Steve Jobs says

" Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace. "

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. T

The name Blu-ray is derived from the underlying technology, which utilizes a blue-violet laser to read and write data. The name is a combination of "Blue" (blue-violet laser) and "Ray" (optical ray). According to the Blu-ray Disc Association the spelling of "Blu-ray" is not a mistake, the character "e" was intentionally left out so the term could be registered as a trademark.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the first and only industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. By delivering crystal-clear, all-digital audio and video via a single cable, HDMI dramatically simplifies cabling and helps provide consumers with the highest-quality home theater experience. HDMI provides an interface between any audio/video source, such as a set-top box, DVD player, or A/V receiver and an audio and/or video monitor, such as a digital television (DTV), over a single cable.

HDMI supports standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It transmits all ATSC HDTV standards and supports 8-channel, 192kHz, uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby Digital and DTS), HDMI 1.3 adds additional support for new lossless digital audio formats Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio^TM with bandwidth to spare to accommodate future enhancements and requirements.

On the notebook, it pulls so much power that you can't actually get through a movie on battery and must plug the system into a power outlet. The video quality on the 15" isn't much better than a regular DVD and isn't worth the effort. Add in the limited selection of Blu-ray movies and you are will wonder why you should bother at all.

There is no doubt that DisplayPort is a better interface in terms of pure throughput than HDMI is. However, HDMI has some really distinct advantages when it comes to ease of setup and penetration. It is on virtually every HDTV currently shipping and it exists on a number of monitors as well. For instance, I just started using Dell's Crystal Monitor, which only has an HDMI connection: One plug enables both the monitor and the built in speakers, creating an easy and clean connection. If the product is a workstation class product that needs the extra resolution headroom that DisplayPort provides and you have a source of DisplayPort monitors (which Apple has), then I can see that as the direction. But a laptop typically uses its native display as a primary display and may be hooked to something like a projector or a TV for presentations. Here you are more likely to see an HDMI port than a DisplayPort interface and I think you have to consider the usage model when you make the port choice.