Filed under: Portables, iMac, Mac mini, Macbook Pro
FastMac offers slot loading Blu-ray burner
A while back we mentioned that MCE was offering a tray-loading Blu-ray burner for the Mac Pro line (and older Power Mac G5s). Now FastMac is bringing Blu-ray to most of the rest of the Mac line with a slot-loading Blu-ray burner that fits the MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, as well as some older Mac portables (conspicuously missing from the list is the regular MacBook). The drive comes bundled with Toast 8, and will burn Blu-ray (50GB) and "all DVD and CD recordable media including DVD±R/RW + Dual/Double Layer, DVD-RAM, and CD-R and CD-RW." FastMac seems to suggest that the drive will play Blu-ray movies ("when you're ready to kick back and relax, enjoy the latest ultra-HD titles Hollywood has to offer"), but to my knowledge there is no available Blu-ray playback software for the Mac so I'm not sure how that's supposed to work.In any case, the slim Blu-ray burner is available now for $799.95
[Via MacMinute]
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Aleks said 11:22AM on 4-07-2007
Now we only need a software player for the mac to playback the blu-ray movies :)
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Paul M said 11:25AM on 4-07-2007
How can this play BluRay on Imac without the hdmi connection???
I think it's impossible to use this to see BluRay-film, but only to read BluRay-data
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Mat Lu said 11:44AM on 4-07-2007
@2: the drive installs INSIDE the computer, replacing the original drive.
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Paul M said 12:01PM on 4-07-2007
for Mat_Lu
You install inside the computer using ata cable and with ata cable you don't have the HighDef-video with Hdcp protection.
With this driver you won't be able to see BluRay on Imac
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Mat Lu said 12:20PM on 4-07-2007
@4: your original comment mentioned HDMI, which is a cable standard (basically DVI plus digital audio); your second comment is talking about HDCP, which is a copy protection standard. HDMI connectors may, though do not necessarily, have HDCP support. As things stand now, however, Blu-ray movies generally lack HDCP protection, so it doesn't really matter (though that might change). Now if you look on the Windows side you'll see that they already have Blu-ray playback software for Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives like PowerDVD. So clearly, if the software were there the Mac could play these movies; the problem is software not hardware.
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Stephen said 12:38PM on 4-07-2007
I think what Paul M is getting at is that the iMacs themselves do not necessarily have HD monitors...
I personally do not own one, so I don't know, and I can't find the resolutions on Apple's website - It's something to consider.
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Mat Lu said 12:45PM on 4-07-2007
@6: well that's not quite right either, the 24" iMac has a full 1080p (1920x1080) capable monitor (it is actually 1920x1200). For the smaller iMacs, if the software were there the image could be downcoverted (basically the same thing that happens when a 1080p source is connected to a 720p monitor, e.g. most "720p" LCDs are actually 1366x768). The 17" iMac is 1440x900; the 20" is 1680x1050. I reiterate, the problem is mostly software not hardware.
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Leonard Nimrod said 12:48PM on 4-07-2007
The MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro use an ultra-slim optical drive. This ultra-slim drive restriction is what made the first 15" MacBook Pro that was released just over a year ago to only have a single-layer DVD burning capabilities and slower read/write capabilites over the previous generation's Powerbook optical drives.
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Scott said 1:25PM on 4-07-2007
lol $800? Crimey you geeks.....
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Ahmad said 2:05PM on 4-07-2007
$800 dollars
worth it.
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Aaron Vets said 2:26PM on 4-07-2007
@ Ahmad: $800 worth it?! Are you freakin crazy....think about how much hard drive space I could buy with that money! (750GB Seagate's going for $300) That is of course if you're using it for data storage. But, why spend $800 on a tech that will be half that in less than a year and obsolete in 3-5??! You know of course(with the TV and all) that HD video will be offered online very soon....therefore no need to be able to read (old-tech) optical discs(even if you condider blu-ray new tech, it's old already) Personally I'm waiting for 1TB holographic discs...I'd be more willing to spend $800 on a drive that could read those! Anyways, my 2 cents!
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Ahmad said 6:48PM on 4-07-2007
fwoosh!
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JeffDM said 5:06PM on 4-08-2007
The ICT flag that would require HDCP won't be required on any titles until about 2010. After that, ICT-flagged titles would require HDCP or else the player would be required to down-res the video to 540p.
It doesn't matter if a display is 1080. Most HDTVs are 720p, which is about what the Mac Book is. Even at 720p, a video looks a lot better than a 480p DVD, or heaven forbid, a 480i DVD.
What really does matter is the lack of playback software.
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