Blu-ray support coming with iTunes 9?
Take this rumor with a fairly large grain of salt and please hold your "bag of hurt" comments until the end. Boy Genius claims he's got it on word from a "pretty reliable source" that the next big iTunes revision will include better organization options for your iPhone / iPod touch apps, something vague concerning integration with Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm, and... Blu-ray support. To be fair, the HD disc format wars are all but over at this point, and the most recent Final Cut Pro actually lets you burn video directly to a third-party BD drive, only to have to play the discs on another, non-Mac device. This is all pretty sketch at the moment, and we doubt the boys in Cupertino will be showing their hands until just after the eleventh hour -- let's not forget, also, that iTunes is also available for Windows which does have other third-party Blu-ray players. In possibly related whispers, AppleInsider has offered some none-too-descriptive hints at possible iMac refresh with some improvements catering to the "semi-professional audio / video crowd." Between this and talk about a tablet, we can't wait for the next Apple press conference, if only to subside all the rumors for a few months.
Update: Our resident HD expert Ben Drawbaugh has chimed in on the matter, hypothesizing that this might be referring to support for Managed Copy, a digitized (and DRM restricted) copy of the film that you would save onto your local hard drive. But in that scenario, it still doesn't behoove Apple to add that to iTunes unless it was looking to put Blu-ray drives on its own machines, which makes this (still very faint) rumor all the more interesting.
Read - Apple iTunes 9 details, Blu-ray, app organization
Read - Apple's next iMacs rumored with compelling new features
Update: Our resident HD expert Ben Drawbaugh has chimed in on the matter, hypothesizing that this might be referring to support for Managed Copy, a digitized (and DRM restricted) copy of the film that you would save onto your local hard drive. But in that scenario, it still doesn't behoove Apple to add that to iTunes unless it was looking to put Blu-ray drives on its own machines, which makes this (still very faint) rumor all the more interesting.
Read - Apple iTunes 9 details, Blu-ray, app organization
Read - Apple's next iMacs rumored with compelling new features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Double-T @ Aug 8th 2009 2:58PM
What exactly does BR support mean for itunes?
And I can't imagine how much extra it will cost to buy a mac with a br drive. Ouch!
xemumanic @ Aug 8th 2009 3:09PM
But it's just like buying RAM from Apple.
If you're dumb enough to, then you deserve the insane added cost.
I'm not even a Mac guy and I know this.
xemumanic @ Aug 9th 2009 12:13AM
What I said before only really goes for the desktop Macs, pretty much the Mac Pro. You can get a SATA Blu Ray drive for less than $100 now.
But I realized another bit of irony that's gonna take place if this turns out to be true besides the 'bag of hurt' comment that was already ironic seeing as that statement came right after Apple introduced Macs with the NVidia 9400 GPU, which could handle all the Blu Ray decoding itself.
It's more general than that. Pretty much all the Apple fans are gonna go apeshit for the Blu Ray playback, when prior to that they were all toting the Apple PR line of iTunes and other such steaming formats. Patrick Norton already pointed that blind bias when he mentioned his most recent appearance on This Week in Tech on the EHD podcast a few weeks ago.
Just watch how all the Mac addicts quickly change their tune.
EatingPie @ Aug 9th 2009 5:17AM
>> "Pretty much all the Apple fans are gonna go apeshit for the Blu Ray playback, when prior to that they were all toting the Apple PR line of iTunes and other such steaming formats."
I have no idea where the hell you got this, but Mac fans have been jonesing for Blu-ray support for at least 2 years. iTunes has done nothing but interfere with Mac's including Blu-ray burners, and it sucks now, and it always has.
Just check any site, like the aforementioned Appleinsider, and you'll see the constant rumors of "THIS TIME there's Blu-ray, really we swear." So this is one time Mac geeks have seen beyond Jobs' RDS to the reality of blowing off a great technology.
This equates to you being totally off base here. Mac users want Blu-ray, and want it badly.
-Pie
PS I have always bought my Mac RAM and HDDs from 3rd parties because it was a ripoff from Apple. At least now hey are including a realistic amount of RAM in base configs.
Galley @ Aug 8th 2009 3:59PM
Perhaps it will mean support for Managed Copy.
Cap BD @ Aug 8th 2009 4:08PM
I'm with Galley on this. The main reason to have a BD writer is for Managed Copy. Of course, it could be for MacBooks as well, for people who want to take their BDs on the go.
DrXym @ Aug 9th 2009 5:00AM
I use by BD writer for data backups mostly. I doubt many people will ever use writers for managed copies until the cost of media comes down
I think a Mac with BD playback & DVD write functionality wouldn't add more than $75 to the production cost (probably less) but knowing Apple they'd slap $250 onto the price.
BH @ Aug 8th 2009 4:09PM
I just want the next macbook pro I buy to have a bluray drive in it. Heres hoping a year from now.
TeflonFong @ Aug 8th 2009 4:17PM
I guess now you can add music/video to blank BD-R's and BD-RE's via iTunes...or maybe iTunes will finally allow DVD/Blu-Ray movie playback?
