Hello, I've a question about Blu-Ray on mac.
I have a 2010 27inch iMac, and find myself desperate for video and tv footage that is of a quality of the screen itself. I recognize that Steve Jobs would prefer if I just used itunes for my HD video content, but I've tried that, and at least on this screen, the itunes HD content looks worse then netflix HD streams. It's sad really, considering they are the ones selling a product with such a high resolution screen.
Obviously blu-ray does not exist on mac. I understand there is no player, software, or support beyond authoring of BD from Final Cut.
I've narrowed it down to two real options, as far as I can tell, and I was just looking for input or opinions on either one.
The first is to use the iMac itself as a screen using an Atlona HDMI/Mini Displayport to Mini Displayport Scaler and Switcher. Since it has a scaler it works better then all the other hdmi to minidisplay port offerings. This way the content actually scales up from 1080p to the imacs native resolution. This seems like a good thing. I'm wondering though if there much slowdown, or dropped frames when using this, thus making it only adequate for movie watching, and not ideal. My understanding is that the Atlona will take a native 1080p source, and then upscale it to the iMacs native resolution, I imagine the image quality result of this is much the same as simply playing a full quality BD rip of a movie and playing it full screen with VLC?
The second option is to simply buy an external Blu-ray burner, and use MakveMKV to simply rip all the blu-rays I'd buy to my external harddrive. I have no idea what burner might be best, and I'm wondering if USB 2.0 is really fast enough to do that without it taking the better part of 4+ hours to rip one movie. Not ideal in terms of time, but, would it be higher quality at the end of day then the Atlona? I also realize I could bootcamp windows and watch from there, and I'm not completely opposed to the idea, but I would rather be able to stay in OS X.
Also, if I went with the Atlona route, I suppose I would need a suggestion for a Blu-ray player. I was considering a PS3, but I'm not positive I would use the gaming side of the system all that much. One bonus would to the PS3 would be other then the possible occasional gaming, is that I've read that Netflix HD streaming on consoles is actually of a higher quality then the streaming found on computers through their website.
Anyway, thanks in advance for any opinions or thoughts on the matter. I'm quite lost, so I would gladly welcome any thoughts.
I have a 2010 27inch iMac, and find myself desperate for video and tv footage that is of a quality of the screen itself. I recognize that Steve Jobs would prefer if I just used itunes for my HD video content, but I've tried that, and at least on this screen, the itunes HD content looks worse then netflix HD streams. It's sad really, considering they are the ones selling a product with such a high resolution screen.
Obviously blu-ray does not exist on mac. I understand there is no player, software, or support beyond authoring of BD from Final Cut.
I've narrowed it down to two real options, as far as I can tell, and I was just looking for input or opinions on either one.
The first is to use the iMac itself as a screen using an Atlona HDMI/Mini Displayport to Mini Displayport Scaler and Switcher. Since it has a scaler it works better then all the other hdmi to minidisplay port offerings. This way the content actually scales up from 1080p to the imacs native resolution. This seems like a good thing. I'm wondering though if there much slowdown, or dropped frames when using this, thus making it only adequate for movie watching, and not ideal. My understanding is that the Atlona will take a native 1080p source, and then upscale it to the iMacs native resolution, I imagine the image quality result of this is much the same as simply playing a full quality BD rip of a movie and playing it full screen with VLC?
The second option is to simply buy an external Blu-ray burner, and use MakveMKV to simply rip all the blu-rays I'd buy to my external harddrive. I have no idea what burner might be best, and I'm wondering if USB 2.0 is really fast enough to do that without it taking the better part of 4+ hours to rip one movie. Not ideal in terms of time, but, would it be higher quality at the end of day then the Atlona? I also realize I could bootcamp windows and watch from there, and I'm not completely opposed to the idea, but I would rather be able to stay in OS X.
Also, if I went with the Atlona route, I suppose I would need a suggestion for a Blu-ray player. I was considering a PS3, but I'm not positive I would use the gaming side of the system all that much. One bonus would to the PS3 would be other then the possible occasional gaming, is that I've read that Netflix HD streaming on consoles is actually of a higher quality then the streaming found on computers through their website.
Anyway, thanks in advance for any opinions or thoughts on the matter. I'm quite lost, so I would gladly welcome any thoughts.
