That's kind of the irony, isn't it? Microsoft's ad touts something that they don't even believe in. Microsoft believes in the "cloud" as the future of media distribution as much as Apple, Netflix, and Amazon Unbox, and Google does. They supported HD-DVD against Blu-Ray, and when HD-DVD died, they put their effort behind Xbox Live and Silverlight for HD content instead of Blu-Ray. And yet we still get this insipid Blu-Ray ad.
P.S. I'm not against Blu-Ray. I own many and I think highly of the format and the high quality it delivers. I think Microsoft should stay on message instead of stabbing Blu-Ray in the back and then wrapping its arm around Blu-Ray and saying, "meet my buddy Blu-Ray. Windows 7 does Blu-Ray."
There seems to be some psychological effect of wanting an option even though you?ll never use it. The same happened with AIO desktops and notebooks, which are portable forms of AIO computers.
The ?old school? users complained that you can your options for upgrading your machines are limited and they claimed these would never catch on, but they did as they offer a convenience that matters to people. I?d bet most of these people eventually bought notebooks, too, even though they couldn?t replace or upgrade all the HW themselves.
This seems to be the same psychology. I doubt any of the people on this forum clamoring for a $500+ Blu-ray drive would ever buy on from Apple, but they want the option anyway. What makes it worse is the lack of these posters requesting support for Macs in the software or from 3rd-party HW vendors. Why it has to be Apple and as a factory option is what make me scratch my head.
But it?s ultimately a moot point, because we all know that Apple will be pulling the optical drive before too long. But who knows, once that happens Apple might be a strategic position to offer an external Blu-ray player that could be 12.7mm instead of 9.5mm, thus reducing the cost by hundreds and not interfering with their digital download service? though I doubt it.
I have Blu-ray on my iMac and MacBook Pro. I just bought a $109 Blu-ray Burner, and a $11 SATA to USB adapter. (I got a Blu-ray reader for $75 at a local store too).
Apparently Mac OS X does know what a BD Disc is. Blank ones look like CDs or DVDs, it just says "BD" on the disc icon.
I've also made a blu-ray disc with a great football game I recorded with a DVR. I cut out the commercials and the m2ts file is one of the formats allowed on a blu-ray disc (along with H.264 and VC-1). I didn't even have to re-encode, the 2 hour 39 minute (without commercials) game was burned in 34 minutes.
I have also encoded several Blu-ray discs to .mp4 and .m4v files. (I own all the Blu-ray Discs, so nothing illegal). I can play them fine on the Mac and the iPhone 4 (re-encoded to 720p). I play the movies on my small 21.5" 1080p display attached to my 27" iMac while I'm working sometimes.
Isn't it rare for a PC to have Blu-ray capability anyway? Only the most expensive PCs have it?
There complaint isn?t that Blu-ray doesn?t work great on Macs, but that 1) Apple doesn?t offer it, and 2) You can?t watch a protected Blu-ray movie on a Mac due to AACS. I?ve been told that AACS can be used in an app, not in the OS itself and it will play fine, but there are no such apps for Macs that I?m aware of.
As for your setup, M2TS is an MPEG2 video codec for HD.Technically all codecs work fine for Blu-ray as it?s just an optical storage medium, but M2TS, H.264 and VC-1 are the most common for video playback on standalone players because they are limited to the codecs they understand.
I wish more people would focus on finding solutions, like you did, instead of focusing on finding problems that everyone else should resolve.
Will the Mac?s DVD player playback M2TS files or do you need a separate app for your Mac?
I've got a Blu-Ray playing PS3, but I've also got an Apple TV, iPhone and other Apple products.
I often have to weigh up whether to buy a film or TV show on Blu-Ray or via the iTunes store. More and more I find myself choosing Blu-Ray. The superior video/audio quality is certainly a factor but the main reason I choose Blu-Ray is often price.
For example, I recently wanted to buy Battlestar Galactica in HD. Bizarrely, you can't buy the whole series or even some of the seasons whole on the UK iTunes store. You have to purchase each episode individually for seasons 2 & 4, therefore costing £50 a season! Buying the whole series on iTunes costs around £170. When I can get it on Blu-Ray for £85, it's a no-brainer.
I'd love to buy a Mac mini with a Blu-Ray player. Of course, the best of both worlds is Blu-Rays that come with a digital copy. I wish that this was a standard feature on all Blu-Rays.
I've got a Blu-Ray playing PS3, but I've also got an Apple TV, iPhone and other Apple products.
I'd love to buy a Mac mini with a Blu-Ray player.
I don?t get this. You already have a PS3 that is designed with Blu-ray playback for a home theater so why would you want to pay at least 50% than an entire PS3 just for a drive for a device that isn?t designed for a home theater?
I don?t get this. You already have a PS3 that is designed with Blu-ray playback for a home theater so why would you want to pay at least 50% than an entire PS3 just for a drive for a device that isn?t designed for a home theater?
