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Or just buy an external drive; problem solved.

This won't happen.

Lenin

An external device is fine for data, but there's no player for Blu-Ray video for OSX.

Feb 27, 09 - 10:20 am Comment from: TowerTone

There's something about that title...I can't quite put my finger on it...

Feb 27, 09 - 10:27 am Comment from: HMCIV

A world of hurt? Ouch Steve! As Nemo's Dad might say in Disney High Def:

<i>"With fronds like these, who need anemones?"<i>

Feb 27, 09 - 10:30 am Comment from: Demon

Apple will add Blu-ray Write to Macs eventually, Personally as an iTunes users for HD video you need the Blu-ray drive for back-ups of you iTunes library burning a terabyte + to DVD even dual layer DVDs is well very, very time consuming and an external UBS Blu-ray drive will not be much faster you'd just need to swap disc less often. The solution is to go with an internal SATA Blu-ray drive from maximum write performance.

Feb 27, 09 - 10:33 am Comment from: eMax

Its really incredible what people will write about to generate hits.

this is old news if you even call it news.

Apple has not added BluRay to Macs simply because it is a format that is going to disappear, not because the license. But if Steve Jobs says that in public, it will hurt the little feelings of Sony.

Feb 27, 09 - 10:45 am Comment from: CandTsmac

Steve will not use Blu Ray until he has to. Not for Movies but for storage.

.

I want it!!! Just give us the damn option!

Feb 27, 09 - 10:50 am Comment from: nittany4

forgive my ignorance, but would a blu-ray drive in my mac be able to read and write music and data CD, movie and data DVD and DVD-DL?

Feb 27, 09 - 10:50 am Comment from: Metryq

@Demon, the question is Blu-ray for home video content, not as data storage. Anyone who wants it for storage can already get a burner and Toast.

I'm with Viktor -- optical media are on their way out. Not tomorrow, not right away, but their peak period has passed. Speaking strictly for home video, Blu-ray will have a "short" run akin to Laserdisc.

Feb 27, 09 - 11:02 am Comment from: Shadowself

At least in my option (personal *and* professional) iTunes does not compete with Blu-ray Disk. Blu-ray Disk implementations are significantly better quality imagery (and often sound too) than iTunes. Until iTunes supports 1080p/24/30/60 (at a decent bit rate!) and 5.1 sound (and sometimes 7.1 sound) it will not be a direct competitor.

For those of you who say the imagery and sound on iTunes is "good enough" and "you can't tell the difference", my response is...
for many, many people Windows is "good enough" and some people "can't tell the difference" between that and Mac OS X.

@Demon: Umm, punctuation and capitalization are your friends.

I agree with Tom Strong -- just give us the option at an up-charge.

Feb 27, 09 - 11:03 am Comment from: Shadowself

"opinion" not "option"

Blu-Ray disks are replacing DVDs at a faster pace than DVDs replaced VHS tape.

Blu-Ray is inevitable, even if is the last removable media. Which I doubt.

Come on Apple, get with the program.

Blu-ray adoption will occur, but it will take longer than DVD did.

The Laser Disc/blue-ray is an apples to oranges comparison.

Feb 27, 09 - 11:15 am Comment from: DRM sucks

It is obvious that Apple will someday put Blu-ray drives in Macs. The problem now is not the technology nor the competition with iTunes, but the licensing and DRM issues.

Perhaps the lack of revision to iDVD is merely laying the groundwork for a new Blu-ray compatible app.

Waiting for Snow Leopard to pounce.

Feb 27, 09 - 11:56 am Comment from: Predrag

I'm struggling to figure out how adding proper Blu-ray functionality to the Macs can hurt AppleTV. They compete in different spaces (different rooms in the house, no less). Practically nobody watches Hi-def movies on their iMacs.

The purpose of enabling Blu-ray on the Macs is so that we can finally author HD on optical media. I know many people who have migrated to HD. We shoot home HD videos and we hit a wall when we try to share these with our families, soccer parents, class parents, etc, etc, etc. Obviously (to anyone, except Apple, it seems), we can't expect them all to buy AppleTV, so that I can give them an MPEG4-encoded quicktime file to copy onto their Macs and play back on that AppleTV. They all already have Blu-ray players, so I need to burn Blu-ray discs, but I can't on my Mac.

I'd be truly happy if Apple did something with iDVD; either just kill it, or make it iBlu-ray (or iDVD BD). We don't even need Blu-ray burners in order to burn Blu-ray; as long as Apple can now get that dang Blu-ray license from one place, we could get Blu-ray authoring in iLife and burn Blu-ray content onto ordinary DVDs. This will work just fine, if only Apple made it happen.

