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Why Apple will never support Blu-Ray
- Thread starter drjsway
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All the comparison images are between DVD and Blu-ray. I said it looks better than DVD but that 720p is enough for a laptop. Maybe you want to post some 720p and 1080p comparison images.
Don't flame me but another blueray thread 
.
Very simple reason apple wont put blueray "YET!"
1: They want you to use iTunes HD Movie/TV = Bad for irish users like me + make money.
2: They want to have the best battery life etc crap.
3: They probably think SD Cards in a year or two will be able to hold the same amount of memory as a blueray dvd at the same price.
4: Software on DVDs apple thinks can still use the disc 2 / disc 3 method.
5: Games still use dual layer dvds.
.Very simple reason apple wont put blueray "YET!"
1: They want you to use iTunes HD Movie/TV = Bad for irish users like me + make money.
2: They want to have the best battery life etc crap.
3: They probably think SD Cards in a year or two will be able to hold the same amount of memory as a blueray dvd at the same price.
4: Software on DVDs apple thinks can still use the disc 2 / disc 3 method.
5: Games still use dual layer dvds.
or, many people might not be too interested in spending 2-3g for some portable entertainment system.. you could spend less and get the real deal.. audio included.
No, since S/PDIF (the optical port on MBPs) doesn't have enough bandwidth to carry HD-audio. HDMI or analog connectors for each channel are the only options.
Why does every Blu-Ray thread devolve into..."who needs blu-ray anyways?"
It's fantastic for:
1. Only needing one copy of a movie
2. Backing up large amounts of data
3. Authoring Blu-Ray content
To name just a few.
Yes, you can buy an external drive for some of this, but how about just putting a drive in the MacBook Pro's so we can actually have a portable workstation that tackles all of this in one fell swoop?
Blu-Ray will come to the Mac at some point and Jobs will have totally flip-flopped and forgotten all about the "bag of hurt" BS.
It's only a "bag of hurt" because Jobs isn't the one on the receiving end of the licensing revenue. He *LOVES* to dish out "bags of hurt" to others, he just can't stand being on the opposite end. ;-)
It's fantastic for:
1. Only needing one copy of a movie
2. Backing up large amounts of data
3. Authoring Blu-Ray content
To name just a few.
Yes, you can buy an external drive for some of this, but how about just putting a drive in the MacBook Pro's so we can actually have a portable workstation that tackles all of this in one fell swoop?
Blu-Ray will come to the Mac at some point and Jobs will have totally flip-flopped and forgotten all about the "bag of hurt" BS.
It's only a "bag of hurt" because Jobs isn't the one on the receiving end of the licensing revenue. He *LOVES* to dish out "bags of hurt" to others, he just can't stand being on the opposite end. ;-)
The DVD vs. Blu-ray comparison is a fair one, because this is what this whole discussion is about. Or where do you think I can legally get 720p-content for my MBP? It's just as impossible as getting 1080p-content. I have to decid between DVD (barf) or nothing at all.
Why would anyone watch a movie on their iMac? There are two usage scenarios for watching HD movies:
1. At home on your HDTV
2. On your laptop while traveling. More likely the more portable ones (13" and 15"), which are not 1080p anyway. You are not going to bust out your 17" MBP on a plane, especially if you sit in economy.
Who watches a movie at home at their desktop?
Suppah Hi-Visiah will come and no Blu Ray will be able to hold it, TVs will come with integrated Hard drives and we'll get next-gen quality!
i do for one
i use my desktop for like 80% of all my movie watching and I have a 40" hd tv in the other room
There's no reason the MBP shouldn't be usable as a "portable entertainment system". Every other laptop is, even HP's powerful mobile workstations play (and burn) Blu-Ray. All the hardware is already there, except the drive and the hi-res screen. Hell, the current MBPs are basically crippled mobile entertainment systems (since they offer media playback, but not at FullHD resolution).
Apple could easily offer us the best of both worlds, and I have been saying this repeatedly in these debates: give us the option of choosing between an MBP with an optical drive - but make it Blu-Ray, since nobody has any use for the Superdrive - and an MBP without any optical drive at all. Then people like you who don't care about mobile entertainment can happily choose the driveless model and people like me can choose the one with BR. Currently, NOBODY is happy: you have no use for the Superdrive, because you're not interested in watching movies on your laptop, and neither do I, because it doesn't play BR.