Because I have a wife who hates all of the wires and remotes in our main living room. If I could replace everything with one box that does everything then I would be able to live a quieter life.
Because I have a wife who hates all of the wires and remotes in our main living room. If I could replace everything with one box that does everything then I would be able to live a quieter life.
So the wires are an issue, but a clumsy interface isn?t? Mac OS X isn?t designed for a Home Theater, the PS3 is.
Front Row didn?t get anything but a simple bug fix over Leopard for SL. It was a test for AppleTV, IMO. Even if you do use it, it?s still clumsy for accessing the Mac as a ?personal computer? connected to your TV.
If you want to connect a single device to your HDTV the PS3 is pretty good at this, but there are plenty of other options that allow for better control via remote and/or a 10-Foot UI. On top of that, they all cost less than the cost of a 9.5mm Ultra-Slim Slot-Loading Blu-ray option for the Mac Mini would cost.
I just don?t see any argument that makes a Mac Mini with Blu-ray the best option, expect for those that simply have to have Apple products in every part of their life? and I don?t see that as a good argument. I mostly have Apple products, but only because they fit my usage needs best.
There are many HTPC UIs are that great and they support Blu-ray playback, and will cost you less than what you can get for selling your Mac Mini and PS3. You?ll be able to by a whole lot of Blu-ray discs with the money you save -and- reduce wire clutter.
So the wires are an issue, but a clumsy interface isn’t? Mac OS X isn’t designed for a Home Theater, the PS3 is.
The PS3 is unbeatable for the price, there's no doubts about that.
However, as a closed box, it has its limitations. If your media collection is in Windows Media player then a PS3 is great. If your media collection is in iTunes then you're in for a world of pain. It's possible to stream music through some rather backward methods but obviously any video with DRM is impossible to stream. The overall PS3 media experience for an iTunes user is far worse than Front Row.
Then you've got to consider all of the Internet-based streaming services. The PS3 supports BBC iPlayer but there's no support for services such as Spotify. Even BBC iPlayer requires the user to navigate webpages with a controller and that's a very awkward experience.
Would a Windows or Linux-based HTPC be better? Well, if you want something that's quiet, small and not based on an Atom CPU, then it certainly won't be any cheaper.
Between an Apple wireless keyboard and the new trackpad, controlling a Mac mini from the sofa isn't in any way clumsy. It's not the best solution for everyone, but it is for some people.
The PS3 is unbeatable for the price, there's no doubts about that.
However, as a closed box, it has its limitations. If your media collection is in Windows Media player then a PS3 is great. If your media collection is in iTunes then you're in for a world of pain. It's possible to stream music through some rather backward methods but obviously any video with DRM is impossible to stream. The overall PS3 media experience for an iTunes user is far worse than Front Row.
Then you've got to consider all of the Internet-based streaming services. The PS3 supports BBC iPlayer but there's no support for services such as Spotify. Even BBC iPlayer requires the user to navigate webpages with a controller and that's a very awkward experience.
Between an Apple wireless keyboard and the new trackpad, controlling a Mac mini from the sofa isn't in any way clumsy. It's not the best solution for everyone, but it is for some people.
I think we can both agree no one has done it right yet. I thought Google had a great plan to interact with your normal viewing without actually stepping on the toes of the networks, but the networks (at least in the US) disagree.
I think we can both agree no one has done it right yet. I thought Google had a great plan to interact with your normal viewing without actually stepping on the toes of the networks, but the networks (at least in the US) disagree.
Agreed. I'm not sure if anyone will ever come up with a decent solution. There's just too many players who want to control the experience.
Wasn't the Avatar issue due to the fact that some of the CEs didn't implement the new BD+ version when it was introduced? Sure you can scream about how bad DRM is until you are blue in the face, but the same situation would hit Apple in any area if they didn't implement something in time. Java on OSX is an example, Apple said they were implementing Java behind the offical releases causing incompatibilies.
The thing is Blu-ray is still relatively new and it took a while for DVD to get all the bizarre bugs worked out. Also as far as Java is concerned Apple basically said "Ok Oracle we are going to stop making our own version Java; let's see how well you do."
The PS3 is unbeatable for the price, there's no doubts about that.
However, as a closed box, it has its limitations. If your media collection is in Windows Media player then a PS3 is great. If your media collection is in iTunes then you're in for a world of pain. It's possible to stream music through some rather backward methods but obviously any video with DRM is impossible to stream. The overall PS3 media experience for an iTunes user is far worse than Front Row.
Then you've got to consider all of the Internet-based streaming services. The PS3 supports BBC iPlayer but there's no support for services such as Spotify. Even BBC iPlayer requires the user to navigate webpages with a controller and that's a very awkward experience.
Would a Windows or Linux-based HTPC be better? Well, if you want something that's quiet, small and not based on an Atom CPU, then it certainly won't be any cheaper.
