Japanese Consumer Electronics giant Toshiba is putting the pains of having to put down HD-DVD behind it as it plans to release a Blu-ray player by the end of the year and most probably before Christmas.
According to Japanese newspaper Daily Yomiuri, Toshiba is expected to launch a Blu-ray player and possibly a recorder before the end of the year at least in Japan.
Toshiba did not give up immediately after the demise of HD-DVD and preferred to back plans for a DVD player that would be able to upscale standard definition DVD content to HD (that was back in June 2008).
Our guess is that the plans to release this range of products did not go as far. The XD-E500 was damn good but ended up costing almost as much as an entry-level Blu-ray player.
Toshiba lost the battle against the Blu-ray format back in 2007, despite support from Microsoft and many other technology giants.
The irony of course is that Toshiba might decide to integrate the best bits from HD-DVD to give its Blu-ray range a superior edge that could make it the leader.
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Our Comments
It does make sense for Toshiba to kiss and make up with the Blu-ray side before it is too late. Selling great Regza televisions without accompanying Blu-ray players can be a self-defeating task. That said, there are still some excellent HD DVD deals out there. A cheap Toshiba HD-E1 HD DVD player from Computer Exchange will cost you a mere £50 and titles can be had for few bobs.
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