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

[C00rDiNaT0r]

I've tried ripping blu-ray discs on the PS3 using that SAK thing and transferring the ISO onto my Mac and then play the video files using Plex and Movist. Why can't playback be supported by the combination of 3rd party BD drives plus software (like VLC, Plex, Movist, etc.) on Macs without Apple's official support?

 

[mdatwood]

The issue with streaming, is that still on the internet, its a struggle to get a true HD signal down the pipe. Often times its a "compressed" HD. Which is a bit of an oxymoron. The other side of that coin is the lack of internet support for things like uncompressed audio and sometimes even 5.1 sound.

It is however it Apple's interest to see blu-ray and all other physical media formats fail; given their support of the itunes movie store.

You're right about the problems with streaming true HD (heck even cable compresses and you're better off going OTA for locals), but you miss the big benefit to many many people is that streaming is 'good enough.'

It's the good enough syndrome that BRD will have to overcome because once you start talking about uncompressed audio and 5/6/7.1 you start getting into an area where most people simply do not care.

 

[JediZenMaster]

The heyday of physical media is over but physical media itself will be w/us for a very long time.

Yep, Eventually there will be a retro-market of people who want to collect CD's and DVD's the way people collect Records today.

Records FTW!

 

[numbersyx]

Also a fellow Rogers sufferer here. Also one who has gone over his 25GB/month limit by watching streaming on TVWeb360 (.com) to watch US cable channels like Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and just found TBS.

Streaming a movie I could OWN for keeps is like running the water while I'm not home.

+1. Funny how the Steve ignores that little point when the alternative is to provide something that will not make him a cent.

 

[CalebF]

Not a big problem. Just buy an external drive.

Ah, the ease of lugging around an external device to plug in various computers, when Steve could just concede, offer Blu-ray drives and we could watch our movies on our Blu-ray players and/or our MacBooks/iMacs.

I notice you don't hear much about the external physical keyboard for the iPad. People don't want to seem to carry around bulky add-ons.

Is it that Steve is PURPOSELY tying you (down) to iTunes, where APPLE gains a portion of the purchase price (or rental) of the media rather than offer the convenience of a Blu-ray drive where he receives none of the money?

Oh, he's all about making technology to make their life better. His "better" is padding his pocketbook via control.

 

[scottness]

Who buys physical media nowadays?

 

[blizaine]

Screw 5 years. I want to watch Avatar tonight in 1080p.

I watched it in 1080p the week before it came out, for free. We then did an A/B comparison once the blu-ray was release and it was almost indistinguishable. Not bad for a 10GB movie.

 

[Eidorian]

I guess Steve will pay for me to get more bandwidth to buy HD content from iTunes. Right Steve?

I'd have to get over the whole paying for media thing too.

 

[canadan]

We'll likely be accessing entertainment media more and more via cloud based access with the coming years so I can see physical media becoming less and less important. It's kinda where things are going. It's happening to music, it will definitely happen with films and other stuff as technology advances and allows it. I can see his reasoning for his decision. The dude tries to think ahead and envision where he wants his products to go. Sometimes he guesses wrong, but I'm sure he manages to be spot on more than once or twice.

 

[CalebF]

I get your discontent with the issue at hand however, I think optical media is very last century and the future is portable. With that said Blu-Ray will never get the traction and market share that DVD or even VHS got.

I'm sure that there will be a hobbyist market that will dream of the haylcon days of discs but it's pretty much done.

Oh, I agree w/ you there. Optinal discs are very much limited in capability and future-proof. I'd love to put in a USB flash drive that could contain a HD movie. Unfortunately, as it stands right now, Blu-ray is the best we got (for good or bad) and Steve's willing to take away firewire only to feel the scorn of Apple users (like myself) only to reintroduce it. Because what's in demand right now is what will go in his devices... but not this. I think because it doesn't make HIM money.

Heck, HD movies on USB flash drives, I can see Steve crafting a way to take away USB ports, since they'll be able to watch movies on his device, bought from sources that AREN'T iTunes.

edit: Steve wants to protect his very lucrative vending machine known as iTunes, we put our nickles and dimes into. I get it and I understand. I won't fault him for that... but I WILL when he gets "miser"-like to not allow an iTunes to co-exist peacefully w/ another source (like Blu-ray), even if it DOES have to share a piece of the pie ($).

 

[IlluminatedSage]

This is a bit of BULL*****!!

