Would this work? Mac playing Blu Ray
 

I was just having some random thoughts and was wondering....
You can BURN Blu ray discs on a Mac using Encore or the new version of Toast and
you can buy a Blu ray drive to put in your Mac Pro. But you can't view the
Blu ray disc you just created on the Mac......or can you? What if you used Boot Camp
to boot your Mac up in Windows.....would you then be able to view the disc?? Just wondering......

Unfortunately Mac OS still does not support BR playback, period. It's *hoped* that functionality will come with Snow Leopard but considering Jobs ranks BR as "a bag of hurt..." don't hold your breath.

There are several Windows apps that will play burned and licensed BR disks (along with DVD's) with ease, all of them cost around $40. Look at Intervideo, Cyberlink and others.

So, if you booted your Mac up as a Windows machine, you could then view the BR disk with
one of the apps you mentioned? Does it matter which version of Windows you use (XP or
Vista)?

System requirements for WinDVD9:

WinDVD 9 - DVD & Video Playback

For PowerDVD 9:

PowerDVD 9 DVD Player Software ? Watch DVDs and Blu-ray Discs on your PC | CyberLink

Wow, thanks a lot! Looks like it is possible.....

Yes, it's worked perfectly on the PC for years now.

And if Jobs doesn't wake up and give Mac OS this same functionality by the time Snow Leopard is released then the "bag of hurt" he describes BR to be is going to come in the form of his customer base jumping ship en-masse.

Well, his pro application customer base anyways....or at least those of us video guys
that would like to actually make a blu ray disk cause if we are shooting HD, it would
be nice to actually deliver HD to a client. And yes I know you can do it now with FCS 3 and Encore,
but there is no way to actually LOOK at the Blu Ray disk on the Mac to make sure everything looks good.
I'd like an actual end to end 'studio' for producing and monitoring HD .....kind of like what I have now with
SD and DVD's on my old Mac.

That being said, the reason I asked this question, is that I need a new computer NOW as my older one is giving up the ghost.....I am much more comfortable and familiar with a Mac and Final Cut Studio. But now that Macs can run as a Windows machine, I think I will hedge my bets and buy a Mac Pro.....then if Snow Leopard does not have some form of Blu Ray
ability, I can always buy Vegas or Adobe and use the computer as a PC.....and if
FCS 3 comes out with Blu Ray support, I can stay with what I am comfortable with.
Either way, I will get Blu Ray, but I can play the waiting game a little longer to see
if Apple will pull their head out of you know where.....

Worst case scenario is you can do your edits/encoding on the Mac and switch to Windows and do your BR authoring on this app without requiring Adobe:

Roxio DVDit Pro HD - DVD Authoring ? Overview

You, me and thousands of others are hoping Apple pulls their collective heads out, and soon.