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iDVD hung out to dry as Apple pushes movies online - Page 2

post #41 of 126
1/28/09 at 4:33pm
Over 30 of my friends who were die hard Windows users were all ******ing about MovieMaker and what a pain in the *** it was to use. "And don't get me started about trying to burn a dvd after finally getting the video edited."

I took my iMac to a group meeting and showed them how easy it was to pull video off a video camera, edit it, and then burn a DVD. About 80 people were there at the motorcycle social. I know personally of 30 of the people that bought Macs because of that.
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post #42 of 126
1/28/09 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2 View Post

I might add that digital movies are often no better.

I was looking at the "new arrivals" on iTunes the other day and one of them is "journey to the Centre of the Earth" with James Mason from the 60's. They want 20 bucks for it! We are talking a 40 to 50 year old movie based on an over 100 year old book. This movie has regularly appeared in bargain bins at movie rental places for over twenty years in the 2 to 3 dollar range in VHS and DVD but they want 20 bucks for a DRM'ed digital copy of it. I have a high definition VHS version of it right here with a big $2.99 sticker on it.

Needless to say, this is absolutely insane pricing and there are many many other movies like it in the store also.

I've never heard of an iTunes movie costing more than $15 and that's for new releases. The movie you're talking about is currently listed at $9.99:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...25213&s=143441

False comparisons do not a valid argument make.
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False comparisons do not a valid argument make.
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post #43 of 126
1/28/09 at 4:36pm
Does this answer everyone's questions about when Apple will add Blu-Ray?
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post #44 of 126
1/28/09 at 4:57pm
IDVD was updated today 7.0.3, what planet are you people on?
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post #45 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2 View Post

iDVD has always sucked, has always been difficult to understand, and really is a "low demand" product in the suite. Even amongst large groups of people using and learning iMovie, the number of them that want to make a finished commercial DVD out of it is very small indeed.

You nailed it.

iDVD is horrible. I've tried to mess around with it a few times and it just sucks.
Keep in mind, the only thing iDVD does is put a GUI menu on your dvd. How much demand is there for that? I guess it's a nice tool to have and falls into the ideology that people are perfectionists and want to author professional looking DVD's for hobby projects.

I'm sure there are a few wedding videographers who use it to charge an extra few hundred $... but I agree, the demand is small.

As for authoring DVD's, Visual Hub does an excellent job of converting ANY video format to DVD. Besides, I enjoy not having to screw around with menu's... just put in your dvd and good to go.
Toast works too.
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post #46 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:06pm
This article is total BS. HOw else will you save all your files- on a breakable hard drive? In the cloud?
Blu-ray is disappointing- to who? Steve Jobs? Why is Disney the biggest seller of Blu-ray? What a croc. It is iDVD THAT SUCKS AND THE APPLE TV.
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post #47 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:08pm
I can see Apple dropping optical drives in their laptop product line (or perhaps only the consumer models) at some point.

With the advent of CD/DVD sharing introduced with the MacBook Air, and the concept that the laptop computer should be focused on portability... it is not really that farfetched.

I don't think Apple will be dropping optical drives from their desktop computers however.

Otherwise prepare to say goodbye to: DVD Player.app, burn folders, Toast, ripping and burning with iTunes, etc.

Should Apple focus on development of iDVD? Probably not (outside of minor updates). Should they shut it down? Absolutely not!

As far as bluray goes.. yes it is higher quality and comes with the possibility of more features.. but I agree with Steve,

"...it's a bag of hurt"
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post #48 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GQB View Post

Does this answer everyone's questions about when Apple will add Blu-Ray?

No- because when DVD was added to the iMac in 1999 sales flew off the charts. I guarantee a blu-ray iMac would do the same.
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post #49 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:13pm
Quote:
with the disappointing pace of Blu-Ray adoption, it looks like the company has picked the right strategy.

Not sure where that statement is coming from. The pace of Blu-Ray adoption is far ahead of where DVD was at a similar time-frame. From my perspective, Blu-Ray has been a resounding success so far.

Blu-Ray will be around for a long time, and is THE format of choice going forward for those of us who appreciate uncompressed audio and 1080P video.

That being said, I could care less if Apple includes Blu-Ray in their machines. I have an Apple TV, a PS3, a universal DVD, and a high quality turntable in my living room - and I'm pretty much set for any decent format currently available.

