HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, which will Apple use?
Archives Forums/MacOS X Discussion/HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, which will Apple use?
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| As most of you well know, OSX Leopard is to be released next year, not too long after Vista. However, it also seems that we'll start seeing the next versions of optical drive technology come about as well. Now, having said this, which next-gen optical technology do you see Apple using in their new desktops and/or notebooks, and do you think that this will be in place by the time we see Leopard? |
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| HD-Dvd Yes |
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| Bet that option'll be far more expensive than the standard versions of Leopard-based Macs, aren't they, or is that going to be standard on all Macs within the first few months of the new year? |
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| Or is that going to be standard on all Macs within the first few months of the new year? At hundreds of dollars a drive, it's doubtful that any computer manufacturer would jump at it. More likely they'll wait for quite a while for prices to come down. |
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| Well, Toshiba did: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=326517&coid=-30600&seg=HHO I always thought that Apple was somewhat on these things themselves to set them apart from generic x86 manufacturers. |
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| Toshiba have for quite a long time tried to make "Better then adverage" (ie More Expensive) Pcs I know Apple seemed to have been doing the same, but Toshiba within the portable market have trued for that "Premimum Product Feel" If you got an "acer" and a "Toshiba" with the same specs the Acer would be half the price, but the Toshiba would have twice the life expectancey |
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| LOL, yeah, and Dell's the one behind on technology, it seems like. They just got into AMD not too long ago, while Gateway has gotten into AMD ever since they bought out eMachines, and Compaq has been doing AMD ever since the mid 90s already, as well as HP, possibly. Apple's one of the last to go to Intel, so there you have that. On top of that, Gateway's another innovative company, having the first BTX tower, and having the first Convertible Notebook, I believe it was. So, yeah, Apple may be superior in some regards with notebook and all-in-one desktop technology, but we'll see how Apple can incorporate the next-gen components such as HD-DVD players (assuming that Apple gets the same drives that Toshiba uses in their Qosmios). |
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| Apple is part of the Blu-ray Disc Association, so if they do use anything, it will be Blu-ray. I think though that they are pushing downloading instead of optical based media, at least for movies. I personally think both "next-gen" disc formats will fail. DVDs are more then good enough, and digital distribution is the future. |
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| I second what Twitchpulse says. The world does not need either BluRay nor HD-DVD, and I doubt that either one will be a success. The same will happen to Vista: It will only gain market share through Microsoft´s huge OEM business. That means you will see Vista only on new machines, it does not come with any features that will make it interesting enough for most users to purchase an upgrade. |
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| I disagree with the last two posters. Either BlueRay or HD-DVD will eventually become a market leader. It will take a little longer than it should as people will have two formats to choose between...or more likely sit and wait till one wins and then buy, but it will happen. I don't see this as being another LaserDisc format, which only movie buffs and collectors baught. Vista will take over eventually too. Some will upgrade and the rest will follow once they get new machines. So it won't take many years till everyone and their grandmother is running Vista. That said. They could have made things simple and just used the current DVD discs with a new codec for HD playback. If you compress a movie with a modern codec down to 7 or so gig using H.264, DivX, Xvid etc. even at 720p, you would get pretty darn good quality, and it would fit on a standard DVD. Ragnar |
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| True, maybe Apple may just go with an upconvert drive of sorts, meaning that it'll take the DVD or Mac Game, or whatever else is there, and convert the signal (since Macs are 64-bit) to 720p or 1080i (a la Xbox 360-style graphics and sound (a bit off topic since Microsoft used the same hardware in the X360 that Apple did in their Macs before switching to Intel)). Well, so putting two and two together, Apple could probably be able to find an addon drive for the iMacs or MacBook/MB Pros. |
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| ragtag: Well, your statement doesn´t necessarily contradict what I´ve said. Of course Vista will eventually take over, but it will take it around five years to get there, around as long as it took Windows XP. And, exactly as it was with XP, the only reason for its market lead will be that there simply is no alternative to it. It won´t take the market lead because the customers willingly migrate to it, but because there is nothing else to use - MS will stop selling XP licenses, exactly as they´ve stopped selling Win 9x or NT licenses, and then the users will have to go for Vista. The same old story all over again. And in the end, how surprising, Vista will have 90-something percent of the desktop market. Nevertheless, Vista is only a Service Pack 3 for XP at an horrendous price, and there just is no need for anybody to switch to it. If you´ve tried the current RC1, then you´ll know how slow and crappy it actually is - and what little changes it besides the ugly new look brings. As for BluRay and HD-DVD: Of course your are right and one of them will eventually take the market lead. But as it was with DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and what the hack else, it will take a time and in the end the industry will probably sell Combodrives of some sort again. However, it won´t superceed today´s DVD technology in less than five to ten years. AND: It -is- an obsolete technology, because in five to ten years from now we will have broadband speeds far beyond what we are used to today and "legal downloads" including pay-per-view will be the normal thing to do, as will be "online hard disks". On the long run, there simply is no (real) need for yet another physical medium. In ten years, you will just use a livestream to watch your movie or listen to your music, no matter where you are. And, probably, in the end we will all be wrong and the future will look completely different than what we imagine today. Which might be a good thing. ;-) |
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| Winnie: Yep, you're right. Vista will take a few years, but eventually get there. I hadn't thought of the download thing. People are kind of slow on the uptake on that, but it will get there too. I've been dreaming of a download store that contains more or less every film on IMDB.com Though, it's probably not going to happen any time soon. The downside on this is that us poor souls that don't live in the US, will lag a few years behind. No TV series or films on the iTunes music store in Norway yet for instance, and most of the other pay for movie download sites are US only (except for the prOn ones for some reason...but I wouldn't know anything about that). :-) Ragnar |
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| ragtag: Didn't Steve Jobs mention something that they want to bring movies to the international iTunes store in the beginning of next year? It'll be mostly Disney movies, but that's a start. The biggest problem, however, is the movie industry itself that lacks decades behind the developments. They BADLY want to stick to their traditional business model, because it is an awesome money machine for them. But in the end I guess they will have to wake up and face the changed reality. People want to download, and in a few years, nobody will want to go to a video store anymore. I also believe that movie theatres eventually are going to disappear. From what I hear here in Germany, they are not doing very good. |
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