What's the ETA on blu rays drive's on macbooks?

[Bobby Corwen]

Just because the DVD had a long life span doesn't mean Blu Ray will be the same. Blu-Ray will likely be the last major disk medium that consumers buy. They're already not buying CDs or DVDs. Most new cars come with an auxiliary in jack so they can plug in their iTunes library, and no more DVD because because now it's Blu-Ray.

But what killed the CD/DVD is now even more prominent than even before and it's still here to finish off the job ending on the Blu-Ray.

Streaming with commercials and pay by episode/season downloads and movies on streaming on demand in HD is the future.

So the life will be short, even shorter with Apples attitude, therefore might as well skip it since it kills battery.

 

[daneoni]

Apple's got your Blu-Ray right here

 

[thermodynamic]

Apple's got your Blu-Ray right here

1. That isn't even a tangent to the OP's inquiring about a Blu-Ray drive
2. Blu-ray quality is going to be far, far, far, far, far, far, far, FAR BETTER than any streaming download. Color gamut is wider, resolution isn't as soft and blurry, been there and done that and told 'em to wait 10 years to actually make this new form of competition viable
3. Blu-Ray can be used to store data. Ever install Logic Studio, Adobe Master Collection CS5, and other apps? A handful of DVDs vs 1 Blu-Ray disc

 

[thermodynamic]

Just because the DVD had a long life span doesn't mean Blu Ray will be the same. Blu-Ray will likely be the last major disk medium that consumers buy. They're already not buying CDs or DVDs. Most new cars come with an auxiliary in jack so they can plug in their iTunes library, and no more DVD because because now it's Blu-Ray.

But what killed the CD/DVD is now even more prominent than even before and it's still here to finish off the job ending on the Blu-Ray.

Streaming with commercials and pay by episode/season downloads and movies on streaming on demand in HD is the future.

So the life will be short, even shorter with Apples attitude, therefore might as well skip it since it kills battery.

I don't see how a blue colored laser propelled by a small motor is going to dramatically lower battery life. Wi-fi will dramatically lower battery life. H.264, as I recall, requires a lot more processing power than MPEG2 -- so that'll suck up the battery life as well.

Yes, streaming video is the future*. As long as broadband providers don't get cute and put caps on data. Don't tell me they're doing that already...

* the future. Think years since video quality, compressed and streamed, can't begin to touch Blu-Ray in terms of quality. The marketed letters "HD" are effectively a misnomer. Right now they are. In the future, the technology will be viable and preferable. A library of discs can be annoying to maintain, but then the positive flip side to that is not having to re-rent all the time.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

^ Like I said it doesnt need to substitute it, only unsurp it.

When I stream a 1080p music video on Youtube its pretty damn fast and pretty damn good. Not Blu-Ray, but also only a difference a videophile could notice...

Since most people aren't, anything that looks crisp and clear 1080p is enoughly in the ball-park.

As for how BD sucks power, that's not just any lazer bro. That's a high powered lazer! (Not saying it's a quad lazer) All laptops that have them suffer from significantly reduced battery life and some get as little as 2hrs. It's a huge problem.

People have simply changed, and will continue to change, their habits. The very idea of walking into a brick and mortar store for this type of service and product is becoming redundant.

"Click" says the lazy human...

 

[daneoni]

1. That isn't even a tangent to the OP's inquiring about a Blu-Ray drive
2. Blu-ray quality is going to be far, far, far, far, far, far, far, FAR BETTER than any streaming download. Color gamut is wider, resolution isn't as soft and blurry, been there and done that and told 'em to wait 10 years to actually make this new form of competition viable
3. Blu-Ray can be used to store data. Ever install Logic Studio, Adobe Master Collection CS5, and other apps? A handful of DVDs vs 1 Blu-Ray disc

I'm not debating the merits of Blu-Ray. I'm just saying don't dream of Blu-Ray anytime soon because:

1. Apple hates licensing 3rd party tech (they'd rather build/own something similar)

2. Apple wants you to get all your media from iTunes.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

What if iTunes released a collection of higher quality HD content and called it Red-Ray?

Just blatantly like that.

 

[thermodynamic]

^ Like I said it doesnt need to substitute it, only unsurp it.

When I stream a 1080p music video on Youtube its pretty damn fast and pretty damn good. Not Blu-Ray, but also only a difference a videophile could notice...

