“ I do n’t mean from a consumer point of view — it ’s great to watch movies — but the licensing is so complex . We ’re wait until things square up down and Blu - light beam takes off in the mart before we burden our customer with the monetary value of the licensing and the price of the drives . ”
As Macs user well know , thing have n’t settled down ( at least not from Apple ’s perspective ) . Four and a half year after that remark , OS X still does n’t support Blu - ray playback , nor has any Mac ship with a drive capable of even take or burn data on a Blu - ray disk . And given that few Macs even include optical drives these days , Apple ’s never going to bring Blu - ray to the Mac . ( The company can already sell you HD movies and television shows like a shot from the iTunes Store , so why would Apple want to embrace Blu - ray ? )
While Blu - ray was in its early mean solar day when Jobs made his “ dish of suffering ” comment , the format has make out a long fashion , and the Blu - ray disk is holding its own in the market place . True , masses still bribe more DVDs than Blu - ray phonograph record , butthat could transfer in the next few years .
And even though downloading HD film is easy , there are several reasonableness to bribe Blu - light beam platter . The picture quality is better ( with high fleck rate and less contraction ) , as is the sound ( with several different intermixture for multichannel systems ) . If you lack a fast Internet connection ( or are capable to bandwidth caps from your ISP ) , it may be ready and easier to buy a Blu - ray disc than wait to download a file that might top out at 8 gibibyte . Also , even with digital extras include with many movies now , you do n’t get the full full complement of bonus content you do with a platter . Finally , an optical disk is a full , difficult - copy backup .
Sold on Blu - ray yet ? Then it ’s sentence to memorise how you may watch and even rip Blu - ray disc on a Mac .
The hardware portion of the equation
The first step to be able to play Blu - rays on a Mac is to purchase a Blu - ray of light drive . you’re able to get an external , USB Blu - beam of light drive for less than $ 50 , though you might want to look around the $ 80 to $ 100 orbit to come up a beneficial one . ( The cheaper modeling are usually from nameless vendors and often get poor reviews from drug user . ) Many of these models are passenger vehicle - powered , so you do n’t need a office provision ; just unite them to a Mac that has power USB ports , and you ’re up and running . You wo n’t want any special drivers to mount the Blu - light beam discs , but once they ’re mount , there ’s not much you could do with them .
MCE Technologies sells aUSB Super - BluDrivefor $ 79 , which let in software program that can play Blu - ray pic ( the same programme I ’m going to look at below , Mac Blu - ray Player ) . OWC also declare oneself bothinternal and external Blu - re drives , but you ’ll demand to bring your own software to the party .
Bear in psyche that a Blu - ray effort can also play DVDs and CD . So if you ’re be after to get an international drive to link up to a Mac that is destitute of such a machine , call up about have one that include Blu - shaft support .
Blu-ray playback software
At first blush , there are a number of different Blu - re playback software system options for Mac users . But if you take a closer look , you ’ll disclose that they are often the same software package but with different monikers , sold by companies with different names . I tried two such programs : Aurora Software ’s Blu - ray Player($30 for a one - year licence or $ 40 for lifespan employment ) andMacgo ’s Mac Blu - ray Player($60 for a lifetime license , but discounted to $ 30 until July 1 ) .
In my testing , I found the interfaces to be exactly the same , by from some different colors . The Preferences windows are the same ; the About boxes are nearly the same , too , with just a flimsy difference in version numbers pool . This variety of law of similarity is common with DVD , Blu - ray , and other type of picture - transition software . For simplicity , I ’ll focus on Mac Blu - ray Player . ( Note that Mac Blu - ray Player is due for a 3.0 update soon ; I test version 2.8 . )
First , you should be cognizant of a duet of things . Because the software require to acquire the decryption key required for playback online , you ask an Internet connective for it to work . Second , registering the software package imposes restraint . When I registered Mac Blu - ray Player on my laptop computer , I could n’t use it on my desktop Mac . And , when I switched the enrollment back to my screen background Mac , the software secern me I had activate it two out of five times . As the company ’s website explains it :
There are five times each year for Macgo registration computer code activation . If registration code activation is outnumber , it will introduce a tip “ readjustment failed . Your registration computer code activation limit is reached . ”
In watching half a dozen Blu - ray motion picture with the software program ( all late releases , ranging fromSucker Punchto a just - released disk of Bach ’s “ St Matthew ’s Passion ” ) , I encounter none of those other problem with playback or constancy . Video playback was smooth , with no artifacts , in both a window and in full - screen musical mode . Audio was likewise fine , although the app crashed once when I work on subtitles for a motion-picture show that was n’t in English . I test the app on both a late 2011 Mac mini ( 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 with 16 GB of random access memory ) and an other 2013 MacBook Pro ( 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 with 8 GB of tup ) , using myPlextor PX - B120U4X Blu - ray campaign ( discontinued but still available for around $ 100 online ) .
The software system offers the standard play / pause controls , but also lets you skip forward or back in 30 - second chunks ; vary audio lead and subtitle synchronization ; aline brightness , saturation , line , da Gamma , and chromaticity ; and much more . I found nothing lack in the software ’s functionality .
Ripping Blu-rays
In addition to just playing your Blu - ray movie on your Mac , you may desire to simulate them to your Mac to watch on your laptop when go , or commute to a data format you may keep an eye on via an Apple TV , for example .
There are two method you may use . The first involves decrypting and copy the entire disc to an .iso magnetic disc look-alike . This file will be the same size as the original Blu - ray — about 30 GB to 40GB — so you may run into space issues pretty quickly . I used Aurora Software ’s freeBlu - ray Copy , and this app simulate my Blu - ray of light discs in roughly literal time ; a 2 - time of day moving picture took about two hours to re-create . you may then bet the copy by mounting the disc icon , and using Mac Blu - ray Player . In that app , chooseFile > Open File , or clickOpen Filein the independent window , and take the BDMV data file in the disc image . you’re able to also open BDMV files with the freeVLC Media Player .
The 2nd method is to make an MKV file ( MKV is a data file container format that can hold video , audio , picture show , and subtitle tracks in a single file ) . Using GuinpinSoft’sMakeMKV — free while in genus Beta , which it has been for several year ( visitthis forum threadto find the current temporary beta key)—you may decode a Blu - ray disc and save whatever parts you need ( if you do n’t need the 7.1 - channel audio frequency mixing , for example , just uncheck it ) into an MKV container . This takes about half the duration of the movie ; when the decryption is finished , you have an MKV data file that you may play back with VLC or other software . If you want more achievable file size of it , you ’ll need to convert the MKV to a lowly file — in the same data format , or in a different formatting , such as an iTunes - compatible MP4 — using a tool such asHandBrake .
Into the blu
That ’s pretty much all there is to it . You may encounter sure saucer that do n’t work due to new and vary copy protection , but in general the unconscious process is jolly comfortable if you ’re willing to invest a little clock time and money .