Between an Apple wireless keyboard and the new trackpad, controlling a Mac mini from the sofa isn't in any way clumsy. It's not the best solution for everyone, but it is for some people.
I think the PS3 is probably the best media player on balance out there right now, for the price anyway. (a Dell Zino HD would beat it, but it's expensive)
I'm in the UK too and the PS3's current line-up of iPlayer , LoveFilm streaming, MUBI streaming, PSN Video Store, Blu-Ray, DVD, and DNLA streaming is better than the competition and all accessible through a nice, clean, 1080p interface on a Bluetooth remote.
Admittedly the streaming services are weak at present. iPlayer is just a sub-SD flash video web based front end, MUBI has virtually no content, and LoveFilm is basically VHS quality... but maybe they'll improve someday. Blu-Ray however is a joy, the PS3's DVD upscaling is superb for those that need it, and it will happily stream H.264, MPEG 2, and WMV video over DNLA, including raw DVD VOB files. I hear other UK streaming services are coming (4 On Demand etc), and for US owners obviously they get nice HD streaming from NetFlix and Hulu. Netflix is even streaming 1080p now, a la Microsoft on the X360, which is something the Apple TV will never be able to do.
My music is in iTunes but I can easily get to it from the PS3 by setting up a DNLA server (I use TwonkyMedia) and pointing it to my iTunes library. Works fine and iTunes doesn't know a thing. As for DRM video, well the easy solution to that problem is don't buy anything with DRM on it. DRM is a disease and I avoid it at all costs when I'm paying for downloaded content.
....that Windows 7 Does NOT support Blu-Ray movie playback without additional software. Remember the days of XP when you had to download additional Codecs for DVD playback....same thing goes for Blu-Ray, the only thing Windows 7 supports out of the box is reading files off of the disk. The codecs require regular renewal as well.
While most points made here for and against Blu-Ray make a lot of sense, I think the main issue for this thread is Blu-Ray on a laptop, because that is the context of the ad. I'm not aware of any laptop under 17" that has a resolution 1920x1080 or higher. Anything less makes Blu-Ray overkill on a laptop—and the Windows 7 ad is specifically talking about Blu-Ray on a laptop. If you watch a Blu-Ray movie on a laptop with less than 1080p capable resolution, you're just wasting battery juice, and Apple's 720p HD downloads don't look so bad.
Now, if the ad featured an anthropomorphic iMac chillin' with a Windows 7 desktop and talking about the iMac's lack of Blu-Ray, that would be a valid argument, and something worthy of a discussion on the merits of Blu-Ray vs. not Blu-Ray.
lol maybe you should open your eyes past the stupid ass apple.com domain, sony even has a 13" 1080p laptop as well has TONS and TONS of 15.6", there have been dell 1920x1200 15" laptops for the last 4 years, my gaming laptop has a 1080p 15.6" screen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevfonz
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.
are you freaking retarded? you realize itunes is a windows application too right? Pc ultraportables last LONGER than the macbookair at 8-12 hours, they can all play 1080p content off their hard drives. get a freaking clue fanboy. at least pc users have the option of watching bluray and outputing that over HDMI without stupid adapters and crap, not all macbooks can do 8ch audio over display port.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roehlstation
....that Windows 7 Does NOT support Blu-Ray movie playback without additional software. Remember the days of XP when you had to download additional Codecs for DVD playback....same thing goes for Blu-Ray, the only thing Windows 7 supports out of the box is reading files off of the disk. The codecs require regular renewal as well.
the OS supports it, every laptop i know of that has a BDROM drive comes with software for free, for example, you can download a BD player from sony, if you own a sony laptop, its on the same page as you would download drivers. OSX doesnt even support BD and the hardware costs MORE.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iLoveStuff
What's BluRay?
Is it like the HD movies I stream over the web on my AppleTV for $4.99, watch once and then forget.
Or is it like the stack of CDs I have in my closet that I don't have time to give to Goodwill?
The is disc is dead.
sorry but your piece of crap 4mbit/s 720p isnt nearly 45mbit/s 1080p quality.
and WTF are you trying to prove anyways? are you saying PC's cant watch downloaded content? what have i been doing for the last 9 years then i wonder... (actaully i think i started downloading stuff in 1998, Aqua - Barbie.mp3 being the first one haha
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidcarswell
If you believe everything experts believe you have some serious problems. I can tell the difference on a 32" monitor.
if people cant tell the diffrence between 720p and 1080p on a 15.6" screen, then you sure as hell cant tell the difference between the iphone 3gs screen and the iphone 4 screen.... according to that logic.
to make it easier to understand, thats 1280x720 resolution vs 1920x1080 on a 15" screen, 1 looks like absolute shit, and 1 looks beautiful.
HPs laptops which can handle 1080 video have even shorter battery life.
