Monday March 14, 2011 – Stewart Wolpin
What in the name of Warren Lieberfarb has happened to the DVD player or, more specifically, the Blu-ray disc (BD) player?
It used to be that a home video machine, starting with the VCR, was a single-function device. You put a tape or disc in, hit "play," sat back and became a sofa spud.
But in these digital days consumers have a wider variety of home video acquisition options, and Blu-ray manufacturers are teaming up with the streaming media providers – Netflix, iTunes, CinemaNow, et al – to include access to their programming via BD devices.
So how far will BD device makers go to make the packaged media playback feature of their players, well, just a feature? The most mutant Blu-ray/media streamer graft has just come from Panasonic. Like many current BD decks, the new Panasonic models (BDT310, BDT210) include 3D and built-in WiFi, and offer an array of streaming content sources; in Panasonic's case, Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand (VOD), CinemaNow, Vudu, YouTube, Twitter, Pandora and Picassa.
New BD players from several suppliers also offer two additional media streamer attributes allowing you to access your own content: the capability to connect and access content stored on an external hard drive, and DLNA, which enables the BD player to grab content from a Windows PC (DLNA is not Mac compatible). Similar streaming services, built-in WiFi and external content access options also are available on BD decks from Sony, Samsung, Sharp, LG, Toshiba and others.
But Panasonic has gone more rogue, however, adding Skype video telephony. Connect the BD player, attach the optional camera/mic array, and any TV now becomes a video phone. No need to buy a whole new special Skype video-enabled HDTV.
The Selling Proposition
Having a connected Blu-ray/streaming content Swiss Army knife is good – consumers generally don't like adding extra boxes to their AV stack. And the BD-as-media streamer means one less Ethernet or WiFi connection, and one less input change on the HDTV or AVR to get to the streaming attributes.
The problem is, how do you sell this suddenly schizophrenic device?
Why schizophrenic? There is a growing technology generation gap that these new BD/media streamer decks exemplify. According to a recent Pew "Generations and Their Gadgets" study, game console ownership (for example) drops from 63 percent for 18-46 year olds to 38 percent for 47-56 year olds to 19 percent for 57-65 year olds. There are similar, albeit somewhat less extreme slides for MP3 players and laptop PCs.
In other words, older folks aren't as techno-familiar as their kids and grandkids. This is a problem since boomers comprise the largest buying demographic). Boomers understand single function VCRs and DVD players as described in this blog's lede. VCRs morphed from their original recording TV show function to mere playback because living room devices tend to be dumber than the devices in an office because boomers want to be dumb in front of the boob tube.
A media streamer, however, skews much younger, appealing to a multi-tasking texting streaming/ripping-savvy generation who only used VCRs for peanut butter receptacles when they were toddlers and never experienced a world without the Internet.
You say "Hulu" or "Vudu" to an older tech buyer, and the sales person is likely to hear a quizzical "Huh, Lulu? Guru?"
Combining the older-skewing packaged media player with the younger-skewing internet connectivity is like marketing gangsta raps by Lil' Kim sung by Celine Dion (actually, maybe not a bad idea considering how well songs by Little Richard sold when sung by Pat Boone 50 some years ago – but I digress).
Age isn't the only challenge in selling these media BD streamers. At Panasonic's Blu-ray/Viera TV press expo last week, I asked an exec about consumers who bought both a connected HDTV and a connected BD player – do they connect both? I was told consumers most often connect only the HDTV.
Only the HDTV? This struck me as odd since connected BD players offers something HDTVs don't – BD Live. So if Blu-ray player makers can't push the benefits of BD Live over – well, a not BD Live HDTV, how will they sell…you know.
I still think these new streaming BD players are a great idea, but I wouldn't want to be a retail training manager right now.
