Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Multimedia, Software, Odds and ends, iTunes, Apple, Developer
iTunes 8.2 to include Blu-ray support?
There's a new iTunes beta version out in developers' hands straight from Apple, and a forum poster over at Mac Rumors found a little something fun in the About screen: a reference to Gracenote's ability to identify Blu-ray discs. Gracenote is the service that IDs your CDs when you import them into iTunes, so you don't have to sit there and type all the track names and artist information in. Apparently Apple is mentioning that not only CDs and DVDs, but also Blu-ray discs, will get information from Gracenote in the latest version of iTunes.
This doesn't mean that Apple will adapt Blu-ray as a standard (though it would probably be about time, don't you think?). But it should mean that the future version of iTunes will include Blu-ray support, so if you happen to have a Blu-ray drive hooked up to your Mac, you'll be able to read or play the discs via iTunes.
It could just mean that Apple has upgraded the Gracenote version in their app, however, and that they have no plans to actually use it -- the text in the About screen could just be a boilerplate cut-and-paste from some required Gracenote documentation that happens to include "Blu-ray." We'll have to wait and see just what shows up in 8.2 when it eventually releases to the public.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
-TD- said 3:33PM on 5-19-2009
Did someone accidently select Restore in Time Machine?!
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Mel said 3:37PM on 5-19-2009
This was news 2 weeks ago? How is it relevant now? This site continues to amaze me.
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(01) said 7:23AM on 5-20-2009
Yeah, if we're getting our news from a poster on MacRumors these days I may have to take a break...
LD said 3:46PM on 5-19-2009
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/04/29/beta-4-of-iphone-sdk-3-is-out/#comments
In the comments section April 29.
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A1 said 3:47PM on 5-19-2009
Yeah, old news and yeah apple needs to support Blu-ray like now. BD movies are great but being able to burn my HVX footage without (much) compression would be fantastic.
(Yeah and not through toast :)
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Eric Warnke said 3:46PM on 5-19-2009
Or maybe they just updated the legalese from gracenote's stock disclaimer.
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Stephen.4 said 3:49PM on 5-19-2009
Thanks TUAW. Now the people who have been on vacation for the past 20 days can see the news easier.
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Beanie said 3:57PM on 5-19-2009
Blu Ray video is so irrelevant anyways. It will never go mainstream, as soon as high-res (actual high-res) movie downloads come out, Blu-Ray will go the way of LaserDisc. Now, storage is another issue.
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Sujay said 5:14PM on 5-19-2009
You have no idea how wrong you are.
A1 said 5:39PM on 5-19-2009
Same as the other two guys, dude you are totally wrong.
required said 8:30PM on 5-19-2009
Blu-ray blank media is currently less than $5/25GB and a lot more feasible than CD, DVD, HD, or even flash SSD for backing up and sharing data such as home video. Also the quality of Blu-ray feature films and the ilk is impeccable, far surpassing digitally distributed content both aurally and visually. Plus they contain a lot more content, obviously.
Beanie said 8:32PM on 5-19-2009
lol.. thanks for chiming in guys. I mean, you seriously don't think BluRay is going to be around as long as DVD has been do you? Digital distribution will eventually catch up. Mark my words too. ;)
Squuiid said 4:07PM on 5-19-2009
Beanie, you're wrong. Mark my words.
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Eduardo said 4:10PM on 5-19-2009
Deja vu anyone? Deja vu anyone?
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Robert said 4:14PM on 5-19-2009
Or maybe they are adding to iTunes so that when a user has a Blu-Ray player in their PC it will do the work for them. Macs are not the only platform that iTunes runs on...
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Byrdman said 7:08PM on 5-19-2009
Apple wouldn't give PC's support for somthing that is not even available on a mac yet. that is rediculous.
Kento Ito said 5:39PM on 5-19-2009
At WWDC, Apple will announce a first Mac with Blu-Ray built in, and that would be the Mac Pro, with immediate availability.
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required said 8:28PM on 5-19-2009
I think they'd have to go across the board as few would buy a new system knowing that a blu-ray version is right around the corner. I know I wouldn't. That 17" MacBook Pro is beyond sad without it. Especially with its display being 1920px wide.
Kento Ito said 8:44PM on 5-19-2009
they will announce that 17 inch will have blu-ray support, and might offer exchange option for those who bought it after Macworld for a fee....
(same with Mac Pro, they will offer exchange option for version with Blu-Ray)
Anthony said 6:22PM on 5-19-2009
Or this could be support for the whole "digital copy" thing that most movies have now these days.
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