Macbook - macbook pro differences

[gregnash]

well if you are looking at buying a MAC, maybe you should be looking at routers.

*So very lost with this comment*


Son...son.....Vanish...is still......broken *gah (dies)*

 

[0ptional]

*So very lost with this comment*


Son...son.....Vanish...is still......broken *gah (dies)*

The OP has has been saying MAC instead of Mac, now Mac is an OS, like OS X, but MAC is the acronym for a MAC address, which is a unique 16 digit hex identifier for all the networking equipment in the world. So it's not specific to Routers, although routers do have MAC addresses.

 

[The_Stickman]

I didn't look at the MBP at all because of cost issues. Earlier this week, I did get my 1st Mac: 2ghz dual core 2 with 1gb of ram.

I love it. It does what I need it to do and I haven't missed my PC a bit.

 

[gramarye]

Just wondering (a side note), does the MacBookPro have HD-DVD playing capabilities? I own an iMac 17" from the year 2005, and it does.

*one note, never buy apple products around December or before the new year. The prices drop and updated products come in (ex. iLife '05 instead of the iLife '06). This tip is even recommended by the many apple employees I've talked to. However, Apple service is so excellent, they're willing to meet your satisfaction and will do their best to give you what you want. I've been quite successful with the latest Airport Extreme I bought this December, when the new airport extreme Wireless-N came out a month later, they even credited me the extra money I payed for it during the Holidays. My worst luck was when I got the iMac 17" PPC around December of 2005, when Apple introduced/released iMac's with Intel Core 2 Duo along with the updated 2006 software two weeks later....ANYWAY, enough of my rambling, back to my main question:
...Can the Mac Book Pro play HD DVDs? What about the Mac Books?
I checked the specs, and they all have slight variations of a "Superdrive". Also, are these HD DVD Players only Apple compatible? (I know Sony had their own "kind" of HD-DVD)

Thanks for your time in reading this, I appreciate it.

 

[Bacillus]

Just wondering (a side note), does the MacBookPro have HD-DVD playing capabilities? I own an iMac 17" from the year 2005, and it does.

*one note, never buy apple products around December or before the new year. The prices drop and updated products come in (ex. iLife '05 instead of the iLife '06). This tip is even recommended by the many apple employees I've talked to. However, Apple service is so excellent, they're willing to meet your satisfaction and will do their best to give you what you want. I've been quite successful with the latest Airport Extreme I bought this December, when the new airport extreme Wireless-N came out a month later, they even credited me the extra money I payed for it during the Holidays. My worst luck was when I got the iMac 17" PPC around December of 2005, when Apple introduced/released iMac's with Intel Core 2 Duo along with the updated 2006 software two weeks later....ANYWAY, enough of my rambling, back to my main question:
...Can the Mac Book Pro play HD DVDs? What about the Mac Books?
I checked the specs, and they all have slight variations of a "Superdrive". Also, are these HD DVD Players only Apple compatible? (I know Sony had their own "kind" of HD-DVD)

Thanks for your time in reading this, I appreciate it.

No, it cannot play an HD-DVD disk. However, if the file resides on your hard drive, and with the correct codec, then yes it can.

 

[a ronin]

Pro has dedicated video and its just generally more upscale (lots of small features that you don't really need but are cool to have)

With that said, I own both and the Macbook looks and feels cheap while the Macbook Pro is gorgeous and draws complements everywhere. I think the price difference is totally justified and if you even have close to the means, I'd go for it.

I have to disagree with your last statement. If someone cannot comfortably afford one, then a MacBook is good. I think the experience is within OSX. The niceties of the MBP will taper off after a few weeks. You are essentially paying the price of two Macbooks for very small features on the MBP.

 

[0ptional]

Just wondering (a side note), does the MacBookPro have HD-DVD playing capabilities? I own an iMac 17" from the year 2005, and it does.

*one note, never buy apple products around December or before the new year. The prices drop and updated products come in (ex. iLife '05 instead of the iLife '06). This tip is even recommended by the many apple employees I've talked to. However, Apple service is so excellent, they're willing to meet your satisfaction and will do their best to give you what you want. I've been quite successful with the latest Airport Extreme I bought this December, when the new airport extreme Wireless-N came out a month later, they even credited me the extra money I payed for it during the Holidays. My worst luck was when I got the iMac 17" PPC around December of 2005, when Apple introduced/released iMac's with Intel Core 2 Duo along with the updated 2006 software two weeks later....ANYWAY, enough of my rambling, back to my main question:
...Can the Mac Book Pro play HD DVDs? What about the Mac Books?
I checked the specs, and they all have slight variations of a "Superdrive". Also, are these HD DVD Players only Apple compatible? (I know Sony had their own "kind" of HD-DVD)

Thanks for your time in reading this, I appreciate it.

