“Sony is in talks with console rival Microsoft about offering a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360, according to a senior executive,” Chris Nuttall reports for The Financial Times.
“The Japanese electronics maker has until now touted Blu-ray as an advantage its PlayStation 3 holds over Microsoft’s console. Microsoft has backed Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and offered an HD-DVD drive that can be plugged into the 360,” Nuttall reports. “But after Sony’s victory last month in the high-definition DVD format war, Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronics US president, said the two sides were now talking about Microsoft adopting Blu-ray.”
Nuttall reports, “Mr Glasgow, speaking at a media dinner, added that discussions were also taking place with Apple, which has not offered Blu-ray drives on any of its computers so far and has focused on digital media via downloads and streaming through devices such as its Apple TV.”
Nuttall reports, “On Blu-ray pricing, Mr Glasgow expects prices of players to drop to as low as $299 by the end of the year. They currently cost $399 and higher. He feels the price of a player could fall to about $200 by the end of 2009.”
Full article here.
iDon’t: Can you record on Blu-ray?
Yes, contrary to HD-DVD there are actually working BlueRay burners even today. As far as I know the maximum media capacity available is 50GB.
Theoretically iDVD and/or its professional cousin should be able to author and burn BlueRay at some point, but that is not the case yet.
Nor can the DVD Player application play BlueRay disks at this time.
The problem is most probably that the DRM used on BlueRay disks would require Apple to nail OS X shut to a degree we’ve not seen so far. Apple’s resistance to that is probably the main reason why it’s not happened yet – in addition to the AppleTV.
I guess Jobs is waiting for a) AppleTV becoming somewhat more established and b) the BlueRay DRM to be cracked á la Handbrake so the studios might give up at least some DRM requirements for a Mac BlueRay playback application.
I don’t think Jobs loves the thought of having the content industry dictate to him what he can or can’t do with his own operating system, so in return he’s demonstratively reluctant to support their (now) favourite format…
i believe Job’s answer to sony and the world regarding blu-ray can be answered by looking at the macbook air
The only thing you get with Optical Disks that you don’t get with Downloadable content is Merchant trash such as coverbox, insert, protective wrap and spam.
Why do I need to get another shelf for my media when I can fit it all on my 1TB iMac.
a 1TB Apple TV and I am there.
Flash drives (USB or otherwise) will take over old fashioned spinning disks.