A Blu-ray "upgrade kit" for Apple's
revamped Mac mini... sounds like the ultimate for home theater buffs right? After all, such a device holds the promise of adding Blu-ray playback to a
relatively powerful, off-the-shelf micro computer starting at $599 that'll run any of the amazing media center apps available for either Windows 7 (with
some extra legwork) or OS X. Not so fast bub, remember, OS X
still doesn't support native playback of Blu-ray discs pressed by Hollywood's media fairies. As such, Blu-ray films purchased on disc can only be played by booting into Windows -- under OS X you are limited to reading and writing data assuming you already have software like Adobe's Premiere Pro CS3 with Encore or Roxio's Toast with Blu-ray plug-in. Unfortunately, AMEX Digital is purposely unclear on this point by suggesting that the kit will simply "play Hollywood Blu-ray Disc movies on a properly configured PC or MAC." For the extra $199 required to take the BD-UG1 home, we'd suggest a native PC solution,
cheapo standalone Blu-ray player or
PS3 and avoid these headaches altogether. Image of the drive laid bare after the break.
posted Nov 11th 2009 4:51AM
What a bag of hurt.
The new 'first' :(
Way to go, Apple. After coming out firmly in the Blu-Ray camp, you've done zip to support it. WTF, Apple's still shipping computers with DVD-only drives.
WAKE UP.
Who needs plastic disks anyways? And who needs 'managed copy', region codes and players that stop playing tomorrow if the studios decide so?
Not sure what Apple is doing and frankly not interested in their products but Blu-ray just suck so much it's really hard to put into words...
@Sebastian:
I need physical media along with millions of other people. Really the only negative of the Blu format is the managed copy feature. I really don't know why else it would suck. I haven't had any playback issues that firmware updates haven't cleared up. What happens when the movie you digitally downloaded disappeared because the studio decided they wanted to remove it from your library (ala Amazon and the Kindle)? Also, lets just imagine/pretend for a moment that your compressed 1080p video doesn't have visible compression artifacts and is of the same quality as my Blu Ray video. Your audio is still going to be lossy and will most likely only be stereo sound. Digital media will not have the audio fidelity that Blu Ray has currently for a long long time because of limited bandwidth.
I'm just guessing that you fit into one of the following categories:
1) you are a mac fanboi who doesn't question Steve Jobs
2) you are a Bose fanatic--that would prove that you know nothing about audio quality
3) you think its cool to pirate movies off of your favorite torrent site and watch them in your parents basement on your 1337 30" computer screen.
@Information Central - Apple has its own HD movie/TV distribution enterprise to compete with Bluray. How is that in any way "firmly in the Bluray camp"?
@wizzle
I believe Apple is a member of the BDA--or they have pledged to support the format early on. I don't remember the details. Either way they said they backed the format early on.
@rickjamess04 Thanks for all your compliments. You actually forgot one of the categories:
4) You are a guy that got shafted by the content industrie because he dared to work (and live) in different different regions and was "forced" to either rebuy a lot of silver disks, try to break his player, illegally get other regions' disks (gets you a hefty fine in some countries of this world) or just revert to not consuimg any further movies.
I despise blu-ray for its DRM limitations (playback issues that need a firmeware update?!?!?? you gotta be kidding, you bought the disk, why does it not play?) because of the regions (so companies profit from globalization but we should confine to our local markets? right...) and lastly because I'm waaaaay too lazy to get up from the couch and change a physical disk ;-)
If it works for you, very good. In the meantime I rather spend my money elsewhere.
@rickjames - Thanks, that makes sense. However, Apple is very tightly woven into professional content production through Final Cut,
and presumably that's the only reason their part of the industry group. Otherwise, I've seen no indication from them ever pledging to support Bluray in relation to consumers. Why would they? It would cannibalize iTunes sales.
Sebastian, you need to look into BD-R (~$2/25GB) and you need to ask yourself why you trust storing your content online as opposed to burning a disc.
Apple is asinine in expecting us to burn and backup our HD content to DVD as it is tantamount to expecting us to write to a box full of floppy discs.
Also, Blu-ray content is leaps and bounds better than streaming/downloadable content. Banning it is inexcusable and I will not upgrade my system until Apple includes contemporary technology.