Sony's iteration is Blu-ray, and is the type of disk drive included with the PS3, and some of Sony's VAIO laptops, and yeah. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are the two compering formats for the High-Def movie market right now, and I personally think HD-DVD is going to win because it's cheaper etc...

Anyway, the important part about HD-DVD and Blu-ray playback is the disk drive; and no your iMac cannot play them off of an HD-DVD/Blu-ray disk; and neither can an MBP; however as was said above, if the file resides on your hard-drive, like an image of it or something, then yes, it is capable of viewing that file.

SuperDrive is a DVD-Burner, the newest MB's have been upgraded to DL SuperDrive, which means they can burn Dual-Layer DVD's, MBP's have always had that. The lowest level MB only has a ComboDrive which can read DVD's but only burn CD's; really a hinderance for making that level of MB worth that money I think.

 

[matt fury]

PS: I don't think the MB feels cheap at all, and I'm usually very sensitive to that sort of thing.

 

[gramarye]

Sony's iteration is Blu-ray, and is the type of disk drive included with the PS3, and some of Sony's VAIO laptops, and yeah. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are the two compering formats for the High-Def movie market right now, and I personally think HD-DVD is going to win because it's cheaper etc...

Anyway, the important part about HD-DVD and Blu-ray playback is the disk drive; and no your iMac cannot play them off of an HD-DVD/Blu-ray disk; and neither can an MBP; however as was said above, if the file resides on your hard-drive, like an image of it or something, then yes, it is capable of viewing that file.

SuperDrive is a DVD-Burner, the newest MB's have been upgraded to DL SuperDrive, which means they can burn Dual-Layer DVD's, MBP's have always had that. The lowest level MB only has a ComboDrive which can read DVD's but only burn CD's; really a hinderance for making that level of MB worth that money I think.

I've authored DVDs through Apple's Final Cut on this 512mb iMac 17 incher (i had a lot of patience with this thing), and in the beginning I went through the problem of burning/making only HD-DVDs, which was not compatible with any DVD players at that time, maybe still now. If you're saying the iMac cannot play HD-DVDs, than what kind of HD-DVD is playing and making? An Apple Readable only HD? I notice the biggest difference is the resolution and the quality, It looks so much better than the standard dvd format viewed on my iMac. However, i'm thinking it's "some kind of" HD-DVD, since HD-DVDs aren't the size of standard DVDs...I'm really confusing myself, i understsand my iMac does not play HD-DVDs, jsut want to know that specific format it has been using. Maybe it's like a faux HD-DVD?

Thanks for your replies by the way...

 

[0ptional]

I've authored DVDs through Apple's Final Cut on this 512mb iMac 17 incher (i had a lot of patience with this thing), and in the beginning I went through the problem of burning/making only HD-DVDs, which was not compatible with any DVD players at that time, maybe still now. If you're saying the iMac cannot play HD-DVDs, than what kind of HD-DVD is playing and making? An Apple Readable only HD? I notice the biggest difference is the resolution and the quality, It looks so much better than the standard dvd format viewed on my iMac. However, i'm thinking it's "some kind of" HD-DVD, since HD-DVDs aren't the size of standard DVDs...I'm really confusing myself, i understsand my iMac does not play HD-DVDs, jsut want to know that specific format it has been using. Maybe it's like a faux HD-DVD?

Thanks for your replies by the way...

Oooooh, hmm, well let's see Imma make a quick wiki run, and make some fcp based searches...

Yeah I got nothing to answer that, I thought you were just confused, sorry; my mistake.

 

[gramarye]

Oooooh, hmm, well let's see Imma make a quick wiki run, and make some fcp based searches...

Yeah I got nothing to answer that, I thought you were just confused, sorry; my mistake.

hmm, i'm gonna go on the apple store chat and post the answer (hopefully) if i can get one, thanks for these replies.

