Mac Blu-Ray notebook upgrade shows Apple lagging behind
A new drive swap offered by FastMac is giving hope to Mac owners riding the cutting edge of movie editing and playback, but is leaving many others wondering why Apple hasn't been willing to help of its own accord.
On Friday, FastMac began offering a slim Blu-Ray drive designed to fit inside several of Apple's most popular desktops and notebooks of the past several years, reaching back as far as the venerable "Pismo" PowerBook G3 -- though ironically blocking MacBooks and 15-inch MacBook Pros due to their extra-thin cases.
Labeled as the first upgrade of its kind for any of Apple's portables, the swap-in drive gave the eligible Macs not just a chance to play high-definition movies but to burn 50GB dual-layer Blu-Ray discs and boot from a Mac OS X CD or DVD.
While undoubtedly a relief for determined video editors and avid fans, the $800 upgrade path has raised as many questions as it answers. It highlights the seemingly widening chasm between Apple and next-generation disc formats -- revealing that a small but determined third-party firm was able to edge out a proclaimed media powerhouse and release slimline Blu-Ray hardware seemingly months in advance.
Apple has not been completely silent. The Cupertino-based firm has made several gestures towards both Blu-Ray and the competing HD DVD standard in recent years, building early support for the latter into DVD Player and its pro-level Final Cut Studio editing suite. Apple was also one of the first to back the H.264 video standard inherent to Blu-Ray with Quicktime 7. In fact, its investments in new formats run so deeply that it joined the board of the Blu-Ray Disc Association in March of 2005 to gain a controlling stake well before the first disc readers had touched store shelves.
Yet the Mac maker has never actually made a public commitment to the hardware itself, having refrained from shipping Blu-Ray drives despite the existence of Blu-Ray drives as an option since mid-2006. The backing of the standard has often been left to its primary champion Sony, which offered its VAIO AR-series portable with the drive option since May of last year. Drives by LG, Pioneer, and Samsung have similarly been offered in recent months and have found their way into desktop-class add-ons for Mac users before Friday's FastMac release.
With Apple's most recent Mac Pro update continuing to leave both Blu-Ray and HD DVD by the wayside, however, Mac users are left without any clear indications as to when their computer creator will finally embrace HD in its hardware and which format it will ultimately adopt.
The company's best near-term chances appear to rest in next week's NAB expo, where rumors would have Blu-Ray support added to the next version of Final Cut Studio, and possibly system-wide in the official release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard later this spring.
On Friday, FastMac began offering a slim Blu-Ray drive designed to fit inside several of Apple's most popular desktops and notebooks of the past several years, reaching back as far as the venerable "Pismo" PowerBook G3 -- though ironically blocking MacBooks and 15-inch MacBook Pros due to their extra-thin cases.
Labeled as the first upgrade of its kind for any of Apple's portables, the swap-in drive gave the eligible Macs not just a chance to play high-definition movies but to burn 50GB dual-layer Blu-Ray discs and boot from a Mac OS X CD or DVD.
While undoubtedly a relief for determined video editors and avid fans, the $800 upgrade path has raised as many questions as it answers. It highlights the seemingly widening chasm between Apple and next-generation disc formats -- revealing that a small but determined third-party firm was able to edge out a proclaimed media powerhouse and release slimline Blu-Ray hardware seemingly months in advance.
Apple has not been completely silent. The Cupertino-based firm has made several gestures towards both Blu-Ray and the competing HD DVD standard in recent years, building early support for the latter into DVD Player and its pro-level Final Cut Studio editing suite. Apple was also one of the first to back the H.264 video standard inherent to Blu-Ray with Quicktime 7. In fact, its investments in new formats run so deeply that it joined the board of the Blu-Ray Disc Association in March of 2005 to gain a controlling stake well before the first disc readers had touched store shelves.
Yet the Mac maker has never actually made a public commitment to the hardware itself, having refrained from shipping Blu-Ray drives despite the existence of Blu-Ray drives as an option since mid-2006. The backing of the standard has often been left to its primary champion Sony, which offered its VAIO AR-series portable with the drive option since May of last year. Drives by LG, Pioneer, and Samsung have similarly been offered in recent months and have found their way into desktop-class add-ons for Mac users before Friday's FastMac release.
With Apple's most recent Mac Pro update continuing to leave both Blu-Ray and HD DVD by the wayside, however, Mac users are left without any clear indications as to when their computer creator will finally embrace HD in its hardware and which format it will ultimately adopt.
The company's best near-term chances appear to rest in next week's NAB expo, where rumors would have Blu-Ray support added to the next version of Final Cut Studio, and possibly system-wide in the official release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard later this spring.
Comments
So while some companies are freaking out over trying to shove HD-DVD and Blu-ray into their machines, Apple could get screwed if they make the wrong choice. I think they're just being patient and letting this whole disc format thing pass.
So while some companies are freaking out over trying to shove HD-DVD and Blu-ray into their machines, Apple could get screwed if they make the wrong choice. I think they're just being patient and letting this whole disc format thing pass.
I reckon Apple are hanging on until a dual format unit exists that supports both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, it kinda fits into their way of thinking - Super Drive II or something along these lines.
The company's best near-term chances appear to rest in next week's NAB expo, where rumors would have Blu-Ray support added to the next version of Final Cut Studio, and possibly system-wide in the official release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard later this spring.
But you said above that
The Cupertino-based firm has made several gestures towards both Blu-Ray and the competing HD DVD standard in recent years, building early support for the latter into DVD Player and its pro-level Final Cut Studio editing suite.
So I'm confused. I thought Final Cut has it already? Or did you mean to say Express? (if that doesn't have it).