People who continually try to sound the death knell of physical media because of online, digital distribution are delusional, IMO. Online distribution is supplemental, disposable, and a matter of convenience, at best.
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post #50 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:17pm
i don't see what the big deal is. until Apple decides to support Blu-ray there really isn't anywhere left to go with idvd, other than perhaps a way to save your own template if you really must.

as for the box etc, is it any shock that they choose to highlight what makes this package so much cooler than ilife '08 that you just gotta get it instead of sticking with what you got for free. not to me
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post #51 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by teckstud View Post

This article is total BS. HOw else will you save all your files- on a breakable hard drive? In the cloud?

I have used numerous alternatives to store or transfer files:

a) memory stick.
b) Hard Drive
c) Bluetooth
d) Ethernet
e) Firewire
F) USB
g) Wifi
h) Infra Red

Take ya pick, much rather any (or combination of) those options than a breakable and massively unreliable optical disk.
And yes, ALL my work gets backed up to the 'cloud'. Infact much of my work is written in the 'cloud' and does not get stored locally whatsoever.


PS: Blue Ray is dead within the next few years, a very short lived media format indeed me tinks.
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post #52 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post

"Apple doesn't care about optical people"

Kanye Jobs 2009

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 #53 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by teckstud View Post

No- because when DVD was added to the iMac in 1999 sales flew off the charts. I guarantee a blu-ray iMac would do the same.

I agree. I want a BD burner to back up all my files. Tired of having to use stacks of DVD's. If your house burns down, or someone steals your Time Capsule, or HDD dies... your screwed. Say goodbye to all your photos and files. Seen it happen many times.
Keep a BD disk or two off-site... your secure.

It was when affordable DVD burners and media came out that the format took off like a rocket.
I'm wondering why Sony, after pumping hundreds of millions into buying studio votes, has not pushed hard for the burners on PC's?

Damn, now i'm almost starting to think maybe the HD-DVD camp had a point... i'm sure we would have had those in Mac's now had Toshiba won the war.
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post #54 of 126
1/28/09 at 5:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rcfa View Post

...Now it's just a must have feature that's more or less matured and taken for granted... Lastly, the idea that iDVD is all about DISTRIBUTION and thus could/would be replaced with some online/cloud based service is ridiculous.

Excellent post! I totally agree. iTunes/AppleTV distribution has NO influence on iDVD. They have a totally separate and distinct purpose. iDVD is for home/business produced DVD videos and/or presentations. iTunes/AppleTV allows the distribution and purchase of copy written media.

This article may be looking a little too far into the iLife marketing choices. If not, the Apple is making a poor decision. iDVD is invaluable where I work since 95% of all computers have DVDs which allow for the distribution and display of high-end video presentations and/or recorded field work video.

Sure the workflow is evolving away from DVDs and I'm all for that workflow to become a workable, affordable, reality. However... DVDs are necessary now as well as within the next 5-10 years.
http://hometown-freebies.com
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http://hometown-freebies.com
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post #55 of 126
1/28/09 at 6:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smurfman View Post

However... DVDs are necessary now as well as within the next 5-10 years.

Museum pieces in 5.
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post #56 of 126
1/28/09 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rdas7 View Post

...in other words, next year when all MacBooks drop the optical drive, iLife will similarly drop iDVD altogether.

Next year? that's awful quick, they just introduced a complete redo of their notebook line a few months ago. I don't think they're going to redo it again so soon. Apple doesn't do a total makeover of their computer lines every year, it's more like 3-5 years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cbutler View Post

I've stopped giving computer-based DVD's to my wedding photography clients, because they aren't archival. Instead, I provide USB thumbdrives.

I've had way too many dye-based DVDs fail over time, and archival matters to my clients.

I think Apple is doing the smart thing here...

Were you paying attention to the source of those discs, or were you just buying the cheapest crap?

Quote:
Originally Posted by vandil View Post

iDVD is fun, but waiting for it to render and burn can be an eternity.

That said, they'd better not take it out of iLife any time soon.

You're right about that. I recall that iDVD took about an hour to encode about an hour's worth of audio. I thought it stalled out on me, so I retried it. And then it would move on to the video, which only took an hour, something very surprising for how much more work video encoding is.

