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THX Believes in Blu-Ray, Clarifies Comments by Scientist.

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/28/2008 | 03:00 PM ]

THX, a Lucasfilm subsidiary, said on Friday that its chief scientist never said that the future of Blu-ray disc format in the movie industry was doomed. Instead, THX fully supports the Sony- and Philips- developed format, though, there are other possibilities to distribute movies.

Recently Laurie Fincham, director of research and development for the THX division of Lucasfilm said in an interview that it was too late for Blu-ray format as end-users would shortly demand high-definition movies on flash memory cards. He also said that downloads of movies will also make a lot of sense.

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

Officials for THX were quick to issue a statement claiming that the company fully supports Blu-ray disc format and the perception of its chief scientist’s claims were rather a misunderstanding.

“Neither THX nor Mr. Fincham have ever stated that “Blu ray has no chance” or is on the demise. Quite the contrary, THX is dedicated to supporting Blu-ray with many new technologies, certification programs and other initiatives. Mr. Fincham was simply discussing the future of movies on downloads, optical discs and other emerging media,” said Graham McKenna, senior manager of global public relations at THX.

Considering the fact that many consumers nowadays do not see the value in Blu-ray movies compared to DVD, the Blu-ray disc association will have to prove advantages of Blu-ray to end-users. Considering that many consumers these days rent or download movies from the Internet, it is natural that certain analysts will doubt that Blu-ray will share the destiny with DVD.