Apple will never offer Blu-ray support for the Mac, so MCE Technologies has filled the need with its internal drive for the iMac and Mac mini that plays Blu-ray movies with the included Mac Blu-ray Player software.

The drive also reads and records to DVD and CD-recordable media like the original Apple SuperDrive it’s designed to replace. It only works with Macs that have a built-in SuperDrive, which eliminates, for example, the latest iMacs that come without a built-in optical drive. Otherwise, the MCE drive is compatible with Apple’s DVD Player application for the playback of DVD movies, as well as with Finder Burning for burning DVDs and CDs at the Finder level.

The MCE Internal Blu-ray player for iMac and Mac mini is a slot-loading drive designed to be installed into the iMac (early 2009 through late 2011 models) and the Mac mini (late 2009 – mid 2010 models) and includes full installation instructions for end-user installation.

The MCE Internal Blu-ray Player for iMac and Mac mini costs US$79.99 USD and includes Mac Blu-ray Player software installation instructions for the iMac and Mac mini. More info may be found at http://tinyurl.com/avysh8x .

The Blu-ray player comes with the Mac Blu-ray Player software for the playback of commercial Blu-ray movies. Commercial Blu-ray movie playback requires an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.4GHz, or faster, and 4GB of RAM. The drive is bootable and is fully compatible with all DVD and CD recordable media on the market today and can record to standard DVD+R media at up to 8X (11MB/sec) speed, to DVD+R DL (Double/Dual Layer) media at up to 4X (5.5MB/sec) speed, to DVD+RW at up to 6X speed, to DVD-RAM at up to 5X speed, and to CD-R and CD-RW media at up to 24X speed.