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October 23, 2009 1:10 PM PDT

Getting Blu-ray on a new 27-inch iMac

by Joseph Kaminski
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(Credit: Matthew Fitzgerald)

Apple's new iMac all-in-one desktops impressed us, especially the massive 27-inch model we reviewed this week. But we're left wondering what happened to the rumored Blu-ray drive option. Playing HD optical disc content on that big 2,560x1,440 screen seems like a no-brainer, so we set out to see if we could successfully hook up an external Blu-ray drive.

First we connected a USB-powered external BD-ROM drive from HP to the new 27-inch iMac. The iMac's OSX 10.61 operating system allowed us to explore the file structure of the Blu-ray disc, but there's no official Blu-ray software available for Mac, so we were unable to actually play it.

Our next step was to create a Boot Camp partition so we could install Windows, an operating system compatible with most Blu-ray playback software. In this case we installed Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit, along with Cyberlink Power DVD9. After creating the partition and installing Windows, we ran the boot camp software on the Mac OS X Install DVD, another necessary step that allows Windows to identify our hardware.

Finally we loaded in a Blu-ray disc into the slot-loading external drive. Through Cyberlink, it played back well, at least at first glance. The picture looked as crisp as we' d expect from a BD disc, and definitely seemed much sharper than a DVD. To delve a little deeper we also checked out some specific video quality tests along with CNET HDTV reviewer David Katzmaier.

First we checked a helicopter flyover of the Intrepid from "I Am Legend" and it was clear the setup couldn't properly handle the 1080p/24 content--we saw the halting, stuttering motion in the conning tower and the wings of the airplane, for example.

The next thing we looked at was picture quality using the test patterns on the FPD Benchmark Software for Professional Blu-ray disc. Overall it was good; during the motion blur test it performed poorly, with the onscreen test patterns (letters, numbers, etc,) hard to make out. But this problem can be caused by a number of sources--Windows Vista running on Mac hardware, the USB Blu-ray drive, the Cyberlink Power DVD9 software or all the above. Suffice it to say that average users probably wouldn't notice these issues if they weren't looking for them.

In the end, Blu-ray is still a distant dream for iMac owners, but if you absolutely, completely need to have this feature, it is technically possible--even if the results aren't perfect.

Note: If you're wondering about the Apple Magic Mouse in the photo above--we did get it to work in Vista--but just the basic, not the "magic" finger gestures.

Read the 27-inch Apple iMac review.

Read the Apple Magic Mouse review.

More on motion resolution on HDTVs

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) Showing 1 of 3 pages (96 Comments)
by pauldb October 23, 2009 2:23 PM PDT
One of the many reasons not to bother with BR. It is a total waste on anything less than 40" and even then only barely noticable when compared side by side comparisions. Standard DVD looks fantastic on this screen.
Reply to this comment
by ark_v2 October 23, 2009 9:24 PM PDT
What are you talking about?
DVD's look great but even 720p looks way better. That screen is wasted; even with the video input which isn't HDMI.
by yue56 October 24, 2009 3:36 AM PDT
thats only true if youre using it in a living room while sitting a few feet away. since this is still a desktop, most people will sit under a foot away from the screen...and HD is very noticeable from that distance
by thydavidcome October 24, 2009 4:35 AM PDT
Your ignorance is showing. When you sit a foot or 2 away, even on a 24 inch screen its VERY, VERY noticeable when the resolution is lower then the native res
by pauldb October 24, 2009 1:03 PM PDT
What idiot sits a foot away from a monitor to watch a 2 hour movie sitting in his office chair?
by Shaun822 October 25, 2009 5:32 PM PDT
The difference between BRD and DVD is very noticeable on anything over say, thirty inch screens. Even with 720p the difference between an upscaled DVD and a true Blu Ray Disc is noticeable.
by mman74 October 27, 2009 12:27 AM PDT
Pauldb we are talking about playing Blu-ray on a Hi-Def monitor. Besides your argument is not true unless you have bad eye-sight! Standard DVD on THIS screen does not look fantastic? Do you have it?
by traxx09 October 27, 2009 7:30 AM PDT
The issue isn't so much that Blu-ray would or wouldn't look good on a 27" screen or any other size screen that Apple has on their desktops and notebooks. The issue is that you can't burn to Blu-ray from a Mac. Apple has Final Cut Studio which can edit HD content but then when you want to put it on a Blu-ray disc you can't without going to an external drive which is not the best solution. You could go through an Aja I/O but getting those setting right isn't always the easiest task.

