Windows 7 Ad Highlights Mac's Lack Of Blu-ray

[JMcEntegart]

That cute little notebook doesn't look like he's hauling around a bag of hurt at all!

Windows 7 Ad Highlights Mac's Lack Of Blu-ray : Read more

 

[willgart]

well... who travel with his blue ray library? (especialy when the Avatar blue ray package allready contains the encoded movie!)
but its a nice adv.

 

[tical2399]

Ad is ok but if you want to me effective you need to hit harder and explicitly say something like "too bad macs don't have blu ray. No need to be subtle.

 

[vant]

I don't own a single Bluray disc. I find downloading movies to be much more economical for my college budget.

But yeah, I guess if I could afford Bluray movies over renting DVDs at redbox for $1 a day having the ability to play it on my 13.3" screen would be nice?

 

[outlw6669]

[citation][nom]tical2399[/nom]Ad is ok but if you want to me effective you need to hit harder and explicitly say something like "too bad macs don't have blu ray. No need to be subtle.[/citation]
Nah, keep it classy Microsoft.
No need to stoop down to Steve's level...

 

[jhansonxi]

I waiting for Sony to come out with an ad about Blu-ray on the Xbox.

 

[LuckyDucky7]

How about this ad for Microsoft:

You can't hold a Windows Phone wrong.
You can open a Windows computer if it needs an upgrade.
You can log in to a Windows computer with your finger.
Windows computers are always more powerful for the same price.
Windows computers support every device you plug in.
Macs need antivirus too.
Windows Media Player 12 is better than iTunes.
Our $2400 computers don't hit 212 degrees F during normal use.

Windows computers do what iWon't.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

Nice commercial, I love it.

 

[Parsian]

lol good ad, i especially like the art style and the ending that says, it was made on PC.

It would be cool for them show more features as well

 

[reggieray]

Not a big MS fan but I liked the advertisement.

 

[j3ff86]

The stupid thing about this ad is that Windows 7 by itself has no Blu-ray disc playback support. Windows Media Center can play Blu-ray discs, but you need PowerDVD or Arcsoft Totalmedia installed, which start at $50.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

[citation][nom]j3ff86[/nom]The stupid thing about this ad is that Windows 7 by itself has no Blu-ray disc playback support. Windows Media Center can play Blu-ray discs, but you need PowerDVD or Arcsoft Totalmedia installed, which start at $50.[/citation]SO WHAT?? They give you the flexibility to make it work. The only reason that M$ doesnt have builtin BluRay support is because of massive licencing fees probably. just TRY and get bluray on your mac, is the point they are trying to make.

 

[oneblackened]

[citation][nom]LuckyDucky7[/nom]How about this ad for Microsoft:You can't hold a Windows Phone wrong.You can open a Windows computer if it needs an upgrade.You can log in to a Windows computer with your finger.Windows computers are always more powerful for the same price.Windows computers support every device you plug in.Macs need antivirus too.Windows Media Player 12 is better than iTunes.Our $2400 computers don't hit 212 degrees F during normal use.Windows computers do what iWon't.[/citation]
Dude, that's good.

 

[Guest]

where is the blu ray support in windows 7.... if you are going to make an ad about it.... it should be supported out of the box

 

[j3ff86]

[citation][nom]xbeater[/nom]SO WHAT?? They give you the flexibility to make it work. The only reason that M$ doesnt have builtin BluRay support is because of massive licencing fees probably. just TRY and get bluray on your mac, is the point they are trying to make.[/citation]
I don't own a mac and never have; I have a blu-ray playing PC with Totalmedia (I bought the $300 LG Blu-ray/HD DVD drive in 2007).

Like tianjinwaiguoren said, they should have out of the box support if they're going to advertise it as a major selling point of the operating system.

 

[JD13]

What makes this AD even funnier is the war story behind how Blu-ray won over HD DVD. Sony basically had to pay major production companies to go Blu-ray over HD DVD. to the tune of about $1 Billion dollars or so. At the time MS was backing HD DVD.

