Electronista reports, “Microsoft last night posted a video taking a mild jab at Apple for the lack of Blu-ray on Macs. The roughly minute-long spot personifies a MacBook and a Windows 7 notebook on a flight and has the Windows system play a Blu-ray copy of Avatar that the both of them enjoy. The Mac isn’t criticized but is clearly envious, saying that the movie is ‘so cool.'”
“Microsoft’s promo notably omits the [Mac users’] download option, which would negate some of the advantage. iTunes is currently limited to 720p instead of Blu-ray’s 1080p, but both can produce surround sound and have access to special features. The Windows 7 user would have access to other digital movie stores, but with Blu-ray would have to purchase the disc to practically take it on a flight as well as own a heavier, relatively expensive notebook,” Electronista reports. “The Mac user could rent an iTunes download and wouldn’t need an optical drive at all or to chew battery life through spinning an optical drive.”
Full article, with the video, here.
I am SOOOO envious. I’m going to go right out and buy a Winblows PC
@Predrag
Sorry for the lack of detail, well, it was a combination of things (no particular order):
– Lack of Blu-ray support
– Very slow DVD copy speeds under Mac OS X
– General document compatibility (wanted it to be seamless and it’s just not)
– iWork Numbers is just not better than Microsoft Excel (Windows edition) for hard core use
– Network file copy is atrociously slow on Mac OS X
– Broader third-party device support on Windows, including eSATA and USB 3.0
– Windows 7 UI is aesthetically pleasing to me as a work environment
– Price point better on PC platform (more power for same or less cost)
For me it’s not about brand loyalty, or being different, just looking for the best tool for me to do my work and enjoy all my media (not just media from the Apple ecosystem). Right now, a PC with Windows 7 seems to be doing the trick.
Yes I’m a Mac user…
Maybe you should have read what I said. I have NEVER purchased or rented anything from iTunes… Movie/tv anyway.
I rip or download something I want to watch.
And “if I can bring a cd” ???
Again… I download/rip what I bring. No disc period.
I also said I would like to see a blu ray OPTION on an iMac. Not MacBooks.
Those that were talking about streaming is better than blu ray… I just said that not everyone has Internet access 100% of the time, hence the commercial was set on an airplane.
Streaming is fine if you do have Internet, high speed anyway.
Aside from my corporate gig, I do a fair number of custom freelance builds/installs on the side, usually in the $2k-$4k price range. I can count on one hand the number of users that have asked for BD optical units installed. No one seems to care.
I’m all about choice in computing, but if BD functionality is a selling point of Windows, it’s not a very good one.
I prefer Blu-ray.
Cloud crap, not so much.
Apple doesn’t seem to care, as they can make more money off cloud services (.mac).
Oh well. I like OS X and will fork over some $$$ for an external BR player/burner.
I love my BD on my 52 screen with 5.1 sound. What the hell would I want it on a laptop for; so I can take it to a friends house and use there TV, yea right. The first thing Sony wants you to do is to hook it up to the Internet, because it is a “evolving technology”. As in we need to update the thing when a DRM workaround come along. Is there a affordable burner out there for laptops? If not then no use as backup storage. Sorry but I do not see the point. A properly placed backlit keyboard and the best track pad on the market is worth a lot more than a disk drive I can’t get any real use out of.
Hey Mac users, you can’t read 5 1/4 floppy drives and I do can in my windows PC…
:p
Does “PC” stands for “Pure Crap”?
Hey, good for you Switcher. I’m transferring slowly to a PC from using a Mac for a little over 4 years as we speak. Windows 7 has caught up and surpassed in so many ways. Don’t be blinded by fanboyism… Use what you need most.
Hate to say it, but even the Adobe software is much less buggy in Win7.
The video is great. I loved at the end the it said, repeatedly, that this was not made on a Mac. Unlike the “i’m a PC” ads. What about instant on, “are you awake” crap? Maybe it was a play on words, you call it “sleep” and we call it “standby”. Mac could go “how does that look any better than the DVD on my screen and stereo speakers. That would be great. It is a good laugh.
