No Blu-ray drive in new Macs

Great news! It keeps hope alive for HD DVD! hehe

Toshiba laptops (Windows) - some include an HD-DVD drive.

DVDTOWN(Henning Molbaek) is desperate. Everyone can buy Blu-ray disc drive(ROM or burners).

[Post edited by High-Def_Movie on Jan 9, 2008]

Again, I know people like to think that our mission in life is to make Blu-ray vanish. That is not the case. We like movies and have always stayed neutral in the format war. This does not mean that I have not felt the need to speak up when bad products have been made on both sides.

All I wanted to say with this article (as i did with MS and HD DVD) was that software and computer makers don't see either format as the future. Or so it seems. If a company like Apple (that officially supports Blu-ray) don't put a $200 drive in a $2000+ state of the art desktop - what does that tell you? They don't even include it as a build to order option. Their focus is clearly in another place.

No doubt Apple will use Mac World to promote downloads and not HD on disc.

We will continue to review and write about movies no matter if they are on HD DVD or Blu-ray. Some day we will surly start to review movie downloads as well.

[Post edited by Henning on Jan 9, 2008]

Hi Henning. Hey, check out this interesting new product (from CES press release 1/7) - Austin Texas-based Buffalo Technology announces first External Blu-ray / HD-DVD player of it's kind. It will read and write Blu-ray content, as well as offer playback of HD-DVD content - all for just MSRP $650.

-Love Hendrix! (The Loverboy)
~ DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray/KURO Plasma owner ~

Yes, I saw that drive. A bit expensive for my taste.

Quote:
We will continue to review and write about movies no matter if they are on HD DVD or Blu-ray. Some day we will surly start to review movie downloads as well.

A movie is a movie IMO. There have been many options for content delivery over the years, including film formats, VHS, Beta, broadcast TV, various DVD formats (including the 2 hi-def formats), VCD, PPV, VOD, Internet streaming, and yes downloading to your computer HD in some content protected fashion yet to be discovered.

In evaluating a delivery method from the consumer's point of view, I think 3 factors need to be considered: Price, Quality, and Convenience. From the industry's perspective, things become more complicated, and involve technological and economic feasibility, including costs related to infrastructure, rights management, etc.

I think the future is indeed some form of IP streaming VOD available to the masses, which can connect directly both/either via fiber or hi-speed wireless for portable devices. Imagine turning on your iPod-like device on the subway with special viewing glasses, and immediately have access to a database of over 10,000 titles, searchable by keyword, director, actors, etc. - all cross referenced so that you can create your own favorites list. Then play them, any of them, instantly whenever you want, anywhere in 1080p HD glory for a grand total of $59.99 a month. Your favorites list can be categorized, and offers the capability to add user ratings, notes, etc. The movie database offers the option to view reviews, and of course offers access to the title's associated message board!

We have this technology today. We can simply replicate the failsafe database server systems and microwave towers all over the place, and have their content updated periodically on a slower bases from a central location or a peer-to-peer basis. We can light up all the dark fiber laid down during the tech-boom, and beef them up even more. We can lay fiber directly to the majority of houses in developed countries. We can build new consumer end devices (both portable and fixed) to receive this content with the new sound codecs, etc.

Or we could solve the problem of world hunger first. Meanwhile, telecommunications companies (the ones that didn't go under) are trying to recoup their meager infrastructure investments already in place by charging $6 a pop (one showing) for broadcast HD pay-per-view! Economic feasibility is a critical aspect for these companies to compete with such a delivery method against hard media - especially in making this technology assessable to all those who want it.

Yes I'm sure other content delivery methods will compete with hard media in the future, just as they do today. But hard media (DVD, Blu-ray, and other formats not seen yet) will be around for a long, long time.