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Comment by schrototo | Hacker News Reader

Aside from the fact that no Apple product will ever have a Blu-ray drive (Jobs: "a bag of hurt"), it wouldn't make sense to phase out optical media on their computers but give the displays built-in drives. The future is digital distribution and I'm certain Apple is 100% committed to that.

(If you need to use "legacy" media for the time being, Apple will be happy to sell you an add-on drive.)

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some more context from http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/steve-jobs-calls-blu-ray-...

"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."

I wouldn't take that as apple never supporting blu-ray. Although given the quote is three years old, I wouldn't say it's likely either.

I have a very hard time believing that licensing blu-ray would be anywhere near as complex as the content and patent negotiations that Apple is involved with on a daily basis.

I suspect that the real sticking points are the DRM certification process the movie studios demand to ensure that Bluray-compatible PCs can't rip the video stream, and the need to develop a new, considerably more complex version of DVD Player capable of playing BD 2.0.

Well, without a Blu-ray drive (or a TV to watch movies with a regular Blu-ray player) and a deep-seated loathing of streaming, that leaves me up shit creek with piracy as the only option when it comes to watching HD movies. Maybe I'll just stick to DVDs.

There are also HD rentals/purchases available in the iTunes store. I've been using that quite a bit when working out.

Perhaps you should consider a non-Apple product? Blue-ray appliances and PCs are not exactly hard to find or expensive.

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