THX says Blu-ray is "too late" 27 Mar 2008

As you no doubt already know, the "hi-definition optical disc format war" is over, with Sony's Blu-ray emerging victorious over Toshiba's HD DVD format. But what does this victory actually mean in practical terms? According to Laurie Fincham, Chief Scientist at THX (the high-fidelity sound reproduction standard), it may not mean very much:

"It's too late for Blu-ray. We don't really need another spinning format...I think consumers will only become interested in replacing DVD when HD movies become available on flash memory."

Gotta say I am tempted to agree here. DVD is still a "new" format as far as many consumers are concerned - older generations, for example, have only really begun to embrace DVD in the last 5-10 years (and still have extensive VHS libraries). Furthermore, as OhGizmo! points out, while the transition from VHS tapes to DVDs made a lot of sense - i.e. because you can navigate episodes, chapters ete. more easily and they take up a lot less space in your living room - the benefits of upgrading from DVDs to Blu-ray discs are nowhere near so dramatic. There are no real usability plusses whatsoever in fact. Sure, you get hi-res playback - but to enjoy it, you also need to shell out several hundred pounds for an HD-Ready TV - and that really is all that's on offer.

As Fincham says, Blu-ray also persist all that's bad about DVDs - that is, they are relatively bulky, fragile (easily-scratched), and expensive (in terms of both the price that consumers must pay and the costs incurred by retailers for transporting, storing and shelving them). A dual layer Blu-ray disc also holds only 50GB of data - which sure seems like a lot now, but certainly won't seem like a lot in 2-5 years time. All of these issues point to the fact, that fixed media is dead (or on its last legs) and that HD content on Flash memory cards/sticks or streamed over the internet is a much better bet for the title of "DVD killer".