Apple waiting on Blu-ray...any thoughts or opinions?

alra111

alra111

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I find it kind of interesting that Apple did not include Blu-ray drives--even as an option--on any of their recently announced iMacs. There are strong signs that Blu-ray is gaining momentum. HP features Blu-ray and HD DVD as options on their machines. If Apple wants to be on the forefront of technology, why no Blu-ray option yet...especially given that Apple is on the Blu-ray Disc Association's Board of Directors?
 
Probably because they're big and expensive still. They might not even fit in the case the way Apple has designed it.
 
It's probably more a question of cost and added value. Wait and see.
 
Apple's on the board of directors for Blu Ray which although it's a serious commitment doesn't mean Jobs won't take the company against the grain and go HD if it benefits stockholders:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/mar/10blu-ray.html Though this might be to pressure their current flash memory and hard drive supplier, Toshiba, to give them a better deal on HD DVD Drives. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/04/12/09/toshiba_to_supply_apple_with_flash_memory.html

More on Apple going Blu Ray or HD DVD:
http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/will-apple-go-blue-ray-or-hd-dvd

Blockbuster just went Blu Ray exclusively which deals a serious blow to the Toshiba/HD DVD format. Doesn't Apple use a lot of Toshiba manufacturing? Could cause some conflicts if they went with Blu Ray drives...
 
XBox 360 uses HD-DVD drives and even so they are an ad on, not even built in. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360hddvdplayer/

They are a lot cheaper than Blue-Ray right now which is why the PS3 is so much more expensive than the 360. Plus the 360 not even coming with the HD-DVD drive makes it even cheaper.

I believe the optical drive used in the iMacs is the thin one they use in laptops so that they can make the iMac as thin as possible. There is only one Blue-Ray drive that small that I have read about that you can get for the MBP 17", not the 15", it won't fit and it's over $500 USD http://fastmac.com/slim_bluray.php

I still like Blue-Ray better and I hope Sony doesn't screw it up like they did with Beta MAX.
 
Well I wasn't around for it but I believe the main reason why it failed to gain popularity was Sony tried to control everything about it, especially not allowing porn on it, while VHS supporters did, and fully licensed the format to various companies that made cheaper recorders.

Similar to the Apple/MS story of controlling the Mac experience vs. MS licensing their software to anyone that wanted it.
 
My understanding is that Mac OS X still doesn't have the ability to protect video/audio streams, so Blu-ray or HD-DVD playback would not be possible (not legally, anyway). Blu-ray drives in Macs would only be useful for data storage. I don't think there is enough demand for that to outweigh the confusion and outrage consumers would feel after learning that their Blu-ray drive can't play Blu-ray movies.

It could also be that Apple is snubbing the HD video disc world to promote iTunes, AppleTV, and the rest of their "digital life" strategy. I doubt it, but hey, they've done dumber things in the past...
 
Captain Code said:
Well I wasn't around for it but I believe the main reason why it failed to gain popularity was Sony tried to control everything about it, especially not allowing porn on it, while VHS supporters did, and fully licensed the format to various companies that made cheaper recorders.

...
Click to expand...
This is not true. It is based on a misunderstanding of the TV world in the mid-1970's.

TV in the mid-1970's was dominated by broadcast TV. People used their VCRs to record broadcast TV shows for later viewing. Every generation of VHS had twice the recording time of Beta. This allowed a viewer to record an entire week of her favorite soap opera on a single cassette. This was not possible on Beta.

VHS was supported by RCA (a huge consumer electronics company), Matsushita (Panasonic, Quasar, etc.), JVC, and many others. Beta's supporters included Sony, Zenith, Sears, and a few others. They were no slouches, but Beta's supporters were not nearly as big or as many as VHS supporters.

Beta was a favorite among engineers, but its strength on the test bench did not translate into the viewing experience. As I stated above, the VCR was used primarily to record broadcast TV. At 220-240 lines or resolution, broadcast TV do not display the strength of Beta.

