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AMEX Digital puts out Mac mini Blu-ray upgrade
updated 07:35 am EST, Wed November 11, 2009
AMEX kit gives new minis BD burning
AMEX Digital today put out an internal Blu-ray drive upgrade kit for owners of current generation Mac minis. The slot-load SATA drive gives the Mac the option of burning Blu-ray discs in apps that support it as well as reading Blu-ray media at up to 4X speeds; although Macs can't yet play Blu-ray movies directly, AMEX suggests using VLC to load the raw video files. Boot Camp gives access to regular movie playback.
The Hong Kong-based company makes the kit available for $199 US but doesn't provide the installation or software by itself. It recommends Mac users run Roxio Toast 9+ for burning and a movie editing tool like Premiere Pro CS4.
Daaaaaamn!
11/11, 11:17am reply
I think we have a winner for best media center. Especially if you add Hulu to the front Row interface.
danviento
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2005
QUESTION:
11/11, 12:11pm reply
VLC does playback for BluRay, doesn't it?
danviento
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2005
Still no Blu-ray Playback
11/11, 12:13pm reply
Due to Steve's stubbornness ("bag of hurt"), proper playback of Blu-Ray DRM is sill unavailable. You can use VLC only to play back unencrypted (i.e. home-made) blu-ray video. Even if you re-boot into Bootcamp, you can only watch this on monitors connected through HDCP-enabled ports. On a Mini, only MiniDisplay port is supposed to have HDCP support. I don't think there are currently ANY MiniDisplay to HDMI adapters that fully support HDCP. In any case, VLC does NOT provide HDCP support in Mac OS X. The long story short, even with a Blu-ray drive, HDCP-compliant display and VLC, you won't be able to play back any commercial Blu-ray movie on this.
So, not much practical use for this BD drive...
vasic
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
Not Steve's fault
11/11, 01:16pm reply
By his comments, Steve has clearly indicated he'd like Macs to have Blu-Ray movie playback ability. But he (quite rightly, IMO) doesn't think consumers want to jump through the RIDICULOUS hoops and restrictions the Blu-Ray and MPAA governing bodies want to set up.
Blu-Ray is fairly useless in computers, and you can thank (primarily) the MPAA for that, not Apple. Put the blame where it really belongs, vasic.
chas_m
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Came out wrong
11/11, 06:07pm reply
I had no intention to imply that blame belonged anywhere else but MPAA. There is no doubt in my mind that if Blu-ray as media fails to gain traction as fast as MPAA had expected, it will only be because they tied an anvil around its neck with the absurd amount of DRM.
vasic
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
re: Not Steve's fault
11/11, 06:12pm reply
What ridiculous hoops? How can Intervideo and PowerDVD support Blu-ray playback, and Apple can't? Steve just wants to push digital downloads via AppleTV and itunes.
thesearcher
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Mar 2002