I love FCP and am pretty proficient with it, but with all the hassle I'm considering going back to PC and using the Adobe suite instead. Plus, I really like some of the stuff that you can do with After Effects that you can't yet do with Motion.
by TechnoMan475392 October 23, 2009 2:24 PM PDT
Yeah but-you have to use windows to play BD on an iMac. Doesn't that defeat the point?
Reply to this comment
by b_baggins October 26, 2009 7:37 AM PDT
Well, it does show they are kind of ignorant. They could have just bought the video adapter that lets the 27" iMac act as an HDTV, and plug it into a standard set top blu-ray player and watch their movie that way. But, then that article would only have been about five sentences long.
by Unimatrix42 October 26, 2009 1:25 PM PDT
@b_baggins

Thank you for beating me to this. Yeah, there is absolutely NO need in the universe to load Windows under Boot Camp to get an iMac to recognize an external Blue Ray device. Really CNET, you clowns are lame.

Try Google -- "Blue Ray & Mac" and rewrite your article.
by NJMetsHero October 23, 2009 2:35 PM PDT
When it's cost effective we'll see it I guess. I once looked up how much it would cost to install a Blue-Ray Drive on my Macbook out of curiousity, and it was like 1.000 dollars, something ridiculous. Apple wants to stay at their price points if they can.
Reply to this comment
by ark_v2 October 23, 2009 9:28 PM PDT
There are laptops with Blu-ray drives from many other companies that cost less than $1,000. Give me a break!
by jakemochas October 23, 2009 11:38 PM PDT
haha wow! you don't think apple WOULD charge 1000 dollars for a "macbook upgrade"? you just gave them their next "brilliant" idea
by thydavidcome October 24, 2009 4:36 AM PDT
Blu-ray is on $800 laptops and you can get drives for like $150.
by jcdberkeley October 24, 2009 7:31 AM PDT
When you say "once", do you mean circa 2006? That'd be the only time I can imagine it being that much.
Currently, you can order a standard SATA BD-ROM drive on newegg for under $80. Granted, it's not half-height, but the drives themselves couldn't be that pricey if bought in bulk as Apple could do.
by NJMetsHero October 23, 2009 2:35 PM PDT
When it's cost effective we'll see it I guess. I once looked up how much it would cost to install a Blue-Ray Drive on my Macbook out of curiousity, and it was like 1.000 dollars, something ridiculous. Apple wants to stay at their price points if they can.
Reply to this comment
by AppleSuxLeo October 23, 2009 3:37 PM PDT
"7" has native BD support...and drives are as cheap as $60.
Oh...you have a Mac...I`m sorry.
Reply to this comment
by b_baggins October 26, 2009 7:39 AM PDT
Not a problem. I buy the adapter that lets my Mac work as an HDTV and use my Blu-ray player.