Looks like if you want to watch Avatar on a plane at full resolution the only way to do it is rip the movie and watch it on a 17 MBP ( the only apple laptop which has the screen resolution to handle it)
what kind of ridiculous post is this? pull your head out of your ass.
10" netbooks can play 1080p content starting with the Asus 1005PR for $399 (almost all newer netbooks can handle 1080p even without a 1080p scren, they just output it over HDMI)
sony has a 13" laptop with a 1080p screen (this bad boy even has an i7")
lots of 15" laptops all have 1080p
FFS even this Ortustech company made an 4.8" 1080p screen
oh look at that! its only $699, you cant even buy a piece of crap apple laptop for that price. and even if you could, it would be a 2 year old refurbed macbook with no features, not even an sd card reader.
There complaint isn?t that Blu-ray doesn?t work great on Macs, but that 1) Apple doesn?t offer it, and 2) You can?t watch a protected Blu-ray movie on a Mac due to AACS. I?ve been told that AACS can be used in an app, not in the OS itself and it will play fine, but there are no such apps for Macs that I?m aware of.
As for your setup, M2TS is an MPEG2 video codec for HD.Technically all codecs work fine for Blu-ray as it?s just an optical storage medium, but M2TS, H.264 and VC-1 are the most common for video playback on standalone players because they are limited to the codecs they understand.
I wish more people would focus on finding solutions, like you did, instead of focusing on finding problems that everyone else should resolve.
Will the Mac?s DVD player playback M2TS files or do you need a separate app for your Mac?
You make a good point, solipsism, about that Apple doesn't offer it. Yes, I haven't found an app that will play the encrypted Blu-ray directly for the Mac. And Apple doesn't offer a Blu-ray burner in their Macs, I wish it were an option especially for laptops, but I can alway just copy it first (to the HD) then play later.
To answer your question, Apple's Mac "DVD player" will only playback DVDs or a DVD source folder (something with a VIDEO_TS folder) that contain .vob files.
I use VLC to playback just about any video container and codec there is. It finally hit version 1.0.0 last year after 13 years of development and is still improving as a free, open-source app. It's at version 1.1.5 as of yesterday (11/13/2010). VLC plays the M2TS files as well as the TS and M2T files (they're all the same MPEG 2 codec, usually).
It is interesting that when I play the m2ts file from the Blu-ray disc, nothing happens, the message window says garbage. But the exact same copied files on my hard drive (up to 44 GB I've seen) are the exact same size to the byte (the same 11 digits, Avatar is 44,897,476,608 bytes) and play perfectly. I don't understand the way files are encrypted, but the decrypted file is exactly the same size. There are a number of apps for the Mac and Windows to copy the Blu-ray to the hard drive decrypted, then I turn it into an MKV file with "MakeMKV". From there I can do anything with it. The MKV keeps all the languages and subtitles (which I like).
VLC will play the m2ts files from the Blu-ray disc after decryption (copied to the HD) but many Blu-ray discs will split the files to many segments, "MakeMKV" is an app that will combine all the files to a complete Title. Avatar is still the only movie that VLC couldn't play directly, and apparently lots of regular Blu-ray Players couldn't play it either!
I also noticed that all Blu-ray Discs have ".m2ts" container files, but the video codec may be MPEG-2 TS, H.264, or VC-1. Avatar has a 44,897,476,608 byte M2TS file that is actually H.264 video for it's whole main title.
I use "Handbrake" to re-encode the MKV (or .m2ts) file to a MP4 (still H.264) for Quicktime or the iPhone. I've noticed that when I encode Avatar from 44.9 GB to 8.5 GB file (fits on DVD-DL), I can't tell any difference in video quality. I would have to freeze frame on some high action scene to see it, but haven't found it yet!
Again, you're right, Apple doesn't offer Blu-ray, and I can't play a BD directly. It takes me usually less than a half hour to copy a Blu-ray disc first. I would like to see an app for Mac OS X to do it. My 27" iMac and it's attached 1080p display both support HDCP anyway, not that it's ever used after I copy the disc for my own legal playback.
It isnt emotional it is logical. Windows and mac have all the same streaming and download options, the case for bluray is that a person with a big screen tv and/or home theater may prefer bluray over the 720P itunes only hd download. not to mention the deleted scenes and special features like french or spanish dub on the same disk.
Now, I am going on a business trip and want to watch lets say the new star trek; do I rebuy it? or just grab the bluray and toss it in the bag? I guess that question depends on weather you are a mac or PC.
your also forgetting, people's flights get delayed all the time, if your stuck for 8 hours, and you didnt plan on being stuck, you can just buy a bluray and watch it.
you apple fanboys really think you can download 4GB over airport wireless? or stream an HD movie on public internet? lol get real, most places cap your speeds so you cant even watch a low bitrate youtube video
Comments
If you believe everything experts believe
"Nope"
To compare Apple with Dell computers is beyond silly.
