Apple's Blu-ray Plans

[Animusmors]

I don't know if this has been posted already (didn't find it in the search) but according to someone at the Town Hall meeting at Apple's one infinite loop in Cupertino, Steve Jobs was asked about many issues including Blu-Ray:

Blu-Ray software is a mess, and Apple will wait until sales really start to take off before implementing it.

The source is here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=857406

So all of you, like me, who are looking forward to Blu-Ray to catch on with Apple have to wait even longer.

[hoogoosedmoose41]

personally I think its apple thats a mess!

[P@t_Mtl]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-te...ml#post2852689

[Steve]

I really like Apple computers, but this is an area where they need to pull their head out of their a$$. This is also the main reason the laptop I bought on Black Friday was a Sony Vaio and not a Macbook. The Sony has a blu-ray drive.

[aphex]

They're morons to not at least make it an option on the imacs +.

You know they would overcharge like hell for it and the people that really want these drives will overpay for it on their mac.

[richteer]

I like Apple computers, but this is ridiculous. I wonder if Apple's reluctance to include Blu-ray drives in their computers is due to the need to license Java? Much as I like Apple's technology, I have a real disdain for how proprietory they are and how much they shun open technologies e.g., lack of FLAC support in iTunes/iPod/iPhone, and no Java on the iPhone/iTouch/iPad (not to mention the removal of ZFS from Snow Leopard).

[Vicon]

This is pretty sad. Most new Windows systems have had the option of blu-ray for about three years now. I just purchased two new XPS 9000 systems, both have blu-ray drives. My older Dell system has two blu-ray drives that came with the machine.

Not sure what is going on with Apple, but more than likely, they will "introduce" blu-ray as the "next magical enhancement" to their platform in the next year or two. All the while Windows systems have had it for the last six years.

Crazy. I think it's a money thing. They don't want to fork any out to license software or they are worried about messing up their iTunes profits because of all the downloads? Who knows.

[wallendo]

I have no desire to watch blu-rays on my computer (that's why I have a home theatre), but really would like to have a BD burner.

I have a HiDef 1080i camcorder, I can use iMovie and FCE to edit the video, but iDVD downconverts it to SD DVD. I have to use Toast which, like most Roxio software, is buggy and rough around the edges. I could buy an external burner, but, until there is better burning software than Toast, I will stick with AVCHD's (which are actually adequate for home videos).

I suspect we will see BD burners in Macs sooner, rather than later, after Jobs negotiates a better licensing deal.

[aphex]

Originally Posted by wallendo

I have no desire to watch blu-rays on my computer (that's why I have a home theatre), but really would like to have a BD burner.

Right, but with me ALL of my movies are now on bd. So if I'm traveling with a macbook pro I can't bring any of my movies with me that easily.

[wallendo]

Originally Posted by aphex

Right, but with me ALL of my movies are now on bd. So if I'm traveling with a macbook pro I can't bring any of my movies with me that easily.

Digital copies could be used. I just don't watch movies on my computer (I never watch DVD's either on my computer) and it is just a personal preference.

[Blu-Me]

iSuck

[Good Intentions]

Apple foresees a future with no disc drives whatsoever, so they don't just want to jump into something that may only be around a few years. They also want people to purchase HD content off of Itunes.

[mr.bangle]

Originally Posted by Good Intentions

Apple foresees a future with no disc drives whatsoever, so they don't just want to jump into something that may only be around a few years. They also want people to purchase HD content off of Itunes.

I think you hit the nail on the hammer there. The fabled Macbook Air is a fair example of this, seeing as it came without an optical drive. Apple has no interest in the blueray industry (at least that I'm aware of). It wouldn't make sense for them to support something that wont make them money. Much as I can't blame them for this, they're just another (evil) corporation.

[astranovus]

apple assumes that downloading films is the future.

i personally think this is a long way off. we need at least 50mbit/s in order to enable film downloads in minutes rather than hours. that is if we are talking about 1080p downloads.

rather then the actual video being the problem, i think the audio channels are problematic. plain stereo is easy to implement, but what about dts, dd, or some of the losseless codecs.

it doesn't seem easy to embed these in downloads files. in addition to this the hardware required to play back anything more elaborate than stereo is quite expensive and tricky to implement on the pc side (driver hell and having to stump up cash for playback software). besides this apple is notorious for only supporting their own proprietary software (i.e. flash snub, and pushing quicktime) which is not going to please the big film studios.

the main stream user needs something that switches on and works.

