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New Windows 7 ad criticizes Apple's lack of Blu-ray support on Mac - Page 6

post #201 of 411
11/12/10 at 3:36pm
It must be a PC user that carries a lot of discs on a trip. A Mac user has it all on the HD. Steve Ballmer. What a joke! Haven't you learned anything? Still remember your comments about the MacBook Air without optical drive.
If you like the past, use Windows 7. A Mac is for the future.
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post #202 of 411
11/12/10 at 3:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post

Meh. I've been ripping our Blu-Rays to disk. It's easy and plays beautifully with Plex.

Apple's problem is their insistence that 720p is 'good enough.' It ain't.

1080p, Steve. 1080p.

The fact is that nobody can see the difference unless they have a TV set which is at a minimum 55 inches. Otherwise, 720p is a retina display.
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post #203 of 411
11/12/10 at 3:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2 View Post

Hm, if they could just make up their minds once...

http://www.gearlog.com/2010/09/micro...res_blu-ra.php

With most affordable Windows laptops having abysmal screen resolution and battery life (some 14 and 15" models still do not exceed 800 lines), what is the point of wasting energy to decompress more pixels than one can see? Just to claim you have joined the dead? Clever marketing indeed.


Do those budget laptops with low-res screens come with BluRay?

"Most" of them?
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post #204 of 411
11/12/10 at 3:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post

The fact is that nobody can see the difference unless they have a TV set which is at a minimum 55 inches. Otherwise, 720p is a retina display.

Not this again.
PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #205 of 411
11/12/10 at 3:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

So you find that to be convenience option you want, but most people arent going to want to spend an excessive amount of money to pay for a Blu-ray player to watch the occasional movie on their notebook.

That may or may not be true (you just made it up, eh?).

But it may well be true that most people would welcome the option to get a BluRay player, whether they end up with one or not.

Your statement seems to depend on the premise that unless "most people" will want it, it should not be an option.
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post #206 of 411
11/12/10 at 3:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2 View Post

Hm, there is a need to have a backup of this quality output, BDs are sensitive and kids are cruel. As long as the industry does not enable private copies, or offers replacement disks for just postage and handling charges... I will use whatever illegal method is available to me.



Why not just walk into a store and steal a second copy? What is the difference?
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post #207 of 411
11/12/10 at 3:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scaramanga89 View Post

I'l bet if you surveyed a random sample of Mac owners, not the fanatics on the boards here, and asked them did the want BR the majority would say yes. I'd say 99% of the Mac Mini crowd would immediately.

I am one of the fanatics, but I do want Blue-Ray! At least give us the option...
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post #208 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by josephwinters View Post

people saying "Lord Jobs" or "papa jobs"...

How do you feel about "Big Brother Jobs"?
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post #209 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2 View Post

I do not own a single pirated movie, software or song. I was talking exclusively about protecting my investment in content I have legally purchased.

.



you have purchased no content. You have purchased hunks of plastic. The content is protected, unless somebody hacks it illegally and makes an illegal infringing copy. You want a second copy? Buy it.
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post #210 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post

Do those budget laptops with low-res screens come with BluRay?

"Most" of them?

Well, I have seen some that do come with a BD player (not burner) - some of them without playback software, or only a trial version (that let's you view the piracy warning, I assume), but (and this is purely anecdotal, as I do not really look hard for one of those) they seem to be the minority, and it's usually rather thick/fat models having sufficient space for the cheaper 12.5mm modules.
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post #211 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post

Why not just walk into a store and steal a second copy? What is the difference?

As you certainly understand perfectly well, the difference is that stealing goods is something entirely different than making a backup of something you do own. And yes, if I have paid for a DVD or BD, I do own it, not the rights to the included content, not the right to create derivative works, not the right to use the material for performances, but the right of fair use.
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post #212 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:14pm
I do not see how this is at all logical. I can tell you that 99.9% of people can not tell the difference between 1080p and 720p in a device that has a 17" screen or smaller. MOST PC's don't even have a screen that can display 1080p, and if they can who cares? The screen is just to small to show the difference. Thats like saying a phone camera with 5mp takes worst pictures than a camera with 8mp. Its not always that easy, the size of the sensor plays a large role in the picture quality. Same for blu-ray. I LOVE my 50" Samsung and the blu-ray attached to it, but I can't tell the difference between my friends HP with blu-ray and my 2010 15" MacBook Pro with a 720p iTunes movie. I know a lot of people with disagree with me, but most people can't tell. And by all means, who cares on a smaller screen, blu-ray was made for home theaters, not laptops. Thus they give you a digital copy for computers.
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post #213 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by paxman View Post

People always talk about watching movies on the plane. I HAVE watched movies on my computer on a plane, and I have seen other people do it but it is a rarity.

