Forums | MacLife

First Blu-Ray drives in a 5.25" form-factor need to become available.

Apple has not announced plans to sell BD drives. However Roxio has announced plans to update Toast to support 3rd party drives. However It will be up to Apple or someone else to handle movie playback.

Yet I'm going to wait for affordable combo HD DVD / BD drives before I start to care about next gen optical media.

BTW: Apple's software (DVD Studio Pro, Disc utility) should support Blu-ray now, as Apple is in the Blu-ray army.
But I doubt we will se Blu-ray drives in macs (as BTO) until the prices have fallen and availablity increases.
When.. ? I dunno maybe next summer / WWDC... ?

W

I wouldn't recommend holding your breath.

Do you really need more than 128MB of RAM?

No, but it's nicer this way.

And that goes for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and the slew of new tech.

Shadowless wrote:

Do you really need more than 128MB of RAM?

No, but it's nicer this way.

o rly

apple.com wrote:

Mac OS X Version 10.4 requires a Macintosh with:

    * PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
    * Built-in FireWire
    * At least 256MB of physical RAM
    * A built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
    * At least 3.0 GB of available space on your hard drive; 4GB of disk space if you install XCode 2 developer tools
    * DVD drive for installation (get CD media for $9.95)

Shadowless wrote:

Do you really need more than 128MB of RAM?

No, but it's nicer this way.

And that goes for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and the slew of new tech.

I know a CAD department of a local engineering shop that invested a lot of money in mechanical erasers back in the mid-90's (when they were called the drafting department).  That certainly seems like a dead-end technology, and it was quickly swallowed up by computers and CAD.

I think that was Volk's point.  At some point, physical media will become (nearly) obsolete, replaced by digital content delivery via the web, or satellites or something more amazing.  Whatever physical media technology exists at that point will be an evolutionary dead-end.  Is blu-ray that dead end?  It might be.  It depends on the speed at which digital delivery becomes mainstream versus the speed of evolution in the physical media universe.

Notice also, that I said (mostly) obsolete, not totally.  Just like erasers are still needed, I am sure we will never totally get rid of physical media, but we may reach a point in the not-to-distant future where content delivery on phyical media seems just as funny to us as mechanical erasers.

Aqua OS X wrote:

Apple has not announced plans to sell BD drives.

They have, unofficially. Check the SATA connections in the back of the Mac Pro's Optical bays.

Aqua OS X wrote:

volk wrote:

I see lack of Blu-ray in Macs often mentioned as a huge drawback

Often? I never heard -anyone- mention that as a drawback. Especially since BD drives JUST hit the market, they cost over $700, and there is limited content and software supporting them. 

Moreover, good luck walking into an electronics store and discovering a PC pre-configured with a BD drive. Sony seems to be selling a few computers with BD drives, but I can't even find a BD Drive as a build-to-order option on HP or Dell's site.

Moreover, it's not like current Macs can't support future external hardware via firewire / USB 2.

I have actually had 3 conversations about this when I bought my iMac, and all three people said the same thing..."You can't upgrade to Blu-Ray".  I mention firewire connections, and they say, "Yeah, but it isn't internal".  Check C-Net's review of the new 24" iMac...they say the same thing!  Check it here: http://reviews.cnet.com/Apple_iMac_Core … =pdtl-list

I don't know if everyone has been reading the same article, but it is kind of a head scratcher to me

volk wrote:

I have actually had 3 conversations about this when I bought my iMac, and all three people said the same thing..."You can't upgrade to Blu-Ray".  I mention firewire connections, and they say, "Yeah, but it isn't internal".  Check C-Net's review of the new 24" iMac...they say the same thing!  Check it here: http://reviews.cnet.com/Apple_iMac_Core … =pdtl-list

I don't know if everyone has been reading the same article, but it is kind of a head scratcher to me

Well, that's a complaint about the iMac's enclosure, not a complaint about the iMac not having a BD drive.

No one in their right mind cares about BD or HDDVD right now. Everyone is waiting for it to get resolved.

When it does get resolved, buy an affordable external drive. You have a desktop, IMHO whether it's internal or not really isn't important unless you have a laptop.