MCE intros Blu-ray burner for Mac Pro, Power Mac G5

Japan's Logitec may have been the first to lay claim to a Mac-compatible Blu-ray burner, but it looks like MCE Technologies gets the bragging rights for the first Mac-friendly internal burner, which also has the added benefit of actually being available 'round these parts. As with the Logitec, MCE's Mac Pro and Power Mac G5-compatible drive will give you 2x reading and writing speeds on Blu-ray discs, as well as the usual less-than-speedy burning times for CDs and DVDs. The key to the Mac compatibility is, of course, Roxio's Toast 8 Titanium software, which first declared its Mac Blu-ray support last summer but so far hasn't been able to put it to much use. While you'll have to crack open your case, you will be somewhat rewarded for your effort, with drive setting you back considerably less than Logitec's external offering, available now direct from MCE for $699.

[Thanks, Dave]

[keston karter @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:41PM]

So let me get this right. Even if you purchase this blue ray burner, you CANNOT burn a HD dvd through the latest version of dvd studio pro on a mac? I dont get it. Then why do they give you the option to burn and hd dvd? IF anyone has the latest version you will see. If you look in the lower right hand corner you will see that there is an option that gives the choice to burn a sd or hd dvd. If you choose the HD option It will burn But it would only play back on my mac. NOt on a regular dvd player. Im thinking that once I purchase the blue ray burner it will be different. NO?

[vedder @ Jun 10th 2008 8:43AM]

just wondersing. If i wanted to add the Blue ray burner to my mac pro. can I burn a dvd movie. I currently use premier cs3, and export to encore for my final burns. I understand that it requires toast. Thats fine, but I dont think Toast gives you the option for dvd menus. I need to creat DVD menus, on a Bray disc, using my mac pro. How can i accomplish this.
Thanks

[NEL @ Nov 12th 2008 12:38PM]

This all looks great, and we ordered this drive in Sept and still have not heard or received anything! You can't get a hold of anyone at MCE- is it even really a company?
Can someone engadget who turned me onto MCE TECH verify that this is a real business or give me more information? For those looking at this to buy BluRay- be very wary...

[Kaipz1 @ Feb 13th 2009 1:24PM]

MCE Tech is a fraudulent company. Check them out on the BBB website. Rated an F. They charge you for a product, never send it to you and when you ask for a refund, give you the run a round. BEWARE! Do your homework on this company.

[Conrad E. Murphy @ Jan 4th 2009 11:49PM]

Ok, I need to ask a question, WHY IS THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY SO INCREDIBLY STUPID, AS to put out devices meant for Creative individuals who actually are going to put their devices to work but set them up FIRST to work for DUMB ASS MAGGOTS WHO WOULDN'T KNOW HOW TO WORK THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE?

[sturmnacht @ Jan 25th 2007 1:23PM]

memo to HD-DVD: KA-PWNT!1!1!

[George Burbano @ Feb 5th 2007 7:21PM]

Not worth it to who? Maybe not for the computer internet jocky, who uses the computer for playing. But for people who are using their macs for creative things like HD video, or just plain video and need a better storage solution this is a defintive solution. Plus to back up tons of data like tons of high res photos etc...

Expensive not quite, If you think about the cost of the drive and the gigs of info that you could back up or store, the price will easily be justified in a a short time.

[Jon @ Jan 25th 2007 1:34PM]

Just.. a little pricy.
Still not worth it yet.

[uNext @ Jan 25th 2007 1:45PM]

i would rather upgrade the ram on a macpro then to buy a blu-ray drive for that price right now.

Remember when dvd recorders first came out?

They use to sell for like 30--400 bucks now you can find them for
50-100 bucks.

I will wait my macpro is stil la beats without it.

[DisTorT @ Jan 25th 2007 2:02PM]

Ok, so now we have the software(toast8) and the finally the hardware, But I'm pretty sure this is not all you need to format a movie to run on a Blu-ray drive. Forget making movie backups, I think all this can do is write data for now.

[cixeslyD @ Jan 25th 2007 2:12PM]

The first DVD+RW drive for Macs was $599 at launch.

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2001aug/mac20010820007401.htm

[Andrei Vassiliev @ Jan 25th 2007 2:08PM]

In my opinion, Blu-Ray just isn't worth it at the moment as far as a blank media. With the advances of portable flash drives, spur-of-the-moment backups are a breeze without one-time burnable media. If you're into serious data storage and archiving, tape drives are probably the way to go. This is probably only for the well-to-do at the moment who really enjoy making high-definition movies or the like.

[Daniel @ Jan 26th 2007 9:13PM]

I can't wait until Blu-ray is available on Macbook Pros and iMacs

[Deathlord @ Jan 28th 2007 8:26AM]

right yeah rck the MACs lol good luck getting apple to give you some HDD's lol. But yeah the ps3 :D.
hmm...i wounder..if someone could port OS x on the ps3 lol.

[Rick Lyon @ Jan 25th 2007 3:57PM]

$600? Heh, get a PS3. Storage? You can but a TON of HDD storage for $600 especially when you consider the per disc costs for BRD. Whatever.

[Joseph @ Jan 25th 2007 4:23PM]

Weekly off-site storage? It is a lot easier to carry a disc, regardless of the cost. Plus you get the added benefit of being able to catalog your backups. We are damn close to rendering our Sony SDX-500C AIT 2 Tape Backup Useless(Just need some reasonably priced media). Please let this be the case. Stupid slooooooo tape backup.....

[TK101 @ Jan 25th 2007 4:08PM]

Thanks for the comments, Rick, you really seem to know best (whatever, indeed).

For those of us who might use this to create BD masters that we send out for duplication, this is a great thing.

For Rick, there's always the PS3...LOL...

[William Crabtree @ Jan 25th 2007 9:16PM]

If this is like my driver I just got from MCE it will just be a rebrand. It was a good deal too. I got a MCE Superdrive last month. I figured, oh its a generic one. I load up the bad boy and it is listed as a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K05. Heck of a deal!

So my guess is this is just another drive rebranded.

[Dave @ Jan 26th 2007 4:39AM]

Blu-ray all the way!

[Mike DeJean @ Apr 7th 2007 9:41PM]

With this burner can you burn HD Discs to be played on set top HD DVD players? I'm very confused regarding the technology. I can burn HD-DVD projects on my G-5 but can only play then back on Mac's. Will this burner fix this problem?

[k @ Oct 5th 2007 7:09PM]

Hi Mike,
Just spoke with MCE and thought I would help you out. NO you can not author HD DVDs on your mac and use this burner.

It's not the burners fault! It seems like a great product. Would be a good data DVD burning option.

The issue is no Mac based supported Blu Ray DVD authoring tools right now (Oct 2007). A DVD you author with something like DVD Studio Pro or iMovie HD will not produce a Blu Ray compatible file. This means it won't play on a desktop player.