Jobs is all about maximizing profit at Apple, which already has record profits.

BLU-RAY's time is now. GIVE APPLE'S Customers the choice!!

let us decide. not some stupid protection of itunes ppv and movie sales!!!

I smell an anti-trust issue with itunes!

Who buys physical media nowadays?

I do

 

[mixel]

The problem I see here is steve implying that if its going to be good enough for most then that's the best approach. Too far down that path and Apple will damage any reputation they have for quality. They haven't provided a better alternative to bd so they have to step up on some level.

I agree with him in the long term but right now I think they should support it. Stuff like this makes the platform seem a lot less empowering. We should expect the major OSs to support the current, successful formats.

(except iOS/flash? Though that's very different)

 

[sdornan]

The people defending Apple's decision to limit your choices baffle me.

I get your discontent with the issue at hand however, I think optical media is very last century and the future is portable. With that said Blu-Ray will never get the traction and market share that DVD or even VHS got.

I'm sure that there will be a hobbyist market that will dream of the haylcon days of discs but it's pretty much done.

Exactly, I carry around my 50" TV, 5.1 speaker system, and game consoles with me all the time.

 

[jav6454]

This is a bit of BULL*****!!

Jobs is all about maximizing profit at Apple, which already has record profits.

BLU-RAY's time is now. GIVE APPLE'S Customers the choice!!

let us decide. not some stupid protection of itunes ppv and movie sales!!!

I smell an anti-trust issue with itunes!

He can't hear you... speak up.

 

[MacFly123]

Apple's new data center + New Apple TV rumored to be like iPhone running iOS and the App Store with new remote app and iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad connectivity + Recent rumor of Apple making a HUGE push into the TV sector + These comments by Steve = Pretty clear to me!

I haven't gotten a Bluray player and I don't care to, BUT I DO want 1080p on iTunes and iTunes Extras on all the movies. It seems the iTunes Extras have been waining I hope we get the new Apple TV this year!!!

 

[mattbatt]

wait, I need some help understanding all of this:

For my (hopeful because maybe Job's will kill this too) future MacPro, can't I just buy a Blueray burner and put it in the second bay?

What about us pro users who shoot in HD and want to burn a comp out to show a client on an HD tv? I thought the newest version of compressor had a setting for BD??

 

[kiljoy616]

haha

What part of its never coming do the faithful not understand.

Why would Apple and Steve eat into their movie business.

That said I don't see it been that important considering I have one on my PC and have used it a few times.

I have a PS3 that handles movies.

 

[jicon]

Who buys physical media nowadays?

/Raises hand

IF the movie is worthwhile, I'll get the blu-Ray, or Disney blu-Ray/DVD.

Aside from Disney sales, there isn't anything in it for Steve. Which means... there isn't any purpose in me buying an AppleTV. Just stick with a PS3 instead, with PS3MediaCenter running on a machine for either option.

 

[jeznav]

Yes it can

But it can't play the Blu-Ray now can it?

Insert Bluray disc -> MakeMKV -> Stream upnp-> VLC -> Open Network ->

No need to rip 35GB + to harddrive.

 

[slb]

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

Yet he's 100% correct.

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

"Extort?" Haha.

 

[Anuba]

Someone once said to director Ridley Scott "Blade Runner was amazing, it was so ahead of its time!" to which Ridley responded "well, that's every bit as bad as being behind the times", in reference to the fact that Blade Runner bombed at the box office.

I appreciate the fact that Apple has always tried to be a little ahead of its time with things like dropping floppies, SCSI, 9-pin serial, 25-pin parallel and such. That's all good. But on this particular issue it appears Steve has strayed so far into the future he's not leading the way, since whoever was behind him can no longer see him. How about enjoying the now, Steve? Because it will be years before the whole world (Apple is a global company, right?) will have access to the bandwidth required for downloading Blu-ray quality movies in a jiffy.

Here in Sweden we're spoiled with widely available 100 Mbit fiberLAN, 25-60 Mbit DSL and 100 Mbit cable, and 1000 Mbit fiberLAN is being rolled out in a few major cities, so personally I could skip Blu-ray and move right along to downloads, but there are still billions of people out there on really crappy broadband connections – and this appears particularly true of Steve's own country. I work for a software company on and off, and man do Americans complain about large downloads. "Ugh! Did ya have to make it a whopping 1 GB? That's gonna take me all night!" Loads of them are on 1/2/5/10 Mbit, some even on 0.5. And then there's a lot of folks out there who have dropped wired broadband in favor of 3G (very prematurely, if you ask me)... and those guys won't be able to download Blu-ray quality movies en masse in any way resembling "convenient" for at least another 5 years, especially now that lots of carriers around the world have started capping their previously "unlimited" plans. AT&T... O2... Telia... it's a global trend.

