Toshiba to u-turn with Blu-ray player plans

Going to the Blu-side by the end of the year

20 July 2009 9:22 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Toshiba will finally produce a Blu-ray player, after its own high def disc format, HD DVD, was dramatically beaten by the rival Blu team in early 2008.

The u-turn to go Blu has been reported by Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun and will see the Japanese manufacturer making the machines it once fought against in the recent format war.

Although at one point conceding it would not rule out Blu-ray for optical disc drives in laptops, for the last year and 5 months Toshiba has held strong in resisting signing up to the Blu-ray Disc Association.

Here in the UK Toshiba has offered an alternative to Blu-ray with the launch of its XDE DVD players that claim to upscale the standard def content to that of HD quality.

However, it's thought strong sales - especially in Toshiba's home market where Blu-ray players enjoy a 50% market share - have persuaded the manufacturer to adopt the next-gen format.

"Early word" suggests a Toshiba Blu-ray player will go on sale by the end of the year, although whether it will be a Japan only launch at this stage is unclear.

Toshiba in the UK has no comment on the news. We will keep you posted.

Via: pcworld.com

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Home Cinema, Toshiba, Blu-ray, Rumours, Biz