So, what, precisely was your point again?
by Amdrew77uk October 23, 2009 3:43 PM PDT
Blue Ray is a dead technology what with HD content now available to download off the net. I am pretty certain this is why apple never included it, if they want people to view HD from anywhere, its their apple tv or iTunes content...
Reply to this comment
by hakeis1 October 23, 2009 8:56 PM PDT
Bluray is far from dead dude, you must be liveing underground or something. Bluray sales increase every quarter and are projected to put regular Dvd's out of buisness by 2015. Streaming video in which you talk about is very limited and will only catch the eye of a small percetage of people. With Streaming Video you have 14 days to watch the Movie one ( 1 ) time. If you own a disk it's their for you anytime, no comparing. And don't try to tell me that nobody watches movies more than once, cause their are movies in our household that have been played up to 13 in the last 4 years. And if you have a family of 4 or more, Bluray is still cheaper than takeing them to the Theator. And last but not least, streaming Video is not as clear as Bluray and Bluray does not skip and jump like Streaming video does when the internet is busy or when your provider is haveing tech problems, and most of them have problems more often than most think. Bluray is for now, Streaming is at least 5 years away from being worthy.
by deniceels October 23, 2009 11:22 PM PDT
Nope, unless you live in places with unlimited downloads.. which sadly not true to some places. So, disc is still the way, more so since Blu-Ray won the format war against HD-DVD.
by thydavidcome October 24, 2009 4:39 AM PDT
Not only is it not dead but downloaded HD is inferior to Blu-Ray, and its quite noticeable. Blu-Ray is fully uncompressed so you get the best possbile picture and sound. Downloaded and especially streaming is heavily compressed and looks nowhere near as good as the actual BR. Yes it looks better then DVD, but worse then blur-ay. Plus you don't own it, etc etc.
by AppleSuxLeo October 24, 2009 5:36 PM PDT
If Apple users don`t get what the mainstream gets , they say Steve Jobs said it was the right thing to do.
And the mindless sheep continue to follow and drink the Mac Kool-Ade.
BD is selling like crazy on Amazon , Best Buy stores , Frys , etc.
None of these DL services or any type of cable delivery have the quality or the extras the real disk has.
Of course , as a Mac user , living in your isolated bubble , would not know such things.
Just keep repeating the mantra : Almighty Steve knows what is best for me !
by AppleSuxLeo October 24, 2009 5:40 PM PDT
If Apple users don`t get what the mainstream gets , they say Steve Jobs said it was the right thing to do.
And the mindless sheep continue to follow and drink the Mac Kool-Ade.
BD is selling like crazy on Amazon , Best Buy stores , Frys , etc.
None of these DL services or any type of cable delivery have the quality or the extras the real disk has.
Of course , as a Mac user , living in your isolated bubble , would not know such things.
Just keep repeating the mantra : Almighty Steve knows what is best for me !
by InkyRed October 25, 2009 6:30 AM PDT
I'm a Mac user (I won a Macbook). Jealous much?
by Shaun822 October 25, 2009 5:45 PM PDT
Spell Blu Ray right and you won't come off as flaming. I'll give you benefit of the doubt that you really believe it and then tell you why you are wrong. Let us just assume for a moment that your service provider doesn't cap your bandwidth, even though it most likely does, you still have to compress a high definition movie to make it travel properly to the computer, tv box, etc and you will get some loss on the video quality. On a BRD you don't get this same compression because the disc carries all of the files in full uncompressed glory. Then there is the sound which gets mega-compressed in video on demand, not so much with the disc because again, there is no compression.

Now let us step back into reality. Your ISP probably does limit your bandwidth to something like 200 or even 250 gig a month. If you were to get full lossless HD video and sound via an on demand service like netflix, which you don't but the land of make believe is so very fun, and your service provider didn't throttle your speeds down to prevent you from screwing your neighbors over, but they do, you would have a transfer of like 15+ gig per movie. If you have an unlimited service of rentals/downloads you will run out of bandwidth about 15 days into the month assuming all you did was download 1 movie a day. That doesn't take into account work files, casual browsing, online play for you or the kids, VOIP, or any other data you might use. And, I haven't even gotten to the fact that you have to wait for the movie to finish downloading whereas the BRD users pop the movie in and ina few moments are watching the movie. You also run the risk of losing a lot of money if you bought movies via download service through file corruption, HDD crash, accidental deletion, running out of space, etc. None of these are a problem with physical media.
by Unimatrix42 October 26, 2009 1:28 PM PDT
The problem is licensing, which is why you aren't likely to see Blue Ray drives in Macs anytime soon. But there are plenty of external solutions, and adapters which allow you to use the new iMacs as HDTVs. So, not really first on the list of things to complain about.
by tappy727 October 26, 2009 2:50 PM PDT
Oh yeah, who need great quality Blu-ray movies when I can download wonderful content from YouTube. Woo-hoo.
by AppleSuxLeo October 23, 2009 3:45 PM PDT
Sour grapes ; )
Reply to this comment
by engoyen October 23, 2009 4:16 PM PDT
Hmm I find it strange. That is the continued insistance that blu-ray makes no difference on anything less than a 40inch screen. I have a 27inch screen and the difference is immediately noticable, and not just for me. Everyone who has ever seen my setup exclaims what a difference it is, including those old and fuzzy of eyesight. Granted some don't think the difference is worth paying the extra, but they still recognise it.