Quote:
Originally Posted by monstrosity View Post

I have used numerous alternatives to store or transfer files:

a) memory stick.
b) Hard Drive
c) Bluetooth
d) Ethernet
e) Firewire
F) USB
g) Wifi
h) Infra Red

Take ya pick, much rather any (or combination of) those options than a breakable and massively unreliable optical disk.
And yes, ALL my work gets backed up to the 'cloud'. Infact much of my work is written in the 'cloud' and does not get stored locally whatsoever.

That's a very bad idea, given that there are some cloud services have tried to shut down without 24 hours worth of notice.

I don't understand why you have problems with the durability and reliability of the media, I don't remember the last disc that went bad or broke.

Infrared and bluetooth aren't even options for files of any significant size, I don't know why you put them there.
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post #57 of 126
1/28/09 at 6:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post

Infrared and bluetooth aren't even options for files of any significant size, I don't know why you put them there.

Well I was following on from my previous post which stated that I have barely used optical for a decade, and back then files were generally smaller.

Also, I use bluetooth quite often as do my friends, if you put two macbooks in close proximity you can transfer reasonable file sizes in a reasonably fast time. More often than not quicker than it takes to burn a dvd.

Obviously if you are transferring large movies it's not great option. But for audio it's acceptably quick.


Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post

That's a very bad idea, given that there are some cloud services have tried to shut down without 24 hours worth of notice.

My work is stored on my own servers, using my own software. And backups are made on a regular basis. If I'm feeling particularly nervous about a piece of work I will store locally also.
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post #58 of 126
1/28/09 at 6:40pm
What a self-righteous bonehead move by Apple. How exactly is someone supposed to share their work on the television screens of friends and family? Buy an Apple TV for them all? Apple would love that. How is someone supposed to archive their family videos and photos for years to come? Pay Apple $99 a year for the rest of their lives to keep it stored on a MobileMe account? Yeah I bet Apple would love that too. What, is Apple going to start letting everybody host video on the iTunes Music Store? Or let me guess, since Apple sells movies now we no longer have to make our own. Is that about right?

Apple seems to be moving more and more toward serving themselves first and foremost.
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post #59 of 126
1/28/09 at 6:42pm
People who compare Apple's lack of BluRay support to their dropping of the floppy drive miss the mark. In one case, they removed a legacy piece of hardware (the floppy drive) to essentially simplify the overall computer package to support a single removable drive (CD-ROM). Since then the now-standard optical drive kept gaining functionality:

CD read-only > CR-RW > CD-RW + DVD read-only > CD/DVD-RW (dual layer)

Adding BluRay, even if it's only read and not write, simply adds one more step of functionality to the already existing optical drive. It's not like Apple has to redesign the case to add another drive completely, which WAS the situation back when the floppy was the primary removable drive. An updated DVD-RW + BR-R drive should be a simple drop-in replacement for future machines.

And to those who claim they never use their computer's DVD drives any more: How, exactly, do you expect to install 10.6 when it comes out? Hmm?
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post #60 of 126
1/28/09 at 7:04pm
I have used iDVD a few times, but always felt that it wasn't as slick as the other apps in the suite. Setting up menus was unnecessarily complicated and unintuitive. Since I hadn't used other products I had no basis to judge whether it was better or worse than the competition in that regard. I also had to rely on third party software to print labels. Not the complete user experience one would expect from Apple.

I just bought my first copy of Toast Titanium for the purpose of moving programs from my TiVo to our iPhones. It does that very slickly. If its DVD burning tools work well it may be my go-to app for that too, iDVD or no iDVD in the future.

Steve is usually right. As others in the thread have noted, I find myself posting my little projects on the MobileMe gallery rather than burning disks.
A.k.a. AppleHead on other forums.
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A.k.a. AppleHead on other forums.
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post #61 of 126
1/28/09 at 7:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlux View Post

And to those who claim they never use their computer's DVD drives any more: How, exactly, do you expect to install 10.6 when it comes out? Hmm?

I hear you, after reading these posts I was beginning to feel like I was the last person in the world who still used his optical drive. Mine gets used pretty regularly, I couldn't imagine not having one in my laptop.

