{"id":6059,"date":"2010-07-08T11:53:42","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T16:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=6059"},"modified":"2014-05-22T13:37:05","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T18:37:05","slug":"add-blu-ray-capabilites-to-your-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/6059-add-blu-ray-capabilites-to-your-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Add Blu-ray Capabilites to Your Mac."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Unless you\u2019ve been living on an uncharted desert island<\/a> for the last few years, you\u2019re probably aware that Blu-ray won the High-Definition format wars.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re also probably aware that, while fairly common on many Windows boxes, Mac OS X does not support playback of Blu-ray movies on your Mac. That means that if you\u2019ve added a Mac mini to your home-theater system<\/a>, want to watch HD movies on the road, or even if you just don\u2019t have a lot of space for a TV and<\/em> a computer, you\u2019ve got to copy and convert the data from the discs in order to play them back and that\u2019s impossible without a drive capable of reading Blu-ray discs.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this Mac\/Blu-ray gap also goes the other way too; the\u00a0HD\u00a0home movies that you\u2019ve edited together in iMovie, Final Cut, or even Adobe Premiere<\/a> are all HD, but how are you going to get them to your (or perhaps your mother in law\u2019s) television to take advantage of the larger screen and\/or the better sound quality? Sure, iDVD will get them to a disc playable anywhere, but you\u2019ll lose that wonderful HD quality. For widest HD support, you need to be able to burn a Blu-ray movie to disc.<\/p>\n

In both these scenarios, the lack of a Blu-ray drive is the main problem. Though you can\u2019t play the movies themselves back, OS X will mount Blu-ray discs on the desktop; you can rip them using a program such as Handbrake<\/a>. On the other side of the coin, programs like Toast 10 Titanium Pro<\/a> can burn Blu-ray discs that will play in any home Blu-ray player. You just need a drive that can read and burn Blu-ray discs.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Apple is going to be including Blu-ray on its computers any time in the near future. OWC is coming to the rescue with its Mercury Pro Blu-ray \u201cQuad interface\u201d optical drives. <\/strong>Let\u2019s take a look at the pricing\/features of just the drive solutions:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

OWC Mercury Pro Super Multi Blue Blu-ray External SATA Drive Solution (OWCMRF8UEBDW10)\u0003<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n