AMEX Digital Upgrade Kit Adds Blu-ray To iMac or Mac mini
Apple makes a lot of fine products, but what they don't do is offer true media PC solutions. One of the main reasons is that the company refuses to acknowledge the existence of Blu-ray. None of Apple's machines offer Blu-ray as an option, so anyone hoping to use their machines as the centerpiece of a home cinema system will be sorely disappointed.
Until now, it seems. AMEX Digital has just announced a new Mac mini Blu-ray Drive Upgrade Kit, which targets Apple's most promising mini HTPC. Many users feel that the Mac mini's size makes it the perfect OS X option for connecting to one's PC, and now, with the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive, you could actually use it as a high-def movie playing machine. There's still no internal TV tuner, but we suppose an external one could be attached if you get really desperate.
The kit comes with a slot-loading Blu-ray drive that'll work in any new Mac mini (With NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics or higher) and any new iMac (With NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics or higher). For $199, that's not really bad if you're looking to make a home theater work around a Mac mini. Many standalone BD decks are around the $200 mark anyway, but you best be comfortable with a screwdriver before purchasing this.
Until now, it seems. AMEX Digital has just announced a new Mac mini Blu-ray Drive Upgrade Kit, which targets Apple's most promising mini HTPC. Many users feel that the Mac mini's size makes it the perfect OS X option for connecting to one's PC, and now, with the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive, you could actually use it as a high-def movie playing machine. There's still no internal TV tuner, but we suppose an external one could be attached if you get really desperate.
The kit comes with a slot-loading Blu-ray drive that'll work in any new Mac mini (With NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics or higher) and any new iMac (With NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics or higher). For $199, that's not really bad if you're looking to make a home theater work around a Mac mini. Many standalone BD decks are around the $200 mark anyway, but you best be comfortable with a screwdriver before purchasing this.
What's in the Box
- Blu-ray Super Multi Drive
Dimensions
- Size: 126 x 128 x 12.7 mm
- Weight: 220 grams
Interface
SATA connection
- New Mac mini (With NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics or higher)
- New iMac (With NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics or higher)Blu-ray Software requirement for Mac
- Roxio Toast® 9 + (HD/BD Plug-in)
The new HD/BD plug-in for Toast 9 gives users the ability to author high definition video content on to Blu-ray, or even standard DVD discs! Take high-def video footage from AVCHD camcorders, TiVo and EyeTV and create Blu-ray discs that can be played on any standard Blu-ray set top box or Playstation3 game console. Did you invest in HD DVD? The HD/BD Plug-in even supports HD DVD formats and disc players.- Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 with Encore
Create DVDs; deliver high-definition Blu-ray discs with pop-up menus, dual-layer burning, and subtitles; and output interactive web versions with Adobe® Encore® CS4 software.
As high definition (HD) has become the new standard for video, and Blu-ray Disc has won the high-definition format war for storing HD content, it's more important than ever to be able to author professional-quality Blu-ray discs. Included with Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4 and Adobe Creative Suite® 4 Production Premium software, Adobe Encore® CS4 software makes output to a wide range of industry-standard media formats, including Blu-ray Disc, easy and efficient.- VLC media player
The cross-platform media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (H.264 Blu-ray HD video, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...)
- SONY Vegas Pro 8
The Vegas Pro 8 software you can burn a Blu-ray Disc directly from the timeline. Blu-ray Disc burning allows you to create a disc similar to a "single movie" DVD — the movie has no titles, menus, or buttons. Blu-ray Disc burning in Vegas Pro 8 software provides an alternate distribution option for high-definition content, rather than traditional file-based hard disk or streaming media formats. You can also use the Blu-ray Disc burning feature to create high-definition discs that can playback on a set-top Blu-ray Disc player or on a Sony PS3 gaming system.- PowerDVD 8/9 Ultra Blu-ray
The High-definition movie content -The best video quality out there, with support for video formats like AVCHD and Blu-ray Discs.- Corel® WinDVD® 9 Plus Blu-ray
DVD and video playback for Blu-ray Disc, For movie lovers looking for the best that high-definition has to offer, WinDVD® 9 Plus Blu-Ray delivers superior picture quality and audio performance on your PC. Maximize your DVD viewing experience with Blu-ray Discs, the new standard in high-definition. Enjoy standard DVDs with HD-quality upscaling, play home movies in HD and watch movies on the go with advanced laptop enhancements.- AnyDVD HD™
AnyDVD HD comes with same functionality as AnyDVD, but with additional features for full Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD support, including decryption of Blu-ray (BD+ and AACS) and HD DVD (AACS) movies.
Allows you to watch movies over a digital display connection, without HDCP-compliant graphics card and without HDCP-compilant display. No need to buy an expensive monitor.
- Direct Recording, Editing and View the Blu-ray movie on Mac OSx with Toast® 9, Premiere Pro and Final Cut.
- Direct playing the Blu-ray "HD Video Files" on Mac OSX with VLC media player.
BootCamp into Windows on the Mac
- Direct Recording and Editing the Blu-ray movies on WinXP, Vista and Win7 with SONY Vegas Pro 8.
- Direct to Rip a Blu-ray movies to Blu-ray HD Files to the hard drive on WinXP/Vista with AnyDVD HD.
- Direct Play a Blu-ray movies on WinXP, Vista and Win7 with PowerDVD and WinDVD.