So where has this odd remark of 40inch come from? I say from people who actually don't have HD TV's.
Reply to this comment
by seamonkey420 October 23, 2009 4:20 PM PDT
agreed. its easy to say there's no difference if you haven't even moved beyond SDTV. of course there isn't if you don't have HD or view HD content regularly.

just like gaming too; yea.. Uncharted 2 is cool in SDTV, but on an HDTV. WOW. just like Forza3 for the X360.
by hakeis1 October 23, 2009 8:48 PM PDT
Anyone who's say's Bluray isn't noticable on smaller TV's must live in a cave. THeir is night and day differances between normal DVD and Bluray regardless of screen size. It's even noticeable on a small 9" portable player, so come on get serious folks. The Bluray war is long done and over so deal with it................
by artstate October 23, 2009 4:22 PM PDT
lol @Amdrew77uk
BluRay is far from being a dead technology. Especially when most people don't actually get their movies online. And with the steady rise of the PS3 (selling more than xbox 360 and wii in september), it will ensure that the technology remains popular in the years to come. BluRay players have an array of features that are undeniably cool.

Although, I do see your point that Apple would try to have people move away from BluRay and towards the iTunes store.

Question for everyone? Why are there no HDMI plugs on macs? Definitely not a matter of cost.. Macs already cost considerably more than equivalent PC's. I'm simply curious, perhaps there's a technical reason
Reply to this comment
by hakeis1 October 23, 2009 8:44 PM PDT
Adding Bluray to Imac's is not going to hurt Itunes, and if they are worried about it at all, all they have to do is add Bluray to Itunes.
by ark_v2 October 23, 2009 9:31 PM PDT
He is talking about the iTunes video services; not about playing Blu-ray in iTunes...
by jcdberkeley October 24, 2009 7:35 AM PDT
I'd guess that there aren't HDMI ports on macs because they want the Apple TV to be your content provider for a television. Sounds ridiculous considering how underpowered (features-wise, though the hardware isn't terribly loaded either) that device is, but they're very big on their ecosystem staying closed and used only in the way they prefer. If they can manage the esoteric mini DisplayPort, they could manage HDMI, they simply choose not to.
by tappy727 October 26, 2009 2:45 PM PDT
Who is going to buy HD movies from the iTunes store? Unless you watch your movies on your computer. it won't make it onto your HDTV unless you have AppleTV. And if Blu-ray is dead, AppleTV was never even alive - there is no mention of it anymore from Apple or anyone else.

I have an AppleTV and 1.5Mbps DSL and it takes 5 minutes for an HD trailers to play. That is my bag of hurt.
by fooferah October 23, 2009 4:59 PM PDT
I find it annoying that Apple won't add support for bd. I'm in the video editing arena and have to turn away clients who want work on bd. Yes, I could create the bd's with other programs on the mac, but it's not a clean-cut time-tested way to do it. And you can't test the disc out on the mac that your burned it on. Crazy! Hurry up, Apple. Your pro video peeps are waiting!
Reply to this comment
by hananias October 23, 2009 5:17 PM PDT
Or you can get BR on a mac for under $600!!!
- Buy/or build a cheap PC ($400) OSX compatible
- Install Windows OS
- Than dual boot OSX ($29, or get leopard for not much more than that)
- Buy a cheap $70 (including shipping) usb BR drive
- Now you have the best of both world... Also, if you have enough disk space. You can even throw in Linux partition, then you'll have the Whole World of OS's!!! Blue Ray Option!!! and Great OS X!!!

