Is the 24"imac HD-DVD compatible?

[bigbadnewill]

Hi people, i just joined the forum. My wife and I are thinking about getting a nice new mac. I went to the apple shop yesterday and the dude demo'd it for us, was all very impressive.

He couldn't answer one question though, and i'm wondering if you people here could help. Is the imac HD-DVD compatible? Am i able to go to hmv etc and buy a hd-dvd and play it??

I suspect i can't, but was just wondering cos the screen is a good resolution for hd isn't it?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this has been asked/answered elsewhere, i did search but found nothing.

Cheers

Paul

 

[NanoBite]

I had a quick google about and found these grabs which I hope help you out:

With the proper hardware and software, commercial HD DVDs play back fine on Windows. Unfortunately, the same is not true on Mac OS X. While DVD Player.app does support HD DVD, I believe that it does not support VC-1 encoded material (which is what most commercial HD DVDs are), and does not support the copy protection and encryption used on commercial discs either. I am guessing that such support may come in 2007 however.

No software yet exists to allow Macs to read HD-DVDs.

Update: The most recent Leopard DVD Player apparently does include the following references to both HD-DVD and BluRay in the settings file:

"sd dvd folder" = "VIDEO_TS";
"hd dvd folder" = "HVDVD_TS";
"blu ray folder" = "BDMV";

You can even watch high-definition video if you’ve installed the Apple DVD Player 4.6 Update. In fact, DVD Player 4.6 lets you play DVD Studio Pro 4 authored HD DVDs from discs and hard drives.

If a Mac can play H.264 at 1080p when it's stored on the hard drive, it can play the same video codec at the same resolution from an HD-DVD.

The problem with the Mac Side is not drivers, but it's the ability to play HD-DVD movies, the drive works on the Mac without a driver at all. Windows needed a driver to even read from the drive, and also software to play the movies. There isn't any HD-DVD playback software written for the Mac yet, mostly because there has been no drive up until now.

"There isn't any HD-DVD playback software written for the Mac yet"

Ding ding ding... wrong. DVD Player (the bundled Apple app) actually supports HD-DVD playback -- just not from disk. Right now, it's used to play back HD-DVD from local folders (so that you can watch the HD-DVD output of DVD Studio Pro.)

There is HD-DVD software, and it's out and working -- it just needs to be enabled to play content from a physical disk.

Your all correct. Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive does show up on a Mac, the wonderful thing is Apple's DVD Player will not play it. So what's the solution. You can play an HD DVD in DVD Studio Pro and there are third party software that does support HD DVD on a Mac as stated above it is a matter of code. Simple enough to fix lucky HD Drives are supported on macs. the easiest way however is if you have an intel mac install crossover on in and install WinDVD or POwerDVD something with HD DVD support via CrossOver and use it throught there or you can just wait two months for leopard and it's native support. Next generation MacBook Pro's will also be shipping with blue ray and hd dvd drives. - I'm a developer i know.

 

[Alexis]

It will play high definition video from the internet no problem: http://www.apple.com/trailers/, but no Apple hardware has anything more than a DVD-RW drive built in at present.

At the moment though, physical playback from disc is more of a problem. Apple support Blu Ray, so I'd expect to see Apple hardware incorporating Blu Ray drives in the next 6-12 months. The next version of OS X, Leopard should also be better equipped for Blu Ray (and probably HD-DVD) drives.

To be honest, with the Playstation3 fully incorporating Blu Ray and the XBox 360 tentatively supporting HD-DVD, along with more film companies supporting Blu Ray, I'd say HD-DVD is a poorer horse to back.

Sony are putting Blu Ray in their PS3 at a loss, to get it established, which is a trick Microsoft have missed.

The screen resolution of a 20" iMac is 1680 x 1050, so well exceeding high definition's 1080.

 

[bigbadnewill]

Thanks for the replies people! I feel a little bit ashamed that i didn't search google, i only searched the forum

As for HD-DVD Vs. Blu-Ray thanks for the info on that too. I don't particularly have a preference towards either, think i was mainly just illustrating my point about HD movies in general. Will be cool if apple go more with blu-ray as when i finish uni my wife says i can get a ps3, haha (that makes me sound 12, having to get permission for a ps3!)

I watched a little clip of a sample hd movie in the apple shop, i was amazed, never seen high def stuff before!

Thanks again for the replies, seems like a nice friendly forum

Paul

 

[Alexis]

Hi Paul

High definition films are good, but ironically they do look better on TV! Monitors have such a high resolution, even high definition videos need to be scaled up to fill the screen. The different ways monitors and TVs work mean TVs are better to the eys for moving images but less accurate for static, sharp pictures.

By the way, you'll love your Mac if you decide to take the plunge. They are how computers should be!

 

[bigbadnewill]

You have no idea how excited we both are to get the mac. My wife is a designer, and has heard nothing but good about them from other designers. I am not a pc expret, but like to think i know a good amount of stuff and i'm so excited to get the mac too! From what I have seen so far it just seems to be great for everything.

I will still have to keep my pc i think, as some of my electronics design programs aren't available on mac (I know it can dual boot and emulate now) but the mac is mainly the wifes, so until we can afford 2 i will be a 50/50 man

As for high def movies on the monitor, can't you just make the picture a bit smaller, ie. not utilise the full extent of the screen size and then the movies will look better?

I'm also holding out for a couple more weks as all i seem to hear at the moment is that a new imac is imminent, and i'll be gutted if they announce one at WWDC.

 

[Alexis]

You can make the windows smaller for watching films, but they'll still look fantastic using the full 24".

 

[INNOVA]

The screen resolution of a 20" iMac is 1680 x 1050, so well exceeding high definition's 1080.

I thought 1080p was 1920x1080

 

[bobtomay]

I thought 1080p was 1920x1080

It is.

 

[Alexis]

Well I never.

Why the heck is the smaller vertical resolution quoted then?

 

[bobtomay]

Well I never.

Why the heck is the smaller vertical resolution quoted then?

Don't have the answer for that. But, am familiar with resolution being quoted as such since the advent of DVD's being 480.