Right now, I have to jump through hoops and go through this song-and-dance process of editing in iMovie, then exporting to MPEG-4, then authoring in Toast and burning on DVD, all that just so that the resulting disc can be watchable in HD on a Blu-ray player. For a company that claimed 2007 to be the "Year of the HD", it's pretty much inexcusable.

Feb 27, 09 - 11:57 am Comment from: G4Dualie

For those of you who say the imagery and sound on iTunes is "good enough" and "you can't tell the difference", my response is...
for many, many people Windows is "good enough" and some people "can't tell the difference" between that and Mac OS X.

BFD. In most instances, "good enough" is.

"Or just buy an external drive; problem solved."

Not really, as there is no playback software for OSX, there is also almost no authoring software. Toasts will create very simplistic Blu-Rays, but other than that, the only option is Encore which is TERRIBLE!! BUGGY!!! UNRELIABLE!!!

Did I say that loud enough?

I want my, I want my, I want my MTV......................

"forgive my ignorance, but would a blu-ray drive in my mac be able to read and write music and data CD, movie and data DVD and DVD-DL?"

Yes, they will read and burn CDs, DVDs, and BluRays. In fact, if you stick a blank Blu-Ray into the drive the same old "You just stuck in a blank...." comes up.

"They all already have Blu-ray players, so I need to burn Blu-ray discs, but I can't on my Mac."

Of course you can. You just buy an external drive and a copy of Toast. For home movies, Toast does ALL the work.

Feb 27, 09 - 12:17 pm Comment from: Predrag

Quad Core,

Yes, yes, that's precisely my point! If Roxio can secure that Blu-ray authoring license, it is about time for Apple to do it. I really, really don't want to have to go through Toast; the process is unintuitive and the features it offers are quite limited. I want true iLife integration and I'm not alone. As you had already said; Toast is simplistic, Encore is BUGGY, and there's nothing in between.

Sometimes I end up using my office Windows PC with a copy of Pinnacle Studio (which is quite decent, not to mention fully self-contained, allowing the whole process, from acquiring HD footage to burning AVCHD DVD, playable on Blu-ray).

Let's all reapeat this: Blu-ray is inevitable. Broadband will take another twenty years to reach enough homes to make physical media irrelevant. Until then, Blu-ray will dominate HD content delivery. Apple, please! The time has past!

OSX needs the Blu-Ray movie player. Blu-Ray storage is already available with an external Blu-Ray writer and Toast versions 9 and 10. It would be nice if Apple just wrote the software for a Blu-Ray movie player if nothing else. External Blu-Ray drives are available all over the place.

Yes, Apple needs to support blu-ray. Not only is it 10 times better quality than the compressed garbage on iTunes but Apple's market is made up of creative professionals who need the functionality for their work.

Lack of Blu-ray is the one reason I haven't bought an AppleTV.

As soon as BluRay players get down in the $100 - $150 dollar range, it will take off because then PC makers will start installing BR drives as a default option as a way to differentiate themselves from competitors. This in turn will turn BR drives into a complete commodity item which will finally drive the price below $100.

The second step is getting the price of BR media down to the $10 -$15 range. The studios are still in fantasy land with $25 - $30 BR disks that have to be locked up at Walmart. When you see those ridiculous security measures disappear, then you know that BR has finally arrived.

Yes, in some ways AppleTV is a competitor but most people just want to hook up their DVD player to their TV and be done with it. Not everyone wants a wireless, computer-based, home entertainment network.

Downloads will NEVER be able to compete with the physical media of BluRay

I will buy one as soon as it has BluRay

Feb 27, 09 - 01:53 pm Comment from: DanielM

Blu-ray releases slower than a dog's breakfast.
http://www.blu-ray.com/

People who claim that Blu-ray "hasn't taken off" probably said the same thing about the DVD when it was in a comparable adoption phase -- either that, or they're just being disingenuous in order to promote downloading. Right now, Blu-ray adoption is ahead of where the DVD format was at a similar point. Just last year, the revenue generated by Blu-ray eclipsed the revenue from all digital downloads and pay-per-view venues combined, and the growth curve with Blu-ray is greater. Blu-ray's overall market share has already reached >15%, with some high profile releases >25%. Downloads and PPV are nowhere near that.

The problems with downloads are many -- compressed and artifact-laden picture quality, lowest quality 5.1 audio (384k Dolby Digital is audibly inferior to the 640k DD and lossless DD used on Blu-ray), time limits on HD movies, etc. The fact is that market preference is still highly tilted towards optical media. Consumers like to "own" their movies, and pop them into simple devices.

