Apple Backs Blu-ray

zaxios writes "The New York Times is reporting that Apple has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, and will use Blu-ray in upcoming versions of iMovie and Final Cut. The move puts Apple among Sony, Matsushita, Dell, HP and Walt Disney in supporting Blu-ray; companies including Toshiba, NEC, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Universal and Paramount are pledged to adopt the competing HD-DVD format. Apple's support confirms Blu-ray's future dominance on the desktop, but the division in Hollywood and notebook manufacturers between the two HD videodiscs will ensure the bona fide format war we were all secretly pining for."

Comments

The invisible elephant

[daveschroeder]

Forget about Sony, HP, Matsushita, Apple, Dell, and Disney...

The porn industry, which releases 11,000 titles a year, will likely silently decide which format "wins" (previous slashdot coverage).

And some of the bigger porn houses are coming down on the side of Blu-ray because of its capacity advantage over HD-DVD. That the porn industry would have such an influence comes as no surprise to those who know just how big the industry really is.

Re:The invisible elephant

[SoupIsGood Food]

This is entiurely true, and they will quietly go with whatever is the least expensive and time-consuming. Now they can burn a Blue-Ray master with the tools they've been using all along - Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro. The Mac has an enormous presence in the videography field, and not needing to buy or train on special software, apart from the usual upgrade to the tools they're already using.

So, whether Hollywood likes it or not, Apple's just won the fight for Blue Ray... unless they get tricky, and simultaneously support HD-TV as well, which isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

SoupIsGood Food

Re:The invisible elephant

[Space Coyote]

The trouble with High-definition porn is that you actually get to see what 10+ years of over-work does to a someone's body. Not a pretty sight. I can't see this being good for the porn industry.

About this...

[Epistax]

I remember reading specs and what it seemed to me was Blu-ray was simply better from the users point of view. I think it took more work on the manufacturers side and forced them to do a lot of extra work for it to be able to read traditional DVDs, but that shouldn't be as important.

Am I on the ball here or is there really not a complete performance domination by Blu-ray?

Matsushita.

[DrEldarion]

Apple among Sony, Matsushita, Dell, HP and Walt Disney

For those of you that don't recognize the name "Matsushita", they're probably known to you as Panasonic.

Sucks to be an early adopter

[Eradicator2k3]

When you consider that DL DVD drives have been out for some time (reasonably priced), yet the media still costs about 10 bucks a pop, can you imagine what the Blu-Ray (or HD) discs will go for? At the risk of dating myself (not like anyone else would, HA), I was an early adopter for the *new* high-density 3.5" floppies at about $80 for a box of 10.

Realistically, once the next-generation drives and discs are out, it will lower the price of DL media into something more affordable.

You're all wrong

[DrinkingIllini]

Whichever one I buy will be the one that loses. *kicks beta max*

Re:HD-DVD will win out

[dsginter]

I really think the HD-DVD will win simply becuase of the name.

But you haven't seen the logo for BluRay yet. It's going to be a shark with a freakin' blue laser mounted on its head. In its teeth will be an HD-DVD.

This will scare consumers into thinking that they could possibly be attacked if they were to buy an HD-DVD.

Re:Not really...

[porcupine8]

But in this case, I don't think you need causation. If Apple is just really good at picking winners, then that has the same effect on blu-ray predictions as Apple being really good at causing winners. Either way, if Apple backs a technology there is a very high chance that it will be successful, whether or not it's Apple's fault.

And with something like this, it could become causation - Apple builds up a good track record of picking winners, other companies notice this, and when Apple makes their pick other companies start to mirror them based on their past performance, thus making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.