Built-in Blu-ray on a large iMac (on the other hand) would be a nice option.
You can’t tell the difference between 1080 and 720 on a laptop unless you pixel-peeped. Idiotic.
Besides, I record movies to an external HD using EyeTV, in HD and SD. Several hundred movies and over 1TB later, I just transfer any movies I want to watch before I fly.
Wow!
That is just uncanny!
Two Mac users have switched over to Windows in the last 10 years and both of them have posted on this blog.
What are the odds of that happening? Especially as they are both happier than a pig in shit, using their Windows 7 hardware and they are both trolling a Mac blog.
Maybe they’re both having regrets. If they really were happy they would be over at Paul Thurrott’s Super Site for Windows right now, wouldn’t they?
Optical is not a thing of the past. I still need a way to take the DVD and burn it to the hard drive to make it digital. I play DVDs in my iMac all the time.
Blu ray should be an option on portables. On iMacs just buy an external drive it’s faster anyway.
On a screen smaller then 46 in you can not tell the difference between 1080 and 720.
And if I knew I was going to watch movies on a flight I’d burn the movie to the hd so I don’t have to take some discs with me or I’d download from iTunes.
As other people have mentioned, I didn’t realize that they sold 50″ laptop screens. Kind of hard to open it up with those cramped airplane seats.
I really like the MS commercial showing the lady franken-photoing her family’s holiday picture. Can’t wait until the next commercial, showing some creepy dude taking out the husband and inserting himself next to the wife in the pictures.
I like the best quality image I can get. Blu-ray provides that. Don’t tell me I can’t tell the difference between 720p and 1080p when I can consistently identify the two.
I am also old. I like owning physical media. I have a fast internet connection, but don’t want to wait an hour to watch a movie, or depend on being online to watch it.
I have a blu-ray RW drive I got from OWC. It installed without issue. I have software that can decode the disc and make me a digital copy of any movies that don’t come with one.
The only limitation I have is that I cannot actually watch the movie off the disc on my mac, something I have never done before anyway. That said, it would be nice if iTunes or Quicktime could play them. So I’m hardly envious, but it is an ability I would like on my mac.
@Big Als MBP
Wouldn’t say I am “trolling”, we have two iMacs at home, and use them regularly, just that I’ve switched back to a PC for work and travel. Ultimately I like using the best tool for the job, blind allegiance one way or another speaks of a limited mind to me. I think Steve Jobs said it best, for Apple to win it doesn’t mean others have to lose (or something to that effect). In many respects they’ve done just that, but they don’t always have the best tool for every computing job that’s all.
? Get a life MS, its 2010… Bluray? Can the Xbox play that? Whatever.. thanks for the history lesson guys
phhhhhht
I LOLLLLL!!!!!!!!
at you mactards with your subpar specs,
foaming and frothing at the mouths with jubilant self righteousness
it amuses me that Were you to be bequeathed with blowjob’s generosity and thus be allowed to play with a new feature such as blu-ray, you’d all be falling over each other to see who could suckle on his teat first
@ Switcher… I can’t say I fault you on your decisions for going back to Windows. Windows 7 is a fully viable OS and can do most any job very well.
I prefer to stick with Mac OSX as I believe it just keeps getting better and there is still no viruses.
@The Switcher
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Why would we attack? You have used both platforms and you made a choice. It isn’t the right choice for me. But I fully support your right to make a poor choice for yourself
Honestly, it would be nice to have the option to substitute or add a Blu-ray player to Macs. But I do believe SJ when he says that the movie industry has loaded Blu-ray with a bag ‘o hurt that consolidates their DRM lockdown. The movie industry was not pleased with the DRM weakness of the DVD format and they are terrified of ending up like the music industry.
Practically speaking, Blu-ray is a hardcopy solution only at this point. The vast majority of the people in the U.S. do not have the bandwidth to download Blu-ray content, or the storage to handle more than a dozen or so titles on top of everything else.