True enough. Laptops are a PITA in coach, and the bigger the laptop, the bigger the pain. And once the doofus in front of you settles into the fully reclined position about 10 minutes into the flight, it's all over. When I got the Gen1 iPod Touch, watching movies on a plane became enjoyable for the first time.
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post #214 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post

you have purchased no content. You have purchased hunks of plastic. The content is protected, unless somebody hacks it illegally and makes an illegal infringing copy. You want a second copy? Buy it.

I don't watch the hunk of plastic, I watch the content. I promise not to make a copy of the hunk of plastic.
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post #215 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scaramanga89 View Post

I think most laptops will last three hours ok. This is actually a good angle for MS, as there's no real reason or excuse for the lack of Blu-Ray support for Mac, other than "licensing issues" which means Jobs didn't get his own way and all the pie. His assertion that BR is a dead format is bollocks, as the sales grew way over 100% on last year, some half a billion in revenue.

Anyone who says that there's no difference with that and downloaded or streaming content is also misinformed, as I have Apple TV 2 and a PS3, and the difference is night and day, honestly. That's before you factor in the time it takes to download and getting throttled by your ISP for streaming 30GB films a month. (BT I am looking at you)

Another ridiculous post from the ill informed and misguided - Wow! BR was $500 million in sales last year! Sorry fool but that makes it a minor player in the grand scheme of things. BR is a single feature and is in no way a reason to buy or not buy a particular brand of laptop. BTW, do you even realize that MSFT DOES NOT MAKE computers and therefore has no control over wether or not one comes with BR functionality? DUH! Further, on a laptop screen, the video quality difference is negligible, especially realizing that Macs typically have higher res screens than most laptops in use today. Another big DUH at you...
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post #216 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:27pm
Oh...Oh here we go again...
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post #217 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcode View Post

A quick google search will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the difference between 720p and 1080p is really only tangible on displays larger than 48".

Well, while there is some truth in this, stating it like that is patently false. You need to consider a lot more than the screen size, at least the pixel pitch, the viewing distance and the resolution capabilities of the human eye (which are not constant among different people). E.g. I sit so far away from my TV set, that I can't even tell the difference between upscaled DVDs, 720p and 1080p in most cases (unless the DVD is really crappy) - and it is a 55" model.

Somebody crawling almost into a full HD 17" laptop might indeed see a minor difference in quality. But who would watch a feature film length movie in such a position? From a regular viewing distance, at least 3-4 times the diagonal of the screen, it becomes pretty indistinguishable though.
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post #218 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TNSF View Post

I travel A LOT and I assure you the last thing I want to do is lug around bluray discs and be popping them into my computer so that I can watch my battery meter go down faster than Enron.

If someone sat beside me on the plane and was thrilled that they could pop in a bluray I'd say "Great. By the way, have you seen my iPad? It holds 12 bluray movies and last 10 hours."

You have a 500GB iPad?
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post #219 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfanning View Post

You have a 500GB iPad?

That makes perfect sense¡
Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"
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Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"
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post #220 of 411
11/12/10 at 4:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2 View Post

Blu-ray support is not critical yet (maybe desirable for a few) and the licensing terms (not the cost) are ridiculous. Apple will not alter the OS kernel (DVD Player software is not the problem) to adhere to their DRM phantasies and that is a good thing. The industry is already working on BD successors and as soon as they have a new toy at hands, licensing conditions for BD will become less restrictive. This will be early enough to implement it.

What are these "ridiculous" licensing terms? Or are you just going on what Steve claims?

And why wouldn't Apple alter their kernel for support, they have already added HDCP support to the OS
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post #221 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zindako View Post

Physical media is a dying tech, bring on the digital files, Its been 3 years now since I've gone out and purchased a physical DVD movie. I probably wont ever go back to brick and mortar stores for movies either.

CD's, DVD's, Blu-ray are all digital, yes they are physical, but you have to physically store that downloaded movie on something as well.

And just because you don't do something, doesn't meant the other 6 billion odd people on the earth do that same thing.
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post #222 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post

It's funny you should say that. I bought a Sony BD player w/wifi about a year ago since I have a 52-inch TV and thought that it would be a good investment.

