Full FeedWhy Apple isn’t going to be using Blu-Ray, ever
We keeping hearing rumors about Apple moving over to Blu-Ray in laptops and desktop computers. I’ve got a few theories of why Apple will never use Blu-ray for Macs. Before I speculate of why the format won’t be coming, Apple signed up for Blu-Ray about 3 years ago! Since then, they haven’t done anything and probably won’t in the future.
Movie rentals. Apple is pushing them hard to succeed and putting Blu-Ray players in Macs will lower the chances of buying sales/rentals of HD content from iTunes. Blu-ray has all the major vendors in the movie industry, and Apple still hasn’t hit 1,000 movies in the iTunes Store.
No optical drive in MacBook Air. Apple told us that we don’t need a DVD player to watch movies, the iTunes Store works fine. If they don’t want us watching DVDs, it won’t be any different for Blu-ray movies.
Professional applications don’t yet support Blu-ray. Rober X. Crinigely of the PBS predicts. Even though this is a valid missing link, he says that this would be a lame excuse to not use the format.
Why don’t you think Apple hasn’t switched to Blu-Ray yet?
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uhhh, doesn’t Apple already offer Blu-Ray as a build to order option?! Last time I checked they did.
on March 18, 2008 at 10:23 PM - LINKNich, I have to severely disagree.
Movie Rentals:
They haven’t put a Blu-Ray drive in a Mac because the format war has just been declared over. Blu-Ray is the clear victor, and Apple did not want to jump sides, even though they partially joined the Blu-Ray group a while back. The fact that Apple hasn’t reached a 1,000 movies available for rent doesn’t have anything to do with it. Both Apple and Blu-Ray have the support of all the major studios, so that is not relevant as well.
No Optical Drive in the MacBook Air:
Apple doesn’t care about us watching movies from a DVD. If they truly cared, then they would have taken they would taken the drive out of the existing laptops as well, and force us to buy external drives if we wanted to watch movies or install software. The MacBook Air is also not directed to the HD/movie crowd, it was directed to the people who favor mobility over all other aspects, yet want possibly to use some low-end media features.
Professional applications don’t yet support Blu-Ray:
Yet, being the keyword. Now that a victor has been declared, software makers are going to build in Blu-Ray support, and even before the war was declared, there were most certainly authoring programs available with Blu-Ray support.
It’s really a matter of when Apple is going to either add a separate MacBook Pro “HD” or a BTO option on both the MacBook Pro or the Mac Pro. Apple would be purely idiotic for not supporting Blu-Ray as it will be around for sometime because as long as there are people who aren’t as fortunate as others to have either an unlimited broadband connection, a faster broadband connection, or broadband at all, HD optical formats, primarily Blu-Ray, will be around for quite some time.
If you’d like to see my article I wrote replying to CrunchGear about a similar topic, it is available at my high-definition oriented website, http://www.highdefdelight.com/2008/03/02/blu-ray-coming-to-apple-crunchgear-says-no/.
on March 18, 2008 at 11:16 PM - LINKZach has it right. None of these are roadblocks as to why Apple isn’t going to switch to Blu-ray.
The only reason Apple hasn’t done so yet is because of the format war. Now that it is over, it would be asinine for Apple to leave all of the movie studios that rely on it’s hardware/software in the cold. Obviously they could find other solutions, but many studios are deeply rooted in Apple.
The decision to incorporate Blu-ray drives across all Apple products can be debated, but it can be guaranteed it will at least be a BTO option in Apple’s pro line of hardware.
on March 19, 2008 at 12:04 AM - LINKProbably something to do with licensing fees. They probably have not come to an agreement.
on March 19, 2008 at 08:46 AM - LINKDOES ANYONE READ? Apple has been offering Blu-Ray as a build to order option for months.
on March 19, 2008 at 09:19 AM - LINKqlock. No they haven’t. Ever.
on March 19, 2008 at 10:38 AM - LINKThis is literally the stupidest article on just about anything I’ve ever read. You obviously don’t do your research man.