That's what I would do, if I wanted all in one place... (cough, cough) ; )
Reply to this comment
by thydavidcome October 24, 2009 4:41 AM PDT
Or you can get a cheap BD drive and not have the hassles of an external drive. Hell you can get burners for like $100-$150
by blockygraphics October 23, 2009 5:28 PM PDT
Wow. Apple fanboys whining about blu-ray being pointless anyway? No way!!!

I don't know how ignorant someone can get claiming blu-ray is a dead technology. Blu-ray WOULD look good on a 27" iMac monitor.

Stop being Apple apologists just because their devices lack some capabilities, cultists.
Reply to this comment
by hakeis1 October 23, 2009 8:37 PM PDT
Bluray on an Imac would be sweeeeeeet.........
by jeffcondit November 10, 2009 8:29 AM PST
APPLE DOESN"T MAKE TV's or BLU-RAY Players, they are a COMPUTER COMPANY!!! They MAKE COMPUTERS, IF YOU WANT A BLU-RAY Player, GO GET A TV, a Blur-Ray player, or a GD SONY VAIO!!!!! Sony makes anything under the sun, so does toshiba, dell sells tv's and Blu-Ray players, Apple sells computers and computer accessories, they make software. If you love apple, buy one. If you hate apple go get a different computer. If you like downloading HD content than do it, If you only want physical data, buy Blu-ray discs to your hearts content.

Just quit whining
by sosowhat October 23, 2009 7:18 PM PDT
Big screen+blu-ray+7.1 home theatre, and I would buy a Mac or PC? No way.
Reply to this comment
by Rick Cavaretti October 24, 2009 7:39 AM PDT
Thank you. Can't have family movie night huddled around a 19" monitor. That's what the big TV, surround sound and cushy couches are for.
by hgnotify October 23, 2009 8:04 PM PDT
What about hooking the PS3 up to the iMac? Isn't there a converter to handle using the iMac as just a screen? That would be a more logical test to me.
Reply to this comment
by hakeis1 October 23, 2009 8:35 PM PDT
They would of been better off installing a Bluray player in the Imac than increasing the screen size. The 24 inch screen is plenty big, the Bluray feature is more bang for the buck than the xtra 3 inches of screen size. Last but not least they need to design their imac's so that the average person can pop the back off and do their own upgrades like PC users can do. They have a nice standalone system, but they got to make it easy to get into. I want to upgrade my Hard drive but don't want t pay tech service the fee to do it. That's my two cents worth......................
Reply to this comment
by ark_v2 October 23, 2009 9:35 PM PDT
This might sound really bad but most iMac owners I know get these because of the looks and don't even know that the RAM can be upgraded; some don't even know what the RAM is for that matter.
by Zacm05 October 23, 2009 8:41 PM PDT
Apple will not include Blu-Ray on Macs until it becomes the standard, and what I mean by that is when it makes sense to get Blu-Rays over DVDs based on quality, cost, and availability. DVD was designed to last a long time and to be a permanent replacement for VHS. There was no controversy with it like there is with Blu-Ray. When DVD was released, it was clearly a better, more revolutionary format. In the beginning, DVDs were expensive like Blu-Rays, but then the price dropped precipitiously on players and content within 2 years of its release. Blu-ray was introduced as early as 2006. It is almost 2010, and Blu-Ray has still failed to overtake DVDs as a cost-effective replacement and to be established as the new standard. When and if that happens is when you will see it on a Mac.
Reply to this comment
by Gadget_Gizmo October 23, 2009 10:50 PM PDT
Zacm05,

I agree with you on several points. But I do have issue with some. Quality, cost, and availability are here today. I'm thinking that Apple has a problem with Blu-ray for one reason and one reason alone. DRM.