Apply only supported the blu ray camp because Microsoft supported HD DVD
Somebody explain to me why a 3rd party can't equip a Mac to play blu ray. If they sell you the drive, can't they write software to allow blu ray playback?
@Sebastian:
Fair enough. I apologize for my snarky comments. However, my main argument still holds true that physical media imo is the better alternative.
DRM or no DRM, I have more faith in physical media over digital media since the studios won't and cannot come and take my disc from me--Amazon proved that they can take books off of the Kindle. Besides I can resell my physical disc--try that with digital media.
And comeon, too lazy to get up and pop a disc in?
Apple fan boys will some how use this deficit to tout how their machines are still superior.
@Jordan: HDCP. For a computer to play Blu-Ray, the motherboard, drive, video card, HDMI/DVI cable, monitor/TV, and OS must be HDCP compliant. Windows Vista and 7 both included this functionality, but Apple did not, and it's nothing that a third party can add.
interesting idea. since i run win7 on my mac mini 100% of the time anyway, i'd be interested if it were a BD/DVD/CD player/burner. (maybe BD burning isn't necessary, but why not throw it in).
if it can be modded to do; it then it is necessary.
It's well past time for Apple to give in and agree to whatever the BluRay licensing terms are - the format won, and people want it. Remember how long it took them to accept that people wanted CD burners? We're seeing a repeat here, ten years later.
At this point it looks like Apple is going to simply hold out until it can drop optical media altogether, starting with their notebooks. The drives take up too much of the footprint, the thickness even in Mac notebooks will hold back machine thickness when SSDs get more feasible, they are not used much in favour of software distributed over the internet, they use too much power and are very slow compared to other storage drives. Mac OS X will likely be distributed on a cheap read-only 8GB SD card.
This is true only because Apple still doesn't understand that its products are THIN ENOUGH ALREADY.
They're still throwing out important features to make products thinner, when no one is complaining that they're too thick. Remember the flap over iPod batteries? Instead of keeping the hard-drive-based iPods at their second-gen dimensions and doubling the battery volume, the inexplicably made them thinner.
Now they've pulled the same crap with their laptops, trying to tell people that non-removable batteries are actually an ADVANTAGE instead of the idiotic step backward that they are. The first-gen titanium MacBook was plenty thin. Now it's time to start adding value, but Apple insists on taking it away for the sole benefit of... a marginal and unasked-for bit of extra thinness?
Great. I'll totally give up the ability to use my "portable" computer throughout long flights, and I'll give up an ExpressCard slot that would let me use a 3G data card or USB 3, and and and... to save 1/10th of an inch.
MORONIC.
If you want to use additional batteries with a MacBook Pro, just buy an external battery pack - About the same size as carrying another battery. You'll find it actually is better because you don't have to turn off your laptop to switch over batteries, plus you'll also charge your internal battery while using it.
@ Information Central,
Apple’s decisions clearly don’t suit your needs but your assumption that Apple “inexplicably” made their decisions is foolish They knew exactly how many HDD-based iPods are being sold and at what capacities. If the 1.8” HDD with dual-platters was selling well I can’t imagine them axing it. As for the notebook on a long flight, the integrated battery offers exactly that.
Most notebooks don’t even get you what MBPs now get you with 2 batteries. Unless you are using it for some insane amount of work away from a power source then you shouldn’t have an issue and if it’s that mandatory then there are external battery options with MagSafe connectors.
As for thinness, that apparently is selling because is growing in the premium market where others can’t. You don’t sound their customer but you can’t deny that what they are doing is working for them.
Check ou this AnandTech article for a balanced review of the pros and cons of the MBP line. It’s from just a few hours ago so it’s relevant.
• http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3672
Here's why built-in batteries do and always will fail:
Replacement.
I HAVE to send in MY computer so that Apple can charge me to replace my battery. Instead of spending 1 hr to go to the store to buy a new battery, I know have no computer for a couple weeks while I wait for Apple to replace it.
The same goes for iPod batteries.
Not sure if this is what Apple does with computers, but in the case of iPods they don't even give you YOUR ipod back. Instead you get a refurbished one. Who knows what kind of problems the ipod they refurbished and sent to you in replacement had before you got it. Instead of giving you back your perfectly good, working, you know what it's been through ipod, they send you a refurbished one.
The same applies to the iphone.
