Mac gets native Blu-ray movie playback through Macgo app
updated 04:20 pm EDT, Wed July 6, 2011
Macgo Blu-ray Player comes to OS X
Developer Macgo claims to have solved one of the most common complaints about Macs by launching its simply titled Mac Blu-ray Player. The app decrypts the AACS copy protection keys itself and bypasses the need for an OS-level protection scheme to work. Although it needs an Internet connection to work, it can play most any format stored on a disc and takes advantage of both hardware graphics acceleration and NVIDIA's CUDA (on GeForce chipsets) to decode 1080p video.
Non-traditional support allows for video CDs, Matroska (MKV) containers, RMVB, and raw Flash or Quicktime files.
The new software normally costs $40 but is available in a three-month trial version that adds a watermark and limits a handful of unspecified features. Hardware requirements aren't detailed apart from the need for an internal or external Blu-ray drive.
Apple has been called on to support native Blu-ray playback, particularly on Mac Pro systems where editors may work on movies they can't see. CEO Steve Jobs has so far downplayed the prospect of it, calling it a "bag of hurt" where the very extensive copy protection and OS-level code normally needed were more trouble than they were worth. DVD playback is easy to add given its light CSS protection, but Blu-ray's AACS protection requires more. Microsoft waited until a major Windows update to add it since the changes needed were extensive.
Critics have also said Jobs and Apple have a motivation to stall on Blu-ray playback since it potentially drives more customers to iTunes. [via CNET]
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
False criticism
"Apple has been called on to support native Blu-ray playback, particularly on Mac Pro systems where editors may work on movies they can't see."
Anyone who makes that criticism is full of %@. Encryption isn't applied until after the editing is done. An editor will be working with unencrypted footage.