I'll never rent or purchase movies from iTunes until they come out with a subscription plan like Netflix and or remove the DRM from purchased material. I think the prices on iTunes is a bit pricey considering there is no packaging for them to worry about, and although I'm not 100% sure on this but do you get any of the extras included with the downloads?. What if you purchase a bunch of movies from iTunes and something freaky happens in 5 years, and the DRM servers go down?
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post #62 of 126
1/28/09 at 7:22pm
Please Apple READ this please!!!!


I agree that physical support has no future.

But, AppleTV is there, why iDVD could not be a menu editing for the AppleTV ?
I mean, why APPLETV cannot read the VOB format (the DVD format) and let us make beautiful menu from our home video and then can be transfered to the AppleTV ?

No more DVD but the feeling of the DVD with all the graphic menu, chapters and bonus.

Then we can organize our home video like a stack of DVD. For example:

The virtual DVD of my last trip
The virtual DVD of al the birthday over the year of my daughter etc...

Apple already got the software (iDVD) and the hardware (computer and AppleTV).

Just check the LACIE LaCinema Premier, this multimedia disque read the VOB format of the DVD. No more DVD but the same navigation of the DVD on a Multimedia machine.
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post #63 of 126
1/28/09 at 7:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by parky View Post

iDVD is NOT for making commercial DVDs, it is a simple tool for making a DVD that will play in any DVD player. It does exactly what you said it should do, it even has an Easy DVD option when you connect a video camera and it will make a DVD right from it with one or two clicks.

It is very easy to use, much easier than iMovie.

What software do you use to make your DVDs?

Yup. My project to finish this year is to convert all the old super 8 to DVD so I can give them to the family. With so much film though I need simple menus and chapters and clips and .... I don't need the pro tool I just need something that will make a DVD of old home movies my family will enjoy. I'm hoping iDVD will do that.
The politics of charisma is so Third World. Americans were never going to buy into it for long. - Foudad Ajami
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The politics of charisma is so Third World. Americans were never going to buy into it for long. - Foudad Ajami
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post #64 of 126
1/28/09 at 7:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cory Bauer View Post

What a self-righteous bonehead move by Apple. How exactly is someone supposed to share their work on the television screens of friends and family? Buy an Apple TV for them all? Apple would love that. How is someone supposed to archive their family videos and photos for years to come? Pay Apple $99 a year for the rest of their lives to keep it stored on a MobileMe account? Yeah I bet Apple would love that too. What, is Apple going to start letting everybody host video on the iTunes Music Store? Or let me guess, since Apple sells movies now we no longer have to make our own. Is that about right?

Apple seems to be moving more and more toward serving themselves first and foremost.


Stop worrying. Apple isn't getting rid of iDVD. All they're doing to slowing down it's development and down playing it's importance compared to other apps. iDVD is mainly the program that let's you customize your DVD's by letting you chose themes, colors for buttons, titles and such. You can bypass this whole process buy just chosing a theme and using the "Magic DVD" button in iDVD. You can even bypass the iMovie process and go directly from camera to DVD. iDVD has just reach it's limits for the average users. Most users don't need more that what's already availble. Adding more themes is about all most users would want. Unless BluRay takes off.

I would like to be able to chose a lower quality burn to get more than 2 hours of video on a DVD though. Like those stand alone burners that takes video from your camera and burn directly to DVD. \
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post #65 of 126
1/28/09 at 7:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FloorJack View Post

Yup. My project to finish this year is to convert all the old super 8 to DVD so I can give them to the family. With so much film though I need simple menus and chapters and clips and .... I don't need the pro tool I just need something that will make a DVD of old home movies my family will enjoy. I'm hoping iDVD will do that.

That's what I've been using it for. If you don't mind using one of their (cheesy, imo) pre-installed themes it should work fine (mostly). The moment you try to modify those themes and create your own, prepare for great frustration and sadness.

F'd-up theme support is my only complaint with the current version of iDVD. If they fixed that, I'm fine with its limited capabilities. I also own Toast, and its themes are, shall we say, different, but certainly no better.
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post #66 of 126
1/28/09 at 8:02pm
How do you do that without a physical disk (like DVD)?
I just wonder.
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post #67 of 126
1/28/09 at 8:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cameronj View Post

Hung UP to dry?

It all depends on the one saying the phrase I guess... However, your expression, when Googled, seems to bring up sources of the saying what it means literally, as in my wet clothes were hung up to dry. Whereas the AI subject title uses the phrase as intended, See link.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/889748

Ten years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash.  Today we have no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash.