Sorry Steve, living 1-2 years ahead of time is great and all but you're 5 years ahead on this one. That only creates a vacuum where you leave the customers twiddling their thumbs for years while technology catches up with your vision.

 

[kingtj]

Not sure you're even the minority, really ....

Just this afternoon, I was talking to a co-worker. She said her husband was stark, raving mad at the local Best Buy store, because he ran in there last night just before they closed, to get ahold of the new release by the band Rush on DVD - and before buying it, he checked to "make sure it wasn't one of those blu-ray versions". He doesn't own anything that can play those. So as you can guess, he got home, got finished with everything he had to do for the night, and popped in the Rush DVD to check it out, and NOPE! Blu-Ray disc!

I hear a lot of similar stuff, from average, every-day people who say they have zero interest in watching anything on Blu-Ray due to the high cost of the discs, or because they're not interested in having yet ANOTHER format of media around the house that only works in certain equipment, or because they just don't think HD resolution is that big a deal to them.

I know myself, I bought a Playstation 3 when they first came out (only because my brother worked at a toy store that got in a few, when it was in huge demand, and offered to save one for me). Since that time, you know how many Blu-Ray discs I've ever watched on it? 1! (Blade Runner) And that was a box-set my former g/f bought for me, and took with her when we broke up -- so I don't even own that one anymore!

I'm not denying that the new Mac Mini might be a great machine to introduce Blu-Ray support in, since we all know many will wind up as media center computers. But the fact is, Apple views Blu-Ray as "mostly a negative" for them -- and they're probably right. How many sales would they potentially lose on the iTunes store if people bought that much more movie content on Blu-Ray disc instead? And how much additional mark-up could they really put on a new Mac just because they added the Blu-Ray drive? (Hint: Not too much, or people would throw a huge fit, saying "Don't pay that big Apple tax for a drive! Just go out and buy a 3rd. party one and install it yourself, and hack OS X or reflash the drive's BIOS so it's supported as a native one!")

For all the Mac systems I've owned over here, the lack of Blu-Ray hasn't even really been a consideration whatsoever.... If a new one did include it, I doubt it'd really get used.

Not too surprising. He's never hinted at adding it. Doesn't bother me though. I've never owned a Blu-ray player. I just download movies. I'm ok with having less discs laying around.

But I know I'm in the minority . . .

 

[alexbates]

I wouldn't want a Blu-ray drive in my Mac. I don't even want the superdrive that is currently in it. The only time I really use the superdrive is when I burn Linux ISO's to DVD's.

DVD drives are old technology, and add a bunch of weight to laptops. It would make sense to have a Blu-ray drive standard on iMac's, Mac Mini's, and Mac Pro's, but Macbook's don't need a DVD drive. I would prefer a cheap (non-standard) external Blu-ray drive that can attach to Macbook's via USB 3.0. (USB 3.0 is what Mac's need)

 

[Arcady]

Ten years ago Steve admitted he made a mistake not including CD-R drives in the iMacs for two years. How long will we wait for him to realize his mistake this time?

Can't a third party make a Blu-Ray player app? There were all kinds of third party DVD player apps back in the late 90's before Apple got off its ass and put a DVD drive in the PowerMac G3.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

I've been waiting for Blu-Ray to come to macs for ages now!

How can Apple be on the board of directors for the BR association and refuse to put the technology into their products!!??

Yes internet streaming/downloads may be the future but there will always be people like myself who actually want a physical copy of the movie. I want to be able to hold it and actually see and feel where my money was spent.

Secondly with downloads if your hard drive dies you have to download everything again or possibly lose it altogether. Then there is the storage space issue. A download in 1080p quality will be huge. I'd be up for all downloads if Steve gives me a mac capable of storing say 500 movies in 1080p quality with all the extras a BR disc has.

Also I'd like a BR drive so that I can burn more data onto a single disc rather than having piles of dvd's.

Why exactly is BR a 'bag of hurt'? as Steve puts it. Every other manufacturer has been using BR drives in the products for the past couple of years.