Blu-ray comes to the iMac... via an Apogee HDMI-to-Mini DisplayPort adapter

Although it's technically possible to use the gorgeous IPS display in the 27-inch iMac as a standalone monitor, the feature's been pretty limited in practice, since it only works with other DisplayPort devices like the unibody MacBooks. That's about to change thanks to Apogee, which just posted up a video demo of an as-yet-unnamed HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapter being used to play Xbox 360, PS3, and -- yes, it's true -- Blu-ray movies on Apple's latest all-in-one. Never thought you'd see the day, did you? Apogee hasn't disclosed pricing or availability yet, but we're told more info is coming soon --we'd guess sometime around CES. Video after the break.

[UnixSystemsEngineer Posted Dec 15th 2009 3:55PM]

My, what an elegant, stylish slab of hurt.

.. I really need to break down and get that PS3.

[Putzy Posted Dec 15th 2009 3:56PM]

Great news for all those lucky customers with 27 inch iMacs...that don't work.

[Jack Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:25PM]

@Putzy

Oh you mean like that 1% or so? Yeah, that's an absolutely massive number.

[neonglo Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:34PM]

@Putzy
My Imac 27in arrived about a month ago, and to my dismay, had a cracked bottom left screen :(. I called apple, and after a lengthly discussion, they were kind enough to give me a free $300 upgrade in the specs, and a free apple remote! So as far as customer service goes, they are pretty awesome.

[mac404 Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:43PM]

@Jack

It's not even the number of people having issues, it's the number of issues which astounds me:

Cracked screens
The whole computer DOA
Flickering screens
Screens with a varying color temperature from cool to warm
The computer making high-pitched "whines"

[Hotrod Posted Dec 15th 2009 5:52PM]

@Putzy My 27" i7 works flawlessly thank you. Most of the time the outspoken ones are the ones having issues.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 15th 2009 6:35PM]

@(Unverified) Good for you! I called Apple about my Macbook's KIA airport card, said Macbook being about 2 weeks old, and was given fuck all. I use my MB for full time undergraduate studies and despite two and a half hours on the phone (most of which was wasted on a call centre agent who could barely speak English) I was told I still had to book my MB in for an appointment with the "Genius Bar". Which would take up to an hour, only to be told what I knew all along and for the MB to be sent off to Apple for 2-3 weeks. The closest Apple store to me is about 18 miles away. Apple customer support has a few rosy reviews, but in my experience they are just the same as every other woefully inadequate company out there.

[Prospero Posted Dec 15th 2009 7:19PM]

@(Unverified)

Macbook... airport card??????

which decade are you from?

[ryguy222 Posted Dec 15th 2009 7:53PM]

@mac404

Isn't that called accepting bribery, and ignoring the fact that it showed up broken? Tsk tsk what is the world coming to.

[AlaskanHandyman Posted Dec 16th 2009 7:15AM]

@mac404
There are always issues with first generation hardware that is to be expected even with apple products, at least the failure rate is nothing like the Xbox 360 running around 50 to 60 percent that fail in the first year of use, Microsoft has even made several revisions and they are still crappy hardware...

[mtnDewFTW Posted Jan 2nd 2010 3:52AM]

@Putzy I got a 27", and it works flawlessly.

[neonglo Posted Dec 15th 2009 3:57PM]

Niicee... Finally a company comes up with something to play our games consoles on! I tried out the eyetv 250 plus but was not at all a nice experience.
Way to go Apogee!

[SpeedyJDK Posted Dec 15th 2009 3:58PM]

And that's reason i never went to get a Mac. It's a useless piece of junk. And can't even play Blu-Ray movies. :D Pretty amusing to see they put a PS3 to a display port to view a simple BD on Mac.

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:02PM]

@SpeedyJDK

Winner of most idiotic and ignorant comment of the day...yeah, it's a shame Macs don't have Blu-Ray but seriously, that makes them junk?

[SpeedyJDK Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:12PM]

@martynmcfarquhar
I don't even need to comment that. And you know it!

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:15PM]

@SpeedyJDK

And now we all watch whilst your comment slowly dissolves into oblivion...

[Khris Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:24PM]

@martynmcfarquhar What comment? ;)

[SilverSurfer Posted Dec 15th 2009 3:58PM]

Holy Shit! Games on a Mac =O

[MJGAMER 1991 XBL Posted Dec 15th 2009 5:58PM]

@SilverSurfer

Or you could spend LESS on a PC and be able to play games without separate hardware. You're not even playing games on the mac, just using it as a screen.

[Johanu Posted Dec 16th 2009 10:49AM]

@MJGAMER 1991 XBL Hear that? It's the sound of a joke going riiiight over your head..

Look, there it goes!

[brett Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:00PM]

that doesn't look like a bag of hurt at all.

[Kid Red Posted Dec 16th 2009 11:32AM]

@brett Looks like a big bag of pixel pleasure to me. I'm curious to see how these displays handle 1080p.

[sharpie Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:00PM]

Sweet! So in order to watch Blu-Ray, I'll have to use a probably overpriced adapter with my overpriced iMac.. Or use a non-mac computer with a Blu-Ray drive for much less overall... I'll go with the non-Mac. Cause, you know, it just works.