Since then, I have watched exactly one BD movie

The worst use of $250 that I can (recently) recall. \

The only person you can blame for this is yourself.
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post #223 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:04pm
Who's interested in licensing and supporting a dying format? B-Ray has just a few years of life left. Microsoft loves getting itself tied into losing technologies and then claiming to be smart...
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post #224 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:04pm
Blu-ray's look beautiful but there's no reason in today's networked world to print movies on to optical disc for distribution.

Apple is just trying to stay on the leading edge, and not waste resources on something that's not going to be around much longer.
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post #225 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scaramanga89 View Post

Because that's a lot less hassle than sliding in a disc. Any excuse to not admit your'e on the losing side for once.


I'l bet if you surveyed a random sample of Mac owners, not the fanatics on the boards here, and asked them did the want BR the majority would say yes. I'd say 99% of the Mac Mini crowd would immediately.

Just admit Lord Jobs is stroking you cos he cant extract enough blood from your wallet through Blu_ray and move on.

BTW, I'm a Mac user, who bought a PS3 just to play Blu-Rays.

I have a PS3... and don't need Blu-ray on my macs... but here is how it always goes:

Wife: "I want to watch a movie on my MacBook"
Me: "We only have it on Blu-ray"
Wife: "That's dumb. Why doesn't my Mac play Blu-ray"
Me: "Because Apple wants us to download movies"
Wife "Don't we get charged $5 per gig for downloads?"
Me "Yes, and that's why we don't download movies"

So... for those in the land of mega-super-zinga free bandwidth - I envy you. There are lots of that would have preferred Apple spend another $8 and put a Blu-ray drive in...
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post #226 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macinthe408 View Post

Will the three people who use Blu-Ray please raise their hands?

I think you are trying to make a joke, but it is a bit higher than three...

http://www.dvdinformation.com/pressr...USf_Q32010.pdf
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post #227 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii View Post

Blu-ray's look beautiful but there's no reason in today's networked world to print movies on to optical disc for distribution.

Apple is just trying to stay on the leading edge, and not waste resources on something that's not going to be around much longer.

If you live in that world, yes. I live in a networked world where my internet comes from a joint-venture WiMax project, I get 1mb down, sometimes, and pay $5 per GB.

10GB for a 'rental' movie costs me $50. Great deal.
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post #228 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bwana_Dik View Post

Who's interested in licensing and supporting a dying format? B-Ray has just a few years of life left.

I disagree with this point, unless you are regulating it to the consumer PC market where it still hasnt hasnt taken off after many years. If you mean that, in general, Blu-ray will start to decrease I think this is incorrect as it does offer the best audio and visual experience for your HDTV.

Of course, digital streaming and downloads will still accelerate at break neck speeds but Blu-ray should also continue to grow for many years, thus its not dying or obsolescing at this point.

Quote:
Microsoft loves getting itself tied into losing technologies and then claiming to be smart...

This is something that has been overlooked in this thread. They do have a long history of backing the wrong horse which has lead to their stagnation in many areas of business. Granted, Windows 7 is the best version of Windows theyve made, and Windows Phone 7 is a MS Id like to see more of, but in backing a technology they tend to be to late to the rodeo.
Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"
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Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"
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post #229 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Eggleston View Post

Last thing, then I will stop. ;-) If history is any measure of what happens, then DVDs/Blu-Ray will go the way of the Dodo, in favor of Downloadable Content; just like it was for the CD.

No one is denying this, everyone knows this, it just isn't going to happen for several years. The infrastructure is missing to enable HD downloads (not the overly compressed Apple stuff) to be download, I have a 16Mb internet connect, I can't even watch the HD movie previews on my Apple TV without it pausing three times to catch up
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post #230 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thompr View Post

But for the first several years that I had the high end capability, there were several issues with Blu-ray that were obstacles to my participation:

(1) Blu-ray players were relatively expensive, as were the disks,
(2) it was unclear how the format wars would turn out, and
(3) there was very little content available in that format, etc.

I got into Blu-ray during the format wars, a PS3 was an ok price, the discs were cheap as they were doing 2 for 1 deals a lot, and there was a good selection to choose from.

Now I only got mine in June 2007, so maybe things were different before then...
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post #231 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thompr View Post

I doubt that Apple makes its marketing decisions based on petulance, in spite of how it may feel to someone who really really wants a capability that they aren't providing. And I don't think it's necessarily all about the money either (certainly that is a factor). I think that they consider engineering trade-offs and all kinds of other things that never come to light. I'm not trying to be an Apple apologist here. I'm just saying that I think your perspective is influenced by our lack of insight into the Apple decision process as well as your strong desire for BlueRay.