On the computer side, I would love to be able to directly author Blu-rays for HD playback. I use Final Cut Express for sending DVDs to friends and family, and would like to use BDs. (I also post stuff on YouTube, but that's more for raw video than the edited, titled, and mixed stuff that I like to put together) I doubt that the Blu-ray format will completely supplant the DVD, but it has gained a bigger market foothold than most of the tech writers would like to admit (mainly because they like to salivate over the same convergence predictions they've been making since the early-90s -- maybe one of these days they'll be write, but up to this point they've been wrong every time).

The difficulty isn't signing the licenses or paying the licensing fees. It's licensing terms, specifically w.r.t. DRM, that makes Blu-Ray a bag of hurt. Apple can't afford to do all the crazy stuff Microsoft did for Vista (and even more for Windows 7) just to keep big media happy.

Feb 27, 09 - 02:10 pm Comment from: DanielM

Still want one?

http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/

As for backups. Well, I can get a 300-500 GB SATA drive and enclosure for $100 - $200 with firewire vs a Blu-ray writer and 6 to 10 disks. The disks alone are 1X write for $20-30 whereas the hard drives, are unlimited and bootable.

As for watching movies, just how many think I am going to waste my Mac for the kids to watch movies with?

Feb 27, 09 - 03:11 pm Comment from: NewtonsApple

Sorry folks, physical media will be around for quite a while yet. Most places in the US do not have the infrastructure to support adequate broadband. Even when they do get it, fully expect ISPs to start charging even more outrageous prices for bandwidth. We are already seeing some of that happening now with some cable companies testing the waters with such pricing schemes. Be prepared to be nickel and dimed for everything, just like the cell phone industry.

Downloads can't match the video quality of Blu-ray yet and don't expect the extras that come with physical media to make it to downloads anytime soon either. Downloads have their place, but it will be some time before they are dominant delivery method.

@Woochifer
Just curious what was Blu-ray's market share 5 years ago? I just don't get the DD bashing, As a serivce it has a lot more potential then anything blu-ray can offer. And isn't one of Blu-ray's features (that being BDlive) an online one?

I'm not saying the things you said are wrong, i agree DD has a ways to go but the problem is that DD is more of a service and not a product.

@NewtonsApple
Downloads can easily match blu-ray quailty IF they were made too. But as you said with ISP's being pricks it would take 4 or 5 hours just to download one HD movie.

Please don't either of you take this as an attack but I'm just tired of the way DD gets shafted just because of most peoples lack of foresight. DD has amazing potential, it just needs to get the backing but again since it's not a product that belongs to a company it's a tad hard too do.

I have dvds I can trade with my friends. Buy'em, trade'em when you get tired of 'em. Now how can you do that with downloads--------
Answer the question.
That's my bag of hurt. Downloading has its place , but....

Feb 27, 09 - 06:37 pm Comment from: zek

@ gary, "Come on Apple, get with the program."

That is exactly what they don't do, and what distinguishes them from the dull crowd of automatons that dominate the industry.

I remember Apple with all those Macs with DVD only drives, no CD-RW or DVD-RW drives on consumer machines, then Steve recognize the error with his frase: "We missed the boat". I think Apple is missing the boat again

"As for backups. Well, I can get a 300-500 GB SATA drive and enclosure for $100 - $200 with firewire vs a Blu-ray writer and 6 to 10 disks. The disks alone are 1X write for $20-30 whereas the hard drives, are unlimited and bootable."

You need to look more carefully, I just picked up 100 BR-Ds for $2.50 each.

People who think physical media will disappear: why haven't you thrown out all the paper, pens, and pencils on your desk? If we don't need physical media, then you don't need archaic (but highly effective, robust, and efficient) writing tools. Most physical media has strengths that will never be surpassed by digital networks -- physical media only dies when a better physical media is invented.

The Blu-Ray storage technology is a leap forward for video archival and distribution. If player/recorder reverse-compatibility wasn't such a hangup, then the dedicated Blu-Ray drives would be cheaper and faster. Let's hope that manufacturers come to their senses and offer Blu-Ray-only drives in the near future.

The biggest problem with Blu-Ray is that it has that ugly old HDCP albatross hanging around its neck. Without this restrictive DRM scheme, the movie studios will not license players/drives. This means that your computer would have to use an HDMI to display high-definition video on an external monitor. The vast majority of the world, however, uses DVI, which is just as capable as HDMI but is not guranteed to work with the HDCP handshake protocol on older monitors.

