New Mac with blu ray

[Salsa Party Animal]

Any clue about new portable mac with blu ray player in it ?

I want to get one in the future.

[muddy]

In the future, I'm sure a portable mac will have Blu-Ray.

Currently, the macbook's don't, afaik.

[Magnakai]

They just refreshed the lines too, so I wouldn't expect one for 4 months at the least.

[ascender]

There's not even been any strong rumours about Apple adopting an HD format in their machines although its expected that the Mac Pro will see them first. Its definitely on the cards, just a matter of when now. Intel are forcing Apple to update their ranges more often now due to chip supplies, so I guess that means more revisions which means more chance of seeing these drivers sooner.

[Salsa Party Animal]

No rush for me as I want one for my travels eventually.

[segages]

Maybe at WWDC we'll see Blu-Ray in the Mac Pro at least, possibly MacBook Pro too - at least as an option. The recent MBP update, despite moving to Penryn was still modest and there's an expectancy of a complete MBP redesign and move to Montevina come WWDC or very close after.

[NekoFever]

There's nothing stopping you using a Blu-ray drive on existing Macs, whether an external one or an internal if you're looking at a Mac Pro.

I have a feeling that you'll be waiting a while for it on the laptops, though. I suppose they could add it to the MacBook Pro to differentiate it from the MacBook a bit more (currently the only huge difference is the dedicated GPU in the Pro), but I don't think they see it as a high priority.

Then again, their silence on the subject could for the longest time could be why. The only slight movement they've ever made is the HD DVD authoring support in DVD Studio Pro and that's been there for ages, since well before either format was actually in the shops.

[wakka]

Why would you want Blu-Ray in a notebook for travelling anyway? It's not like you'd see much difference between that and DVD on a 1280x800 laptop screen (presumably you wouldn't lug a 17 inch MacBook Pro around), and it would drive the price up massively.

[Magnakai]

I don't know, I see the difference on my Macbook's 1280x800 screen. It's not that DVD quality's bad, it's just that HD is better. A friend brought round a hard drive with an HD rip of 300 and the first couple of episodes of Lost Season 4 on it, and they did look quite dramatically different. Presumably the quality on optical media has potential to be even higher.

Having said that, I wonder how long it'll be before there's a Blu-Ray drive small enough to fit inside an MBP. If there isn't one already, that is.

[bingowings]

aye, it will appear in the Mac Pro before any kind of portable. they'll need to sort out the heat issue if they decide to stick a drive in the MacBook Pro - they get toasty enough as it is without having to deal with Blu Ray video.

[briareos_kerensky]

Having said that, I wonder how long it'll be before there's a Blu-Ray drive small enough to fit inside an MBP. If there isn't one already, that is.

Sony laptops already have Bluray units, as did some Toshiba laptops for HD DVD units. Now that the format war has ended Apple will make their move: either using Bluray by paying the consortium royalities or skipping it altogether and pushing their own HD digital distribution.