Thompson

I seem to recall there being an issue with the need to open up certain parts of the OS for HDCP to be implemented, not to mention the physical hardware required for Mac's to be HDCP compliant. Fair enough on Apple's part, I believe.

To be honest I've never felt the need to watch blu-ray via a computer. PS3 and big screen all the way.
"We're Apple. We don't wear suits. We don't even own suits."
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"We're Apple. We don't wear suits. We don't even own suits."
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post #232 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcode View Post

A quick google search will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the difference between 720p and 1080p is really only tangible on displays larger than 48".

Since there are no 50" iMacs, I'd say Apple made the right choice and stayed clear of the "bag of hurt" that is blu-ray.

The minority that chooses to buy 60" TV's can buy themselves a blu-ray player and spend retarded amounts on media.

For the rest of us, we'll continue to enjoy our content the convenient way... without the need for physical media that scratches, breaks, get's left at home, etc. To say nothing of cost.

There is an old saying, don't believe everything you read. You don't need a screen that large to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p, I can tell easily on my 40" TV, I can tell the difference on my 24" iMac
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post #233 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:26pm
I have an external Bluray player on my Mac. It works fine. Last I knew Microsoft doesn't make any Blu-ray drives either. They don't even have support on their Xbox citing similar reasons to Apple.
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post #234 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FreeRange View Post

Another ridiculous post from the ill informed and misguided - Wow! BR was $500 million in sales last year! Sorry fool but that makes it a minor player in the grand scheme of things. BR is a single feature and is in no way a reason to buy or not buy a particular brand of laptop. BTW, do you even realize that MSFT DOES NOT MAKE computers and therefore has no control over wether or not one comes with BR functionality? DUH! Further, on a laptop screen, the video quality difference is negligible, especially realizing that Macs typically have higher res screens than most laptops in use today. Another big DUH at you...

According to this link, they have bone a billion ytd

http://www.dvdinformation.com/pressr...USf_Q32010.pdf
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post #235 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfanning View Post

There is an old saying, don't believe everything you read. You don't need a screen that large to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p, I can tell easily on my 40" TV, I can tell the difference on my 24" iMac

That depends on how close to the TV you are. You can't see the pixels on an iPhone 4 either until you are less then 12 inches from the screen.
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post #236 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:29pm
Looking forward to Optical Media's funeral.
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post #237 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drow_Swordsman View Post

This commercial's really clever, but until we start seeing HD screens on laptops I don't see why Blu Ray is needed. I haven't thought twice about it.

And the same silly argument yet again.

So I have a hundred of so BDs (I watch them on my PS3) and virtually no DVDs. I want to watch a movie on my laptop when I go away somewhere but own no BD drive for my PC to ripp/re-encode my BDs.

My options are:

a) Play the BDs on a PC laptop with a BD drive

b) Buy a BD drive for my PC, ripp my movies, then re-encode them to a lower quality as 50gb ripps are rather large.

c) Re-buy my films from Apple in 480p, or rent them in 720p. (no HD purchases here in the UK with Apple) That is of course, assuming iTunes has the content I want, which they often don't.


I'm thinking option A is the path of least resistance.
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post #238 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

That makes perfect sense¡

Again, you started talking without engaging your brain.

He claimed he stores 12 Blu-ray movies on his iPad, if you assume an average 35Gb for a blu-ray movie, that would 420Gb, I wasn't aware that Apple sold a iPad with this capacity.

Now if they were trying to be funny, and they were blu-ray rips converted down, then they would no longer be blu-rays would they...
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post #239 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kotatsu View Post

I'm not a particularly active BD buyer (I rent discs usually), but I still have around 100 BDs and am down to about 2 or 3 DVDs. So for me, BD is the format my content lives on, which is why I want a BD player in as many devices as possible.

I would say 100 Bluray discs makes you an active buyer.
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post #240 of 411
11/12/10 at 5:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii View Post

Blu-ray's look beautiful but there's no reason in today's networked world to print movies on to optical disc for distribution.

Apple is just trying to stay on the leading edge, and not waste resources on something that's not going to be around much longer.

Maybe in your world everything is networked, but the actual world that we actually live in, isn't as networked as you think it is.
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