Toshiba Blu-ray player readied for market

Spin that past me again – The Toshiba Blu-ray player? Well now you mention it, it's kind of inevitable. While everyone regrets the 'format war', it did awaken consumer interest for a while. Unfortunately, it also led to a long period of indecision at a time when other delivery options - satellite, broadband and even USB flash drives - were moving forward at high speed.

Blu-ray players have evolved, along with almost every other CE product from Widget TV to iPhone, and it is the concept of the connected device that is now centre stage, not the way data is written to polycarbonate discs. How HD video gets to the home has become a battle of the marketing departments, and currently Blu-ray is losing the war.

Philips tried to promote Compact Disc interactive (CD-i) in the early 1990s with the slogan "You're only using half your TV". The billboard showed a split screen TV, with color bars on the left, half a picture on the right and not a lot more to explain what was going on. Consumers had no idea how that related to their real lives and ignored CD-i in their millions.

Jump forward to the 21st century and compare the way Sony promotes Blu-ray. OK, there's the financially crippling decision that put a BD player into the PS3. It created an almost instant Blu-ray player park but what else did it do? It made PS3 too expensive, it delayed the focused roll-out of stand-alone Blu-ray players and, above all, the implied message is that Blu-ray is "something games freaks use when they're not blasting aliens."

You may not like it, PS3 users don't like it, but DVD is quite big enough to store the data for most games, so why burden it with a 50GB player? The Blu-ray player has done little for the gaming fraternity, so perhaps Sony is simply happy that all those PS3s are being used to watch movies. Well, the fact is, they're not. Apart from the early rush to buy BD titles for the PS3 "just because I can", there is very little evidence that the games console is regularly used for anything other than its main purpose.

So how does this affect the average consumer? The overall impact has been negative. Blu-ray brings fantastic picture quality to the home, great sound, terrific interactive extras, maximises your investment in the giant 1080p plasma screen but has this message got across to the customer walking the aisles at Best Buy? Not at all.

What is the received message about Blu-ray? It's a way to play HiDef video. Ask "Have you seen HiDef Video?" and you'll be told "Sure, I watch it on my Notebook and we've signed up for HDTV from Dish Network. Don't see the need to spend money on another box that does the same thing." Clearly, all HDTV is not made equal, but if you try to promote a technology rather than its advantages, don't be surprised if the message doesn't get through.

How do satellite broadcasters promote HDTV? Well, in Europe, Sky HD takes customers by the hand. "Experience television like never before with sharper detail and superb quality sound. Feel closer to explosive dramas, hear all the big moments in sport and see the latest blockbuster movies in your living room, all in stunning high definition. Join Sky+HD and get the true high definition picture on your HD ready TV".

Are you ready to sign up? Or would you prefer a Blu-ray player that delivers "Ten times the sound quality and five times the picture quality of DVD"? Come on Sony, you can do better than that. Actually, you need to do better than that if Blu-ray is going to make it in a world of competing formats. The battle against HD DVD was won, at great cost to us all. Now fight the battle against connected devices, superfast broadband and satellite TV with the same enthusiasm.

And let's welcome Toshiba to the world of Blu-ray. It's great to have you on the same side at last. Now get your marketing team up to speed and sell, sell, sell. Consumers would love to have a connected Blu-ray player at the heart of their home entertainment. Will someone take up the task of explaining why they should...