Editorial: Is Apple Gearing Up to Support Blu-ray?
When most people think of Apple and it’s relationship with Blu-ray, the first thing that usually comes to mind is what Steve Jobs said last fall. When discussing the licensing and fees involved in manufacturing the hardware he pulled no punches; “Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt.” But what most people seem to forget is the second part of that quote, where he goes on to say “we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.”
Well things have settled down a bit. Blu-ray, once merely a contender for the future of disc-based media, has won a resounding victory over it’s competitor HD-DVD. Blu-Ray drives are available (and now becoming commonplace) in higher end Windows-based PC’s. Q1 2009 sales of blu-ray movies were more than double those from the previous year. Yes, it looks like blu-ray is here to stay for the forseeable future. But does that mean Apple wants any part of it?
According to PC World, a prerelease version of iTunes 8.2 was shipped to developers this past Tuesday that indicated the program would indeed offer Blu-ray disc playback. While it does seem a clear indicator that we can expect a blu-ray rollout in the near future, there’s another side to this that’s just not being explored.
There seems to be a trend towards the abandonment of physical media in recent years, a trend that was spearheaded by iTunes at its inception. And while blu-ray is certainly beginning to cement itself into living rooms and dens across North America, there’s another school of thought that sees it as the last in a dying series of store-bought goods. Blu-ray may have won the battle over physical media, but it’s still embroiled in a war against downloadable content — a war in which Apple is a five-star general. The iTunes Store already offers up high definition feature films that are in direct competition with blu-ray. Apple would essentially be adding the competitions hardware to Macs.
And yet maybe that’s what they need to do. Staying relevant is an important thing in the tech world. Offering consumers the choice between blu-ray films and downloadable HD content may be a step that Apple needs to take so that they aren’t defeated by their own hubris. Even Jobs himself didn’t deny the possibility, remember? “”we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.” Things settled down, even for the licensing headaches that last October were “a bag of hurt.” In February Sony, Philips and Panasonic got together to announce a new licensing structure that should take all of the pain out of the process.
But what does this all mean? The image seen above, while likely real, isn’t really confirmation of anything in particular. It’s just as likely that Apple uses as blanket “About Us” statement across all platforms, and that iTunes 8.2 may simply offer blu-ray playback for PC users that are already enjoying the format through a different media player. Will Macs ever see the option of blu-ray playback? Given the seemingly dying nature of physical media, will you be annoyed if they don’t?
Dying Physical Media, Really?? So those millions of discs being sold every week, who are they going to?
And those people and companies supporting bluray, who are they selling to?
I hear a lot about downloads (usually by former hddvd owners and microsoft supporters) but wheres the money? They arent making Jack on video downloads (the studios).
I dont know anyone who sits around their home tv watching downloaded movies off the internet. What box are they watching these on?
The future is here and its Blu.
Digital video downloads are where music downloads were 3-5 years ago. The quality is poor compared to the physical disk, it has restrictive DRM, prices seam high as you don’t get the extra features and broadband speeds/data caps are poor for many people.
As these problems disappear over time (although the studios are still clinging to DRM) digital video will become more popular but the biggest hurdle that I see is TV playback.
Movies are primary watched on large screen TVs in the living room and as yet there are no devices capable of playing digital content that have captured the imagination of the mass market.
Blu-ray has none of these issues, you buy a player and a disk, put the disk in the player and it works. Digital video downloads still have too many issues to trump Blu-ray but saying that Blu-ray still hasn’t trumped DVD.
What box? How about a Windows Media Center, XBox, Mac Mini, AppleTV or any of the other set-top solutions out there. I agree that the average Joe is probably still buying physical media, but he probably still can’t see the need to buy a new, expensive player and Blu-Ray discs. What problem is Blu-Ray solving anyway, aside from providing more profit for the studios as movie fanatics replace their DVD collections? As an archival data storage medium, Blu-Ray does have some promise, but how is it the future? Why would I want to own movies? Netflix is so popular because it makes renting convenient. But mailing DVDs (and Blu-Ray discs) around the country is just a stop-gap solution — once digital delivery becomes fast enough to efficiently deliver DVD quality, why would we still need the discs at all? We’re almost there already.
Blu-ray faces an uncertain future. DVDs aren’t going anywhere, I be they will still be around in 20 years. They are cheap, simple, work and for the majority of people look and sound great. I don’t see Blu-ray replacing DVDs for the masses, just doesn’t offer enough over DVDs. This is very different to the way DVDs replaced VHS – there was real value to the masses in that move.
Regarding download – I don’t think video download will replace DVDs or Blu-ray any time soon. But I do think downloads mean DVDs and Blu-ray will be the last mainstream physical media video distribution. Just like CDs are the last mainstream audio distribution.
