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General discussion

I guess now it is time for BluRay

Feb 18, 2008 6:19AM PST

writable optical drives to be available in Apple gear...

Discussion is locked

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New Mac Pros
Feb 18, 2008 7:24AM PST

Or not Grin. Perhaps they'll just add in the feature soon. We just need Toshiba to just say "It's over". Personally, I could care less. Every movie that I would want to watch is on DVD, and if I don't own it, I know I can go to Blockbuster or iTunes to get it. HD formats aren't that much better in that respect, though Blu-Ray will be a standard someday... but that's my two cents.
MS needs a Blu-Ray adapter for the 360 and Apple needs to make a Blu-Ray drive optional on all desktops. They could also take the Air drive, add it in, and make it compatible with everything, which would be great. But when would Apple make so many changes (or price cuts) right after they release a new product? I honestly think that it's nonsense for people to have gotten so upset with Apple's iPhone price cuts. That's what they always do with their products, and it had been out for a little while anyway. They were lucky enough to get $100 back.

Blu-Ray seems more like Apple than HD-DVD; plus, they've been backing the format since 2005, if I'm right.

-BMF

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Movies are one reason for the media...
Feb 19, 2008 7:32AM PST

But just having 50 gig of archive storage will be great. I create high-definition video, and exporting finished projects back to the camcorder for archiving on digital tape works - but is not too efficient.

Then there's old pictures and various documents... and of course, I hope is that the discs don't get disc rot...

As I recall, Apple was "backing" both formats...

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Apple is on the Blu-Ray board
Feb 19, 2008 7:44AM PST

why would they back both? That's not what I heard. I do know that it is a fact that they support the Blu-Ray format.
Still, having it would be nice. If they could speed up iDVD processes, burning movies would be much more efficient for regular iMovie projects. iDVD lags a bit too... Actually, since Blu-Ray drives would be out for Macs, they could rename it iBlu or something... LOL.

-BMF

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I don't know that
Feb 23, 2008 1:03AM PST

Apple was actually "backing" both formats, but at one point last year I was researching the formats and was surprised to see that they were on the member company list. I went back to the HDDVD page and Apple is no longer listed. Yes, I agree that they have always supported BluRay - and being a Boared member is different than just being in an org.

The "iDVD speed up" for rendering - I think - will pretty much always take a while. The frames need to be individually rendered, so the CPU is working pretty hard. In today's environment, that means downsampling from hidef to standard def, then rendering the frame. If the downsampling work is not required, it might be faster - but high def is still 4x more data... my head is spinning...

LaCie has had a BluRay burner available for a while... http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10058 (I didn't say it was affordable - just that they've been selling one... ; ) ).

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True
Feb 23, 2008 2:54AM PST

Still, I always heard that they supported only Blu-Ray... Never mind that. I knew that in iDVD, the frames have to be individually rendered, but it would be nicer if that could be sped up Silly.

Who needs a Blu-Ray burner anyway? I really don't see why anyone would want to put their movies into that format... I can at least understand storage reasons, but really, it isn't cheap at all, like you said. Each to their own Wink.

-BMF

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I hope not!!
Feb 29, 2008 11:41PM PST

Blu-ray is still expensive. I'm hoping that; Red ray; VDM, NME; wins and starts selling in more stores. I can afford producing HD-red ray dvd's. Less than 10% of the people, world wide own high def tv's,and or players. If it works, and cheaper; that's what we should go for. I already bought a red ray VMD player, and I love it. It upconverts, plays high def, has 5.1 outputs; all under $200. If Hollywood, sees that we are buying red-ray players, instead of Blu-ray. Somebody will jump on the bandwagon. It's not about Sony or Blu-ray; it's about price. I got over 8 DVD affordable players/ portable etc., in my apt. Blu-Ray cannot be afforded in the same way. Inform the public on Red ray. Don't let Sony buy Hollywood; this ia a democracy. I had Sony Beta, they lost once, being big-headed; let them lose again, or come down in price. You're only paying for a blue-violet laser, not some new electronic technology.

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Got any links for "Red Ray"?
Mar 1, 2008 4:31AM PST

What country are you in that is a democracy?

P

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Red laser links
Mar 1, 2008 5:20AM PST
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Thanks for the links
Mar 1, 2008 8:23AM PST

So you don't actually live in a democracy then!

So the answer to your earlier statement, "Don't let Sony buy Hollywood; this ia a democracy." would be "No it's not"

P

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Interesting, but it'll never take off in the Western world
Mar 1, 2008 12:33PM PST

It's an interesting idea, but it will never take off in the Western world. There are two factors to look at:

1. Studios releasing movies onto the format
2. Manufacturers of the players

HD-DVD lost out even though they had major studios releasing movies onto HD-DVD format. They eventually lost those studios. HDVMD doesn't have any major Western studios, only a couple of indies and some poor Bollywood producers.

Who manufactures the players? Toshiba lost out with HD-DVD because they were the only ones with an HD-DVD player (excluding LG, who made a multiformat player). Stores that can't get Toshiba products can't support HD-DVD. HDVMD is supported by one hardware manufacturer, and not a big-name manufacturer. Blu-ray is supported by Sony, Samsung, Sharp, LG, Panasonic and Pioneer.

The only thing HD-DVD had going for it was the price of the players. Since this is the only thing HDVMD has going for it, it's not likely to take off here. Maybe in Asia and India, as you say; but not where Cnet is located.

The idea of "red-ray" does interest me, but it has come to the party too late and does not have major backing. As little as Blu-ray's market penetration is, it is positively entrenched compared to HDVMD.