[Jeff Kleist]

apple assumes that downloading films is the future.

Apple WANTS downloading films to be the future, and for iTunes to be the gatekeeper, so they're doing everything in their power to MAKE that the future.

Remember, Apple, Microsoft etc own no content. All they can do is be a distributor

[DIY_HD]

I haven't read anything from Apple as to why they won't support Blu-ray. I'm sure they have reasons. I heard they won't support Flash because it requires a separate data stream which could be a security vulnerability. Can't have viruses sneaking in the back door, now can we? There are probably other software issues that affect playing BDs.

While some menus are really cool, some are horrible to navigate, and some you can't hardly read. While I like some of the innovative ideas some developers have for menus, Apple has always had strict control of the user interface. So these sort of fly in the face of their philosophy of having a consistent user experience.

It is unlikely that HD movie content will ever be practical over the Net. There just isn't the bandwidth, not to mention the server capacity that would be needed to support it. While a few people doing this at a time may not be a problem, I can't imagine millions of concurrent HD data streams flooding the Net.

There are probably some marketing issues and just plain profit issues at stake as well. I hope all these things can be resolved. I would just love to be able to play a BD on a lovely 27" iMac!!!

[Jeff Kleist]

I haven't read anything from Apple as to why they won't support Blu-ray. I'm sure they have reasons. I heard they won't support Flash because it requires a separate data stream which could be a security vulnerability. Can't have viruses sneaking in the back door, now can we? There are probably other software issues that affect playing BDs.

Jobs claims it's too unstable and makes it not "just work".

There are already iPhone virii

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/iph...ails,9136.html

While some menus are really cool, some are horrible to navigate, and some you can't hardly read. While I like some of the innovative ideas some developers have for menus, Apple has always had strict control of the user interface. So these sort of fly in the face of their philosophy of having a consistent user experience.

Apple had no problem with DVD at all. Of course, this was before they had their own video store.

[ryoohki]

Originally Posted by DIY_HD

I haven't read anything from Apple as to why they won't support Blu-ray. I'm sure they have reasons. I heard they won't support Flash because it requires a separate data stream which could be a security vulnerability. Can't have viruses sneaking in the back door, now can we? There are probably other software issues that affect playing BDs.

While some menus are really cool, some are horrible to navigate, and some you can't hardly read. While I like some of the innovative ideas some developers have for menus, Apple has always had strict control of the user interface. So these sort of fly in the face of their philosophy of having a consistent user experience.

It is unlikely that HD movie content will ever be practical over the Net. There just isn't the bandwidth, not to mention the server capacity that would be needed to support it. While a few people doing this at a time may not be a problem, I can't imagine millions of concurrent HD data streams flooding the Net.

There are probably some marketing issues and just plain profit issues at stake as well. I hope all these things can be resolved. I would just love to be able to play a BD on a lovely 27" iMac!!!

Yeah like this NEVER happened to DVD before (Menu thingy) LOL! it's clear it's because they sell overprice low quality movie on their store (20$ for a 720p low quality bitrate audio and video.. REALLY...)

[travelbug]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Apple WANTS downloading films to be the future, and for iTunes to be the gatekeeper, so they're doing everything in their power to MAKE that the future.

Remember, Apple, Microsoft etc own no content. All they can do is be a distributor

thats the real reason.
to steve jobs anything thats not a major source of income is a mess or has major issues.
i think apples long term strat is that their gadgets will be conduits to everything sold via itunes or the app store.
bluray is in direct competition of this notion, they will never support it if they had their way.
apple is indeed the new microsoft and worse...

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by wallendo

I have no desire to watch blu-rays on my computer (that's why I have a home theatre), but really would like to have a BD burner.

I have a HiDef 1080i camcorder, I can use iMovie and FCE to edit the video, but iDVD downconverts it to SD DVD. I have to use Toast which, like most Roxio software, is buggy and rough around the edges. I could buy an external burner, but, until there is better burning software than Toast, I will stick with AVCHD's (which are actually adequate for home videos).

I suspect we will see BD burners in Macs sooner, rather than later, after Jobs negotiates a better licensing deal.

I am in pretty much the same boat as you. I would love to have BD burning on my Macs, both for data backup and for HD videos; not only that, but to make longer SD videos from older footage.

I wouldn't mind BD playback via HTPC if possible, like for when I finally get around to getting an HTPC for the kids' room. Think about having a nice little Mac Mini as an HTPC that can play Blu-ray. That would be sweet.