[Jack Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:27PM]

@(Unverified)

Wait, what exactly about that iMac is overpriced?

[Tsing Tao Posted Dec 15th 2009 5:14PM]

@(Unverified) When you are done purchasing that 27" S-IPS panel for roughly 2200 bucks let us know how that worked out for you.

[Jack Posted Dec 15th 2009 10:36PM]

@(Unverified)

Which is exactly what I was referring to, but I got downranked and you didn't. LOL @ Apple haters.

[nickodvz Posted Dec 16th 2009 12:28AM]

@(Unverified) that's just stupid. I got my 30" dell 300wfp (at 2560x1600, i might add) which is also an IPS panel for AUD$1699 on sale. so it'd prob be even cheaper in america. also, it has not only display port in, but also HDMI (and dvi, and vga, and component, and svideo,and composite...)

[BogdanGC Posted Dec 16th 2009 4:11AM]

@nickodvz
so you bought a bigger display with roughly the same res as the 27" paying only a hundred dollars less then the iMac, which has... a decent computer inside: (3.06 C2D, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Radeon HD 4670, etc). Not to mention for $300 more you could get the Core i5/7, which combined with SnowLeopard's GCD makes a powerfull workstation.

So, yeah, i wouldnt have bought that 30" Dell if i were you.

[CJ Posted Dec 16th 2009 10:32AM]

Yeaah, except he said AUD. The most BASIC config iMac is 500 dollars more.

Want an i5? That'll be another 500 dollars on top of that for the base config.

[Shash450 Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:00PM]

Hasn't this already been achieved by companies such as Atlona a while ago....? Sure it isn't HDMI, but once you have a DVI adaptor, its pretty much smooth sailing to get HDMI...
http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-DVI-to-Mini-DisplayPort-Converter-p-17859.html

[delphinus87 Posted Dec 15th 2009 6:43PM]

@Shash450 it has been tried before to play BDs using a simple HDMI-miniDP before, but Apple designed the system so it'll only work with Macbooks, which is why this will anger the Apple gods

[DirkDickbutt Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:01PM]

This is why bittorrent was invented.

[Oli D Posted Dec 15th 2009 5:25PM]

@(Unverified)
This is why RapidShare was invented...

[DirkDickbutt Posted Dec 15th 2009 6:58PM]

@Oli D
People actually use those crappy rapidshare managers?

Enjoy queing downloading your 3000 individual parts.

[maf654321 Posted Feb 1st 2010 10:14PM]

@(Unverified) those rapidshare managers (jDownload is the best one imho) are actually quite useful in getting old files which would never get seeds on torrent or are one private trackers only.

[celebbbb Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:01PM]

Hopefully the first of many companies to do displayport/hdmi adapters or self powered devices.

[hungryhungryhippo Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:02PM]

I hate when people do this...BUT

I really couldn't care less about blueray OR i-mac.

[davidhildreth Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:22PM]

@(Unverified) It is an uncommon thing for a manufacturer to provide a direct input to the display like this.

[cdave Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:03PM]

I can understand the gaming consoles, but that iMac can't play Blu-Ray on its own?

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:20PM]

@cdave

Steve Jobs doesn't believe in Blu-Ray, didn't you get the memo? Also, adding Blu-Ray would stamp all over the HD stuff iTunes offers, it's more of a business decision than anything as far as I can see.

[zenomatic Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:36PM]

@martynmcfarquhar
According to the rumors, Apple doesn't want to pay for the Blu-Ray license. And we, the consumers, suffer because of that! :-(

[Oli D Posted Dec 15th 2009 5:28PM]

@zenomatic
I expect that I will never need/want to use Blu-Ray on my iMac. I do not want to pay for the licensing on hardware therefore. I would rather have a fast, reliable SuperDrive and keep *a little bit* of my money in my pocket.

[zenomatic Posted Dec 15th 2009 5:36PM]

@Oli D
Just because *you* don't need it doesn't mean that others don't. And I guess iBone users don't need full Flash either. (We lucky Android users will get full Adobe Flash in Jan or Feb.)

Btw., Blu-Ray movies look so damn good, I'm enjoying Cruel Intentions at the moment. Mmmm sweet 1080p....

[JustAnnuthaDewd Posted Dec 15th 2009 7:19PM]

@cdave Just get an external BD-ROM drive and rip your Blu-Ray with MakeMKV (yes, you can do this even with the OS X version). Then play the rip and enjoy it without all the annoying warnings about how you shouldn't be doing this in the first place.

[Jack Posted Dec 15th 2009 10:40PM]

@zenomatic

"enjoying Cruel Intentions"

No you aren't. I don't care what format it's in, that movie still sucks.

[Tuan X Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:06PM]

This pretty much already exists. Minus the fact you'll need an HDMI cable of your own. What's the big freakin' deal?
http://www.cablewholesale.com/specs/displayport-adapter/30h1-63000.htm

[SolidSnake Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:14PM]

@Tuan X
That is a mini display port output cord. This one takes advantage of the new hardware in the iMacs that allows input from external sources. Long overdue, if you ask me.

[sydcinema Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:07PM]

Give Apple time... they'll block this adapter too

[lorens Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:08PM]

lol mouse on the left side

[Uncontrol Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:37PM]

@lorens You may be shocked to learn that not everyone is right-handed.