Built-in batteries are a huge fail. I don't care how long your battery life is or how thin and sleek your product looks. I don't want your built-in battery crap.
@ Jordan,
How much can someone be wrong? Apple replaces batteries in the store. Or, you can install it yourself by removing a few simple screws. The latter part isn’t covered under warranty, but if you can last 1000 full cycles of a battery that is already 2-3x longer than other machines in duration while only have 300 charge cycles then you are well past even the 3 year Mac warranty. Realistically though, you aren’t going to ever replace the battery.
Ok so maybe Apple replaces laptop batteries in store, do they do the same for my iphone and/or ipod?
We all know that our laptops with normal batteries typically start to wear out after a year. That's 300 charge cycles, one a day or so equals about a years worth of us, it all adds up
Now let's say you've got 1000 charge cycles. That's about 3 years of use just like you said, on one charage a day. Aren't Macs supposed to last a long time? Wouldn't this mean I would still be replacing my battery?
Apple fans have always touted the longetivity of their products, now it's shooting them in the foot in the form of built in batteries.
@ Jordan,
After 300 cycles you are supposed to have about 85% of your original capacity as measured in mAh. Same goes for Apple’s 1000 cycle batteries. Again, you may not like it and/or it may not fit your needs but it’s a fact that people just don’t buy extra batteries and replacing batteries outside of warranty issues isn’t common and is less common with 3.3x the number of cycles as other vendor’s batteries.
Again, it’s all pretty damn simple to change if you need to do it yourself so there really is no need to bitch about a theoretical problem that may happen 4 to 5 years after you’ve bought a machine.
People bitched about the iPod’s built in battery instead of the common AA batteries used at the time. Was that a bad idea? You’ll see, this will catch on with premium machines simply because it allows for all day use while also allowing for slimmer and yet more rigid design.
You can always use MakeMKV on OSX to rip the disc and then watch it in XBMC.
It's only a matter of time before on-the-fly playing is possible.
this is good, seeing as Microsofts XBOX 360's battle against Blu is still frothing at the mouth, why wouldn't Windows on a mac support it? And why wouldn't a Mac take a leap of faith based on the assumption that the next OS will support something it's competition already hates, and say nah nah look at our kit... but then again, can't you just install one of these puppies into anything, given the correct drivers?
Mac Mini has a standard SATA interface and slim SATA power , so I wouldn't be suprised if any slim bluray drive would fit in there.
And there is not bluray playback support, so it acts just as a media device.
Then again, some people don't mind shelling out $200 just be sure that their drive fits inside.
The bag-of-hurt was more due to licencing and integration of Blu-ray BD+ DRM into iTunes and the consortium's demands to cripple iTunes in order to ensure consumers don't do anything they are not allowed to do.
I was under the impression that it's more than just iTunes. In fact, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center also cannot play back Blu-Ray. I think it's something at the OS level to make it HDCP-compliant, something Windows has and OSX doesn't.
Windows doesn't support Blu-ray Movie Playback either. So can't play them in Media Center or Media Player.
3rd party software like PowerDVD etc do though. As to why 3rd parties don't make Blu-ray movies playback software for the Mac is anyone's guess, but the best seems to be the lack of "protected path." But then again some iTunes videos requires HDCP to be played via digital outputs, so maybe that isn't true either.
ok so Apple doesn't want to do it, why doesn't someone write an app for it?
don't you think the mysterious absence of such an application is a little strange?
Just get a PS3...
You apple losers have got to wake up and see that there are more important thing in life than pretending you are important because you have Apple stuff...
like not having your wife cheat on you every night when that guy comes around in his sports car... trust me your wife is not impressed with your apple gear.
She told me!
AHAHH!
WTF?
Dude, I think you have some domestic things to work out, things that probably outweigh the importance of making rambling posts on the Web.
Oh please, you're no different from those fruit fanboys.
I have a PS3 and my wife is the one that wanted a Mac. I guess I'm safe, assuming I take a 12GA to any jack off that shows up in my drive way in a sports car.
Wait, so OS X doesn't support Blu-ray playback? I am honestly shocked. Really, really shocked. I just thought that Apple didn't put Blu-ray drives on their laptops yet. I supposed it would just take them a couple of years to install new hardware on their laptop models, as always. But OS X being unable to reproduce Blu-ray discs? That's ridiculous.