-=|Mgkwho
I reckon Apple are hanging on until a dual format unit exists that supports both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, it kinda fits into their way of thinking - Super Drive II or something along these lines.
Maybe. And surely officially HD certified displays supporting HDCP or whatever it's called again. Otherwise "no HD for you, naughty boy!"
Leopard will probably support both formats quite nicely, and I expect dual drives in all bar entry level Macs within a year or so. Starting with the Mac Pro as a BTO. But then with Apple I also know to expect the unexpected.
I reckon Apple are hanging on until a dual format unit exists that supports both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, it kinda fits into their way of thinking - Super Drive II or something along these lines.
Apple can't release something like without making a big deal of it. You'll see Blu-ray options when the santa rosa machines and Leopard show up. There's also another reason, to make the 15" macbook pro as thin as possible, they went with a 9.5mm super slim drive (used on ultraportables) instead of the standard 12.7mm slim drive. There's not a super slim BR burner out there let alone a slot loading one. Apple wouldn't release Blu-ray if the Macbook Pro didn't have one. That's going to take either a slight redesign of the MBP or Apple getting panasonic to develop an ultraslim drive. Either way it takes time.
The day OS X can play HD is the day OS X is ruined.
Why are people so focused on disc formats when downloads and streaming are clearly right around the corner? If you have an AppleTV, watch a movie trailer. It's streaming from the Apple trailer site and it looks great (and obviously could be improved a little). How hard would it be for Apple to charge $10-20 a month and offer a streaming rental service? Really easy.
So while some companies are freaking out over trying to shove HD-DVD and Blu-ray into their machines, Apple could get screwed if they make the wrong choice. I think they're just being patient and letting this whole disc format thing pass.
That is like the movie studios saying bak in the 1940s that people won't want to watch movies on a tiny little box. There is a market for optical media as it contains a great deal of information in a very small form factor.
Apple is clearly supporting Blu-ray as they are on the board. As I recall, commercial HD-DVD discs use both H.264 and VC-1 (Microsoft's codec) while Blu-ray only uses the former.
I reckon Apple are hanging on until a dual format unit exists that supports both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, it kinda fits into their way of thinking - Super Drive II or something along these lines.
It's typical for 3rd-party vendors to offer this before Apple does. I think the next version of the Mac Pro will offer this high-end, expensive solution as a BTO option but that is it. Then the 17" MBP. You won't see this as a default build item until the cost has dive cost has come down, the media is at DL DVD media prices, the public interest in Blu-ray has risen (this happens when the price goes down), and when Blu-ray has a more clear victory.
Was Apple the first to put CD players in computers? I don't think they were, but what they were first to do was to remove old hat tech, like the 3.5" floppy drive and replace it with only a CD-RW drive. That is the kind of forward thinking I expect from Apple, trimming of the fat, not adding expensive tech that that has no clear usefulness for the average consumer.
It's not just a case of Apple putting a new drive in. They have to rip the guts out of OS X to make it check hundreds of times per second for voltage irregularities along the video card bus, to ensure the data is not being pilfered.
Just because Microsoft's chose to cripple Vista doesn't mean that Apple has to follow suit. Microsoft caved to Universal but Apple did not. Apple has balls. Microsoft doesn't.
The day OS X can play HD is the day OS X is ruined.
Can you clarify that for me?
-=|Mgkwho
It's not just a case of Apple putting a new drive in. They have to rip the guts out of OS X to make it check hundreds of times per second for voltage irregularities along the video card bus, to ensure the data is not being pilfered.
The day OS X can play HD is the day OS X is ruined.
Can't it already play HD content? You can play HD in Quicktime. The appleTV is OS X and it plays HD, thats kinda the point of it actually (and especially after iTunes starts selling HD content--which will happen eventually). I don't understand what you are saying.
Edit: looks like i was beaten to it (twice)
with the new line of imac coming out and knowing how tight apple and sony are, i wont pay a penny for that drive, maybe apple already thought of it you know how they love to be ahead of everyone and now that they have apple tv, i think blu ray will complete the puzzle
So you think that a drive costing at least $500 more than a DL DVD drive will be in the next iMac? And you think that the AppleTV--which can't access the DVD drive of current Macs despite MPEG-2's comparatively low bitrate--will be able to access the HD media on a Blu-ray drive?
I just don't see that happening.
You'd think next-gen optical options might have been added BTO to the Mac Pro alongside the release of the 8-core model.
Those that want a HD optical player/burner have been able to buy one for about a year now. Just like buying RAM from a 3rd-party is usually cheaper than getting it from Apple, it's probably cheaper to get your HD optical drive from a 3rd-party.
It's the top Mac, with the most internal room, and the release was not tied to any specific event or date--seems a good place to start!
And, as you say, it has a lot of internal room so installation is a snap.
And that would have avoided aggravating buyers who get the just-released top Mac now, only to have Blu-Ray option added a few weeks/months later.
If Apple added the drive next week it would only be a BTO option for at least $500 and the need for this device only affects a very miniscule user base so it isn't going to affect consumers the way it did when Apple upgraded the Core Duos w/ 512MB RAM to Core 2 Duos wi/ 1GB RAM.
The bottom line is thatif you need a Blu-ray drive in your Mac Pro or G5 then you have options. And now, if you really need one in your 17" MacBook Pro then you have an option. And if you have been saving your pennies for a Blu-ray drive by hanging onto your G3 iBook then you too have an option.
Why are people so focused on disc formats when downloads and streaming are clearly right around the corner?
Around the corner? I am not convinced that this is so, especially when we talk about high definition video.
Around the corner? I am not convinced that this is so, especially when we talk about high definition video.
It's right around the corner with Wi-Max. DSL and and companies better look out.