Since most people aren't, anything that looks crisp and clear 1080p is enoughly in the ball-park.

As for how BD sucks power, that's not just any lazer bro. That's a high powered lazer! (Not saying it's a quad lazer) All laptops that have them suffer from significantly reduced battery life and some get as little as 2hrs. It's a huge problem.

People have simply changed, and will continue to change, their habits. The very idea of walking into a brick and mortar store for this type of service and product is becoming redundant.

"Click" says the lazy human...

I concede on most of your points, especially the BR laser...

However, videophiles are more likely to go Blu-Ray in the first place. "Good enough is good enough" was a mantra I never liked; the screen may be HD but if the video isn't on par then it really isn't HD... but I like to nitpick and, yeah, most people don't care. Good enough is good enough.

 

[thermodynamic]

I'm not debating the merits of Blu-Ray. I'm just saying don't dream of Blu-Ray anytime soon because:

1. Apple hates licensing 3rd party tech (they'd rather build/own something similar)

2. Apple wants you to get all your media from iTunes.

1. Logical - it does add to the cost of the product(s) being made.

2. Definitely logical. And, in all honesty, iTunes (with 256k compression) is rather nice...

 

[theSeb]

They're already not buying CDs or DVDs. Most new cars come with an auxiliary in jack so they can plug in their iTunes library, and no more DVD because because now it's Blu-Ray.

There are plenty of articles that show the opposite with actual statistics based on reality. Where are you getting your info from? The tooth-fairy?

 

[Al Coholic]

There are plenty of articles that show the opposite with actual statistics based on reality. Where are you getting your info from? The tooth-fairy?

Well, if the tooth fairy wanted to rent a BRD at a Blockbuster store she'd be out of luck.

I can't believe people are still extolling the virtues of CD/DVD much less Blu-Ray (on a mac even). Optical media is on death's door. R.I.P. Let it die with dignity.

 

[theSeb]

Well, if the tooth fairy wanted to rent a BRD at a Blockbuster store she'd be out of luck.

I can't believe people are still extolling the virtues of CD/DVD much less Blu-Ray (on a mac even). Optical media is on death's door. R.I.P. Let it die with dignity.

Yes, it's really nearly dead with reports stating that 20% of the actual consumers (not people that hang around on computer forums) have streamed a movie in the last 7 months and the rest are still using optical discs. It's really on death's door.

 

[stefmesman]

blu-ray pro's and con's

- Better quality, but most people would not notice it.
- videoproffesionals dont watch blu-ray movies on thier laptop preferably, i always use my cinema set. If u got the resolution why not watch on 50''?
- Streaming media is easyer and cheaper.
- They are planning to get rid of any drive at all. in sake of space for battery and HDD
- It would make your mac atleast 100 bucks more expensive to buy.
- when using a laptop it will decrease (while using) your battery life by a significant amount.
- blu-ray drives that are small enough to fit a laptop right now are very expensive. and nearly not as good as a real blu-ray player.
- within 3 years we will all be able to stream 1080p at a descent bitrate.

the only real thing i see blu-ray for is the storage. everything else will be obsolete in 3 years. why incorporate a standart that will be obsolete in 3 years? (atleast for computers)

 

[TheUndertow]

I am interested in buying a new macbook once blu-ray drives are added. When will this happen?

If it hasn't already happened, it won't be.

Apple doesn't want to have to pay Sony for the licensing.

Chances are, Blu-Ray won't be that big of a deal in a few years anyway...

 

[Al Coholic]

Yes, it's really nearly dead with reports stating that 20% of the actual consumers (not people that hang around on computer forums) have streamed a movie in the last 7 months and the rest are still using optical discs. It's really on death's door.

Ok, Mr. "eye roller",

Do you think that 20% streaming market will grow or shrink?

You have freaking rental stores folding like lawn chairs. Even RedBox with their $1 rentals is tanking.

No new BR hardware at CES 2011. That's very telling.

All optical media in general is dying. Yeah, I'm crazy. Commit me. I really don't know what argument you're clinging to here. This isn't about the superior viewing quality BR brings... it's about how much people actually value it. They don't and Apple saw it coming.

 

[jvmxtra]

def never

 

[theSeb]

Ok, Mr. "eye roller",

Do you think that 20% streaming market will grow or shrink?

