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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.



By Electronista Staff

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digital imaging, upgrades/storage, blu-ray, Mac mini, Amex Digital

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Previous Comments

  1. danviento

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 2005

    +3
    11/11, 11:17am | report spam | reply

    Daaaaaamn!

    I think we have a winner for best media center. Especially if you add Hulu to the front Row interface.


  1. danviento

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 2005

    +1
    11/11, 12:11pm | report spam | reply

    QUESTION:

    VLC does playback for BluRay, doesn't it?


  1. vasic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2005

    -2
    11/11, 12:13pm | report spam | reply

    Still no Blu-ray Playback

    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...


  1. chas_m

    Moderator

    Joined: Aug 2001

    -1
    11/11, 01:16pm | report spam | reply

    Not Steve's fault

    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.


  1. vasic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2005

    +1
    11/11, 06:07pm | report spam | reply

    Came out wrong

    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.


  1. thesearcher

    Dedicated MacNNer

    Joined: Mar 2002

    0
    11/11, 06:12pm | report spam | reply

    re: Not Steve's fault

    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.


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