And you guys know it.
I wasn't comparing. There is no comparison. Apples and oranges.
I was linking to Dell computers that offer a Blu-Ray option. No MacBook offers a Blu-Ray option. There is no comparison.
That's kind of the irony, isn't it? Microsoft's ad touts something that they don't even believe in. Microsoft believes in the "cloud" as the future of media distribution as much as Apple, Netflix, and Amazon Unbox, and Google does. They supported HD-DVD against Blu-Ray, and when HD-DVD died, they put their effort behind Xbox Live and Silverlight for HD content instead of Blu-Ray. And yet we still get this insipid Blu-Ray ad.
P.S. I'm not against Blu-Ray. I own many and I think highly of the format and the high quality it delivers. I think Microsoft should stay on message instead of stabbing Blu-Ray in the back and then wrapping its arm around Blu-Ray and saying, "meet my buddy Blu-Ray. Windows 7 does Blu-Ray."
There seems to be some psychological effect of wanting an option even though you?ll never use it. The same happened with AIO desktops and notebooks, which are portable forms of AIO computers.
The ?old school? users complained that you can your options for upgrading your machines are limited and they claimed these would never catch on, but they did as they offer a convenience that matters to people. I?d bet most of these people eventually bought notebooks, too, even though they couldn?t replace or upgrade all the HW themselves.
This seems to be the same psychology. I doubt any of the people on this forum clamoring for a $500+ Blu-ray drive would ever buy on from Apple, but they want the option anyway. What makes it worse is the lack of these posters requesting support for Macs in the software or from 3rd-party HW vendors. Why it has to be Apple and as a factory option is what make me scratch my head.
But it?s ultimately a moot point, because we all know that Apple will be pulling the optical drive before too long. But who knows, once that happens Apple might be a strategic position to offer an external Blu-ray player that could be 12.7mm instead of 9.5mm, thus reducing the cost by hundreds and not interfering with their digital download service? though I doubt it.
I have Blu-ray on my iMac and MacBook Pro. I just bought a $109 Blu-ray Burner, and a $11 SATA to USB adapter. (I got a Blu-ray reader for $75 at a local store too).
Apparently Mac OS X does know what a BD Disc is. Blank ones look like CDs or DVDs, it just says "BD" on the disc icon.
I've also made a blu-ray disc with a great football game I recorded with a DVR. I cut out the commercials and the m2ts file is one of the formats allowed on a blu-ray disc (along with H.264 and VC-1). I didn't even have to re-encode, the 2 hour 39 minute (without commercials) game was burned in 34 minutes.
I have also encoded several Blu-ray discs to .mp4 and .m4v files. (I own all the Blu-ray Discs, so nothing illegal). I can play them fine on the Mac and the iPhone 4 (re-encoded to 720p). I play the movies on my small 21.5" 1080p display attached to my 27" iMac while I'm working sometimes.
Isn't it rare for a PC to have Blu-ray capability anyway? Only the most expensive PCs have it?
There complaint isn?t that Blu-ray doesn?t work great on Macs, but that 1) Apple doesn?t offer it, and 2) You can?t watch a protected Blu-ray movie on a Mac due to AACS. I?ve been told that AACS can be used in an app, not in the OS itself and it will play fine, but there are no such apps for Macs that I?m aware of.
As for your setup, M2TS is an MPEG2 video codec for HD.Technically all codecs work fine for Blu-ray as it?s just an optical storage medium, but M2TS, H.264 and VC-1 are the most common for video playback on standalone players because they are limited to the codecs they understand.
I wish more people would focus on finding solutions, like you did, instead of focusing on finding problems that everyone else should resolve.
Will the Mac?s DVD player playback M2TS files or do you need a separate app for your Mac?
This is why.
Lol+1
I often have to weigh up whether to buy a film or TV show on Blu-Ray or via the iTunes store. More and more I find myself choosing Blu-Ray. The superior video/audio quality is certainly a factor but the main reason I choose Blu-Ray is often price.
For example, I recently wanted to buy Battlestar Galactica in HD. Bizarrely, you can't buy the whole series or even some of the seasons whole on the UK iTunes store. You have to purchase each episode individually for seasons 2 & 4, therefore costing £50 a season! Buying the whole series on iTunes costs around £170. When I can get it on Blu-Ray for £85, it's a no-brainer.
I'd love to buy a Mac mini with a Blu-Ray player. Of course, the best of both worlds is Blu-Rays that come with a digital copy. I wish that this was a standard feature on all Blu-Rays.
I've got a Blu-Ray playing PS3, but I've also got an Apple TV, iPhone and other Apple products.
I'd love to buy a Mac mini with a Blu-Ray player.
I don?t get this. You already have a PS3 that is designed with Blu-ray playback for a home theater so why would you want to pay at least 50% than an entire PS3 just for a drive for a device that isn?t designed for a home theater?
