Blu-Ray for MacBooks (finally)
No, Apple hasn't finally caved into their high end users' demands and offered a Blu-Ray option on their portable line. Aftermarket specialist Fastmac has, however, and is offering the 50Gb Optical Disc upgrade on some of Apple's recent laptops and consumer desktops:
- iBook G4
- iMac G5
- iMac Intel
- MacBook Pro (17-inch)
- Mac mini
- PowerBook G3 Pismo
- PowerBook G4 Titanium (667 Mhz or higher)
- PowerBook G4 Aluminum
The $1000 pricetag is hefty for the average Joe, but if you are in the making-movie biz and need to do work on a laptop, this is almost a no-brainer.
We are not sure we'd want to drop a G on Blu-Ray for an iBook but we can't wait to see the 17 inch HD screen enabled playback version of the device!
From the company's press release:
http://fastmac.com/press/pr_42.php
Fastmac Announces 2X Blu-Ray Optical Drive Upgrade for Laptops; Low Profile Slot Loading Drive Provides 50 GB of Storage on 1 Disk for Apple PowerBook, iBook, MacBook Pro, iMac & Mac mini; New Drive Cuts Burn Times in Half
October 05, 2007
Salinas, CA - Fastmac today announced the first & only 2X Blu-Ray optical drive upgrade for Apple's PowerBook, iBook & MacBook Pro computers. The new slimline, slot loading drive uses the fastest & most compatible Blu-ray mechanism available to provide up to 50 GB of storage on 1 disk, without sacrificing compatibility with standard DVD & CD recordable media. Fastmac's Blu-Ray optical drive upgrade is scheduled to ship within 30 days and is available for pre-order from www.fastmac.com for a special introductory price of $999.95. Each drive carries a 1 year warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee .Fastmac's new Blu-ray slot loading drive gives photographers, videographers & musicians the ability to save anything, anywhere- now twice as fast. System and database administrators can archive and retrieve large amounts of data on 1 convenient disk. And consumers can now watch today's latest HD content in true high definition with surround sound anytime & anywhere they happen to be. Blu-ray is the next generation of storage technology & entertainment and it's available today, only from Fastmac.
Fastmac's new Blu-Ray slot loading drive has been tested and certified compatible with Adobe's Premiere Pro CS3 video production software that includes Adobe Encore CS3 and is part of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium Collection. Adobe Encore CS3 integrates with Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Premiere to provide a rich set of creative tools for the production and output of full-featured, menu-driven DVD and Blu-Ray Discs. It is the only video production and editing software available for the Mac OS that supports built-in Blu-Ray Disc authoring for playback on stand-alone Blu-Ray DVD players & the Sony PlayStation 3.
About Blu-ray
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disk (BD), is the name of a next generation optical disk format developed by a consortium of electronics and computer manufacturers including Apple, Dell, HP, JVC, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony & TDK. The format was designed to enable the recording and playback of High Definition (HD) content and to allow storage of large amounts (up to 200 Gb) of data. While current optical drive technologies rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser (hence the name, Blu-ray). The blue-violet laser has a 38% shorter wavelength (405nm) than a red laser (650nm), allowing the drive's optical pickup unit to focus more precisely than ever before. Data can then be packed more densely on standard sized disks. Despite using a new type of laser, Blu-ray drives are compatible with standard DVD and CD media through the use of a combined red, blue & violet optical reader and writer.In addition to broad support from the electronics, music, computer & video game industry, 6 out of 8 of the major Hollywood film studios support Blu-ray media and 5 out of those 6 (Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, MGM & Sony) have decided to release their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. With its forward and backward integration with new and old media, Blu-ray is destined to become the successor to today's DVD format.
Specifications
Fastmac's slimline Blu-ray slot loading optical drive supports reading, writing and re-writing to single and dual layer Blu-ray media at up to 2x speeds. The drive is also compatible with standard DVD and CD media and can write to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 8x speed in single layer and up to 2.4x speed in dual/ double layer mode. It can rewrite to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 4x speeds. The drive also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at up to 5x speeds and standard CD-R and CD-RW burning at 8x speeds.
Compatibility
Fastmac's slimline Blu-ray slot loading optical drive upgrade requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or higher and is compatible with the following Apple computers:iBook G4
iMac G5
iMac Intel
MacBook Pro (17-inch)
Mac mini
PowerBook G3 Pismo
PowerBook G4 Titanium (667 Mhz or higher)
PowerBook G4 AluminumBlu-ray burning requires 3rd-party software such as Adobe Premiere CS3 or Roxio's Toast 8 Titanium, which enables Blu-ray disk support in the Mac OS Finder. Native support for Blu-ray burning within iLife & iTunes is expected in the future via Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but cannot be guaranteed at this time.
About Fastmac
Fastmac is an OEM designer and manufacturer of innovative upgrade products that add value and extend usability of Apple computers & iPods. Fastmac's award-winning product line-up includes drive, CPU, LCD and battery upgrades, including the world's longest lasting PowerBook & iPod batteries & the only replacement batteries for Apple's latest MacBook portables. More information about Fastmac is available via http://www.fastmac.com/company
Press Contact
Michael Lowdermilk (Mlowdermilk at Fastmac dot com)
Business Development Manager
Fastmac Performance Upgrades
1172 S Main St., Suite 243
Salinas, CA 93901-2204
Tel: 408-850-6233
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Comments (21)
I want one!
