Steve Jobs rubbished Blu-ray yesterday, calling format a “bag of hurt,” no doubt putting a tear in the eye of message boarders everywhere. (How much do you want to bet that he’ll call the next revision of the iMac “epic”?) But is that a big deal, that Apple, apparently, has no interest in incorporating Blu-ray into its computers, especially when plenty of other manufacturers have already done so?
First, look at Blu-ray—why would the average person want it in their computer? Outside of playing Hollywood movies—their [artistic] quality aside—there’s no reason for Blu-ray to even exist. You certainly don’t need a Blu-ray burner in the age of $150 1TB hard drives, right? And it’s not like the studios are releasing movies exclusively on Blu-ray; it’s still a luxury. Going further, the benefits of 1080p, FullHD yada yada on a 13- or 14-inch screen can be questioned. The rule of thumb is unless your display is 40 inches you’re not really going to “see” the benefits of 1080p. When I watch ill begotten 1080p rips of movies on my 20-inch iMac, then compare that to the 720p version I can’t tell the difference; watching that same 1080p movie on my now obsolete MacBook is like using a sledgehammer to hang up an eight-by-ten photo.
So if Apple doesn’t have to incorporate a Blu-ray drive, why should it?
Then when you figure in that Apple’s golden goose has been iTunes, why would it encourage its consumers to choose a different avenue of buying movies and TV shows? Why tell your customers, “Hey, we have this cool store where you can download Iron Man in a few minutes, in pretty decent quality, but why not go to Amazon or Wal-Mart and buy the Blu-ray version instead?”
That, I think, would be silly.
…and now watch Apple intro Blu-ray-plaing Mac Pros at MacWorld in January!
I don’t know a single person who owns anything Blue Ray. I think these HD disks have been met, mostly, with resistance.
A lot of people have invested a lot of money into DVD collections. I don’t think most people are ready to move on from DVD yet. It looks good and it’s cheap.
Between my roommates and I, I think we have acquired nearly a quarter to half of our DVD collection on blu-ray. Also, every new release we buy we get on blu-ray.
That’s nice.
You’re in the minority.
I think that when it comes to Mac computers you need to look at the crowd who buys them. I highly doubt that the average person buys a Macbook Pro for every day use. They likely use it to do video editing (which is why it’s ridiculous that they didn’t release a model with 1920×1200 resolution.) However with MacBooks it’s everyday people and college students snagging those up. Blu-Ray on a MacBook, non-essential. Blu-Ray on the MacBook Pro… completely 100% essential.
I think it is absolutely nuts that they are forgoing Blu-Ray until a later time. Video editors need to author on a format that is the “current” format, then they need to be able to reverse test it. Having to set up a process as to which you author on to blu-ray via mac (which is extremely expensive) or having to export to windows (screw ya Apple) where it is much cheaper then burn down then test via tv and other devices is just ridiculous. Being able to author, burn and test on the same device is the way to go.
I’ll write up another length piece about all of this on BFF soon, like I did with the iPods, but I’ve got a load of work that I’m already ignoring to write this comment. =P
Go crazy?
DON’T MIND IF I DO!!
Why would Apple put blu-ray on its computers when they’ve made it abundantly clear they think iTunes is the best media distribution model?
Blu-ray players would directly compete with HD iTunes downloads. That’s why, at best, blu-ray drives will be external *firewire* ad-ons so that only Pro users can get them.
that’s what I’m talking about dude, exactly.
This is typical childish behavior it seems. I can see the points people have made about iTunes, but as others have mentioned, they are ignoring authoring. Using the iLife suite I have created an entire video presentation on a recent trip to Japan. All my photos are well beyond 1080p and video is well beyond DVD at 480i… 480i folks, that is what TV was from the 50’s till today. I want, and many other professionals, to author HD quality optical formatted material. Apple is putting HD all over their marketing and inside iLife. But apparently we don’t need the inclusion of the ability to author our own HD discs?
Have you tried exporting HD movies using the H.264 codec? They look great if you let them compress long enough…
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blu-Ray writers and a 1080p screen in the 17″ MacBook Pro when it gets an update.
Steve craps on anything that his products don’t have. What else is he supposed to say, the truth?
Is Steve supposed to say “..Let’s face it, the Blue Ray is not in Mac’s beacause of pure dollars and cents. When we can find some lame OEM to sell him BR players for $0.01 then BR’s will be in Mac’s.. until then I got a car payment to make.”
It’s typical Apple and why anyone would subject themselves to this sort of thing is beyond me. Thank god Apple is not the only computer system in the world.
Steve Jobs is stuck, hell he can’t even wear a different outfit from show to show.
i just love how everyone makes the argument that you don’t need blu ray in a laptop.
on a laptop screen basically dvd (480p at best) is going to get scaled up, blu ray (1080p) is going to get scaled down. obviously blu ray is going to have less artifacts, yes even on a 13″ display. do most users care? i don’t know, how many people choose the 720p or 1080p options when watching trailers from quicktime.com? i know i for one always choose the 720p ones. and for that matter, if blu ray didnt belong on portables why do macbook users buy/rent 720p movies from the itunes store?
if any argument makes sense it’s the one regarding blu ray as unwanted competition for itunes, but Apple could AT LEAST include a blu ray drive upgrade option without giving us the playback capability in mac os (so we could author discs w/out buying an external drive and Toast). and to the people arguing for hard disks as a backup option: i have had 3 hard disk failures in the past year alone!
plus, if you are buying hd movies on itunes (which are nearly the cost of blu rays anyway and at a lower resolution) where are you gonna store all those large files you accumulate? if you have a crash is Apple going to let you re-download? No.