I don?t get this. You already have a PS3 that is designed with Blu-ray playback for a home theater so why would you want to pay at least 50% than an entire PS3 just for a drive for a device that isn?t designed for a home theater?
Because I have a wife who hates all of the wires and remotes in our main living room. If I could replace everything with one box that does everything then I would be able to live a quieter life.
Because I have a wife who hates all of the wires and remotes in our main living room. If I could replace everything with one box that does everything then I would be able to live a quieter life.
So the wires are an issue, but a clumsy interface isn?t? Mac OS X isn?t designed for a Home Theater, the PS3 is.
Front Row didn?t get anything but a simple bug fix over Leopard for SL. It was a test for AppleTV, IMO. Even if you do use it, it?s still clumsy for accessing the Mac as a ?personal computer? connected to your TV.
If you want to connect a single device to your HDTV the PS3 is pretty good at this, but there are plenty of other options that allow for better control via remote and/or a 10-Foot UI. On top of that, they all cost less than the cost of a 9.5mm Ultra-Slim Slot-Loading Blu-ray option for the Mac Mini would cost.
I just don?t see any argument that makes a Mac Mini with Blu-ray the best option, expect for those that simply have to have Apple products in every part of their life? and I don?t see that as a good argument. I mostly have Apple products, but only because they fit my usage needs best.
There are many HTPC UIs are that great and they support Blu-ray playback, and will cost you less than what you can get for selling your Mac Mini and PS3. You?ll be able to by a whole lot of Blu-ray discs with the money you save -and- reduce wire clutter.
So the wires are an issue, but a clumsy interface isn’t? Mac OS X isn’t designed for a Home Theater, the PS3 is.
The PS3 is unbeatable for the price, there's no doubts about that.
However, as a closed box, it has its limitations. If your media collection is in Windows Media player then a PS3 is great. If your media collection is in iTunes then you're in for a world of pain. It's possible to stream music through some rather backward methods but obviously any video with DRM is impossible to stream. The overall PS3 media experience for an iTunes user is far worse than Front Row.
Then you've got to consider all of the Internet-based streaming services. The PS3 supports BBC iPlayer but there's no support for services such as Spotify. Even BBC iPlayer requires the user to navigate webpages with a controller and that's a very awkward experience.
Would a Windows or Linux-based HTPC be better? Well, if you want something that's quiet, small and not based on an Atom CPU, then it certainly won't be any cheaper.
Between an Apple wireless keyboard and the new trackpad, controlling a Mac mini from the sofa isn't in any way clumsy. It's not the best solution for everyone, but it is for some people.
The PS3 is unbeatable for the price, there's no doubts about that.
However, as a closed box, it has its limitations. If your media collection is in Windows Media player then a PS3 is great. If your media collection is in iTunes then you're in for a world of pain. It's possible to stream music through some rather backward methods but obviously any video with DRM is impossible to stream. The overall PS3 media experience for an iTunes user is far worse than Front Row.
Then you've got to consider all of the Internet-based streaming services. The PS3 supports BBC iPlayer but there's no support for services such as Spotify. Even BBC iPlayer requires the user to navigate webpages with a controller and that's a very awkward experience.
Between an Apple wireless keyboard and the new trackpad, controlling a Mac mini from the sofa isn't in any way clumsy. It's not the best solution for everyone, but it is for some people.
I think we can both agree no one has done it right yet. I thought Google had a great plan to interact with your normal viewing without actually stepping on the toes of the networks, but the networks (at least in the US) disagree.
I think we can both agree no one has done it right yet. I thought Google had a great plan to interact with your normal viewing without actually stepping on the toes of the networks, but the networks (at least in the US) disagree.
Agreed. I'm not sure if anyone will ever come up with a decent solution. There's just too many players who want to control the experience.
This is why.
Best post in weeks!
.
Wasn't the Avatar issue due to the fact that some of the CEs didn't implement the new BD+ version when it was introduced? Sure you can scream about how bad DRM is until you are blue in the face, but the same situation would hit Apple in any area if they didn't implement something in time. Java on OSX is an example, Apple said they were implementing Java behind the offical releases causing incompatibilies.
Batman Begins has similar problems even with players that have the latest firmware updates
The thing is Blu-ray is still relatively new and it took a while for DVD to get all the bizarre bugs worked out. Also as far as Java is concerned Apple basically said "Ok Oracle we are going to stop making our own version Java; let's see how well you do."
The PS3 is unbeatable for the price, there's no doubts about that.
However, as a closed box, it has its limitations. If your media collection is in Windows Media player then a PS3 is great. If your media collection is in iTunes then you're in for a world of pain. It's possible to stream music through some rather backward methods but obviously any video with DRM is impossible to stream. The overall PS3 media experience for an iTunes user is far worse than Front Row.