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Ten years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash.  Today we have no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash.

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post #68 of 126
1/28/09 at 8:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by palegolas View Post

The thing most people I know think about when they start iDVD is the following:
- So, how do I get rid of all these embarrassing menus and just make a plain dvd with my movie?

Yes! And does it have to start playing that crazy clarinet music when the application launches? (Maybe it doesn't do that anymore, I haven't used it in a while.) And take up several gigabytes on my hard drive? (Several additional gigabytes for each new version.)

What happened to the box Steve drew on the whiteboard -- you drag your movie in and click Burn? I want that program!

Actually, there's a feature that lets you just burn an iMovie file to a DVD with no menus, and whenever I need to burn a project to disc I hunt around for that and use it. Ideally that would be the default mode, and then an "advanced mode" would let you set up all the menus etc.
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post #69 of 126
1/28/09 at 9:03pm
youhou!!!!

nobody read my idea at 10:22 pm ?

What you think about that idea?
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post #70 of 126
1/28/09 at 9:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zef View Post

How do you do that without a physical disk (like DVD)?
I just wonder.

Boot off a USB drive. Flash isn't as cheap as optical disks, but it's not prohibitively expensive for shipping commercial software.

Optical disks formats are a dead end. Their capacity is basically locked to whatever their specification allows. Solid state disks on the other hand can keep the same physical interface and increase in capacity as technology progresses. Flash chips can even be substituted for newer storage technology when it comes available without changing the interface. All that's needed is a good standard, and for all the computer manufacturers and content providers to adopt it.
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post #71 of 126
1/28/09 at 9:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bokuwaomar View Post

Boot off a USB drive. Flash isn't as cheap as optical disks, but it's not prohibitively expensive for shipping commercial software.

Exactly. One of the first things I do with system disks is to make a master copy to a partition on my external hard drive, and boot off of that when needed. Thus preserving the original discs' integrity and life, and never even need to use them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gigi View Post

youhou!!!!

nobody read my idea at 10:22 pm ?

What you think about that idea?

gigi, I think it is a great idea. I've been doing that basically for about two years. All you have to do is save it as a .dmg, .iso, or .toast file and then mount it when you want to view it. The only other thing that is needed is for all other devices and pc's to have the ability to read those formats and mount them on the fly.
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post #72 of 126
1/28/09 at 9:41pm
Nothing is decided on blu-ray yet. Those who think blu-ray is dead already do not see the whole picture(no pun intended).

Less than s a year ago, yes, it looked like Blu-ray was going to be dead but something happened. The price for getting 1080P high-def started coming down in price to where tv's could be had with it for less than $1000. At xmas time I picked up a nice Toshiba 32" that does 1080P for $600.

While a large number of folks won't care one bit about whether something is in 720P or 1080P, there is a growing crowd that wants high-def content. Most people are accustomed to picking content up at the Blockbusters and Family Videos of the world. If it's only Blu-ray at these stops, then people are going to start noticing the difference in quality to that of everyone's online solutions where they send out a signal that is both 720P and a chopped down bitrate.

Bandwidth issues and a lack of a single player that can access multiple services to get movies are going to kill most online high-def services. Netflix at this point will be the obvious winner with Apple a distant 2nd if they continue their current strategies. MS and Sony have already jumped on the Netflix wagon. Apple won't do Netflix in my opinion(unless they buy them) but they are going to need something unique about their service or product to compete.

So with all of this it should look obvious that it wasn't about Blu-ray being slow but really it was ill timed and likely pushed out as early as it was due to both HD-DVD and the XBox 360. Online services are just now taking off as bandwidth starts getting better and tv prices come down.

All in all it was the progression of tv advancements that have thrown the whole war off with bandwidth cost to home users being next. Lastly you still have a huge culture that doesn't understand the digital changes and technology. So like I said nothing is decided on Blu-ray yet. Sure, online services should eventually reign but right now I don't see that being for quite some time. As for Apple they have exactly the right idea to call this a hobby and see who else shoots themselves in the foot. They're essentially doing what MS used to do which is establish a presence and hang around and hang around and hang around. They don't have to be in 1st place to be successful.
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post #73 of 126
1/28/09 at 11:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryanhauer View Post

I couldn't agree more! I always thought Blue-Ray or even HD-DVD were just too late to the market or maybe it was the window for success was just simply too short of a time period.