Brian Kaempen @ Aug 9th 2009 2:17AM
@ xemumanic: I AM a Mac guy, and I've been a fan of Blu-ray since the format war started. Finally I gave up and just bought a BDP-S350. If Apple finally adds BD support, my "tune" will have stayed the same.
@ Cap BD: Right now all the Managed Copies I know of come on a separate standard DVD, is that not the case with Blu-rays? Also, you mean to say a "BD reader" right?
@ TeflonFong: Both Macs and PCs have separate applications for DVD playback, so no, iTunes will not become a DVD player. Front Row on Macs I can see getting a facelift so that they can playback BDs, but not iTunes. iTunes is for storing and syncing, not playback only.
-Brian
EatingPie @ Aug 9th 2009 5:32AM
I'm hoping it's not just about AACS Managed Copy (but even if it is, it requires reading the BD file format, something the Mac doesn't do). But there's one reason to believe that's not it.
No BDs (afaik) use Managed Copy; instead, they include a separate DVD with a Digital Copy. The reason is simple: most computers have a DVD reader, not a Blu-ray reader. So there'd be no way for the vast majority of users to get a BD Managed Copy version to their computer/iPod because they simply don't have the hardware to read it.
To include Managed Copy support in a new version of iTunes really doesn't get us anywhere. Not for a year or so a least.
Soooooo..... all this to say that I sure as heck hope it's about full-blown BD read/write/playback support for Blu-Ray hardware coming in the next refresh!
-Pie
xemumanic @ Aug 9th 2009 10:58AM
Mac fans who have issue with what I said, stop taking it personally if I'm talking about the Mac user base, because I never said ALL of you feel that way. There are many of you who have been waiting and clamoring for Blu Ray support just as much as anyone, this I know. Not having reader in Macbooks, or a burner in the Mac Pro is especially stupid, considering who buys Mac Pros.
There are tons of Mac fans who see the contradiction in Apple's PR when it comes to this as well, which is my core statement here. Why don't you all comment on that instead of meaningless side statements?
I honestly hope that the Mac platform gets to enjoy the Blu Ray format
"PS I have always bought my Mac RAM and HDDs from 3rd parties because it was a ripoff from Apple."
That was my point exactly, thanks for vindicating my joke............ (/facepalm)
xemumanic @ Aug 9th 2009 11:04AM
facepalm moment.............I DID put the word all, my bad, I didn't mean all.
EatingPie @ Aug 9th 2009 12:20PM
Wasn't vindicating, was agreeing with that aspect of your comment. From there I'd say that once the OS has BD support, you can get a 3rd party player... though as it stands right now, it's pointless because playback isn't supported at all.
And I while I appreciate your correction on the "all" part, I still disagree with you. As I said previously, pretty much any rumor site has talked about lack of Blu-ray support in Macs. It's the longest standing most wanted feature, though it's largely taken backseat to the iPhone.
I don't know a single person who has bought the Apple PR line (that plus AppleTV equals the *real* bag of hurt!); Apple wants to sell *their* content at the expense of providing a good feature -- LONG overdue -- for its user base. To suggest that many or most Mac users don't know this -- and just buy into the RDS -- just isn't something supported by the users, the blogs, or even the media.
-Pie
arf @ Aug 9th 2009 12:17PM
Seriously? I assumed Macs must have Bluray playback for ages, it's such old news. How come Apple are so far behind?
riverside_guy @ Aug 9th 2009 1:40PM
iTunes has NOTHING, ZERO to do with BD playback. It has everything to do with QuickTime, which is Apple's "OS" level platform for playing back various media types.
I think the "bag of hurt" comment was actually aimed at their programmers, most of whom were struggling to deal with the phone.
What I'm afraid they'll do is claim (falsely) they could ONLY support BD playback in QT X... meaning you'd have to ditch any machine that doesn't work with 10.6 for a machine that does.
xemumanic @ Aug 10th 2009 1:22PM
riverside_guy @ Aug 9th 2009 1:40PM
"iTunes has NOTHING, ZERO to do with BD playback. It has everything to do with QuickTime, which is Apple's "OS" level platform for playing back various media types."
Now there's an excellent point that hasn't been discussed yet.
QuickTime is getting an update of somewhat sizable proportions soon with Snow Leopard, if I'm not mistaken. I wonder to what extent its gotta do with this.
Brian Kaempen @ Aug 10th 2009 1:12PM
I can see SL being required for BD playback IF it arrives based solely on the DRM requirements. I have a 23" Cinema Display which plays OTA HDTV beautifully, but I've realized for a while now that even if Macs got the hardware and software for BD movies that I wouldn't be able to use my Cinema Display because I'm 99.9% sure the DVI doesn't have HDCP baked in. I heard somewhere about DisplayPort and HDCP but haven't heard a solid 100% that it does include it (anyone remember the debacle with iTunes movies and VGA displays and projectors?). In order to give BD playback to Leopard users, that would require a substantial software update for DVD Player and then some other major update to make sure there's a "secure path" for the video. At least with SL, all that can be included already, so you plug in your own drive and it just works, no updates or patches to install first (isn't that why we got a Mac in the first place?)
Damn DRM, when will the movie studios learn?
-Brian