[Vampii]

Hi there,
I want to buy a Pioneer Bluray 205BK for my Mac Pro so that I can author DVDs, but am a little confused as to why there seem to be Mac and PC version of the drive with the Mac versions being more expensive. Does anyone know what the differences are? The thing is.. Pioneer's website only has one model.
The mac version seems to be sold by mac resellers which leads me to think that they are selling the so called pc version with cables needed to connect it to macs. The Mac compatible drives do not come with anything extra except for Internal SATA kit, cables and installation guide. Is it still possible to get the PC version and buy the cables separately or are the drives physically different? If it is just additional cables that are required, would anyone know what cables I would need to get? Thanks in advance.

[-Q-]

OS X doesn't natively support blu-ray drives, so the Mac drives may be bundled with software (Toast?) so you can actually use the drive.

[Vampii]

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I wish they came with toast to justify them costing so much more, however they don't. They only come with a internal SATA kit.

[Eug]

I assume all the new Mac Pros are SATA now for optical right? No more IDE.

Dunno about Pioneer, but my LG Blu-ray drive's Windows retail box also came with an internal SATA cable, and the appropriate power cable. However, I'm using it in an enclosure and I don't know if there are some idiosyncracies with Mac Pro SATA and power.

Originally Posted by -Q- 

OS X doesn't natively support blu-ray drives, so the Mac drives may be bundled with software (Toast?) so you can actually use the drive.

I think I know what you mean, but actually OS X will recognize the drive just fine natively. You can even stick in a Blu-ray data disc, and OS X will read it just fine with no extra software. (You won't be able to play a Blu-ray movie of course, and you'll need Toast to burn Blu-ray. I assume this is what you meant.)

[-Q-]

Originally Posted by Eug 

I think I know what you mean, but actually OS X will recognize the drive just fine natively. You can even stick in a Blu-ray data disc, and OS X will read it just fine with no extra software. (You won't be able to play a Blu-ray movie of course, and you'll need Toast to burn Blu-ray. I assume this is what you meant.)

Thanks for clearing that up. I definitely wasn't as clear as I could have been.

[WizOSX]

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Originally Posted by Eug

You won't be able to play a Blu-ray movie of course.

But you can play a Blu-ray movie in HD with Toast, can't you? Or with VLC?

What is the best way to play Blu-ray movies in HD on a Mac?

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by WizOSX 

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But you can play a Blu-ray movie in HD with Toast, can't you? Or with VLC?

What is the best way to play Blu-ray movies in HD on a Mac?

You might be able to play a non-commercial Blu-Ray movie, but not a commercial one in the Mac OS. For one thing, the Mac OS doesn't implement the "protected video path" or "protected audio path" (the "bag of hurt" Steve Jobs referred to) required to get a license to decode AACS or BD+ in order to play a commercial Blu-Ray movie.

You can, however, play commercial Blu-Ray movies on an aftermarket Blu-Ray drive in a Mac if you use Windows.

[WizOSX]

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Originally Posted by Person Man

You can, however, play commercial Blu-Ray movies on an aftermarket Blu-Ray drive in a Mac if you use Windows..

Has anyone had success playing commercial Blu-ray movies smoothly in Parallels with Windows XP Pro?