The prerecorded cassette market developed later. Movie prices went from below $50 to more than $100. Porn producers jumped into this market in a major way and dominated it almost until the prerecorded cassette market peaked. They sold product on both Beta and VHS until it was clear that the Beta market was going nowhere. The video rental market rose as a consequence of the $100+ video cassette.

NV Philips developed the 12-inch Laser Disc as a high-end alternative to the video cassette. It wanted its disc to display educational material, opera, and big-time movies. It refused to allow porn. Nobody bought LD. NV Philips loosen its porn restrictions to allow somewhat sexier material, but it was too little too late.

It is a shame that so many people today try to compare the Blu-ray/HD-DVD dispute to the VHS/Beta dispute. The World is very different today than it was 30 years ago. The two contests have little in common.
 
Well a lot of you have the VHS-Beta war totally wrong! As someone who is older can attest is there is a DIRTY little secret to why VHS won. The adult industry put their stuff out onto VHS (because Sony rejected them) and the many independent video renters put adult material in the back of the store. Plus the many VHS tapes were put up the front of the store. Beta was put near the back of the stores, right near the adult material. This was long before the BlockBuster chain popped up, VHS had already won by then. Why do think the adult industry's decision to go Blu-Ray and this is why it made most tech news sites. Blu-Ray is going to be the winner in the format war, thanks to the adult industry. That is my prediction.
 
My guess: Dual-format readers and single-format writers (and later dual/dual) will win, quite simply.
 
Sure, for short-term data transport. But would you archive on flash drives? Plus: I guess a 50 GB flash drive is a _little_ more expensive than a Blu-Ray disc, no? At least for now.
 
While I usually appreciate seeing Apple forge ahead on technologies that other manufacturers haven't yet adopted, such as Bluetooth and USB, they've always done this only after the standards have been agreed on by all the parties concerned.

Leaping in on a standard before it is finalised is a sure-fire way to manufacture a million DVD players that only play DVDs that were written on a Tuesday, with PAL colour, and on a Vista laptop by a man standing with one foot in a bucket of warm water. ;-)

With Blu-Ray 1.1 not expected to be effective until November and with the RIAA and MPAA consistently calling for tougher anti-piracy measures to be included in the standards, I think Apple are wise to wait for now.

I mean, *yes* it would be nice to have higher capacity optical discs. It would be nice to have high definition movies. But if it comes at the cost of a plethora of new formats, exceptions, copy protection lockouts, high costs and different types of discs in the shops that might or might not work with any given player, I'd rather wait too.
 
symphonix said:
While I usually appreciate seeing Apple forge ahead on technologies that other manufacturers haven't yet adopted, such as Bluetooth and USB, they've always done this only after the standards have been agreed on by all the parties concerned.

Leaping in on a standard before it is finalised is a sure-fire way to manufacture a million DVD players that only play DVDs that were written on a Tuesday, with PAL colour, and on a Vista laptop by a man standing with one foot in a bucket of warm water. ;-)

With Blu-Ray 1.1 not expected to be effective until November and with the RIAA and MPAA consistently calling for tougher anti-piracy measures to be included in the standards, I think Apple are wise to wait for now.

I mean, *yes* it would be nice to have higher capacity optical discs. It would be nice to have high definition movies. But if it comes at the cost of a plethora of new formats, exceptions, copy protection lockouts, high costs and different types of discs in the shops that might or might not work with any given player, I'd rather wait too.
Click to expand...

Well put.
 
They did just that with DVD-R, choosing a winner over DVD+R, though, when they introduced the SuperDrive (DVD-R, not the 3.5" floppy drive of 68K Macs).
 
I've spent a lot of time on an absinthe forum lately, and whenever you post something that can mean two things, people on there misunderstand you on purpose, which leads to preemptive clarifications like that. :)
 
Say for instance the next MacBook Pro contained a Blu-Ray writable drive...would it be easy to throw on of those into an older Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro? I don't see why not if the form factor is similar.
 
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