You have freaking rental stores folding like lawn chairs. Even RedBox with their $1 rentals is tanking.

No new BR hardware at CES 2011. That's very telling.

All optical media in general is dying. Yeah, I'm crazy. Commit me. I really don't know what argument you're clinging to here. This isn't about the superior viewing quality BR brings... it's about how much people actually value it. They don't and Apple saw it coming.

Yes, optical media will die and streaming is the future. However, that future and this death has been drummed for some time and it still hasn't happened AND it won't happen for a couple of years. I don't think this is difficult to understand if you look past your own limited experience and actually look at the rest of the market / world. We are still some time away from when we have the infrastructure to be able to handle streaming 1080p with HD sound formats, never mind the upcoming formats like 4K. In two years time we will be having the same discussion about this death of optical media and it still won't be dead. How about a $200 bet?

 

[Al Coholic]

Yes, optical media will die and streaming is the future.

Why then are you debating this?

However, that future and this death has been drummed for some time and it still hasn't happened AND it won't happen for a couple of years.

You're bogging down on semantics. Did you know you can still buy VHS tapes at your local Wal-Mart? What do you think "death" means... that the federal government will outlaw it? It's been "drummed" as dying for some time because it's true... the medium is being replaced by other forms. Are those other forms better? No, but again convenience trumps all.

The question here in the forum is whether Apple will support BR media. The answer is no. It's not my answer - the industry and consumer market have spoken. To me that's "on death's door".

 

[-hh]

We have to take into account that these "shifts" when they happen, happen very fast like landslides.

Within 2 short years the whole landscape can change dramatically. The catalyst can be one simple revolution in technology habits and all of a sudden a mainstream machination can completely change.

So even if things seem stable now for Blu-Ray, it can change just like that exponentially because these transitions don't necessarily happen at an even rate.

A good point: in many instances, change comes rapidly once some tipping point is reached. However ...and this might be a tad pedantic... when it comes to BD, I'm not necessarily so convinced that it really is "stable". I don't have a BD player, but my understanding is that new BD releases often contain new DRM which thus requires one to download a new update for one's player. If my understanding here is correct, then so long as BD is effectively undergoing such change, it is IMHO hard to claim that it is a stable format, when there's this moving target of BD's DRM De Jour.

YMMV to what degree a company like Apple wants to be functionally compelled into releasing update after update ...for free (a bag-o-financial-hurt) to the same basic "BD Player" software in a MBP as a result of this lack-of-stability in BD's totality.

It's also not a matter of wether people still "need" DVDs and Blu-Rays and don't have broadband yet, its a matter of not enough of the majority needing it to support the industry. So if a big percentage of the masses move away from Blu-Ray and start downloading iTunes movies or some other future digital source and/or format, it will rupture the sales and profits of the medium which is necessary for it to continue.

IMO, there's already a lot of 'hedging of bets' within the optical media delivery industry, through the sales of "Combo Sets" which include the same product in two or three different formats (BD, DVD, 'ripped'). If nothing else, this is creating an incorrect picture of what the adoption rates are of the different media formats, because of this bundling of multiple formats: no one really knows for sure if a consumer buying a BD/DVD combo set is buying it for the DVD (and future-proofing with the BD), or vice versa, etc.

All PS3's have slot loading drives, they can't be that expensive... if you do a search on google, they come up for not that much

They aren't, but they're also not as thin as the ones that would be used in a laptop. The retail price for the BD burner that Sony uses in their laptops has now come down to a "mere" (cough) $150 a copy. IIRC, Sony's price was ~$300 in 2010.

^ Like I said it doesnt need to substitute it, only unsurp it.

When I stream a 1080p music video on Youtube its pretty damn fast and pretty damn good. Not Blu-Ray, but also only a difference a videophile could notice...

Since most people aren't, anything that looks crisp and clear 1080p is enoughly in the ball-park.

Bandwidth issues can be addressed in part by the amount of compression (even if it is lossy) that is being used. However, another potential factor with this is that I understand that BD uses 60 frames/sec, which we are trying to compare to DVD at 24 (30 in some markets). This factor alone introduces a lot of motion blur into the latter medium - - see this week's Peter Jackson's news on the filming of The Hobbit at 48fps - - as such, we need to be careful here in making sure that when we say that "X is better than Y" that we do so for the technically correct reasons ... and my point here is that it is alternatively quite possible that a DVD resolution at 48fps could very well look just as good as current BD, because this change alone will eliminate the blurring on the legacy format.