A basic 13" MBP sells for a bit over $1000, no? Adding a Blu-ray to that would increase the price with, what, $100?
And I don't think that people are wanting a Blu-ray in their MBPs because they'd use them as "portable entertainment systems". I for once would like it to have the opportunity to do so, to be able to use BR discs as a convenient backup media that can easily be stashed away in my fire-proof safe, and last, but not least, because it's the best optical media currently available and offering a DVD-drive instead of it offers me absolutely no benefits what so ever.
Mind you, I'd be perfectly happy (in fact maybe even happier) if it was offered as an external option. I'm all for ditching the internal optical drive all together in favor of a bigger battery or an additional HD.
Christ, do you even read your own thread? iTunes only offers movies in the United States. The United States are not the world. Get it?
Because a lot of people use their iMac as their only media source. A lot more would if it was truly capable of being one.
Indeed. If I owned a 27" iMac, I would feel burned because it can't even play Blu-Rays.
I use my MBP as my "only media source", and most people I know do the same with their laptops, whether they're Macs or PCs. In fact, I only know a single person my age who owns an HDTV, everyone else uses a laptop. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but these comments in the vein of "just get an HDTV!!!!1111" are so damn arrogant.
meh.. it's just crazy sounding to me that some people want this crystal clear video on small screens to watch movies with.. what about the audio? is that not important too?
"hey, check out how sweet this video looks on my 15" screen!! goes great with the tin-can audio dontcha think!!!"
seriously, i'm not buying the 'best possible movie experience on a laptop' argument at all...
How about my first choice is my computer setup over my tv, which i hardly ever use
do you always result to sly insults when people dont do as you think they should?
This is even more true for the MiniMac. If it would've had a Blu-ray drive and HDMI, I would've bought it in a heartbeat as my home entertainment system. It would be a lot more flexible than the PS3 i got instead, especially since I'm not really into gaming anyway.
Exactly. I would love to be able to watch a full HD movie on my 17" MBP. The HD movies I have from iTunes don't look bad, especially when watched on an ACD, but it is really not quite like watching a 1080p content.
---> high-end headphones.
Besides, the jump in picture quality to 1080p is immediately apparent if you have a FullHD-screen (as you should in an expensive laptop); TrueHD-sound, on the other hand... Well, you'll need a great and expensive surround system to take advantage of that. I think these HD-sound systems are more geared towards enthusiasts. I don't know anybody with a dedicated expensive surround system, but I sure know a lot of people who love to watch movies on their laptops with good headphones.
Man, I can't believe we're talking about this in the year 2010. Not supporting Blu-Ray really is one of Apple's biggest blunders ever.
With an external blu-ray drive and MakeMKV, you can watch blu-ray movies now without waiting for apple to provide you a solution...all in OS X.
Here's a portable, bus-powered drive you could bring with you to convert a movie on the fly:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827270003&Tpk=velocity micro blu
The only thing you'll lose is blu-ray menus/extras, unless of course you want to boot into Windows and then you can have that too...and no HD Audio either, if that's important to you over standard DTS/Dolby Digital
Here's a portable, bus-powered drive you could bring with you to convert a movie on the fly:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827270003&Tpk=velocity micro blu
The only thing you'll lose is blu-ray menus/extras, unless of course you want to boot into Windows and then you can have that too...and no HD Audio either, if that's important to you over standard DTS/Dolby Digital
I agree, I currently have a mac mini and use it as my media center but would sell it in an instant if a new model came out with blu-Ray or hdmi out, heck I would do it if only for the hdmi. That way I could get the HD audio codecs to play through my reciever. I do think apples reticence is a combination of trying to preserve and foster iTunes movie sales and because a hdmi out doesn't match the design aesthetic, and because there is not a skinny enough slot loading Blu-Ray drive. None of apples products has a tray loading drive, I think apple could introduce one if the resources were dedicated though. I do think Blu-Ray would take Macs to the next level but would strand those consumers that have bought into the MiniDisplayPort ecosystem.
The cheapest external Blu-Ray drive I can find in my country still costs 100$ more than this. And then I would have to endure several hours of ripping every time I get a new movie? Not a very Apple-like user experience.