The MBA is focused to on the go biz people, the type that typically aren’t watching DVDs on their laptop, plus the removal of the drive was how they got the whole ‘world’s thinnest’ BS.
“Apple told us that we don’t need a DVD player to watch movies, the iTunes Store works fine.” That is a ridiculous statement. The iTunes Store does not work fine, as they do not have HIGH DEF (their ‘HD’ is low bit rate ########, little better than sd) movies for download, which is a large reason why people want bluray to begin with. Anyone serious enough about quality picture and sound is going to use bluray, and isn’t going to want some crappy low bit rate download, even if ‘apple told’ them so. Idiot.
Bluray currently can easily hold 50GB, with a potential storage of 200GB+... sounds like something you might want to use for archival purposes, no? I can’t imagine apple being so stupid as to overlook that huge advantage of BD just to try to bolster their movie sales.
‘Professional programs don’t support Bluray yet’ WRONG AGAIN. Do some damn research before you go spouting your mouth on a website… Roxio toast has had a plugin enabling bluray reading and writing that comes with the program for THE LAST THREE VERSIONS.
It really saddens me to see someone supposedly ‘in the know’ or at the very least, intelligent, to be spouting such ill-informed junk. Read. Then write.
on March 20, 2008 at 02:46 PM - LINKbtw…
on March 20, 2008 at 02:59 PM - LINKhttp://fastmac.com:16080/slim_bluray.php
Of course Apple will (eventually) move to Blu-ray. It’s a matter of cost, and, I imagine, updating iDVD as well as DVD Studio Pro, the only app that barely changed in FCS 6. As for the rest of the Pro Apps, they work with Hi-Def, and have for years now.
I’m in the post-production business, and I’m telling you, our Blu-ray business has exploded since the format war is over.
50 GB on a disk for backup? Putting ALL your home movies and so on on a single disk? Mastering your hi-def podcast? OF COURSE they’re moving that way. But here’s the thing: Sony has made all their whiz-bang features optional in players. But they make copy protection mandatory. I wonder how this affects consumers. For film studios, this means a simple test run costs THOUSANDS of dollars. If Sony wants their disks as omnipresent as DVD burners, they’ll have to relax that.
on March 29, 2008 at 02:31 PM - LINKJim,
I agree 100%. But I think it will take some cooperation of both sides for us to see a move. Sony needs to relax a little on some stuff and Apple needs to get their ass in gear :P
on March 30, 2008 at 02:37 AM - LINKI think I lean with Jim. In comparing Apple now with Blu-ray and Apple in 2002-2003 with DVD burners, Apple had a DVD-RAM option but didn’t include the DVD-R option in their configurations until the drives dropped to the $200 mark. I think the same will happen with Blu-ray.
I bought my first DVD-R drive for $500 from eBay. Within one year, the drives were down to $150 and were a lot faster. Apple also started including them in the standard options from apple.com.
If the Blu-ray war were to continue with HDDVD, and there wasn’t a clear victor, and the drives cost near the same, Apple would include both options or a dual format drive as a standard option.
As soon as it does happen, that’s when I think we’ll begin seeing Blu-ray support on iDVD and DVD Studio Pro. I bet they’ll change the name to BD Pro or Disc Studio Pro or something. Apple is all about bringing Pro capabilities and emerging technologies to high-end consumers and to low-end pros. Traditionally, that has been their sweet spot and I don’t think that view has changed much in the last few years - even with the iPhone.
on July 18, 2008 at 02:13 PM - LINKStill waiting for Bluray support!!!! I’m a FCP user and I’m starting to author HD content. Having to purchase PremierPro CS4 with Encore CS4 pisses me off. And using plain old DVDs with Toast10+plugin, limits me in content duration. I am sorely dissapointed in Apple for it’s lack of support for Bluray. I understand why apple hesitates for it’s consumer line… but what of the neglect to it’s pro line? Us users that need to publish HD content to our customers? Dissapointed.. very dissapointed!
on March 12, 2009 at 08:56 AM - LINK