Then you've got to consider all of the Internet-based streaming services. The PS3 supports BBC iPlayer but there's no support for services such as Spotify. Even BBC iPlayer requires the user to navigate webpages with a controller and that's a very awkward experience.
Would a Windows or Linux-based HTPC be better? Well, if you want something that's quiet, small and not based on an Atom CPU, then it certainly won't be any cheaper.
Between an Apple wireless keyboard and the new trackpad, controlling a Mac mini from the sofa isn't in any way clumsy. It's not the best solution for everyone, but it is for some people.
I think the PS3 is probably the best media player on balance out there right now, for the price anyway. (a Dell Zino HD would beat it, but it's expensive)
I'm in the UK too and the PS3's current line-up of iPlayer , LoveFilm streaming, MUBI streaming, PSN Video Store, Blu-Ray, DVD, and DNLA streaming is better than the competition and all accessible through a nice, clean, 1080p interface on a Bluetooth remote.
Admittedly the streaming services are weak at present. iPlayer is just a sub-SD flash video web based front end, MUBI has virtually no content, and LoveFilm is basically VHS quality... but maybe they'll improve someday. Blu-Ray however is a joy, the PS3's DVD upscaling is superb for those that need it, and it will happily stream H.264, MPEG 2, and WMV video over DNLA, including raw DVD VOB files. I hear other UK streaming services are coming (4 On Demand etc), and for US owners obviously they get nice HD streaming from NetFlix and Hulu. Netflix is even streaming 1080p now, a la Microsoft on the X360, which is something the Apple TV will never be able to do.
My music is in iTunes but I can easily get to it from the PS3 by setting up a DNLA server (I use TwonkyMedia) and pointing it to my iTunes library. Works fine and iTunes doesn't know a thing. As for DRM video, well the easy solution to that problem is don't buy anything with DRM on it. DRM is a disease and I avoid it at all costs when I'm paying for downloaded content.
While most points made here for and against Blu-Ray make a lot of sense, I think the main issue for this thread is Blu-Ray on a laptop, because that is the context of the ad. I'm not aware of any laptop under 17" that has a resolution 1920x1080 or higher. Anything less makes Blu-Ray overkill on a laptop—and the Windows 7 ad is specifically talking about Blu-Ray on a laptop. If you watch a Blu-Ray movie on a laptop with less than 1080p capable resolution, you're just wasting battery juice, and Apple's 720p HD downloads don't look so bad.
Now, if the ad featured an anthropomorphic iMac chillin' with a Windows 7 desktop and talking about the iMac's lack of Blu-Ray, that would be a valid argument, and something worthy of a discussion on the merits of Blu-Ray vs. not Blu-Ray.
lol maybe you should open your eyes past the stupid ass apple.com domain, sony even has a 13" 1080p laptop as well has TONS and TONS of 15.6", there have been dell 1920x1200 15" laptops for the last 4 years, my gaming laptop has a 1080p 15.6" screen.
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.
are you freaking retarded? you realize itunes is a windows application too right? Pc ultraportables last LONGER than the macbookair at 8-12 hours, they can all play 1080p content off their hard drives. get a freaking clue fanboy. at least pc users have the option of watching bluray and outputing that over HDMI without stupid adapters and crap, not all macbooks can do 8ch audio over display port.
....that Windows 7 Does NOT support Blu-Ray movie playback without additional software. Remember the days of XP when you had to download additional Codecs for DVD playback....same thing goes for Blu-Ray, the only thing Windows 7 supports out of the box is reading files off of the disk. The codecs require regular renewal as well.
the OS supports it, every laptop i know of that has a BDROM drive comes with software for free, for example, you can download a BD player from sony, if you own a sony laptop, its on the same page as you would download drivers. OSX doesnt even support BD and the hardware costs MORE.
What's BluRay?
Is it like the HD movies I stream over the web on my AppleTV for $4.99, watch once and then forget.
Or is it like the stack of CDs I have in my closet that I don't have time to give to Goodwill?
The is disc is dead.
sorry but your piece of crap 4mbit/s 720p isnt nearly 45mbit/s 1080p quality.
and WTF are you trying to prove anyways? are you saying PC's cant watch downloaded content? what have i been doing for the last 9 years then i wonder... (actaully i think i started downloading stuff in 1998, Aqua - Barbie.mp3 being the first one haha
If you believe everything experts believe you have some serious problems. I can tell the difference on a 32" monitor.
if people cant tell the diffrence between 720p and 1080p on a 15.6" screen, then you sure as hell cant tell the difference between the iphone 3gs screen and the iphone 4 screen.... according to that logic.
to make it easier to understand, thats 1280x720 resolution vs 1920x1080 on a 15" screen, 1 looks like absolute shit, and 1 looks beautiful.
HPs laptops which can handle 1080 video have even shorter battery life.