As for how BD sucks power, that's not just any lazer bro. That's a high powered lazer! (Not saying it's a quad lazer) All laptops that have them suffer from significantly reduced battery life and some get as little as 2hrs. It's a huge problem.

Agreed. FWIW, I believe that it has gotten less bad ("better"), but it nevertheless is another area of technology that needs to be examined to look holistically at the overall implications of a proposed product design change.


-hh

 

[wywern209]

streaming is not about to take over till the majority of the world has broadband fast enough to stream 1080p. us on the forums might have the capability to get high speed 15-100mbps internet but the rest of the world doesn't just yet. the majority of the world's population doesn't live in the US to my knowledge. When the world over has download speeds starting at 20-50mbps, then we will see streaming of bluray type quality. and that speed has to be sustained. by then though, we will more than likely have 4K or higher, which will take up so much space on one's HDD, that it wouldn't make sense to stream it. hence why i don't think that physical media is going to die anytime in the next 10 years. Apple might toss it out of computers but the tech itself won't die.

 

[maclaptop]

Apple will rename it iRay,

Con-Vince everyone they Invented it, and it will sell in the billions.

Shipping just before the holidays.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

It'll happen sometime this year. Count on it. The remarks that it will never happen is just hyperbole. And those saying you won't see a big difference between blu ray and dvd on a laptop you only sit a foot or so away from are idiots that don't know what they're talking about.

Here's a comparison of an upconverted dvd on a 7 inch screen, versus a blu ray on a 7 inch screen.

Image

Image

It'll likely show up the iMac's before it does in the MBPs though. It's the customers with a 27 inch iMac that are drooling at the prospect of Blu Ray the most.

Apple can only stay behind technology for so long.

Yes, there will likely be a version of the MBP withouat any sort of disk drive what so ever. But it will never be the only version of the MBP.

There will always be a version of the MBP disk drive. Atleast for another five years.

Too many casual users install software like Microsoft Office, Photoshop and such software off a cd to do away with that option completely. In fact, I'm sure there's many important software that isn't even sold via digital distribution.

And Apple's customers are already demanding blu ray and Apple will give in soon enough. 100 gbs vs. 7 gbs of capacity, there isn't even a comparison.

It'll likely show up the iMac's before it does in the MBPs though. It's the customers with a 27 inch iMac that are drooling at the prospect of Blu Ray the most.

I am re-watching all my Fav's in Blu-ray, amazing, and if you haven't seen a movie in BR, you are missing a LOT

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Guys,

I wamdered into a Blockbuster Video last night.......

It was depresing.

The only reason I went in there was to look for a pair of cheap green/magenta old school 3D glasses for my PS3 (which plays Blu-Ray) version of NBA 2K11 which has a variety of 3D settings to mess with and the only place I could think to find such an item without leaving the comfort of my neighborhood was to look for it inside of an old DVD bundle.

I went in there and I was the only one there. It just FELT different. Like a whole new era.

I remember the days perhaps a decade ago when I would go into one late at night and there would be a dozen people in there looking to cap off their night with a nice film.

Where are all those people?

Why, still comfortably at home of course...

 

[RockPortTech]

Personally I would completely count it out. All you have to do is look at the MacBook Air to see what direction Apple is moving to. Pretty soon, in this day and age of streaming everything under the sun, we no longer soon have optical drives.

Personally I do not see this as a big loss since the weight savings would be substantial, not to mention the longevity of the battery would as well benefit from the removal of this increasingly seldom used device.

 

[aoaaron]

Guys,

I wamdered into a Blockbuster Video last night.......

It was depresing.

The only reason I went in there was to look for a pair of cheap green/magenta old school 3D glasses for my PS3 (which plays Blu-Ray) version of NBA 2K11 which has a variety of 3D settings to mess with and the only place I could think to find such an item without leaving the comfort of my neighborhood was to look for it inside of an old DVD bundle.

I went in there and I was the only one there. It just FELT different. Like a whole new era.

I remember the days perhaps a decade ago when I would go into one late at night and there would be a dozen people in there looking to cap off their night with a nice film.

Where are all those people?

Why, still comfortably at home of course...

aww i remember when i was a kid and used to LOVE going to blockbuster.