“Dell has joined the small group of companies producing Blu-ray products, announcing its first notebook computer with a Blu-ray drive,” Simon Aughton reports for ITPro. “The announcement cements its long-established support for the optical disc format in preference to HD DVD.”
Aughton reports, “Blu-ray is an option on the new XPS M1710 notebook and provides support for playback of the limited but slowly growing number of Blu-ray movie titles. It also allows data burning on both 25GB single-layer and 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray (BD) discs.”
Aughton reports, “Dell is a long-time backer of Blu-ray as a founding member of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) in May 2004, along with Sony, which developed the technology, HP, Hitachi, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thomson. Apple joined the BDA in March 2005.”
“Toshiba [released] its first HD DVD notebook in May of this year and Microsoft offering [HD DVD] as an option with its Xbox 360 games console… Blu-ray has the backing of the world’s two largest PC makers [Dell and HP] and it will be fitted in the forthcoming Sony Playstation 3 console,” Aughton reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced on March 10, 2005 that Apple was “pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD.”
According to The Blu-ray Disc Association’s website, HD DVD’s pre-recorded capacities are 15 GB for a single layer disc, or 30 GB for a double layer disc. Blu-ray Disc provides 67% more capacity per layer at 25 GB for a single layer and 50GB for a double layer disc. It’s par for the course that Apple backs the superior format while Microsoft supports the inferior one.
It does, however, bear noting that Apple is playing both sides of the fence in a wait and see mode. According to a press release from April 17, 2005, “Apple is committed to both emerging high definition DVD standards—Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Apple is an active member of the DVD Forum which developed the HD DVD standard, and last month joined the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association.”
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TDK pumps Blu-ray capacity up to 200GB per disc – September 02, 2006
Over a dozen Hollywood studios announce movies on Blu-ray – August 29, 2006
Japanese Mac users get first Mac OS X-friendly Blu-ray burner – August 02, 2006
Roxio Toast 7 for Apple Mac adds Blu-ray support – July 25, 2006
Apple and Microsoft showdown over Blu-ray vs. HD DVD? – July 14, 2006
Analysts: Blu-ray coming to Apple Macs sooner than later – July 14, 2006
Ricoh creates ‘universal’ optical disk lens; reads and writes Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD, and CD – July 10, 2006
Blu-ray Disc blank media hits U.S. shelves – May 22, 2006
Blu-ray Disk Associaton: we’ll win DVD format war over HD-DVD – May 12, 2006
RUMOR: Apple asks studios to include iPod video content on Blu-ray discs – April 25, 2006
Sony postpones PlayStation 3 release until November due to Blu-ray delay – March 15, 2006
Broadcom announces decoder chip that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD – January 03, 2006
Forrester Research: Apple-backed Blu-ray will win over Microsoft-backed HD DVD – October 20, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘it looks as if HD DVD’s days are numbered’ – October 07, 2005
China to develop own as-yet-unnamed DVD format; Blu-ray vs. HD DVD vs ? – October 07, 2005
Paramount’s decision gives Blu-ray slight lead over HD DVD in next gen DVD format war – October 04, 2005
Record set straight on Blu-ray Disc Association’s superior high definition format – September 29, 2005
Microsoft backs cheaper, less sophisticated, lower capacity HD DVD over Apple-backed Blu-ray format – September 27, 2005
Twentieth Century Fox joins Apple, Dell, HP, others to support Blu-ray Disc format – July 29, 2005
Poll shows Apple-backed Blu-ray preferred by consumers over HD DVD for next-gen DVD standard – July 14, 2005
Microsoft allies with Toshiba on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc backers Apple and Sony – June 27, 2005
Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors – March 10, 2005
At Bestbuy last night I saw a Sony HDTV hooked up to a Blu-Ray player. Unbelievable great picture. But that Blu-Ray player price!!! Ouch.
WOW
dell does know how to play “follow the leader” these days!
so who would want to buy a dell box that hasn’t learned how to twofer yet!
when you can buy a Mac and get access two different OS’s for the price of one – but for the life of me, I wouldn’t now what to do with the other OS – after using OS X for all this time!
but it’s nice to have that option for those rainy day needs.
some people do so love to waste good money while getting short changed in the process!
plus they thing there saving money too!
Rooting for which new format wins is like hoping to get dick cancer over ebola.
Either way, the consumer will lose due to much more restrictive DRM. Frankly, I hope both lose.
Dell may suck in myriad ways, but at least they’re smart enough to back Blu-ray.
I saw a Blu-ray demo the other day and it was pretty stunning. So, I bit the bullet and ordered new 40″ Sony 1080p TV. It’s on it’s way! Now all I need is a Blu-ray player. Netflix carries Blu-ray disks now.
The price of a good Blu-ray player is high, but in line with what a 1st generation player will cost. I remember those clunky $1000 NEC CD players?
Anyway, let’s hope Apple packs Macs with Blu-ray reader/burners SOON!
The Movie industry learned the lessson the Music industry refused to learn. Instead of raising the fidelity of CD by packing more information on them ( hence making them more cumbersome for the average person to copy) they just filed lawsuits. Lawsuits stood no chance against the internet.
