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.
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.
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. \
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 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 drives?which keep upping available storage?and 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 downloaded?legally or otherwise?have as good or better quality and work on most people's existing machines.
iDVD is effectively a finished product as far as features go?it 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.
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.
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.
[/url][/c]
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.
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.
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).
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
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.
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
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?
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.
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?
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.
You know, I am tired of hearing this excuse. Windows can do it with out fail so why can't Leopard? Nope.. That's not good enough. The sad thing is in order to watch a BluRay on my Mac, I have to boot into windows to do it. I don't care what Apple has to do.. That's just EMBARRASSING!
Comments
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.
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.
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.
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.
I just wonder.
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
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.
nobody read my idea at 10:22 pm ?
What you think about that idea?
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.
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.
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.
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 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 drives?which keep upping available storage?and 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 downloaded?legally or otherwise?have as good or better quality and work on most people's existing machines.
iDVD is effectively a finished product as far as features go?it 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.
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.
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.
[/url][/c]
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!
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.
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.
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).
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).
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.
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?
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.
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.
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
You know, I am tired of hearing this excuse. Windows can do it with out fail so why can't Leopard? Nope.. That's not good enough. The sad thing is in order to watch a BluRay on my Mac, I have to boot into windows to do it. I don't care what Apple has to do.. That's just EMBARRASSING!