like you who own a really really old BD player.

And DVDs don't come with it for the same reason you won't see it in a year in BDs. They'll have cut the 2007 legacy players (finally) and one can only hope never to read about this completely non-issue ever again.