Blu ray isn’t just for the consumer. It is also for the professional market.
Studios and individuals want to be able to edit their HD films and put them onto a removable media for showcasing. Nothing else comes even close to blu ray for this.
It is also a great medium to archive lots of data both 25 gb and 50 gb.
Apple better get their act together because all the graphic artists and edit houses that use Final Cut are waiting anxiously for blu ray. If they don’t hurry it up, these people will switch to Windows based AVID systems.
I agree. There’s more to Blu-ray than just movie playback. What’s the point of being able to import and edit HD material on your Mac if there’s no way burn that HD material onto physical media? ie. Blu-ray.
[...] Here me now believe me later. Apple will support Blu-Ray in one form or another. They won’t make a big deal of it because it could threaten there digital download business. ? [...]
I enjoy useing my AppleTV all the time and love the HD quality. Its’ HD even cost less than that found on my ON DEMAND service through Comcast. The picture and sound are way better too coming from the AppleTV than from my cable company!! The thing is though that picture is only 720p with a super compressed audio. WIth Bluray you get 1080p and full ‘true’ digital surround sound. Everything is higher quality on Bluray becasue you have so much space and no bottleneck like with downloads. You even get extras and have a reliable hardcopy.
And I’m one of those filmmakers/photographers that would love to create HD content for clients to see. I’d also like to be able to back up large files too. Though holographic discs are being develped that can hold even more than Bluray discs; so maybe Bluray is just a stepping stone for whats to come- 2k and 4k movies on holographic discs played through 2k/4k digital projectors!
Dear fellows: Please keep in mind that there are still a lot of countries, where it’s not possible to download HD movies – or even movies at all – from iTunes. And I mean countries in the middle of Europe. As long these kind of progress is kept alone to just some countries, the physical medias will stay for a long time. And also there must first come very easy solutions for common people before they watch online (HD) movies. Not everyone has the knowledge, patience and money to buy, build or handle a Media Center as they exist today (no matter if with Windows or Mac – i used both). There are still big gaps between wishes and reality. In my opinion Apple must and they will support Bluray in the (very) near future or they get ridicolous. Every new PC and Notebook has a Bluray-Drive.
@redfoxpro – totally agree. I also don’t like that digital HD movie downloads take a lot of hard drive space, and need to be backed-up (another large hard drive and expense). Just gimme a Bluray disc.
Also, I already have a camera that records 1080p video, but I’m recording in SD quality. It’s only for home movies, but why should I upgrade my Mac to one that can play HD video (yes, my Mac is getting dated) when I can’t natively burn a Blu-Ray? (An external Blu-ray recorder and Toast would just add to the cost, and isn’t worth it when I’m only recording home movies…)
apple if they wanted to could add blu-ray support within a week.
but they dont make money when u go rent a blu-ray movie so why should thay,
they know thier customers will settle for technologically older sstandard since there is no other choice.
take for example the first gen iphone with no 3g, that was a joke, and look at all the people that bought it.
It is going to take years for the Blue-Ray to settle down the same comfortable way the DVDs are now. People simply got used to them. DVDs become affordable, simple to use and most of all easy to edit (as a video standard).
Blue-Rays may be appealing – offering so fasionable today hight definision, but the magicpops when it comes down to editting a HD content. I think that untill computting power (no matter MACs or PCs) lets edit HD content flowlessly, people will walk by the Blue-Ray shelves untouched.
At Chris Vernon: 20 years to move to Blu Ray is a silly estimate. I bet you in 5 years or less, Blu Ray will have swallowed the DVD format.
Apple Inc. is a supporting member of the Blu-ray Association, so I would assume that they would be releasing blu-ray themselves if not soon, eventually.
I for one want to view my bleary discs on my beautiful mac screen. I want to back up my data to media that will be big. I regularly work with 100mb .PSD files and yes I want a large rewrite-able solution.Speaking of witch now that HD digital capable camcorders are out there creating large amounts of content by the everyday joe who has a need to distribute it to a media disc that can be shared or just viewed on his large 50 inch 1080p TV using his blurry player. The other option is to create his home HD bleary disc on a PC. Does anyone remember just how well a p.c. does with just normal video. PLEASE PLEASE give my rewriteable blueray on my MAC. A p.c. can’t do the job but my MAC I love be cause it never hangs with the video. And I mean never. debate over! We,,, You and I need bleary on our beloved macs.
Personally, I like the cover art of my “favorite” movies that I collect. I want the “physical” format for my own collection, not just some digital media format . . . often I want both! For those movies that are simply “so-so”, I’d be happy with digital media versus a physical box taking up physical space. Either way, give ME, the consumer, a choice! I’m personally holding out on buying any more Mac’s until they offer the basic blu-ray support.