With better and better quality online video including HD content that already looks great... the time for the DVD or even Blue-Ray has passed.

I completely agree. There is nothing sufficiently 'new' about either Blu-ray or HD-DVD for either of them to have succeeded. What came after CD'S? DVD_Audio? No, the internet replaced CD's. Keeping music on hard driveswhich keep upping available storageand sharing/buying music online is the standard today. Offline options? Keychain USB flash drives, getting more capacity at lower prices all the time. Less consumption of raw materials equals less money spent on manufacturing and more money spent directly on music.

This story is now getting repeated with movies. Blu-Ray discs are the same size and shape of DVDs, but with more capacity and zero compatibility with existing hardware. Movies downloadedlegally or otherwisehave as good or better quality and work on most people's existing machines.

iDVD is effectively a finished product as far as features goit has reached the end of what the DVD format has to offer before the interface must go from consumer to prosumer. So what if they upgrade it to support Blu-Ray discs? Higher capacity? Who cares? People want 2 things: more toys and more simplicity. Blu-Ray does not have enough potential for new toys; on the other hand eliminating a step from sharing my latest iMovie creation with friends and family is a new level of simplicity.
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post #74 of 126
1/28/09 at 11:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Techslacker View Post

Nothing is decided on blu-ray yet. Those who think blu-ray is dead already do not see the whole picture(no pun intended).

Less than s a year ago, yes, it looked like Blu-ray was going to be dead but something happened. The price for getting 1080P high-def started coming down in price to where tv's could be had with it for less than $1000. At xmas time I picked up a nice Toshiba 32" that does 1080P for $600.

While a large number of folks won't care one bit about whether something is in 720P or 1080P, there is a growing crowd that wants high-def content. Most people are accustomed to picking content up at the Blockbusters and Family Videos of the world. If it's only Blu-ray at these stops, then people are going to start noticing the difference in quality to that of everyone's online solutions where they send out a signal that is both 720P and a chopped down bitrate.

Bandwidth issues and a lack of a single player that can access multiple services to get movies are going to kill most online high-def services. Netflix at this point will be the obvious winner with Apple a distant 2nd if they continue their current strategies. MS and Sony have already jumped on the Netflix wagon. Apple won't do Netflix in my opinion(unless they buy them) but they are going to need something unique about their service or product to compete.

So with all of this it should look obvious that it wasn't about Blu-ray being slow but really it was ill timed and likely pushed out as early as it was due to both HD-DVD and the XBox 360. Online services are just now taking off as bandwidth starts getting better and tv prices come down.

All in all it was the progression of tv advancements that have thrown the whole war off with bandwidth cost to home users being next. Lastly you still have a huge culture that doesn't understand the digital changes and technology. So like I said nothing is decided on Blu-ray yet. Sure, online services should eventually reign but right now I don't see that being for quite some time. As for Apple they have exactly the right idea to call this a hobby and see who else shoots themselves in the foot. They're essentially doing what MS used to do which is establish a presence and hang around and hang around and hang around. They don't have to be in 1st place to be successful.

I dunno. The current economic downturn might tip things in favor of digital downloads as faster connections replace existing ones for the same/similar price. Most people are already paying a monthly fee for internet access, so if something better comes out, upgrading is cheap. However HDTVs, Blu-Ray players and sound systems are still expensive, and since they are basically only good for killing time (that's not to say that it's a bad thing btw), upgrading to them is low on most consumer's priority list. By the time most households have HDTVs, it's likely, if not certain that Fios class connections will be far more common and and high capacity flash will be cheap. Blu-Ray will be kinda unnecessary at that point.

Of course, it's too early to say Blu-Ray is dead. I just don't see a bright future for it.
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post #75 of 126
1/29/09 at 12:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

Given Apple's healthy business in both HD and mobile movie rentals and MobileMe online publishing, contrasted with the disappointing pace of Blu-Ray adoption, it looks like the company has picked the right strategy.
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Number of movies sold on DVD outside of US on 2008: Millions.
Number of movies sold on Bluray outside of US on 2008: Millions.
Number of movies Apple sold via iTunes outside of US on 2008: Zero.