You need bluray in a laptop for the same reason you need a mac… saying bluray is unecesary and just a simple luxury.. give me a break, one could say the same thing about geting a mac computer. overpriced, unecesary and simply a luxury.
Also, bluray is coming to stay, its something you people need to deal with. I remember people saying the exact same thing when DVD was out, even as late as 1999 people were still not sold and then out of nowhere the matrix dvd came out and sold a million copies and made everyone said… Oh crap.. i guess it really arrived huh? the big difference then was that you actualy had to buy all your collection of VHS movies all over again or maybe keep your vhs pluged into your tv… I do not understand people who say ¨Screw bluray, I had already built a very big DVD collection, why should I buy it again??¨ No one is asking you to, bluray players PLAY DVDS AS WELL… just buy the movies you really want to see in HD in bluray and you can still see all your precious dvds in the same bluray player… and it will actualy look better on your hd tv.
Steve Jobs is trying to convince people that not having bluray on his machine is the smart thing to do and believe me it will be less than a year when apple computers are going to start coming out with blurays and what will he say then? Well sorry, bluray became the smart thing to do in a period of 6 months! too bad for all of you who BOUGHT MY BS before.. but hey, let me make it up for you by giving you the option of buying this new overpriced bluray notebook computer in 5 different uglyass colors!
Someone wake the FU up and smell the coffee, Apple has been doin this since day one. they release something, market it as the second coming and people who think owning apple stuff is cool, actualy go out and buy it. Then of course you realise it really is a cool item but its missing key features.. like floppy drives, blurays, hdmi ports, ability to transfer music with other programs. a frging second mouse button… anything…. but then steve jobs comes on tv and says Oh my diciples… you see.. all those things are not needed! mac is too advanced for such low tech… or if its something new like bluray.. he says, it isnt necesary, its just a hassle! and people buy that BS and still go out and buy it. the iphone when i came out couldnt even send SMS messages to more than one person at the same time and nobody questioned that because if apple did it, it must have been for a reason right? well eventualy with updates they changed that thank god.. but what about the million other things you CANT do with the iphone that you CAN do with other phones? like transfering stuff over blutooth, copy paste, transfer ringtones, whatever… yet nobody questions it because if apple made it that way then it must be for a reason. Just like nobody questions MAC OS. or Safari.. my god Safari is the worst friging browser in the internet, as simple as that, worst than opera, worst than firefox, worst than internet explorer, hell its even worst than internet explorer 6.0. yes its that bad, yet people who own macs go ¨Oh i use safari.. its so much better than that other PC browser¨ … what???? HOW? it sucks balls!!! and I am typing this on a god damned macbook pro, thats the worst part. I dont have a computer with me at the moment and my mom lent me her recently purchased macbook pro.. and the letter ¨T ¨in this keyboard seems to need a hammer for it to work properly.
I wish someday people woke up from the Apple curse and realise they are just computers, they may use a different OS but they are JUST computers and not even the best.
If you really love Mac OS laptops, get this one, I am sure you will love it but if you are changing to mac because you think this is the best computer out there as far as power goes? seriously.. o check out dell, alienware, asus, sager or many other custom brands that can build you a better 15 inch laptop with bluray and hdmi out ports and much more features. The alienware M15x has a better videocard, same processor, similar overall specs and bluray, more ports and a smartbay to swap hardsics or your bluray or whatever, withou thaving to open your computer.
Mauricio, time for some decaf… I didn’t think was a Mac vs. PC thread. If you really hate Macs this much, then go over to a PC board and rant there.
I’ve lived and worked in the MS/PC world since the 1980’s. I don’t mind it too bad and in fact still have an HP desktop at home and work with PC’s at work all day long. It is what it is.
But… When I simply want to surf the web, write a document, take a picture or make a spreadsheet – I just want it to work. I’m not a techie or geek, I’m just a user and I don’t have time to waste with ongoing virus, spyware, adware, malware, bugs, security patches and upgrades and all this other monkey shine that we’ve acquired a taste for.
I want my computer to simply work – like a toaster or a refrigerator. You plug it in, turn it on and it works – period. The Mac does that. No PC I’ve ever owned in my life has.
As for the “T” button, have you tried taking it to your friendly Apple Store to let them take care of that for you? It’s all good…
I use my macbook to watch DVD, Netflix downloads and iTunes video on my 46″ 1080p Samsung with hdmi connection. Having a blu ray player built into my macbook would make my macbook an all in one oiece of equipment.
After reading the comments, I think some are missing the point. Apple needs to make the MacBook Pro Blu Ray capable not because of the improved quality. As many have said, trying to discern the difference between HD and BR on a 13-17″ laptop screen in normal ambient lighting conditions is tenuous at best. They need to do BR in order to give their users the highest level of versatility. Macs are high-end items and people like myself buy them because they simply work. The idea of renting a disc at Blockbuster, slipping it in the machine and not being able to watch it is a little frustrating, especially after spending almost $3000 (with options) for what is considered by many to be the ultimate laptop.
Although the FastMac BR option is out there, the price is absurd, at $1000.
And contrary to what one person said; “No” – most MacBook users are not doing video editing. I am simply a standard user and bought mine because I loathe MS and wanted the best. Kinda like saying most Ferrari owners are race car drivers.
So for now, I’m content with the more common HD format but expect BR to take over the market. When that happens, it will probably be time for a new notebook anyway… For those who really, really want BR, FastMac is out there, ready to install.