Terms like Advanced Access Content System (AACS), High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) and BD+ should make people cringe. This was one of the failures of Vista. It was crawling with that stuff. The movie industry wants to get inside Apple Macs and control what you can and can't see. So, Jobs resists this effort. I have no problem with DVD copyright protection. But not the level of what some of these extra control mechanisms are asking for.

Also, I love Mac and Blu-ray (my PS3). But i do hate draconian DRM.

I have to point out that Blu-ray has not "failed" at over taking DVD. While DVD didn't have a competitor with VHS like Blu-ray had with HD DVD. DVD did have to deal with Divx (subscription based Disc back in 1996) when Toshiba was battling to get DVD in the market. DVD wasn't really mainstream until well after 2000 and even then it took a few more years before it overtook VHS (around 2003 in rentals and 2005 in sales). When the advent of digital downloads, price of Blu-rays you'll need to give BD the same time it took for DVD if not a year more time. Either way, adoption rate is outpacing DVD adoption if you compare their release dates side by side.

My only issue with BD is price of the discs and DRM. Drop the price to the same as DVD and I'll be happy. And get rid of BD+. Too restrictive.
by mbenedict October 24, 2009 6:07 AM PDT
@Gizmo:

iTunes Video is fully DRMed, and Apple protects HD media purchased from the iTunes Store using HDCP.

So it seems Apple doesn't have a big problem with DRM.
by bartok06 October 24, 2009 8:00 AM PDT
In other words, Apple won't include Blu-ray until there dragged there kicking and screaming. I agree that BD is overpriced although prices are slowly coming down. But, to build a machine with a 27" screen and not include BD is definitely weird. The most likely reason is probably a practical one such as cost or manufacturing issues like the lack of cameras on the iPod touch.
by HyraxX October 24, 2009 5:48 PM PDT
Was that the same logic they used for the one button mouse?
by the_iceman October 23, 2009 9:54 PM PDT
wow, overpriced and no blu-ray? no wonder I'm a PC
Reply to this comment
by Kyle_Simon October 23, 2009 10:22 PM PDT
Isn't the idea of a Blu-ray disc the ability to encode MORE data on the the disk, not the ability to access it quicker? Blu-ray stands uses just that, a blue laser instead of red. Think back to science class (ROYGBIV), and you will realize that blue light (blu-ray) has a shorter wavelength than red light (traditional dvd).

With this idea, if the software/firmware of the reading device is built correctly, one should be able to view 1080P content on a DVD.**

The problem is that you can't fit as much data on a DVD, making it impossible to include a feature-length film on a DVD in 1080P. I believe it's something along the lines of 30 minutes for content in 1080i.

One more thing... I have a blu-ray player and love it. I'd also like to see blu-ray included on at least the pro line of apple hardware. Apple hasn't completely turned it's back on blu-ray, as one of its protools, Final Cut Studio 7 has blu-ray compression.***


**Transmission of data from dvd player to viewing device is also an issue because old connections lack the bandwidth of newer (S-video, Composite video vs. Component video, HDMI)

***Stated that a third-party blu-ray recorder is needed for burning.
Reply to this comment
by thydavidcome October 24, 2009 4:45 AM PDT
DVD has inferior scratch protection, some company made a 10 layer DVD that held 25 GB of data. But every scratch caused severe damage to the video.
by Gadget_Gizmo October 23, 2009 10:58 PM PDT
http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/optical/deg-us-blu-ray-player-sales-approach-10-million
Reply to this comment
by AppleSuxLeo October 23, 2009 11:53 PM PDT
What does a Mac user need BD for...they have STYLE.
Isn`t that enough ?
Reply to this comment
by solidasiraq October 24, 2009 3:49 PM PDT
Thanks for always being so constructive applesuxleo. It's always a mystery which side YOU will come down on.
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