Maybe Blu-ray and HD DVD wasted too much time fighting it out for the consumer high-def disc market. “I think it’s too late for Blu-ray,” says Laurie Fincham, Chief Scientist at George Lucas’s THX, the standard bearer for only the best in sound and picture quality on all kinds of media. The respected engineer told Home Cinema Choice magazine he thinks the time for the old-fashioned disks has passed. “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?"

No, Laurie, we don’t need another spinning format. With broadband numbers steadily rising (albeit too slowly in the U.S.), the anachronistic act of moving physical media around to watch video is about to end. It’s not only inconvenient, but it’s wasteful. Fincham places his bets on flash memory, guessing that by the time it'll take for Blu-ray to finally lure in a mass market, 128GB flash cards (big enough for 28 HD movies) will be the norm. Until then, Blu-ray will just be spinning its wheels.

Home Cinema Choice, via DVD Town