Hi! The Giveaway of the Day is a Blu-Ray player application for Windows and Mac: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/mac-blu-ray-player-21/
Althou its not specifically excluded, my guess is that this doesn't run on PowerPC-based Macs. It's most likely an Intel-only application. Now, the fun part about a Blu-Ray player software of any kind on a Mac is: it isn't _legally_ possible for a software developer. There is a short article in the german computer magazine c't about this (from the publishing house Heise: http://www.heise.de/ct/), which has a good reputation amoung computer and IT professionals. (You'd have to pay to read the article: no need to do that, but you can see the following short abstract about the article:) http://www.heise.de/artikel-archiv/ct/2011/23/73_kiosk [German] Normalerweise können Apple-Rechner Blu-ray-Filme nicht wiedergeben. MacGo behauptet, dass dies mit seiner Player-Software sehr wohl gelingt. [/German] [English translation] Normally, Apple computers cannot play Blu-Ray movies. MacGo claims that this does work with their player software smoothly. [/English translation] Again, the problem is, that Blu-Ray requires a license. All data streams have to be copy-protected up to the point when the data stream reaches a Blu-Ray certified monitor which then decodes all data to display the actual pictures. It's called HDCP: High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. In Windows (which officially supports Blu-Ray and HDCP), all components have to support this too: i.e. a player software will ask the graphics driver to stream the data though HDCP to the monitor. Mac OS X does not support this, neither do the graphics drivers support it. Sherlock Holmes: When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. So my stong guess is, that this software simply decodes the Blu-Ray signal and sends it unencrypted to the monitor. This is illegal and forbidden by the Blu- Ray standard; it is also what Blu-Ray copy software (that is forbidden to sell in Germany, possibly also in the United States of America) does to get to the valuable data (in order to illegally make a copy). Just an off-topic info. If you have an Intel Mac, and if you actually were brave enough to put a Blu- Ray drive in it, you might be interested in this software afterall. BTW, the german computer magazine article concludes that the Mac player software was (one year ago, previous version) very limited in features and regularly crashed unexpectedly. It also found that some if not many Blu-Ray discs didn't play at all. But… this is the new version, so maybe it has gotten better… Cheers, Andreas aka Mac User #330250 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