Now if good quality movies are only available on 100-200GB formats then only the tech geeks will be have HD storage for more than 1 movie. The larger the format and data the more specialized the equipment needed to dupe the media.
Large capacity DVD’s are far better solution for the Movie industry than lawsuits and DRM’s.
Just my $0.02
anyone think the iTV will have blue ray playback capability?
What is frustrating (as a full-time videographer) is the fact that I can shoot DVCPRO-HD, edit that same content on FCP, but have no way of giving my client a fully authored hi-def DVD. Why Apple has no software support for the existing Blu-Ray burners baffles my mind. I thought last year was the year of HD!
Blu-Ray players are still around $600. The price will need to drop to $300 to become accepted.
I can’t find out how my the BR drive costs at Dell but that machine is a cool 3600, so it’s has probably added another 700 onto the price.
The neat thing is that the drive is capable of burning discs. I wonder if there is any software available yet to run it.
So what we need is:
Mac OS X to have BR support.
Toast to work with BR
Discs to become available (and relatively cheap)
Drives to go down to $300
Players to go down to $300.
Now much to ask!! I give it a year
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I couldn’t care less how much more data BR holds. Who needs more than 15GB anyway? And since when does the amount of storage a disc hold have any bearing on superiority of the format.
Gee honey, my disc failed burning after 50Gb! Go grab another overpriced BR or HD disc to back up my stupid baby pictures!
I got the HD player for my xbox an that is a steal for $200. MS is losing money on it too!
They both provide the same picture quality.
Why does MDN have to take such a juvenile approach to comments on such an unimportant topic.
The logic is therefore that if BR holds more data than HD then it must be superior. OK. Then I guess VHS is better than Beta. Not really. Beta was always a better quality image and a smaller form factor. Chew on that MDN.
You guys really need to comment on stuff that matters.
Anyone staying on top of this issue already knows that BluRay is going down in flames, so it’s a good thing Apple is “playing both sides of the fence”.
BR discs are 5x more expensive to produce than HDDVD discs; the players are 2x more expensive; the discs themselves are very difficult to layer, which eliminates – actually negates – their space advantage over HDDVD (which are as easy to layer as reg DVD); and despite all the talk of ‘industry support’, the selection of movies found on HDDVD is far outstripping what can be found on BR at present.
Anyone planning to upgrade their computer, or home theater systems, with ‘next gen optical technology’ (which itself is a hysterical claim, since optical discs are well on their way out) would be well served to avoid BluRay technology at all costs. HDDVD is the omre cost effective alternative now, and has more space capacity (via effective layering) going forward.
Unless your intent on supporting SONY and it’s new PS3, it just isn’t worth it.
Ha! I’m still waiting for my Spider Man 3 movie released on HD DVD format, FAT chance!!! LOL! It’s the content, STUPID!
… isn’t out on ANY format, because IT HASN’T EVEN COME OUT YET.
Idiot.
Why do I get the feeling that we are on the receiving end of sales pitches already?
Has MS got a $100m fund to go to people spamming forums with just how good HDD is and how bad is BR??!?!?
Or am I just too cynical?
MAC PRO!! WITH BLUE RAY AND BETTER VIDEO!!!!!!!! NEW WHEN??????????? MAC PRO USERS NEVER RECEIVE NATHING FOR CHRITMASS 🙁
I have a Blu-ray player and I find that the quality is truly great.
And unlike what one of the other posters said, I do care about the extra storage that Blu-ray provides. We don’t know what our storage needs will be in a few years, and I certainly won’t settle for a lower capacity only people Microsoft has said that it’s good enough for the masses.
Wasn’t it Bill Gates who used to say that a 10 MB hard drive would be more than enough for consumers?
And I just happen to have an empty slot in my Mac Pro who’s seeking companionship
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I believe that Blu-Ray will be the way to go with hi-definition content in its infancy stage. Let’s not forget that RED (RED ONE)is working on a camera that will capture not only 1080p, but 2K and 4K as well. That is a huge amount of information to store.
HD-DVD is already outdated…
The “superior” format does not always win these wars. Back in the day most video pros felt Beta was a better format than VHS and we all know who won that war. And you all might be familiar with another “war” being lost to inferior technology: the PC vs. Mac sales wars.
“It does, however, bear noting that Apple is playing both sides of the fence in a wait and see mode”
No Apple’s just slow to introduce new features compared to the WinTel world.
That’s been pretty obvious ever since Apple introduced WinTel Macs, the’re on average slower to introduce new processors etc than mainstream vendors.
Why burn to very slow optical drive that is Blu-ray, it’s much cheaper and faster and greater capacity to use external HD?
The war is stupid, both HD DVD and Blu-ray use same disc format and file structure and are now starting to use same codec (they both support same three). So the real diffence comes down to:
* physical structure of disc and who patent money goes to
* interactive menus and who patent money goes to
Simply larger capacity does not make Blu-ray superior. Blu-ray has anti-consumer measures like extra DRM and Region Encoding (no buying discs in other countries) at request of some studios (Fox for one).
The AV / Home Theater crowd has gone for HD DVD in a big way, and they buy a lot of movies. This is why sales of HD DVD discs continue to outsell Blu-ray even though there are many more manufacturers of Blu-ray players and the PS3 has been launched.
http://www.thedvdwars.com