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Blu-ray and Apple (1 Viewer)

Carlo_M

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Pardon me as I'm not 100% up to speed on what is/isn't supported by Apple. Let me try to get clarification:
1. External BD drives via Toast (or other 3rd party software) are supported, right?
2. Are there any internal third party BD drive options?
3. If #1 and #2 have Yes answers, then the only thing not truly supported is DRM playback?
4. If #3 is yes, then presumably at some point should Apple OS support DRM playback, any external or internal third party BD solution should work at playing DRM BD?
Thanks in advance for any help.
 

ArchMike

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Right. At this point, there is no third party software option, or data path to support playback of Bluray. I think there are some technical issues around that stop it from happening.



Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
Pardon me as I'm not 100% up to speed on what is/isn't supported by Apple. Let me try to get clarification:
1. External BD drives via Toast (or other 3rd party software) are supported, right?
2. Are there any internal third party BD drive options?
3. If #1 and #2 have Yes answers, then the only thing not truly supported is DRM playback?
4. If #3 is yes, then presumably at some point should Apple OS support DRM playback, any external or internal third party BD solution should work at playing DRM BD?
Thanks in advance for any help.
 

Sam Posten

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Originally Posted by Ted Todorov
If you have a MacPro you can install a Blu-ray drive already (or use an external one with any Mac) and use Toast, etc. to burn. If FCP will export the BD project for you, even if it won't burn it directly, you should be able to do so via Toast. It sounds to me like you are waiting for Apple's imprimatur rather than any practical feature.
Right, BTO is what I'm hoping for. Something to show they are not completely clueless on the pro needs. I can put a bare drive into any machine I want but that's besides the point.

Oh except there aren't a whole lot of slimline bare drives that can easily be put into a portable are there? And doing so voids my warrantee. So....
 

Ted Todorov

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
Pardon me as I'm not 100% up to speed on what is/isn't supported by Apple. Let me try to get clarification:
1. External BD drives via Toast (or other 3rd party software) are supported, right?
2. Are there any internal third party BD drive options?
3. If #1 and #2 have Yes answers, then the only thing not truly supported is DRM playback?
4. If #3 is yes, then presumably at some point should Apple OS support DRM playback, any external or internal third party BD solution should work at playing DRM BD?
Thanks in advance for any help.
1) Yes -- Edit: Actually OWC (see link below) claims you can burn BDs directly from the Finder, even without Toast.

2) Yes -- there are several choices at Other World Computing see: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/blu-ray

3) Not supported by Apple, however 100% working right now via (free) third party software this forum frowns upon discussing, but feel free to PM.

4) I have serious doubt Mac OS X will ever officially support Blu-ray, at least not while Steve Jobs is Apple CEO. However -- see #3 above. Apple seems to be moving away from HT-Mac support (killed Front Row in Lion), so you'd need to use third party software no matter what, so official Apple support is fairly academic.
 

Ken Chan

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Burning from the Finder might be treating it simply as a high-capacity storage disc, as opposed to Blu-ray authoring of video content.
 

Ted Todorov

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Chan
Burning from the Finder might be treating it simply as a high-capacity storage disc, as opposed to Blu-ray authoring of video content.
That's for sure -- it's not like you can burn a DVD player playable DVD using the finder either, right?
 

Ken Chan

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Just to be clear, Toast claims it can author Blu-ray. Mentioning Toast and Finder in the same sentence that way, people might get the impression they are equivalent in functionality, when they are not.
 

loupurdie

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Will Apple support Blu-ray or will I have to get a PC to get Blu-ray?

I want to play Blu-ray movies on Macs, but it seems Apple only supports HD through iTunes Store.

_________

DIY
 

mattCR

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And they send that not-so-silent message sent to Application Vendors: either go through the App Store, or you won't find a home on Mac. Thank you for your 30%
 

DaveF

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Originally Posted by mattCR
And they send that not-so-silent message sent to Application Vendors: either go through the App Store, or you won't find a home on Mac. Thank you for your 30%

Mac users are still welcome to buy software outside the App Store, be it Amazon, BestBuy, or indie-dev's website. As must still be done for Office, Adobe CS5, SuperDuper!, and other crucial software.

The future might be, might hoped to be, App Store. But for the present, I think handwringing is pre-mature.
 

mattCR

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I think the difference is perspective.

I admit, I live in Kansas.
I have a HUGE number of people who cannot get an internet connection faster then 384k.
The concept of telling them to download something like CS5 is laughable. More then that, they have a hard cap in their areas (for example, I can think of a county seat where you can get 512k, but you are capped at 2Gb download monthly for $80/mo) So the concept of telling them to start downloading huge volumes is.. laughable.

I'd love to say that's the exception, and of course that's a community of about 8,000 people so tiny by comparison.. but let's just say there is a huge volume of that everywhere. The ability to go and get discs shipped to them has always been valuable. Yes, still external USB Optical and it's still cheaper then last year's model. But I don't think the optical drive is going away anytime soon.


Originally Posted by DaveF

Mac users are still welcome to buy software outside the App Store, be it Amazon, BestBuy, or indie-dev's website. As must still be done for Office, Adobe CS5, SuperDuper!, and other crucial software.

