Oddly enough, to my knowledge there is presently no free software that can play Blu-Ray discs with menus (the video content is playable, you just have to blindly navigate your way through it), so this would be kind of interesting, if I had a Mac.
Except: are Blu-Ray drives standard hardware on Macbooks now? I thought they were moving towards getting rid of optical discs entirely.
I can’t speak to the desktops but for the laptops, you’re right on the mark. My recent MBA doesn’t have one and when you connect up an external blu ray drive, the results (without the software in this bundle … which I haven’t tried) are incapable of playing blu ray even with the software I found and heavy messing around with VLC at best … and crashy at worst.
Is it just me or are these BB ads getting more and more like late night infomercials?
Was not aware about the blu-ray issues with Mac. Nice to see that Apple wasn’t left out of the long history of out-of-the-box video disc playing issues.
Yeah. It’s not a PC problem or a Mac problem. Even the stand alone, set-top players (when not made by Sony) have nigh universal terrible reviews because of crashy issues.
Caused by, no doubt, the ever shifting DRM scheme. (Ironic since I paid for my blu rays and am trying to avoid temptation to rip them.)
Somewhat too off topic to continue though.
I recall the DRM/Licensing aspect of playing DVD’s on Windows back in the day.
I think the BB admins are pretty OK with tangents. Particularly since this is not a super serious topic.
I have bluray capable devices by virtue of buying game consoles, but in 7 years I think I’ve played a bluray twice?
Bluray is in my mind reserved for gorgeous films that I plan to watch many times. Since I usually don’t watch films more than once, it’s a very niche use case.
That said, is there a similar phenomenon where the cheapest Chinese branded players have the most useful features? I recall that very much being the case with DVD. $30 gets you something that doesn’t look as nice on the shelf, but is far easier to live with than something that costs $100. And for the price point, buying 3 of them easily will keep you happy until the format is dead.
“rad apps” ??? Really? Are we back in 1980’s surfer dude speak now?
Are those 20-gauge apps? The finest apps are 12-gauge, and made from braided unicorn hair.
The software slices, it dices, it makes thousands of julienne fries!
I’m with you there. About the only things I buy on blu-ray (that I already had on DVD) are things that were originally shot on film.
At this point I’m fairly confident that Blu-ray is a dead end. I don’t see that as a reason to avoid getting what I can out of it though.
It’s been awhile since I was in the market for one but based on what I saw when I was picking my current player, I’d say no.
Or at least no features that weren’t overshadowed by the fact you couldn’t use it for its core function (playing blu-rays) most of the time.
Sony finally won a format war … just in time for formats to take a back seat to steaming.
Anyway, that bundle does look like a good deal. Although if the blu-ray player it has works about as well as the other solutions I’ve tried for watching on my Mac, I’ll be unsurprised but still disappointed.
Maybe no blue ray for Apple laptops running OSX.
But a generic “Hackentosh” running OSX can have blue ray. My husband built one a few years ago using a HP as a base. Works great. and much cheaper than a Mac Book.
http://www.hackintosh.com/
This is a “Mac bundle” but the video download program is an .exe file??? WTF?
Some one has to keep the lights on.
They can pump all the crapola they want to, I just prefer a different sales technique
The DRM isn’t the issue. The UI is.
The video DRM is a fixed specification, anything compliant and licensed can play the video. The only thing that changes is the set of valid and revoked player keys. The Blu-Ray navigation system, on the other hand, is written in Java and the code is split between the player and the disc, so… standards? what standards?
The only Blu-Ray player I have is a PS3, and it just works. Then again, Sony has a huge user base and they keep it updated.
nope. Even my 2014 imac lacks a DVD-drive.
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