THX says Blu-ray is dead. Does that mean no Star Wars in HD?

[nekrosoft13]

Guess what? One of THX’s chief scientists says Blu-ray is toast. Laurie Fincham was recently interviewed by Home Cinema Choice Magazine and when asked about HD DVD’s recent death he commented with this,


“Personally, I think it’s too late for Blu-ray. I think consumers will only become interested in replacing DVD when HD movies becomes available on flash memory. Do we really need another spinning format?” he told the magazine.

“In the future I want to be able to carry four to five movies around with me in a wallet, or walk into a store and have someone copy me a movie to a USB device. Stores will like that idea, because it’s all about having zero inventory. I don’t want to take up shelf space with dozens of HD movies.”

“By the time Blu-ray really finds a mass market, we will have 128GB cards. I would guess that getting studios to supply movies on media cards, or offer downloads, will be a lot easier than getting them to sign up to support a disc format.” he concluded.

DVD Town brings up a good point regarding Star Wars, though. We may not see the epic intergalactic love story on a HD format. That would suck. Big time.


http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/03/26/thx-says-blu-ray-is-dead-does-that-mean-no-star-wars-in-hd/

[Bman212121]

This is laughable at best. Even a 16GB thumbdrive is still $100 or more, and that isn't enough to hold as much data as a single layer BD disc. I would love to see the day that this happens, but this would just make it that much easier to share movies with other people since you'll have the file copied right over to your medium of choice. Then on top of that, what device are you going to have to use to play these files?

The Star Wars part would really stink, but I don't think they would be that foolish to lose out on all of the revenue they could make.

[Zapablast05]

If only high capacity flash drives were cheaper, then it would be a good idea. Don't most HDTV's come equipped with a USB port anyways? Mine does, at least.

Star Wars HD would be bad ass. I'm still pretty disappointed that Band of Brothers won't be in HD.

[Sazar]

If only high capacity flash drives were cheaper, then it would be a good idea. Don't most HDTV's come equipped with a USB port anyways? Mine does, at least.

Star Wars HD would be bad ass. I'm still pretty disappointed that Band of Brothers won't be in HD.

Yah but typically that port is for firmware updates and stuff.

[Bman212121]

That and you'll probably also need a new hardware decoder built into you TV to be able to handle the HD content.

[ntsck]

Optical discs as a format are of limited lifespan, I'd say 10 more years max. They're just so old school.

[XDanger]

fibre-optic bb will be nice for the proper HD movies

Making endless dead technology junkpiles isn't great ,We need to find a way to hold vast amounts of data on a potato, The data can be read and cooked at the same time ,Movie then a meal.

[abtomat74]

He did say in the future...which would obviously mean larger flash drives AND cheaper smaller ones. The way computer tech works it should be almost dirt cheap soon enough for a multiple movie sized flash drive.

[NaitoSan]

I have a good feeling that Band of Brothers' coming to Blu-ray in 2009, when it would be the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

I doubt Lucasfilm folks' going to follow whatever guys at THX say about Blu-ray because they know how much people are going to be wanting to see Star Wars in HD, as well Indiana Jones and other movies.

I agree that flash drives... maybe in 10 years we'll see flash drives go really cheap but really, I doubt that will take over so soon.

[Bman212121]

I have a good feeling that Band of Brothers' coming to Blu-ray in 2009, when it would be the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

I doubt Lucasfilm folks' going to follow whatever guys at THX say about Blu-ray because they know how much people are going to be wanting to see Star Wars in HD, as well Indiana Jones and other movies.

I agree that flash drives... maybe in 10 years we'll see flash drives go really cheap but really, I doubt that will take over so soon.

QFT.

[Lyme]

Given that you can get a 8gig flash drive now for $40, next year you will be able to get a 16gig for $40 or less, and the year after 32gig for $40.. we don't have long before flash media reaches a huge storage capacity at a low price.

Will things happen as THX says, I don't know.. However, I'd rather buy the media once and simply plug it into a tv, rather than buying media and paying $400 for a player.

[nekrosoft13]

nm.

[mullet]

Flash drive lol. I am standing in line waiting to DL it to my USB drive thinking hurry the **** up man im tired of waiting. I am going to want a DVD of some sorts to keep my movies on. I am willing to bet Joe Public will to.

[XDanger]

theres no need to wait anywhere, we have the internets

I think maybe 7 will have a more robust drm that the movie companies will trust for the HD downloadings(lee)

[Heinzftw]

Solid State Memory anyone?!?! I think you can get upto 128GB solid state drive for your comp. So anything is possible these days! Dam your all too smart

[XxDeadlyxX]

Maybe he was a HD-DVD fanboy and is in denial ;)

Seriously though we need Blu-ray to own... especially when I paid over $400 AU for a PC Blu-ray player :p

[DRen72]

Reminds me of Star Trek again. Remember those little "cards" they carried in the original series (1966) that contained pre-recorded data on them.

[XDanger]

Reminds me of Star Trek again. Remember those little "cards" they carried in the original series (1966) that contained pre-recorded data on them.
They didn't really you know.

[Burnt_Ram]

Maybe he was a HD-DVD fanboy and is in denial ;)

Seriously though we need Blu-ray to own... especially when I paid over $400 AU for a PC Blu-ray player :p
ya no kidding. i got burned on the HD DVD thing, and now have a dual format player. go Blu-ray :D

[nekrosoft13]

GGW-H20L for the WIN ;)

[Riptide]

That drive is badass! Can't find out what the warranty is for it though. :(

[AthlonXP1800]

:lol: Now THX says they full supported Blu-ray and THX scientist never said Blu-ray is dead.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20080328150029_THX_Believes_in_Blu_Ray_Clarifies_C omments_by_Scientist.html

How very odd, guess it all misunderstand.

[Uberpwnage]

Flash drive lol. I am standing in line waiting to DL it to my USB drive thinking hurry the **** up man im tired of waiting. I am going to want a DVD of some sorts to keep my movies on. I am willing to bet Joe Public will to.
QFT, transfering blu-ray quality data to a flash device in stores is a long way off. Not because of size limitations, but rather because of transfer speeds. With a sustained 50MB/s write speed, it would take about 17 minutes to copy 50GB of data to such a device. Getting that much throughput on a USB flash drive with atleast 50GB of space isn't happening now, and won't be for quite a while, let alone at speeds fast enough or at prices low enough for convenience.

[AthlonXP1800]

QFT, transfering blu-ray quality data to a flash device in stores is a long way off. Not because of size limitations, but rather because of transfer speeds. With a sustained 50MB/s write speed, it would take about 17 minutes to copy 50GB of data to such a device. Getting that much throughput on a USB flash drive with atleast 50GB of space isn't happening now, and won't be for quite a while, let alone at speeds fast enough or at prices low enough for convenience.

Not sure about USB 2.0's 50MB/s. Accorded to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB), Hi-speed USB 2.0 give 60MB/s, it take about 14 mins to write 50GB. With next generation USB 3.0 will give 600MB/s that will take over a min to write 50GB.

[DarthBeavis]

GGW-H20L for the WIN ;)


How about a blue unit? http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/9035/dsc00294wz3.th.jpg (http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00294wz3.jpg)