The future might be, might hoped to be, App Store. But for the present, I think handwringing is pre-mature.
 

DaveF

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No difference in perspective. I'm not saying, "Let the eat Downloads!" I'm saying, there are plenty of other shopping options. And in fact, CS5 isn't available for download through Apple, so that's a non-issue.

Lousy internet connection? Buy it from Amazon and have it two-day shipped (Quicken 2011 for me), or NewEgg (Windows 7). On dial-up and can't shop online? Go to your Target or BestBuy or Fry's. There are plenty of shopping options outside the Apple Store and App Store.

But these days, without internet, your computing experience is going to be severely limited. The best indie-dev software is online only: if you can't shop online, how do you buy SuperDuper?

And my bias is that we need vastly better internet access nation-wide. Because box stores are closing up, retail shopping options for software is decreasing -- Apple's action wouldn't bother anyone if BestBuy and CircuitCity and CompUSA and ComputerCity were in business with their vast software sections. If anything, Apple has been the unexpected Kansas-ian savior, with its Apple retail stores originally predicted to fail, and selling software far longer than most other computer stores. :)
 

mattCR

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Dave-
Your options are valid... to a point. The issue that Sam pointed out is that the new models are not shipping with an optical drive. So, feel free to order from Amazon or Newegg, get your discs and.. oh wait, you don't have a drive.
So, you're adding $79 to get a USB Optical drive (roughly)
That's what I'm saying, there is now a built in penalty for those who need optical access.

You're right about "missing internet"
I get it. Unfortunately for about 1/2 of the square mileage of the US, there is no service or service of 512k or less. High bandwidth tends to be concentrated around metros. Everywhere else? Crickets. Ten miles outside of Kansas City, to the north, you can't even get DSL.. it's dialup or 3G services only.. and there, you're capped as to how much you can download.
 

Sam Posten

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I'm sympathetic to those who have hard caps, that sucks.
But you have to remember that there is still going to be a large segment of apps that will NEVER get access to the App store because they need things like Admin privledges. There's some interesting new techniques in Lion and iOS5 (sandboxing etc) but it's going to be a hard sell to get a lot of these apps fully functional going down that route, perhaps never.
The GOOD NEWS is that stupid apps that require admin access (HELLO ADOBE!) that shouldnt ever have it, won't get it via the MAS route.
 

mattCR

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Yeah, actually, this started to make me think of Mac Data recovery software we use.. which requires to boot on CD..

I'm really not as opposed to this as it seems. It's been a standard practice in NetTops for a while, and netbooks, etc. The problem I run into is that if you're someone who's investing $600, then you're not really in the world of a nettop anymore. I can grab an internal laptop DVD for less then $20. An internal laptop Bluray for less then $70. So, for a company that is raking in the cash, whether "less and less" people use it, there are still quite a few who do. I don't bother with it not being in an Air.. that's the point.. but for a "fully functional desktop" .. quite a few people still want to burn CDs, make a movie to send to their friends and family (and not just YouTube or Facebook) and so on.. you'd think it'd be worth throwing it in.
 

DaveF

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Originally Posted by mattCR
Dave-
Your options are valid... to a point. The issue that Sam pointed out is that the new models are not shipping with an optical drive. So, feel free to order from Amazon or Newegg, get your discs and.. oh wait, you don't have a drive.
So, you're adding $79 to get a USB Optical drive (roughly)
That's what I'm saying, there is now a built in penalty for those who need optical access.

Ok. I see your point. It would be difficult to get along without an optical drive and "no" internet access. I don't see this Apple sticking it to vendors. There is no "App Store or no store" problem, since there are plenty of other distribution methods (including Adobe's app store). The practical problem is that Apple's notional customer, their target person they design their products for, is not a rural Kansan on dial-up. You can see the influence of implicitly assuming everyone lives in San Francisco or NYC.

I wouldn't call it a "built in penalty for those who need optical access". That suggests a specific negatism to me that I don't agree with. This is one more feature limitation / cost adder they've claimed for the sake of design ("Apple Tax"...mea culpa). People have long complained about the limited USB ports on Apple computers; the iMac only has four. I need six or seven. I wouldn't call this a ''built in penalty for those who need three or more USB ports'. It's a "feature" of Apple's design. Need more USB inputs, buy a hub. Need a disc drive on that mini, buy an external drive. Find the compromises Apple has put on their designs excessive, buy a Windows system.

That last part is something I'm routinely re-evaluating. Possibly no DVD drive in the next imac my wife gets? We need disc access; that would be a nuisance. Adobe seemingly prioritizing Windows or OS X? What does that mean for her professionally? What if the next OS is 10x larger, 40 GB, and download only? I don't have FIOS, so it would take days. Does this cumulatively push me away from the Mac?

(We're having ~20 years of photo negatives scanned in, and they're delivered on DVD. At 4-10 GB per set, this is downloadable, but it would be a big job. I consider a DVD drive necessary right now.)

Apple is making design decisions that seem unfavorable to those of us that like optical drives. It will be interesting, at least, to see how they pursue this across the whole product line in the next year or two.
 

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