Apple set to ship Macs with Blu-ray support - report

[Vapor]

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...rt_report.html

Apple Inc. at this month's Macworld Expo will will outline a high-definition video strategy that will see its weight thrown further behind Sony Corp's Blu-ray DVD format as opposed to Toshiba's HD-DVD, according to one Wall Street analyst.

Considering Apple's recent 57.53% share of the highend PC market, this may be a bigger deal than it seems at first glance (not that Apple doesn't have market influence anyway).

Another nail in the coffin for HD-DVD?

[Zytek_Fan]

Well, the industry has spoken. And it seems the industry wants Blu-Ray. Just look at how many Blu-Ray drives are available compared to one hard to find HD-DVD drive...

57.53% share of the highend PC market? Many of those must be workstations.

[smashhell]

Well, the industry has spoken. And it seems the industry wants Blu-Ray. Just look at how many Blu-Ray drives are available compared to one hard to find HD-DVD drive...

57.53% share of the highend PC market? Many of those must be workstations.

Yes, considering only 7% of the all of the PC in the world are Apple.

They sure do have a lot of market share.

[lowfat]

Yes, considering only 7% of the all of the Computer owners in the world are Apples.

They sure do have a lot of market share.

7% is pretty big 3rd or 4th largest OEM out there.

[Haltech]

Steve Jobs would NEVER back what Microsoft does.. MS supports HD-DVD so its not surprising to see Apple go BR. Besides, Apple will charge an arm and leg for it, like everything else.

[turtletrax]

Steve Jobs would NEVER back what Microsoft does.. MS supports HD-DVD so its not surprising to see Apple go BR. Besides, Apple will charge an arm and leg for it, like everything else.

QFT.

Looks ugly for HD-DVD...

[Haltech]

I dont think its over yet. HD DVD may pull ahead since their players have now hit under $100.

[Kai Robinson]

Exactly - VHS won out over BetaMax primarily because of price. Didnt matter that Betamax was the 'better' format. People vote with their wallets.

At least in the UK i know of almost no-one that has an HD telly (theres only a handful fo HD channels, and they all show crap), so the market for either is pretty small here.

I would put my money on HDDVD being the overall winner here, taking into consideration that HDDVD players are more abundant, cheaper and who the feck is going to spend almost £400 on a PS3, when you can get an Xbox 360 with the HDDVD drive addon for almost half that price and actually have GAMES to play on it?

[irev210]

ive said it from the start and I will keep saying it.

Bluray vs HD-DVD there IS no winner.


Eventually 90%+ will be combo drives that play both HD-DVD and BLURAY.


This is nothing like VHS vs BetaMax anyway. I hate how people compare the two.

[Shintai]

Exactly - VHS won out over BetaMax primarily because of price. Didnt matter that Betamax was the 'better' format. People vote with their wallets.

Actually VHS won simply due to :banana::banana::banana::banana:ographic content.

[Zytek_Fan]

Actually VHS won simply due to :banana::banana::banana::banana:ographic content.

One of the HD formats aren't allowing :banana::banana::banana::banana:. I think it was Blu-Ray...

[TRG]

I think that Apple's support will put a lot of weight into the battle for blu-ray. Lot's of 'professional' people seem to think that if you want to edit your audio/video the right way - you have to work with a mac - and they will associate good audio/video with blu-ray.

I personally still favor blu-ray - because I still think that the small datavolume of HDDVD prevents further innovations in the media (it's not giving much room for extra video/audio/bonus tracks).

[saaya]

it seems sony is spending lots of $$$ now to get more support... sad...

[Cold Fussion]

Big move. The movie industry uses Final cut pro and avid. So apple pushing on blu-ray means a lot.

[generics_user]

I think that Apple's support will put a lot of weight into the battle for blu-ray. Lot's of 'professional' people seem to think that if you want to edit your audio/video the right way - you have to work with a mac - and they will associate good audio/video with blu-ray.

I personally still favor blu-ray - because I still think that the small datavolume of HDDVD prevents further innovations in the media (it's not giving much room for extra video/audio/bonus tracks).

mainly because apple offers one of the best video editing suites and this one is mac only

but noone will associate good audio/video with one of the formats, they both use the same codecs and have the same image quality, only difference is that blu-ray is less resistant to scratches, but it brings a higher capacity

[Soulburner]

One of the HD formats aren't allowing :banana::banana::banana::banana:. I think it was Blu-Ray...

Nope the :banana::banana::banana::banana: industry is using Blu-Ray as well.

[perry_78]

kai, the ps3 goes for about £260, whilst the premium 360 for about £240.. The price difference is negligible by now.. Not to mention blockbuster has a better selection of blu rays it seems?

[Haltech]

Actually VHS won simply due to :banana::banana::banana::banana:ographic content.

Beta had more :banana::banana::banana::banana: than VHS did when the format war started. Remember, Beta was all about picture quality, so naturally, :banana::banana::banana::banana: prevailed!

[Dr.FuzzyBallz]

I am soryy i do not like Blu Ray its more expensive picture quality same or worst than HD dvd's and the Memmory diffrenece is about 5gigs from what i have heard... I think HD DVD's should be the Future.

[naokaji]

One of the HD formats aren't allowing :banana::banana::banana::banana:. I think it was Blu-Ray...

they once planned it to be that way, but they realized that they cant really win with locking out :banana::banana::banana::banana:, so they both allow it.

[ABXG]

I am soryy i do not like Blu Ray its more expensive picture quality same or worst than HD dvd's and the Memmory diffrenece is about 5gigs from what i have heard... I think HD DVD's should be the Future.

Not that I care either way ( I havn't invested a cent in Blue Ray or HD DVD), but that 5GB is enough for an entire non-HD movie to fit in, so that is a fair difference right there. When it comes to games, that 5GB can allow you to have 25% more content on a single disc (I hate dealing with multiple discs). So that 5GB is a fair bit when it comes to movies and games, which is what either of these formats will eventually be used for.

As far as image quality, that has nothing to do with the media and has everything to do with the quality of the video taken and the editting done to it. In theory, Blue Ray should have the higher image quality because it has more storage capacity and thus a video file can have a higher quality because there is less need to compress the file (and lose quality).

[Zytek_Fan]

Both are about the same when it comes to image quality and sound quality. Blu-Ray has the upper hand with storage, which might make it more popular with game developers.

[[XC] gomeler]

Both are about the same when it comes to image quality and sound quality. Blu-Ray has the upper hand with storage, which might make it more popular with game developers.

Except Microsoft has said the Xbox360 won't support HD disks for game data. So it's DVD vs Blu-Ray for that particular market and desktops will be in DVD for a long time, just look how long CD has still prevailed.

[DeathReborn]

kai, the ps3 goes for about £260, whilst the premium 360 for about £240.. The price difference is negligible by now.. Not to mention blockbuster has a better selection of blu rays it seems?

PS3 40GB - £280
Xbox 360 Core - £180
Xbox 360 Prem - £240
Xbox 360 Elite - £280
HD-DVD addon - £100

The biggest killer for me is the fact that I can buy a Blu-ray Burner for £180 but getting hold of a HD-DVD equivalent is like finding a Intel chipset for AMD processors. I can play both but I really hope that whichever format dies they'll offer a replacement service for the discs to the winning format.

[iddqd]

Actually, this is will probably turn out like DVD+ and DVD-. Combo drives! I mean, if you make a drive that can read(write?) BluRay and legacy formats like DVD and CD, you'd still need a secondary red laser in there. Which could also be used for HDDVD.