Apple’s Mac Pro announcement makes Blu-ray an unlikely candidate for Macworld debut
Apple’s newly announced Mac Pros seem like real power houses, but one thing is preventing them from being truly state-of-the-art: A Blu-ray drive.
The current tech specs list the new Mac Pro as shipping with a regular old “Super Drive”, and there is no custom Blu-ray add-on option. Yes, there is still the standard extra optical bay found in previous models which would allow you to add your own Blu-ray drive down the road, but seeing as these new Mac Pros ship today, it looks like Apple doesn’t plan to offer Blu-ray at this point. Due to cost and size factors, it would also be unlikely that any new Mac portables announced at Macworld would ship with Blu-ray drives if the Mac Pros do not.
So it’s looking pretty bleak for Blu-ray fans. Our last hope is that somehow a new Blu-ray Apple TV will make an appearance, but we’re not holding our breath.
I actually think blu-ray makes more sense in an AppleTV than in a Mac anyway. Put blu-ray in an AppleTV and you’ll get AppleTV’s into a ton more living rooms very quickly, which is where Apple wants it to be. Once there, the convenience of downloading movies and shows will be appealing.
Apple is falling behind here… at least make it a high-priced option!
It makes sense to put it in AppleTVs because it is meant to be hooked to a tv, and no one needs a bluray drive on a f-ing macbook pro. the screen won’t make a difference. i want a blu-ray appleTV apple! you have 7 days to make it!
GO GO GO!
While blu-ray would be nice, think of the popularity of the format, it has only about 500 titles at this point and would need at least 1000 to become popular enough to make it worth-while. Plus, if it can read HD DVD’s, then you already have a good enough quality format to play it on. — debatably equal —
But you’re playing it on a Computer!! — Blu-Ray is for Movie watching on a TV, not a computer! 😉
– Highway 🙂
“Apple’s newly announced Mac Pros seem like real power houses, but one thing is preventing them from being truly state-of-the-art: A Blu-ray drive.”
I’d say Mac Pro’s lack of support of nvidia’s SLI technology or ati’s crossfire technology is what is keeping Mac Pro’s from seeming like real power houses.
You can always buy the blu-ray dvd burner and install it. No matter how many different graphics cards you buy you can’t use effectively combine them without support for SLI or Crossfire within the OS and within the Mac Pro’s mobo.
If a Mac Pro is supposed to be a processing and graphical stat of the art machines, then the lack of SLI/Crossfire capability is inexcusable… especially for the premium price they charge.