So if Apple were to allow Blu-Ray playback on its machines, it would necessarily restrict/change/increase the price of the video output options of all hardware it sells. Consider this: a stand-alone home theater Blu-Ray player costs about $300 and up. Assuming the internals, processing, licensing, and software make up 50% of the cost of the unit, that's a $150 premium for a drive that is read-only and very slow to recognize disks. Are you willing to increase the price of every Mac by $150?

"As soon as BluRay players get down in the $100 - $150 dollar range, it will take off"

The're there already.

With a $479 Dell laptop able to have Blu-Ray added for $150 and a desktop able to have it added for $120 it's an embarrassment that Apple a supposed leader in media technology doesn't offer it as an option on any product at any price.

Will the candy colored macs, and i-move inovation be Apples legacy in the video world? Will Windoze give you HD - blu-ray, so if you really want the BEST in video editing, you MUST buy Windoze in the future? I saw a $1200 laptop with blu-ray playback, so where is their bag of hurt? Apple ---be a LEADER!!

w.r.t. DRM, that makes Blu-Ray a bag of hurt...may be a good point. I don't know what that is, or how it works.

As far as I'm concerned blu-ray was never really alive. Anybody remember laser disk? Talk about your mass adoption...the self authoring of Hi-def movies are here, ubiquitous and have been getting cheaper all the time. The interface has been on every desktop and laptop for almost a decade and even on a bunch of cell phones.

USB2 in a 32GB jump drive can be used to store and archive any HD movie and it's immune to scratches and accidental magnetic erasure. Jump drives are getting larger and cheaper month by month. A 128 GB USB2 drive can be had for as little as $65 from Mac Mall. That's enough space to store 3 HD movies.

Every 5 -10 years consumer electronics companies feel the need to entice the public to spend copious amounts of money on tons of the next land fill. Well this time I feel the need to let this revolution pass me by.

A simple way to use these jump drives for the content providers would be to treat them like subscription devices like Kindle does to books. You buy the drive with content already preloaded. The DRM would be the drive streaming content to your HD screen through a small set top interface. Cheaper more cost effective and greener than the whole Blu-ray thing. It would be the sneaker net equivalent of movie downloads on broadband. The device and be archival or reusable.

Who knows the whiney purists might just stop complaining about artifacting and inferior sound on downloaded movies if they could plug in a credit card size USB2 SSD and see a crisp clean HD picture with mind blowing sound. Mass adoption would bring prices down even further.

Why is people trying not to accept Blu-Ray as a good alternative? if they don't want it just don't buy it. Apple is a media creator company, Blu-Ray has the support of the media industry. It will be the movie industry high definition standard. If I want to edit my personal HD video it will be logical from Apple to offer a in-house alternative for that.

"USB2 in a 32GB jump drive can be used to store and archive any HD movie "

But they can't be produced for twenty cents like Blu-Rays can once the volumes get up.

bobchr does offer an alternative to optical discs, and someday it may be financially viable. It's hard to see how non-recyclable flash drives would be more environmentally friendly than recyclable plastic discs, but none of us is an expert.

Many enterprises require a USB flash drive "key" to enable software access. The same could be done with media content, however, if the flash drive is the key to download content, then what have we gained? with a registered account and a credit card, iTunes already allows downloading without need for a flash drive. The only thing that a flash drive might do, at least until iTunes adds the feature, is include a legal HD video player on the drive itself. Perhaps you buy the software on flash drive and use iTunes to temporarily copy the film download only to the licensed flash drive? Seems a bit clunky.

There are more wrinkles to iron out before the optical disc is obsoleted:

1) DRM: High Definition video creators currently stake their anti-piracy hopes on HDCP. A flash drive would not work with this, and studios have therefore not allowed it. Let's hope that HDCP is abandoned for some more reasonable encryption method. Even if the flash drive is the key to play HD content, studios are paranoid about exporting true HD video signal through unprotected DVI ports -- even when that is the one and only HD display you legally own.

2) Copying/Editing: for now, a read-only disc is currently the best permanent archive for manufacturers and honest consumers. It's really quite easy to detect a forged disc (though catching counterfeiters is proving less easy). Piracy of rewritable media would be impossible to control - once the read-only flash drive feature is defeated (and it will), you won't find a legal flash-drive movie in China.

3) the network: few people have internet service that allows the download of true 1080p video in a reasonable time (less than ~ 1 hour for a feature film). This is what Blu-Ray provides: instant gratification. For those people who are happy with 720p or 1080i, then there are several legal downloads and "on-demand" services available. They look fine on sets less than 40" in size.