Apple has made a business out of downloadable content. Don't think for a second they won't want to be the pioneers in distributing downloadable HD content. They already started withQuicktime 7 and the H.264 codec. The next step was getting movie companies to produce HD trailers. Also with hard drive space being so large, storing movies on them makes sense.Now that the studios have a method for selling their movies (iTunes 7), its only a matter of time before the movies get upgraded from 640x480 to 1080p, 720p and 480p. The speed at which this takes place depends on how long the movie studios take to move over to apples movie store, and how well the "iTV"sells. Blu Ray and HD DVD is just not taking off like Sony and the DVD consortium thought. Plus the prices are just too high for something that doesn't really do much more than DVD. Having to buy all of your movies all over againin physical form doesn't seem to appealing, but people will purchase a downloadable HD version of a movie they own already. The price needs to be right though.
Regardless of the success or failure of Bluray or HD-DVD as a medium for distributing movies. Optical storage alone is reason enough to add higher capacity drives to computers. I suspect Apple's reluctance to add Bluray to its lineup has more to do with a seamless end-to-end solution than some angle for enhanced cash-flow. If iMovie, Final Cut Pro, etc. aren't ready for Bluray, Apple won't release the hardware.
OK, this is totally, TOTALLY stupid, folks. Apple is in the downloadable media business, TRUE. And I think they are going to have HD content, TRUE (and I've been predicting an iTV like gadget for over a year on hdforindies.com).
BUT...I think the rason why there isn't a Blu-ray drive are manifold:
1.) I think Apple wants to intro a burner, not just a player - so wait for MWSF for that move, possibly paired with an 8 proc system
2.) they could go third party, but they have their favorites - they historically like to start with Pioneer - see past machines
3.) To NOT include a Blu-Ray (even the player) just to try to encourage downloadable, lesser quality content is just dumb. Dumb idea to think of, dumber to do.
4.) Blu-ray movie support is non-trivial - look at the home entertainment PC sector - you have to have a secured monitor, a secured optical disk, a secured OS, a secured player, etc. Not all the pieces are in place yet, and Apple doesn't like to release partial or incomplete or difficult to use solutions. When they ship a drive, it'll WORK, and not just be "sorry, data only, no movies" or some such nonsense.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Luis @ Sep 23rd 2006 3:43PM
Apple has made a business out of downloadable content. Don't think for a second they won't want to be the pioneers in distributing downloadable HD content. They already started withQuicktime 7 and the H.264 codec. The next step was getting movie companies to produce HD trailers. Also with hard drive space being so large, storing movies on them makes sense.Now that the studios have a method for selling their movies (iTunes 7), its only a matter of time before the movies get upgraded from 640x480 to 1080p, 720p and 480p. The speed at which this takes place depends on how long the movie studios take to move over to apples movie store, and how well the "iTV"sells. Blu Ray and HD DVD is just not taking off like Sony and the DVD consortium thought. Plus the prices are just too high for something that doesn't really do much more than DVD. Having to buy all of your movies all over againin physical form doesn't seem to appealing, but people will purchase a downloadable HD version of a movie they own already. The price needs to be right though.
Alan Edwards @ Sep 23rd 2006 3:59PM
Regardless of the success or failure of Bluray or HD-DVD as a medium for distributing movies. Optical storage alone is reason enough to add higher capacity drives to computers. I suspect Apple's reluctance to add Bluray to its lineup has more to do with a seamless end-to-end solution than some angle for enhanced cash-flow. If iMovie, Final Cut Pro, etc. aren't ready for Bluray, Apple won't release the hardware.
Mike Curtis @ Sep 23rd 2006 4:11PM
OK, this is totally, TOTALLY stupid, folks. Apple is in the downloadable media business, TRUE. And I think they are going to have HD content, TRUE (and I've been predicting an iTV like gadget for over a year on hdforindies.com).
BUT...I think the rason why there isn't a Blu-ray drive are manifold:
1.) I think Apple wants to intro a burner, not just a player - so wait for MWSF for that move, possibly paired with an 8 proc system
2.) they could go third party, but they have their favorites - they historically like to start with Pioneer - see past machines
3.) To NOT include a Blu-Ray (even the player) just to try to encourage downloadable, lesser quality content is just dumb. Dumb idea to think of, dumber to do.
4.) Blu-ray movie support is non-trivial - look at the home entertainment PC sector - you have to have a secured monitor, a secured optical disk, a secured OS, a secured player, etc. Not all the pieces are in place yet, and Apple doesn't like to release partial or incomplete or difficult to use solutions. When they ship a drive, it'll WORK, and not just be "sorry, data only, no movies" or some such nonsense.