Thank god I went for the Vaio FW. I was thinking of maybe getting a MacBook Pro for a while but it seems like I dodged a bullet there.
The older model monitors (the 30" non LED) don't support HDCP - it is supported on the newer LED 24", and hopefully on the new LED iMacs - once the BD drive price comes down enough to not eat into Apple's 30% margin, and they can wrangle a deal with the studios, it'll trickle down. Totally sucks though given the high prices on most of the hardware.
Does anyone have any experience of VMWare and BluRay? If you could have a BD playing VM suspended and ready to go, that might be a workable solution for now, if you stripped Windows of *everything* but whatever you're using to play BDs.
Not possible, you need hardware acceleration (more than just Direct3D) to decode H.264 streams. The decoder won't be able to communicate with the video card in a VM so it just wouldn't work, not to mention HDCP issues and whatnot.
After searching the net, people have tried - and all have failed. PowerDVD spits out an error, so does Nero.
Only solution is to use Bootcamp on OS X at the moment.
Fast Mac has sold blu-ray drives for a couple of years now. But they were $1000 for the MacBook/ Pro and mini.
I'd be nice if at least one 3rd party app had blu-ray support. I've wanted a drive in my Mac Pro for a few years. I guess I'd also need a HDMI port that also supported HD audio too. I figure that won't happen and just another reason why I am done with Apple.
I'm waiting for the day that optical media is completely gone, Apple or PC
So their is absolutely no way to play Blu-ray in OS X? I suppose one could at least rip the disc, handbrake it...
I guess I don't see the big deal with the lack of a blueray drive, I mean with HD content on iTunes and cheap blueray players for tv's why would you need one in a laptop? Maybe in an iMac but even then with all the new ones coming with 1tb drives pretty much I don't see the point to blueray...but maybe that's just me
If it makes you feel any better about the situation, you'd be posting the exact opposite of this if Apple had been first to market with Blu-ray drives in laptops. Don't worry, Steve Jobs will let you know when it's okay to care about Blu-ray.
thank you for the intelligent response, i am glad i could get your worthless opinion. Even if apple laptops had blue ray drives i would still find it stupid to have one because i would not want to carry around a ton of discs.
Never once have i made any remark that i was a blind apple fanboy, yes i have a macbook pro, yes i find blue ray silly, but i dont see the point of blueray in my custom built gaming computer because i have a ps3 for that.
next time before you make an ass of yourself think before you reply to a comment
@chefgon_ign: I don't own a single Apple product and I have no interest in physical media in my laptop. I've got a WHS machine at home in a closet, and it's basically able to auto rip and move to my movies directory. Then the disc is just stored away forever.
If I want to watch something while traveling, I just copy the rip to my laptop, but even then, with Windows 7 built in support for streaming video from home to anywhere I have an internet connection, combined with cheap unlimited data (and free tethering) on my phone, the only time I have to worry about having a copy on my machine is when I'm on an airplane.
Given the advent of iTunes, Netflix and even the slow out the gate Zune Marketplace, for the vast majority of people, digital downloads (rental or purchase) are the future, because let's face it, it may be nice to have something like Blade Runner in HD to revisit in all it's glory on a rainy afternoon, but the difference in audio and video quality between Blu Ray and an HD rental is SUBJECTIVELY less important when watching most movies, especially on a laptop screen when sitting on a plane or train.
Don't be silly. If you really feel the way you say you do you would shun your CD/DVD drive while you are at it. Fact is BD-R is ~$2/25GB (which is great for backing up and sharing HD content) and Blu-ray features are leaps and bounds higher quality in both visual fidelity and sound than downloadable/streamable content and they include a lot more overall content including blu-ray live.
I rent blu-ray via netflix and I watch netflix on demand, I also rent and buy videos and movies from the playstation store (something I used to do at itunes). I would like to be able to watch these movies in transit on my macbook but its hardware is antiquated. hopefully my next macbook will support this contemporary technology.
You know what else is silly? DVD drives in computers. Who needs a DVD drive when you can download DRM-restricted content from iTunes? I'm tired of all this physical media sitting around my house, ready to play on any of my devices without being limited by Apple's DRM. And video quality? Who cares, quit being a snob! Heavily compressed HD is the future.
I think it's just you. :)