Sounds like a flourishing business for Apple!
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post #76 of 126
1/29/09 at 12:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlux View Post

Adding BluRay, even if it's only read and not write, simply adds one more step of functionality to the already existing optical drive. It's not like Apple has to redesign the case to add another drive completely, which WAS the situation back when the floppy was the primary removable drive. An updated DVD-RW + BR-R drive should be a simple drop-in replacement for future machines.

But it isn't a "simple drop-in", except for the 24" iMac and the Mac Pro. All othe Macs with optical drives use a 9.5mm slot-loading drive. There are no Blu-ray drives available that will fit the needed dimensions. If you think Apple should add thickness to their machines and use a tray-loading drive just to appease a very small consumer case and keep the price in-line with other OEMs, then you don't know Apple.

Quote:
And to those who claim they never use their computer's DVD drives any more: How, exactly, do you expect to install 10.6 when it comes out? Hmm?

Hint: USB. The cost of USB flash drives are coming down fast enough to make this a viable option soon. One benefit to Apple making Snow Leopard smaller could mean the use of an 8GB flash drive, instead if a 16GB drive. Imagine how quickly you could install OS X over USB?

Optical drives are the largest single item by volume in the current MB, they use a lot of power to operate while being slow to read and wright compared to other local media types. And while Blu-ray does hold considerably more data than DVD, the price-to-GB makes it a very expensive choice for data redundancy. Blu-ray is great for the living room, but for a notebook it is just a silly fad.
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 #77 of 126
1/29/09 at 1:26am
Apple should take iDVD out of iLife and include it as an extra share option in Final Cut Pro/Express. It would be another great way to set FCE apart from iMovie.

The iLife suite has enough value now, especially with iPhoto 09. Also notice how iLife is taking advantage of the web 2.0 sharing capabilities (Facebook, Flickr).
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post #78 of 126
1/29/09 at 1:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by camroidv27 View Post

Perhaps they are waiting to come out with iDVD HD? Fresh with blue-ray compatible themes, apps and such? DVD Studio HD in Final Cut Suite 2 only? Who knows...

Snooze alarm folks... hit the button till our iMac/Mini/Pro refresh comes out.

I'd like them to allow us to burn HD direct to DVDs. BluRay has a standard (recently changed/updated) for saving a BluRay film onto a regular DVD. Of course the capacity is much smaller, but it still allows for a longer HD movie than a regular SD DVD allows.

Of course, also burning to BluRay discs would make sense (once we have bluray burners).

Quote:
Originally Posted by rcfa View Post

Further, drawing any attention to iDVD will raise questions about if/when the BluRay stuff will show up, which in turn would create a REALLY NASTY requirement for DRM down to the far corners of the OS, which can lead to all sorts of performance degradation and loss of stability. e.g.
AACS DRM tentacles reach far into operating systems

Ultimately there is some painful DRM stuff, for video playback. I suspect the new DisplayPort technologies are part of that.

Burning Bluray doesn't have those requirements, whether burned onto Bluray or regular DVDs.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gigi View Post

But, AppleTV is there, why iDVD could not be a menu editing for the AppleTV ?
I mean, why APPLETV cannot read the VOB format (the DVD format) and let us make beautiful menu from our home video and then can be transfered to the AppleTV ?

No more DVD but the feeling of the DVD with all the graphic menu, chapters and bonus.

Definitely. I'd go a step further though - using this snazzy sprout core frameworks which create good looking websites, why not have iDVD create a sprout core website? Or export an iDVD menu directly as a site in iWeb?
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post #79 of 126
1/29/09 at 3:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post

Yeah but replace Blu-ray with Floppy Disk (which had much more market penetration) and you'll see that Apple doesn't give a flying f-bomb. I think that optical discs are done. If they last a decade as popular item I'll be surprised. I noticed that media vendors are always giving away discs. The competition with web storage and flash drives is having an impact.

Are you serious? Do you know how long it takes to upload HighDef footage???? Not until the get the internet fixed.
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post #80 of 126
1/29/09 at 3:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GregAlexander View Post

Definitely. I'd go a step further though - using this snazzy sprout core frameworks which create good looking websites, why not have iDVD create a sprout core website? Or export an iDVD menu directly as a site in iWeb?

That would be good.
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