Looks like if you want to watch Avatar on a plane at full resolution the only way to do it is rip the movie and watch it on a 17 MBP ( the only apple laptop which has the screen resolution to handle it)
what kind of ridiculous post is this? pull your head out of your ass.
10" netbooks can play 1080p content starting with the Asus 1005PR for $399 (almost all newer netbooks can handle 1080p even without a 1080p scren, they just output it over HDMI)
sony has a 13" laptop with a 1080p screen (this bad boy even has an i7")
lots of 15" laptops all have 1080p
FFS even this Ortustech company made an 4.8" 1080p screen
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/25/ortus...npage_engadget
here is a dell lasting 5 hours on a small battery, it can obviously play the entire bluray
http://www.dell.com/us/p/studio-1558/pd
oh look at that! its only $699, you cant even buy a piece of crap apple laptop for that price. and even if you could, it would be a 2 year old refurbed macbook with no features, not even an sd card reader.
There complaint isn?t that Blu-ray doesn?t work great on Macs, but that 1) Apple doesn?t offer it, and 2) You can?t watch a protected Blu-ray movie on a Mac due to AACS. I?ve been told that AACS can be used in an app, not in the OS itself and it will play fine, but there are no such apps for Macs that I?m aware of.
As for your setup, M2TS is an MPEG2 video codec for HD.Technically all codecs work fine for Blu-ray as it?s just an optical storage medium, but M2TS, H.264 and VC-1 are the most common for video playback on standalone players because they are limited to the codecs they understand.
I wish more people would focus on finding solutions, like you did, instead of focusing on finding problems that everyone else should resolve.
Will the Mac?s DVD player playback M2TS files or do you need a separate app for your Mac?
You make a good point, solipsism, about that Apple doesn't offer it. Yes, I haven't found an app that will play the encrypted Blu-ray directly for the Mac. And Apple doesn't offer a Blu-ray burner in their Macs, I wish it were an option especially for laptops, but I can alway just copy it first (to the HD) then play later.
To answer your question, Apple's Mac "DVD player" will only playback DVDs or a DVD source folder (something with a VIDEO_TS folder) that contain .vob files.
I use VLC to playback just about any video container and codec there is. It finally hit version 1.0.0 last year after 13 years of development and is still improving as a free, open-source app. It's at version 1.1.5 as of yesterday (11/13/2010). VLC plays the M2TS files as well as the TS and M2T files (they're all the same MPEG 2 codec, usually).
It is interesting that when I play the m2ts file from the Blu-ray disc, nothing happens, the message window says garbage. But the exact same copied files on my hard drive (up to 44 GB I've seen) are the exact same size to the byte (the same 11 digits, Avatar is 44,897,476,608 bytes) and play perfectly. I don't understand the way files are encrypted, but the decrypted file is exactly the same size. There are a number of apps for the Mac and Windows to copy the Blu-ray to the hard drive decrypted, then I turn it into an MKV file with "MakeMKV". From there I can do anything with it. The MKV keeps all the languages and subtitles (which I like).
VLC will play the m2ts files from the Blu-ray disc after decryption (copied to the HD) but many Blu-ray discs will split the files to many segments, "MakeMKV" is an app that will combine all the files to a complete Title. Avatar is still the only movie that VLC couldn't play directly, and apparently lots of regular Blu-ray Players couldn't play it either!
I also noticed that all Blu-ray Discs have ".m2ts" container files, but the video codec may be MPEG-2 TS, H.264, or VC-1. Avatar has a 44,897,476,608 byte M2TS file that is actually H.264 video for it's whole main title.
I use "Handbrake" to re-encode the MKV (or .m2ts) file to a MP4 (still H.264) for Quicktime or the iPhone. I've noticed that when I encode Avatar from 44.9 GB to 8.5 GB file (fits on DVD-DL), I can't tell any difference in video quality. I would have to freeze frame on some high action scene to see it, but haven't found it yet!
Again, you're right, Apple doesn't offer Blu-ray, and I can't play a BD directly. It takes me usually less than a half hour to copy a Blu-ray disc first. I would like to see an app for Mac OS X to do it. My 27" iMac and it's attached 1080p display both support HDCP anyway, not that it's ever used after I copy the disc for my own legal playback.
It isnt emotional it is logical. Windows and mac have all the same streaming and download options, the case for bluray is that a person with a big screen tv and/or home theater may prefer bluray over the 720P itunes only hd download. not to mention the deleted scenes and special features like french or spanish dub on the same disk.
Now, I am going on a business trip and want to watch lets say the new star trek; do I rebuy it? or just grab the bluray and toss it in the bag? I guess that question depends on weather you are a mac or PC.
your also forgetting, people's flights get delayed all the time, if your stuck for 8 hours, and you didnt plan on being stuck, you can just buy a bluray and watch it.
you apple fanboys really think you can download 4GB over airport wireless? or stream an HD movie on public internet? lol get real, most places cap your speeds so you cant even watch a low bitrate youtube video