 

[gramarye]

Here is my chat transcription:

You are chatting with Tom, an Apple Expert

Hi, my name is Tom. How may I help you today?
Tom: Hi! How are you?
You: Hello Tom.
Tom: Do you require assistance with your shopping today?
You: Yes I have a few inquiries regarding the following product lines: (1) Mac Book Pro and (2) Mac Pro
Tom: I would be glad to assist you with that.
You: Okay, Great.
You: I'm currently own a 17" iMac from 2005
You: I've noticed there are options to play HD-DVD (ex. Through DVD-Studio Pro, Final Cut, etc.), and I've authored a few DVDs that happened to be in the HD-DVD format, does the Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro have HD-DVD Viewing and authoring capabilities?
Tom: Yes, all of our new computers have that.
You: How about the Mac Book?
Tom: Yes
You: Is it an actual HD-DVD feature? or an emulator?
Tom: One moment while I research that for you.
You: Okay thanks.
You: Does the "superdrive" and its capabilities only play Apple HD-DVDs? or plays all forms of HD-DVD, for example: HD-DVD Movies I can purchase at the store?
Tom: Just found information that none of our drives will play the HD-DVDs, sorry I was mistaken, the specialists informed me.
You: I see, what is the HD-DVD option in my iMac then?
Tom: The specialists said that none of our computers have that option.
You: I use DVD Studio Pro that authors HD-DVD, and it makes HD-DVD? Is it not a true HD-DVD?
Tom: The content will be HD-DVD but the disc isn't HD-DVD.
You: I see
You: thanks very much for your help Tom.
Tom: You're welcome.
Tom: May I help with any other product or order questions before you proceed?
You: That is all, I'm assuming the new Macs would have that feature as well?
Tom: Correct
You: I see
You: The HD-content cannot be played in standard format DVD players, however can it be played on HD-DVD players?
Tom: It would depend on the HD-DVD player whether it would play it or not

In Conclusion:
All Macs, including my iMac from 2005 can author/play/edit HD-DVD Content, but cannot play HD-DVD or read HD-DVD discs? Your thoughts?

 

[0ptional]

*snip*

What that means to me is that these Mac's can read and write data that is the calibur of HD-DVD, as it it's say, 1080P and lots of channels of audio, but it cannot play real HD-DVD Discs.

So they are capable of playing movies that are that bitrate and such, but cannot read real HD-DVD discs; the thing is, an HD-DVD movie authored on a Mac isn't an HD-DVD at all; it's a DVD with HD content on it, which means it'll hold a lot less time of video.

It's hard to handle all those acronym's while still make sense of them.

 

[MTXR]

How does one deal with the one button trackpad in windows?

 

[0ptional]

How does one deal with the one button trackpad in windows?

Same was as in OS X. Put two fingers on the trackpad and press the button and you get right-click.

It works like that only once you've used the boot camp drivers CD that you burn as part of setting up the partition for which you will use to install windows.

It works the same way in a VM such as Parallels or VMWare as well but you do not need to install any special drivers to accomplish it. VM's are a lot more seamless in OS X than I've ever seen in XP/2003/etc..

 

[Bacillus]

In Conclusion:
All Macs, including my iMac from 2005 can author/play/edit HD-DVD Content, but cannot play HD-DVD or read HD-DVD discs? Your thoughts?

HD-DVD, for the most part is encoded in H.264 – and you can put that on a DVD or CD and read that with Quicktime, no problem.

Can you manke HD contnent - sure, use a HD Camcorder, and encode it to a 'HD' resolution

Now, are the diodes present in the optical drive to read an HD-DVD disk? No, at least they are saying no at the moment.

 

[MTXR]

Damn i might actually get a Mac now.

I feel weird.

 

[matt fury]

I feel weird.

Is it puberty?

 

[0ptional]

Damn i might actually get a Mac now.

I feel weird.

Is it cause you typed it as 'Mac' instead of 'MAC'?

Seriously, there's nothing wrong with getting what appeals to you and fits your needs. Hell if that's wrong, then what is right? Slaving away to get something I didn't want to buy to do the things I need?

 

[gramarye]

Is it cause you typed it as 'Mac' instead of 'MAC'?

Seriously, there's nothing wrong with getting what appeals to you and fits your needs. Hell if that's wrong, then what is right? Slaving away to get something I didn't want to buy to do the things I need?

i'm completely lost from this conversation but cool that this thread is still going on, too bad i can't change the title of it.

 

[MTXR]

Its the brand image i get. I have always associated Apple and its brand a certain way.