The Japanese consumer electronics company confirmed its plans to produce its own Blu-ray Disc player. Previously, rumors trickled in about Toshiba considering such a move; Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun this weekend reported that Toshiba will adopt the format it once battled against.

Toshiba and Microsoft backed HD DVD, and Sony, Panasonic, and a consortium of consumer electronics companies promoted Blu-ray Disc. The winner of this battle would control over the lucrative, high-definition successor to the quarter-of-a-billion dollar standard-definition DVD business.

Artwork: Chip Taylor
Toshiba withdrew HD DVD from the market in February 2008 after a series of crippling blows gave rival Blu-ray a clear edge. At the time, Toshiba indicated that, in the absence of HD DVD, it would instead pursue “a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies.”

Toshiba has certainly made strides with its video processing and cell processor. But none of the aforementioned technologies have yet to replace DVD players for home entertainment.

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