 

[overclockingrocks]

I can understand why Microsoft didn't want to go and spend all the money licensing the codecs for BR. It would have added probably a huge extra cost to the OS. I'd rather spend the $50 buying Power DVD rather than spending probably the extra $80-100 more that MS would have added in to the cost of Windows 7 had they included BR support as a native thing rather than relying on 3rd party apps. With that said the fact that a $699 CDN laptop has a huge technology that's awesome like BR and a $2000 machine like the Macbook Pro does not really strikes me as odd given the fact that the Macs are touted as being the ultimate machine for multimedia and video etc.

 

[liveonc]

Sony hits MS, who kicks Apple, & Jobs screams back that they're ALL holding it wrongly. ;-)

 

[gabriel333]

For the price of a Mac you can have a gaming PC that plays BluRay too.

/fail iFad

 

[Guest]

The funny thing is that the MAC is actually enjoying the movie, not the PC, which has been reduced to being the one providing entertainment. Who's boss there?

Of course I understand the intent of the commercial that OWNERS will enjoy the entertainment, but being able to pick on it like that makes the ad a little less effective...

 

[drwho1]

awesome video!

 

[nebun]

got to love Microsoft, lol

 

[Usersname]

Take 2…
Mac looks at PC playing a Blu-ray DVD of Avatar…
"Hmm, what's that PC?"
"Oh, I'm spinning this Blu-ray disc to watch Avatar."
"Yeah, cool movie…CGI made on a Mac… Hey, what's the matter, you look a bit weak?"
"My batteries running flat, and I'm only half way through the movie"
"Never mind, PC. You can always watch my HD copy downloaded just before take-off. We can finish watching that and a couple more HD movies before we land."
PC… "I think I'm gonna be sick" and ejects Blu-ray disk into a sick bag before passing out."

 

[elcentral]

ive been watching 720p to 1080p for 5-6 years now and dont haw a blu ray, and i newer ewer in eny cind of way gonnna ewer get one if it cant be in my hardrive its f off.

 

[geoffs]

Cute ad. Flawed, but cute.

Let's take one thing at a time.
1. Windows 7 doesn't come with BR support, you have to buy it third party. However, the ad implies that it's natively supported on Windows, so it's misleading and could backfire on MS. There is no reason third parties can't support BR on Mac, there simply isn't enough market for it yet. Slight advantage for Windows.

2. The "bag of hurt" Steve Jobs referred to 2 years ago was a number of things: the cost of the BR drives, cost and availability of BR source material, licensing costs of BR codecs included in every machine, having a CPU+GPU fast enough to decode 1080p VC1, and compatibility of then available BR drives with recordable DVD&CD media. The cost of drives has come down, and 1080p VC1 decoding is now possible on most new CPU/GPU combinations (although it's still iffy or impossible on Intel IGPs), and there are lots more titles available. However, the licensing costs remain, and media compatibility might still be a factor.

3. For laptops, power consumption is still a factor. Yes, the CPU+GPU may be able to decode AVC or VC1, but will the battery last long enough to play the whole movie? In most cases, the answer is no.

4. Most people won't notice the difference between an upscaled DVD and BR on a 17" or smaller screen.

5. The licensing costs would not raise the cost of Windows by $80+, or even by $50. I don't know the exact BR licensing costs, but you can bet it would raise the cost of Windows by no more than $5. If a third party can sell a BR decoder for $50, you can bet their licensing costs are not more than 10% of that, and probably closer to $1 per copy.

6. It's still questionable whether BR will survive long term. It's certainly looking more likely than it did 2 years ago, but it's by no means certain. There's still a decent chance that streaming video will effectively kill BR before it sells enough to be profitable.

7. I haven't looked lately, but I don't think there are any BR drives thin enough to fit in Apple's laptops. If you think Apple is going to make a thicker laptop just so a BR drive can fit, you're crazy.