Why no MBP 15" support?
How is that all of the "recent" Macs?
Where's the MacBook?
-Sam from MarketMatador.com
For the ones who need one accurately priced.
I'm still waiting for some news about the strange new macbook-trackpad... :-)
Thats all good and well having a bluray drive but without any blu ray movie software you wont be able to watch movies on your macbook. Unless there is some software i am unaware of?
Toast has blueray capabilities... data only I think, but maybe movie too
A 'no-brainer'? Hardly. If you want a large backup solution then an external HD is still cheaper per Gb, more reliable and far faster. Note that the product description stops short of saying that you'll be able to watch AACS-encoded retail BR discs.
Haha... that's true... and it is simply because you won't... I feel we will se a lot of crying when they try their brand new, $1000, BR disc and it shows the movie in 480i :D HAHAHAHA
Once again, the idiotic synicism of 9to5 kicks in. What's with the exagerrated opening line: "No, Apple hasn't finally caved into their high end users' demands..." Do you honestly think Apple would "cave in" to every whimsical technological advancement that is bound to come and go? Why do you think Macs don't have flash memory slots? Because that technology changes more often than I change my socks. The fact is, Apple isn't going to throw a Blue-Ray drive into your computer only for that to become obsolete in two weeks. Jobs knows your computer is able to last for years to come and you do NOT want a Blue-Ray drive sitting in there when those things aren't used anymore. The "Blue Ray" phenomenon is not catching on; Jobs knows it and will only jump on it if it catches a significant second wind (i.e. it overtakes DVD).
Sorry if all 5 people out there who desire Blue Ray are upset.
well, i would probably by 5 BLU-RAY drives myself, idiot!
Well some of us with HD video cameras would like the ability to burn Blu-ray and watch on our TVs without having to hook up the camera everytime. Sorry you have an SD camcorder.
Well, Leopard should, in DVD player, support Blu Ray and Hd DVD.
[quote=macmanager]Well, Leopard should, in DVD player, support Blu Ray and Hd DVD.[/quote]
do you know what is required of an OS and hardware platform to be permitted to have a license to playback commercial BluRay and HDDVD ?
this is half of what is making Vista suck so much.
to achieve the hardware and software requirements to be a full HD commercial content playback platform you need (fundamentally) a fully encrypted data path all the way from the optical disk to the light coming out of the display. This is a hardcore next-gen DRM system which adds significant gunk and cruft to the system.
Some or all of the following are needed, depending on the disk you wish to play:
- HDMI connected display (so throw away your 30" cinema lcd!)
- Encryption at bus level between the motherboard and video card (as in; high bandwidth realtime military grade encryption).
- signed videocard drivers with some undocumented 'special sauce' which prevents the card from being simulated.
- Internal software sandboxing, memory encryption (to prevent content being grabbed in realtime from running playback software)
- Realtime integrity checking (30times a second in Vista) that no part of the hardware of software is being emulated or meddled with in any way.
so, if apple chooses to support these disks you can throw away your existing Mac for a start.
for more info listen to Security Now episode 74, or read Peter Gutmann's paper Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/
http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
as a side note: Apple actually has supported both of these formats for some time. You can master HD-DVD and BluRay disks using DVD Studio Pro if you have the appropriate optical drive. And Apple DVD Player Does support HD playback from both formats, but only for unencrypted content.
the cost (in terms of hardware and software speed and reliability) of the license to playback HD commercial content is extortionate.
Blu-Ray is still a high priced commodity, not popular technology. 95% of mac portables users would have no need for this in a laptop, infact odds are most have no idea what it is. The other 5% now have an option.
If you buy five Blu-Ray drives let me know. I will call you in a week when the price is 75% lower and make a offer or just laugh at you, just like everyother guy (or occasional girl) who goes and gets the latest and greatest tech gadget.
Just for the record one person deciding to buy 5 Blu Ray does not in any way validate the fact that there is a popular demand in the tech market for such a commodity. This is faulty logic.
In my opinion. both Blue-ray and HD-DVD haven't yet proven to be mature enough to be announced 'high-demand'. At this time, enforcing such standards in Apple's portable line seems a bad decision. If such a standard is included in Apple's default hardware lineup, it's only to force the standard upon its users. I would be most happy if Jobs would 'wait' and see what happens with these formats the following months, *before* choosing one to use on the Mac. The HD format war still doesn't seem to give opinion/choice to its enduser - the consumer wanting to view HD content. Unfortunately, the war appears fought by the people pushing the technology upon us. That's you, companies.
Please, no HD-DVD or Blu-ray per default in the next MacBooks / MacBook Pro's. If we want HD-DVD or Blu-ray, let us buy a separate attachable drive for now.
the Macbook and Macbook Pro's use a slimmer lower profile drive. Fastmac has yet to produce a Blu Ray drive that slim, Give it time, give it time.. I'm sure they'll get around to it before Apple does.
Whether Blu-Ray or HD-DVD shows up in a future Mac will determine which format I support on the home theater. Still waiting!
They need to make an "Ultra-Drive" that supports blu-ray and hd-dvd...
Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group of companies representing consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion picture production.